Please read
current events from a variety of sources.
May
2018
Trump’s latest appeal to evangelicals: a new
office to protect religious liberty
Trump will sign an executive order launching
the new White House Faith and Opportunity
Initiative today.
Published: May 3, 2018 Author: Tara Isabella Burton Vox.com
...The institution of faith-based initiatives is
not uncommon in the White House — Barack Obama
launched the Office of Faith-based and
Neighborhood Partnerships, and George W. Bush
instituted an Office of Faith-Based and
Community Initiatives. Both programs were
designed to provide faith-based charity
organizations with a clear avenue to get federal
funding for their work.
That said, Trump’s initiative seems to expand
previous offices’ remit in a number of ways. For
starters, the office isn’t just focusing on
community-based or charitable initiatives.
According to the Religion News Service, it’s
also charged with informing the administration
of “any failures of the executive branch to
comply with religious liberty protections under
law.” The Trump administration has consistently
been a champion of religious liberty,
particularly insofar as it pertains to
evangelical Christian causes. ... Please
click here to read the entire article at
Vox.com.
England Moves Submarines Armed With
Cruise Missiles Within Striking Range Of Syria
Theresa May Convenes ‘War Cabinet’
Geoffrey Grider Apr. 11, 2018 Nowthenedbegins.com
Theresa May was poised last night to
defy calls for a Commons vote on military action
in Syria. The Prime Minister summoned
ministers back to London to seek their
support for joining an American-led attack on
the Assad regime within days.
EDITOR’S NOTE: British
Prime Minister Theresa May is prepared to
act with or without the consent of
Parliament, sources are now saying. UK
submarines armed with Tomahawk cruise
missiles have already been positioned off
the coast of Syria to support the United
States just as soon as President Trump gives
the go ahead to launch the missile strike.
Kinda funny to think that a potential war of
such Biblical proportions could be waged
largely on Twitter and social media, yet it
is. The end times clock is ticking, the only
question is will it blink or go boom?
Clearing the way for action,
she declared the use of chemical weapons could
not go unchallenged and said ‘all the
indications’ suggested that Bashar Assad’s
forces were responsible for Saturday’s
atrocity near Damascus.
"Colonel Bohannon had the right to exercise his
sincerely held religious beliefs and did not
unlawfully discriminate." Please
click here to read the article in The
Patriot Post in its entirety.
Islamic intimidation of the secular British
school system
Click
here to read an interesting article
from the Gatestone Institute about
intimidation of the secular British school
system.
Islamist threats that would be unacceptable
coming from other groups, are not prosecuted
by law enforcement policies in Britain.
Policies do not defend school
administrators, or the general public. But
Brits do have a choice- they can be engulfed
by the misogenist totalitarian rule of Sharia,
or die.
What will be the tipping point in America?
The First Amendment Is In Far Greater
Danger Than The Second
Frank Cannon
Town Hall
March 1, 2018
Our nation’s elites are waging
war on the American people, wielding the
institutions they’ve spent several decades
capturing to punish those who disagree with
their preferred positions and to deny them
the ability to speak publicly, all in an
effort to stifle free and open debate. And
no, this isn’t a George Orwell novel — this
is the United States of America.
While many still mistakenly
view our political arena as a skirmish
between “liberals” and “conservatives”, it
would be more accurate to describe it as an
all-out war between “elitists” and
“populists”. As my late friend Jeff Bell
argued in his 1992 book, “Populism and
Elitism: Politics in the Age of Equality”,
elitists believe in a top-down approach
where a cadre of experts rule the country
and determine what is acceptable discourse
and what is not, while populists believe the
people should ultimately determine the
course of our politics and culture.
Traditionally, the “elitists”
have always had the upper hand in this
battle by controlling many of our cultural
institutions, but the respect for the will
of the people — exercised by the ability to
elect our political leaders — remained in
place. Over time, however, that respect
eroded, and today, it is completely gone.
Now the “elitists” find the “populists” to
be repugnant, backward, and bigoted, and
they believe the only way to defeat the
people is to use elite institutional power
in academia, corporate America, the
administrative state, and the mainstream
media to stifle debate, force-feed elite
opinions masquerading as facts, and stamp
out dissent.
For example, consider these
three widely held views by the American
people:
Young
children should not be taught about
transgenderism or changing their gender.
Abortion is
wrong, especially after the first
trimester.
The right to
bear arms shall not be infringed.
Despite their relative
popularity, these views are repulsive to our
elites, and in recent years, they have
sought to shut down debate on all three
topics by calling anti-gender ideology
activists “transphobic”, anti-abortion
activists “anti-women”, and defenders of the
Constitution “gun nuts” who have “blood on
their hands”. On the gender ideology issue,
elites have been wildly successful in
completely removing debate over
transgenderism from the public square and
even politics. On abortion, they have
largely failed as pro-life sentiment among
the people has proven too strong for elites
to overcome. And on guns, the jury is still
out, but elites are engaging in perhaps
their most brazenly outrageous effort to
silence opposing views to date.
It’s About Tactics, Not
Issues
The battle between elite
opinion and popular opinion is as old as
time, but the recent tactical change among
elites seeking to stifle dissenting speech
is a new, and frightening, development. In a
departure from the normal give-and-take of
American democracy, the elites have begun
using their clout within every major
institution of civil society to demonize and
punish their opposition — through public
shaming in the media, economic extortion and
retaliation by big businesses, and even
criminalization of certain protest
activities. And given their entrenchment
within these institutions, the elites face
little or no consequences for their blatant
illiberality.
A case in point of this change
has been the aftermath of the Parkland
school shooting. Despite the complexity of
the issues involved and the diversity of
views held by Americans as to the proper
response, the elites have pursued a scorched
earth campaign against those who do not hold
their black-and-white views on guns. In the
news media, a narrative emphasizing the
immediate necessity of national gun control
legislation has become a 24-hour rallying
cry, with victims of the tragedy exploited
to advance this narrative and brand those
who disagree as somehow complicit in the
violence. Meanwhile, corporations have begun
to sever ties with the NRA, sending a
message that only one side of the debate is
socially acceptable while the other is
deserving of punishment.
A similar strategy has been
playing out with the movement to normalize
the Left’s gender ideology. Despite a lack
of scientific evidence — and widespread
parental skepticism — regarding the
soundness of treating young, gender
dysphoric children with highly experimental
puberty blockers and hormonal treatments,
elites have slowly co-opted influential
medical associations in order to ensure that
these treatments are not only widely adopted
but also that alternative approaches to
gender dysphoria are marginalized and even
criminalized. Moreover, opponents of this
takeover, no matter how well-grounded their
opposition, are branded by the media and its
self-appointed experts as “transphobes” and
“bigots” while being denied any opportunity
to make their arguments in a respected
forum.
Most Americans Already
Understand What’s Happening
Make no mistake: an America
with total elite control over the population
and where dissent from their views is
vilified is not an America at all. The gun
debate is simply another battle in the
all-out war elites are waging on the
American people’s right to even have an
opinion, let alone speak out about it and
not be punished for it.
Fortunately, the American
people are fully cognizant of what is taking
place, which is why they voted for Donald
Trump in 2016. Instead of looking at Trump
and Clinton through the two lenses voters
typically use, moral character and issue
positions, voters applied a third lens:
would their views be allowed to be
articulated at all without dire consequences
under a Clinton administration?
We cannot keep pretending, like
so many Never Trumpers do, that we are
operating in an environment of normal
political give-and-take on issues. That time
has passed. We are instead operating in a
country now where elites demonize the
populist position with such ferocity that
many are afraid to voice their opinion at
all, which is, of course, the entire point
of their strategy. Our fight is no longer
just over political issues — it is a battle
against the very tactics being used by
elites to stifle debate and destroy the
essence of what makes America great.
Frank Cannon is the president
at American Principles Project.
Islamists seem to be
influencing the British school system with
ease: there is simply no solid opposition
to them. The government even stays silent
about the harassment and intimidation.
Islamists in Britain seem to
be intent on establishing regressive
requirements, such as the hijab for young
girls, wife beating, making homosexuality
illegal, death for apostates, halala
rituals in divorce, and exploitation of
women and children through Sharia courts
as part and parcel of British culture.
That St. Stephen's School
allowed itself to be blackmailed in this
way bodes ill for both Britain and its
education system.
St. Stephen's School in East London recently
imposed a ban on hijabs (Islamic
headscarves), but reversed its decision
after administrators received hundreds of
threats from enraged Muslims.
"This
is an important step in promoting religious
extremism, mob rule and refusing to give
#Muslim young girls equal gender equality
rights.... So much for choice and individual
liberty. Terribly sad day for a secular
democracy."
While
secular British values need to be upheld to
provide equal opportunities to everyone,
regardless of caste, creed, gender or color,
Islamists seem to be influencing the British
school system with ease: there is simply no
solid opposition to them. The government
even stays silent about the harassment and
intimidation.
Was
St. Stephen's forced to succumb to the
pressure of ignorant zealots, who either do
not know or choose to ignore that under
Islamic law (Sharia), girls are not required
to cover their heads until they reach
puberty? Ignorance also seems not to have
prevented them from accusing anyone who says
or acts otherwise of "Islamophobia." It is a
form of political blackmail used by Muslim
extremists against the Western institutions,
the values of which they abhor.
Parliamentary
Under
Secretary of State for the School System,
Lord Agnew of Oulton, pledged to support the
schools that are trying to ban hijabs as
well as obligatory fasting: in Islam, young
children are not subject to either.
Lord
Agnew said that the government should
support head teachers in making difficult
and "sensitive" decisions in the face of
vitriolic opposition. We have yet to see the
effects of his statement. Supporting head
teachers is one thing, but there is also a
dire need to confront these extremists on
all levels, including law enforcement, if
they try to harass or intimidate anyone.
Someone
please
needs to back up Lord Agnew: there are only
a few such policy-makers left willing to
offer rational help during such crises.
Islamists
in
Britain seem to be intent on establishing
regressive requirements, such as the hijab
for young girls, wife-beating, halala
rituals in divorce, making homosexuality
illegal, death for apostates, and the exploitation
of women and children through Sharia
courts as part and parcel with
British culture.
Instead of making statements,
the British government needs to take
concrete steps to stop the further
infiltration of these practices into
Britain's social fabric, the warping of
children's minds, and the harassment of
whoever disagrees with those plans.
That St. Stephen's allowed
itself to be blackmailed in this way bodes
ill for both Britain and its education
system.
Khadija Khan is a Pakistani
journalist and commentator, currently
based in Germany.
Under Islamic repression, 'Christianity has
ignited like a flame'
By Bob Unrah 19 February 2018 World Net Daily
Hopeful news out of Iran....
Has Iran taken on a fight that it can never
win?
Evidence suggests that might be the case, as
the internationally renowned American Center
for Law and Justice points out that the
Islamic regime now is becoming desperate to
extinguish a surging population of Christians
inside its borders.
Iran, after all, is a nation that has exported
terrorism for decades. It has the free world
worried about its nuclear-weapons program. It
routinely threatens to destroy Israel. It
interferes with Middle East conflicts and
engages in cyberwar against the West.
But the American Center for Law and Justice
reports Christianity “has ignited like a flame
across the country of Iran, making the Iranian
government so nervous they’re desperate to
extinguish it quickly.”
Iranians are converting to Christianity at a
record-setting pace, with an estimated 360,000
to 800,000 Christians in the country.
There were fewer than 500 back in the 1980s.
“It’s difficult to take an accurate census
because fears of retribution, arrest, and
violence keep many Christian converts from
self-identifying. Iranian authorities have
been raiding the homes of suspected
Christians, confiscating their books,
computers, and other media and arresting the
men,” ACLJ said.
The government has spent millions of dollars
to fight the growing interest in Christianity,
the mission group Elam Ministries told Mohabat
News, a website that reports on Christians in
Iran.
The money has gone toward Islamic propaganda,
jailing church members, confiscation of
Christian materials and more, the report said.
Ayatollah Alavi Boroujerdi, an official at an
Islamic seminary, has confirmed that
“youth are becoming Christians in Qom and
attending house churches.”
Christians are being forced to hide their
faith to protect themselves and their
families, because worshipping Jesus “will get
you arrested, and very possibly get you
killed,” a critic reported.
“This is something we at the ACLJ have
witnessed first hand, advocating for a number
of imprisoned Christians pastors in Iran –
including Youcef Nadarkhani, who we
successfully fought to free from multiple
false imprisonments for his faith. In each of
these cases, Iran has targeted pastors in an
attempt to squelch the Christian church. It
has failed each and every time. In fact, the
attempts to silence the church has only made
it louder as Christianity grows in Iran,” ACLJ
said.
What
'peace' means to Muslims; just ask Jefferson By Bill Federer
16 February 2018
World Net Daily
Bill Federer recounts brief history of
American conflicts with brutality of Islam
“The first nation to recognize my country was
Morocco,” stated President Obama in Cairo,
Egypt, June 4, 2009.
Morocco began recognizing American colonists in
1625. Governor William Bradford described the
incident in the History of the Plymouth
Settlement. In 1625, the Pilgrims sent two ships
back to England carrying dried fish and 800 lbs
of beaver skins to trade for much needed
supplies.
What happened next?
Bradford related the fate of one ship: “They …
were well within the England channel, almost in
sight of Plymouth. But … there she was unhapply
taken by a Turkish man-of-war and carried off to
Morocco where the captain and crew were made
slaves. … Now by the ship taken by the Turks …
all trade was dead.”
...
When America became independent, it was no
longer covered by the British extortion tribute
payment to the Muslim pirates. Morocco
“recognized” the United States in 1785 by
capturing two American ships and holding the
sailors for ransom. Thomas Jefferson worked to
free them, writing to John Jay, 1787: “There is
an order of priests called the Mathurins, the
object of whose institution is to beg alms for
the redemption of captives. They keep members
always in Barbary, searching out the captives of
their country, and redeem, I believe, on better
terms than any other body, public or private. It
occurred to me, that their agency might be
obtained for the redemption of our prisoners at
Algiers.”
In 1786, Thomas Jefferson wrote to William
Carmichael regarding Tripoli’s demand for
extortion tribute payment, 1786: “Mr. Adams and
I had conferences with a Tripoline ambassador,
named Abdrahaman. He asked us thirty thousand
guineas for a peace with his court.”
When Jefferson asked the Muslim Ambassador what
the new country of America had done to offend
them, he reported to John Jay, March 28, 1786:
“The ambassador answered us that it was founded
on the laws of the prophet, it was written in
their Qur’an, that all nations which had not
acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it
was the right and duty of the faithful to
plunder and enslave; and that every mussulman
(Muslim) who was slain in this warfare was sure
to go to paradise. He said, also, that the man
who was the first to board a vessel had one
slave over and above his share, and that when
they sprang to the deck of an enemy’s ship,
every sailor held a dagger in each hand and a
third in his mouth; which usually struck such
terror into the foe that they cried out for
quarter at once.”
Jefferson read the Qur’an, not out of admiration
but to understand why Muslims were attacking
Americans unprovoked.
Crisis Magazine
William Kilpatrick
January 2, 2018
Secularists like to advise
Christians that, for the sake of social
harmony, they ought to keep their religion to
themselves. Religion, they argue, is a private
affair between an individual and his
designated deity, and ought not to be dragged
into the public square. Moreover, they
helpfully add, it’s an imposition on others to
confront them with beliefs that they may find
offensive.
As for themselves, secularists
have no qualms about imposing their own values
on everyone within reach. They are convinced
of the rightness of their beliefs, and
consequently they don’t think twice about
forcing Christian bakers, florists, and
photographers to endorse gay weddings. They
are also convinced that they know what’s best
for your children. And what’s best for them,
they are quite certain, is that they learn all
the latest fashions in gender identity and
marriage equality. In his groundbreaking 1984 book,
The Naked Public Square, Richard John Neuhaus
argued that the public square can never be
naked for long. In other words, it cannot be
neutral about values: “If it is not clothed
with the ‘meanings’ borne by religion, new
‘meanings’ will be imposed by virtue of the
ambitions of the modern state.” In short, the committed
secularist won’t be satisfied with the removal
of the crèche from the town square. He’ll
insist that it be replaced with something that
more accurately reflects American
diversity—say, a monument to Margaret Sanger
or a statue of James Obergefell. Of course,
secular society’s reach extends well beyond
the town green. The religion of secularism is
constantly being advanced in a variety of
venues—in courtrooms, school rooms, and in the
newly remodeled bathrooms that accommodate the
newly invented genders. Fr. Neuhaus was right in
predicting that “a perverse notion of the
disestablishment of religion leads to the
establishment of the state as Church.” The
secular state quickly moves to enshrine
whatever values it currently smiles upon. And
it defends them as though they were divinely
revealed dogma. But, despite his prescience,
Neuhaus did fail to anticipate another
development—namely, that the Judeo-Christian
tradition might be displaced from the public
square not only by the state, but also by
another religion.
The possibility that Islam would
one day be a contender for control of the
public square probably didn’t enter his mind.
That’s no surprise. Except for the blip caused
by the Iranian Revolution, Islam wasn’t on
anyone’s radar in the early eighties. Yet
Islam is now well on its way to controlling
the public square in parts of Europe. And,
were it not for the election of Donald Trump
and the defeat of the Muslim
Brotherhood-friendly Clinton machine, the U.S.
would now be playing catch-up. As has often been observed,
Islam is a political religion. Some, like
Dutch MP Geert Wilders, contend that it is
almost totally political with only a thin and
deceptive veneer of religiosity. Whatever the
exact proportion of politics to religion, it’s
hard to deny that the political dimension
looms large in Islam. Muhammad, after all, was
a warlord. He conquered all of Arabia, and
within a relatively short time after his
death, his followers conquered an area larger
than the Roman Empire. Sayyid Abul A’la
Maududi, one of the most important
twentieth-century Islamic theorists, wrote
that “Islam requires the earth—not just a
portion, but the whole planet.”
ISIS Kills Scores of Christians in Retaken
Syrian Town: Report
By Conor Gaffey Newsweek.com 4/11/16
The Islamic State militant group (ISIS) killed
scores of Christians when they captured a Syrian
town recently liberated by the government, a
Syrian Christian leader has said.
ISIS swept into the town of Al-Qaryatain in
August 2015, kidnapping at least 230 civilians
including dozens of Christians in the central
Syrian town, which lies 104 kilometers (65
miles) southwest of Palmyra. The town had a
population of some 2,000 Syriac Catholics and
Orthodox Christians prior to the outbreak of
civil war in Syria in 2011, but this had dropped
to just 300 before ISIS took control.
Al-Qaryatain was retaken by Syrian government
forces with the backing of Russian airstrikes
earlier in April and reports are just beginning
to emerge of life under the extremist group for
civilians in the town. Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem
II, the head of the Syrian Orthodox Church, told
the BBC on Sunday that 21 Christians were
murdered when ISIS first captured the city.
Some died trying to escape while others were
killed for violating the terms of contracts they
had signed requiring them to submit to the
extremists’ interpretation of Islamic law.
Hundreds of Christians in Al-Qaryatain were
reportedly forced to sign so-called dhimmi
contracts, which enabled them to live under ISIS
rule in the town. The patriarch added that five
other Christians are missing and presumed dead,
while ransoms had been paid to ISIS to secure
the release of the rest of the Christians.
The civil war in Syria has had a devastating
impact on the country’s Christian contingent,
which made up approximately 10 percent of
Syria’s population before the outbreak of the
conflict. The European Parliament stated in
October 2015 that about 40 percent of Syria’s
Christian population—or 700,000 people—had fled
the country.
NOTE: Jesus Christ was crucified in Jerusalem,
was dead for three days, and rose from the dead,
and walked among us for forty days until his
Ascension. After the Pentecost, when the Holy
Spirit came to the Apostles, they spread out to
different areas of the land to spread the good
news, of our salvation. One of the first places
they went to was what is now Syria, which was
the home of Simon Peter. Not only does ISIS
eradicate people who do not bow down to their
cult they attempt to erase the ancient traces of
preceding times like in Palmyra which was a
Roman outpost in Syria, from the first or second
century after the year of our Lord. Click
here to view more about that.
R.I.P. Justice Scalia
Feb. 18, 2016
It is hard to imagine a
greater loss to Liberty in America than has
occurred in the passing of Justice Antonin
Scalia. His understanding of the
Constitution as a pact between free people
and government, and our protection from
oppressive government, was unparalleled.
The fact that 30% of Americans do not know
who he was, speaks volumes about the state
of our Union and our education system.
My words and thoughts are totally inadequate
but you can easily find more about the great
man's life and legacy. Click
here for a link to wikipedia. Or click
here to read the thoughts of the other
Justices on the Supreme Court about him.
R.I.P. Justice Scalia.
Shariah Law at work in the Obama
Administration
Obama DHS scrubs records of hundreds of
Muslim terrorists
Published: 7 Feb 2016 World Net Daily Pamela Geller
Not only did the
Obama administration scrub counter-terror
programs of jihad and Islam, now we find out
that his administration scrubbed the records of
Muslim terrorists. If the enemedia were not
aligned with the jihad force, this would be
front-page news across the nation.
An agent of the Department of Homeland Security,
or DHS, for 15 years, Philip Haney, reported
Friday that after the Christmas Day underwear
bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, tried to blow
up a crowded passenger jet over Detroit,
“President Obama threw the intelligence
community under the bus for its failure to
‘connect the dots.’ He said, ‘This was not a
failure to collect intelligence; it was a
failure to integrate and understand the
intelligence that we already had.'”
Haney revealed: “Most Americans were unaware of
the enormous damage to morale at the Department
of Homeland Security, where I worked, his
condemnation caused. His words infuriated many
of us because we knew his administration had
been engaged in a bureaucratic effort to destroy
the raw material – the actual intelligence we
had collected for years, and erase those dots.
The dots constitute the intelligence needed to
keep Americans safe, and the Obama
administration was ordering they be wiped away.”
What Haney discloses is truly shocking: “Just
before that Christmas Day attack, in early
November 2009, I was ordered by my superiors at
the Department of Homeland Security to delete or
modify several hundred records of individuals
tied to designated Islamist terror groups like
Hamas from the important federal database, the
Treasury Enforcement Communications System
(TECS). These types of records are the basis for
any ability to ‘connect dots.’ Every day, DHS
Customs and Border Protection officers watch
entering and exiting many individuals associated
with known terrorist affiliations, then look for
patterns. Enforcing a political scrubbing of
records of Muslims greatly affected our ability
to do that. Even worse, going forward, my
colleagues and I were prohibited from entering
pertinent information into the database.”
Who gave the order to scrub the records of
Muslims with ties to terror groups?
These new shocking revelations come fresh on the
heels of whistleblower testimony in the wake of
the San Bernardino jihad slaughter, revealing
that the Obama administration shut down
investigations into jihadists in America (and
quite possible the San Bernardino shooters) at
the request of the Department of State and the
DHS’ own Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
Division. Haney noted: “They claimed that since
the Islamist groups in question were not
Specially Designated Terrorist Organizations
(SDTOs) tracking individuals related to these
groups was a violation of the travelers’ civil
liberties. These were almost exclusively foreign
nationals: When were they granted the civil
rights and liberties of American citizens?”
How is this not impeachable? When did foreign
terrorists get civil rights?
Haney described how he began investigating
scores of individuals with links to the
traditionalist Islamic Indo-Pakistani Deobandi
movement, and its related offshoots,
prominently, Tablighi Jamaat.
I have reported on this infiltration for years.
I reported on it extensively in my book, “Stop
the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide
to the Resistance.” Obama has partnered with
terror-tied groups such as the Council on
American-Islamic Relations, the Islamic Society
of North America, the Muslim American Society
and others. The stealth jihad in the information
battle-space has led to the vigorous enforcement
of blasphemy laws under the Shariah, as Obama
ordered that counter-terror training materials
must avoid all reference to Islam and jihad.
Under Islamic law, it is prohibited to criticize
Islam.
The Obama administration is Shariah-compliant at
all costs. Its number one priority is to protect
Islam, even when it puts American lives at risk.
The cold-blooded slaughter of Americans in the
homeland by Muslims has not tempered Obama’s
Shariah enthusiasm. On the contrary, Garland,
Fort Hood, Chattanooga, UCMED, San Bernardino,
etc., have accelerated it.
My civil liberties and your civil liberties are
being abridged in accordance with the blasphemy
laws under Shariah. My organization is engaged
in 15 different free-speech lawsuits against
various cities. Our free-speech lawsuit against
Boston is heading to the Supreme Court, because
even though truthful, our ads violate the laws
of Shariah (“do not criticize Islam”). We are
being forced to adhere to Shariah mores, but
jihad murderers are given sanctuary and
protection – to slaughter Americans.
The moral, or in this case the immoral, of the
story is this: Jihad terror works.
Pamela Geller is the publisher of
AtlasShrugs.com and the author of the WND
Books title "Stop the Islamization of America:
A Practical Guide to the Resistance."
Wisconsin firm fires Muslims in prayer
dispute
Religious breaks disrupted production at
lawn mower, snowblower manufacturer
Published: 02/04/2016 (ABC News) A civil liberties group
said Wednesday that it plans to file federal
discrimination and harassment complaints after a
Wisconsin manufacturer fired seven Muslim
employees for violating a company break policy
that doesn’t provide extra time for prayer.
Ariens Co. terminated the workers in a dispute
that began last month when it moved to enforce
an existing rule of two 10-minute breaks per
work shift and dozens of Muslim staffers of
Somali descent walked off the job in protest.
Of the 53 employees involved, 32 have abided
with the policy, 14 resigned and seven were
terminated Tuesday, according to Ariens
spokeswoman Ann Stilp. The news of the
terminations was first reported by WLUK-TV in
Green Bay.
If shouting 'No!' doesn't work, then swat
attacker with purse
World Net Daily Published: 02/03/2016 by Leo Hohmann
A public-service advertisement running on
Finland TV instructs women in the Scandinavian
country on how to fend off a rapist.
But rather than pull out a handgun or even
pepper spray, the women of Finland are taught
to confront their attackers with bare hands
and a purse.
Rape epidemics have engulfed Finland, Sweden
and Germany in a sea of fear since the mass
influx of migrants from the Middle East and
North Africa began two years ago.
Alan Gottlieb, executive vice president
and founder of the Second Amendment
Foundation, said he found the video laughable.
Anti-Shariah activist and author Pamela Geller
posted the video on her website earlier this
week under the title "It just gets more
absurd."
Netanyahu: Islamic terrorism is
flooding the world from Jakarta to California
The prime minister says the struggle against
terrorism will take time but that Israel is
fighting hard.
Jerusalem Post by JPOST.COM STAFF BEN HARTMAN 02/04/2016
Islamic terrorism is flooding the world and
inciting millions from Jakarta to Africa and
all the way to California, said Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu during a trip on Thursday
to the Jerusalem hospital treating a Border
Police officer who was injured in yesterday's
attack at the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old
City.
Netanyahu praised the courage of the security
forces and the courage and strength the Border
Police officer shown during Wednesday's
attack. He also expressed his condolences to
the family of Border Police officer Hadar
Cohen who was killed in the combined shooting
and stabbing attack.
Three Arab terrorists wielding machine guns,
pipe bombs and knives carried out the attack
on Wednesday killing Cohen, 19, who died of
her wounds shortly after being rushed to the
capital's Hadassa University Medical Center at
Mt. Scopus. Her partner, Ravit, was seriously
wounded and underwent emergency surgery at the
hospital. As of Thursday morning she was
considered to be in moderate condition.
"We are all saddened by the death of Hadar
Cohen, a real hero. We all embrace the
family," Netanyahu said.
The prime minister emphasized that a great
effort is being put into the fight against
terrorism, during the lengthy effort to defeat
it.
"It will take time, it is a long struggle,"
Netanyahu said. "We are in this fight, it is
not passing us by, but we are fighting it with
great force and will continue to do so."
"Kabatiya has been closed off while the IDF
and the Shin bet make widespread arrests of
wanted suspects, we have cancelled many work
permits and the attorney-general informed me
yesterday that he has added a number of houses
belonging to terrorists to be slated for
demolition," Netanyahu said of the West Bank
village, from where Wednesday's terrorists
hailed.
Police Commissioner Inspector General Roni
Alsheich paid a visit to the wounded Border
Police officer on Wednesday night.
During his visit, Alsheich praised the two
teenager Border Police officers who had
recently drafted into the force for preventing
a major terror attack.
Alsheich said “I have no doubt that a terror
cell that comes with an arsenal like this has
every intention of carrying out a massive
attack.”
Ravit and Cohen were part of a three-man
patrol along with their commander. They had
only been drafted a couple months before and
their deployment at Damascus Gate in East
Jerusalem was part of their training.
Since the attack yesterday, police and the
Border Police have drawn criticism for the
fact that the two women were posted at one of
the most dangerous flashpoints in the country
so soon after they were drafted.
The three terrorists were responsible for the
attack were identified as Ahmed Rajeh
Zakarneh, Muhammad Ahmed Kmail, and Ahmed
Najeh Abu al-Rub. All three were shot dead at
the scene. Their explosives did not detonate
and were later neutralized by a police bomb
disposal team.
No holds barred: Torrent of anti-Israel
advice found in Hillary’s emails
Jerusalem Post - Opinion By Shmuley Boteach 02/01/2016
Clandestinely stirring up potentially violent
protests in an attempt to try and force Israel
to go against its best interests? Advice like
this was par for the course with Clinton’s
advisers.
It’s already been established that one of
Hillary Clinton’s most trusted advisers, Sid
Blumenthal, sent her anti-Israel articles,
ideas and advice during her time as secretary of
state. But the stream of anti-Israel advice
received by Clinton was much more comprehensive.
In the entire forced dump of Clinton’s emails,
you will be hard pressed to find a single one
sympathetic toward the Jewish state from any of
the people she relied on. The negative,
poisonous approach to Israel throughout this
email expose shows the atmosphere that she had
established around herself. These emails seem to
demonstrate that a huge segment of her close
advisers and confidantes were attacking Israel,
condemning Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and
strategizing how to force Israel to withdraw
from Judea and Samaria at all costs.
This was occurring against the backdrop of
Israel’s recent Gaza withdrawal, which led to
the takeover of Gaza by Hamas. There is almost
zero mention of the huge risks to Israel’s
security in withdrawing as Clinton and the Obama
administration did everything they could to
pressure Israel to capitulate to their demands.
Take a look at a sampling of the advice being
sent to Clinton from her many advisers that we
have now become privy to.
Sandy
Berger was Clinton’s foreign policy
adviser during her 2008 presidential campaign.
In September of 2010 he sent her ideas on how to
pressure Israel to make concessions for peace.
Berger acknowledged “how fragile is Abbas’s
political position,” and how “Palestinians are
in disarray,” and that “failure is a real
possibility.” Berger was well aware of, and
informed Hillary of, the very real possibility
that Israel would be placing its national
security at grave risk in a deal that would very
likely fail and lead to a Hamas takeover.
But Berger felt the risks to Israeli lives were
worth it.
He advised the need to make Netanyahu feel
“uneasy about incurring our displeasure....”
Berger emphasizes the need “to convince the
prime minister – through various forms of overt
persuasion and implicit pressure – to make the
necessary compromises” and talks of the
“possibility – to turn his position against
him.”
Astoundingly, Berger seems to accuse the Jews in
America of racism toward Obama. He writes, “At a
political level, the past year has clearly
demonstrated the degree to which the U.S. has
been hamstrung by its low ratings in Israel and
among important segments of the domestic Jewish
constituency....” He then adds, “Domestically,
he faces a reservoir of skepticism on this issue
which reflects many factors, including
inexcusable prejudice.”
Anne Marie Slaughter was Clinton’s director of
policy planning from 2009-2011. She wrote to
Clinton in September of 2010 and devised a
scheme to encourage wealthy philanthropists to
pledge millions to the Palestinians (which no
doubt would have been embezzled by Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his
cronies as were other funds).
She wrote: “This may be a crazy idea.... Suppose
we launched a “Pledge for Palestine” campaign...
Such a campaign among
billionaires/multi-millionaires around the world
would reflect a strong vote of confidence in the
building of a Palestinian state....”
She adds: “There would also be a certain shaming
effect re Israelis who, would be building
settlements in the face of a pledge for peace.”
Clinton’s response to this email: “I am very
interested- pls flesh out. Thx.”
Robert
Russo, one of Clinton’s aides and
currently her campaign’s “director of
correspondence and briefings” sent an email in
April of 2012 informing her of Netanyahu’s
father’s death and advising her to give him a
condolence call. Included with Russo’s
email is an extremely biased article attacking
both Netanyahu and his father, describing them
as virulently racist warmongers and calling the
elder Netanyahu “a behindthe- scenes adviser to
his son, the most powerful person in Israel.”
The article noted that “Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu repeatedly denied that his father was
a one-dimensional ideologue. He further
emphasized that he himself was a different
person from his father.”
But then it goes on to say, without providing
any proof whatsoever, “Israelis seemed in the
dark about the extent of paternal influence on
their leader,” and “To understand Bibi, you have
to understand the father.”
One might be forgiven for questioning Clinton’s
sympathy and sincerity when she later placed the
call and gave Netanyahu her condolences.
Thomas
Pickering, former US ambassador to Israel,
wrote to Clinton on December 18, 2011, and
suggested a secret plan to stir up major
Palestinian protests in an attempt to force the
Israeli government into peace negotiations.
He stated that the protests “must be all and
only women. Why? On the Palestinian side the
male culture is to use force.”
Pickering’s goal was to ignite protests that
would engulf the West Bank, “just like Tahrir
square.” He adds that the Palestinian
“leadership has shied away from this idea
because they can’t control it,” and they are
“afraid of being replaced.”
This idiotic reasoning that somehow only women
would participate and things would stay peaceful
is obviously absurd. As Pickering himself notes,
“Palestinian men will not for long patiently
demonstrate – they will be inclined over time
and much too soon to be frustrated and use
force. Their male culture comes close to
requiring it.”
Regardless, Pickering writes that the protests
could be used against Israel “to influence the
political leadership.”
The idea was as dangerous for the Palestinians
as it was for Israel. As Pickering himself
admits, widespread protests could overthrow
Abbas’ government, and if Palestinian men joined
in, widespread violence would inevitably break
out. It would obviously be impossible to prevent
men from participating in these demonstrations.
Yet Pickering felt this extreme risk was worth
taking, even if it meant the replacement of
Abbas with another Hamas-led government. And
even if meant violence breaking out across the
West Bank leading to a third intifada and the
murder of countless Jews. He also emphasizes the
need to hide all US involvement in this plot.
Clinton forwarded this email to Monica Hanley
and asked her to “pls print.”
Clandestinely stirring up potentially violent
protests in an attempt to try and force Israel
to go against its best interests? Advice like
this was par for the course when it came to
Clinton’s advisers.
In a follow-up column we’ll illuminate even more
anti-Israel advice that was given the
then-secretary of state. Sadly, there was just
so much of it.
The author, “America’s Rabbi,” is the
international bestselling author of 30 books
including his upcoming The Israel Warrior’s
Handbook. Follow him on Twitter @ RabbiShmuley.
Senate resolution calls for a US
constitutional convention
Posted: February 3, 2016 at 10:37 am
KFQD Radio Anchorage, Alaska
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – An Alaska Senate
committee is set to consider a resolution
calling for a convention of the states to
propose a countermand, or veto, amendment to
the U.S. Constitution.
The measure calls on legislators in the other
49 states to apply for a convention as well.
In his sponsor statement, Chugiak Republican
Senator Bill Stoltze says the resolution is
meant to restore the balance of power between
the states and the federal government.
The resolution calls for a convention of
states to amend the U.S. Constitution and
provide states with the power to vote on
nullifying federal laws.
Click here to realize that Alaska is not
the only state that has called for a
Constitutional Convention.
Turkish Court Rules Government Failed to
Protect Christians Killed in Malatya
Civil suit results in order to pay
damages to relatives of victims.
January 27, 2016
By Our Middle East Correspondent
Morning Star News
ISTANBUL, Turkey (Morning Star News) – A Turkish
court ruled on Tuesday (Jan. 26) that the
government was negligent in its duty to protect
three Christians who were tortured and killed in
2007 and ordered it to pay damages to the
victims’ families.
The Malatya Administrative Court ruled that,
nearly nine years ago, the Interior Ministry and
the Malatya Governor’s Office ignored reliable
intelligence that Turkish nationalists were
targeting the three Christians days prior to the
April 2007 killings.
At the present rate, it is doubtful what year
money might actually change hands
Man with Quran, guns arrested near
Disneyland Paris
Manhunt underway for female companion
CNN by Laura Akhoun and Jason Hanna Published: 01/28/2016
(CNN) French police are looking for a woman who
was with the Paris man who was arrested with
guns Thursday at a Disney hotel near Disneyland
Paris, police official Michael Le Provost told
CNN.
When security guards discovered the firearms,
they noticed the woman was with him, but she
eluded arrest, Le Provost said.
Bomb disposal experts are inspecting the man’s
car, Le Provost said.
Posted By David Barton On 01/27/2016 @ 10:32
pm In Education,Faith,Front
Page,Politics,U.S.,World World Net Daily
Democrats have long heralded Thomas Jefferson
(along with Andrew Jackson) as the founder of
their Party. They traditionally hold annual
Jefferson-Jackson Day fundraising dinners, and
President Obama is one of their most sought
after speakers. But this past year, Democrats
began to remove any mention of Jefferson’s
name from their functions. They claim
that this is because Jefferson was a bigoted
racist, iii but this excuse is historically
inaccurate, based on an errant modern
portrayal.
If you doubt this, ask yourself why black
civil rights leaders over the past two
centuries (such as Frederick Douglass, Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr, Benjamin Banneker,
Francis Grimke, Henry Highland Garnett, and so
many others) openly praised Jefferson as a
racial civil rights pioneer and champion, as
did abolitionists such as John Quincy Adams,
Abraham Lincoln, and others They recognized
that Jefferson led a vocal lifelong campaign
to emancipate all slaves in the United States,
but that the laws of Virginia prevented him
from freeing his own slaves. (All of this is
covered in my new book, “The Jefferson
Lies.”)
The real reason that Democrats should discard
Jefferson is that he held nearly no policy
position similar to those Democrats hold
today. Consider fifteen major categories
where the policies of Presidents Jefferson
and Obama are opposite.
Posted By Jeff Knox On 01/27/2016 @ 7:42 pm
In Commentary,Opinion
World Net Daily
The occupation of a remote wildlife
refuge turned violent yesterday when federal
agents stopped two vehicles carrying
protesters to a town hall meeting in John Day,
Oregon. Victoria Sharp, a passenger in one of
those vehicles, has reported that federal
agents opened fire on the group without
provocation after conflicting and confusing
demands for the protesters to surrender. Sharp
reported that shots were first fired at Ryan
Payne as he complied with orders to show his
hands out of the window of the vehicle in
which she was riding, but that the shots
missed. Payne was calling for police to not
shoot, as there were women in the vehicle, and
exited the vehicle, asking that the women be
allowed out.
At this point, LaVoy Finicum, one of the
spokesmen for the occupiers, who was driving
the vehicle in which Ms. Sharp was riding,
yelled out the window that they were going to
go talk to the sheriff (at the meeting in John
Day), or that agents could just shoot him. He
told the passengers to get down, and drove
forward, precipitating heavy gunfire from the
agents, and crashing the vehicle into a
snowbank.
Sharp said that Finicum then exited the
vehicle, hands in the air, yelling, “Just
shoot me then!” A volley of shots rang out,
and Finicum fell to his back, hands still over
his head, and was shot several more times on
the ground, Sharp said.
According to Sharp, agents continued shooting
at the car, striking Ryan Bundy in the
shoulder as he shielded her on the floorboard,
and deploying tear gas before finally taking
the rest of the group into custody. She also
claims that none of the protesters fired a
shot or even touched a gun during the
encounter.
The full audio of Victoria Sharp’s account is
posted on YouTube, and comes across as very
credible.
Listen to Victoria Sharp’s testimony:
Another report suggested that Finicum
"charged" at police after exiting the vehicle
but does not dispute the claim that his hands
were in the air. Cliven Bundy, father of Ammon
and Ryan Bundy, leaders of the occupation who
were both taken into custody during the
incident, has further charged that, not only
were Finicum's hands in the air, but he was
not armed at the time.
In interviews during the occupation protest,
Finicum, a soft-spoken rancher and father of
11 from Arizona, had insisted that he would
rather be killed than "put in a cement box"
prison. He said that some things were more
important than life, and that freedom was one
of those things.
The occupation was initiated in protest of the
re-incarceration of a pair of Oregon ranchers
who had been convicted of terrorism for
starting two controlled burns on their graze
lands back in 2001 and 2005. The ranchers,
father and son Dwight and Steven Hammond, were
initially sentenced to, and served short
sentences and fined $400,000 for their
actions, but a federal appeals court later
concluded that the judge in the case had
improperly waived a five-year minimum sentence
for the charges, and the two were resentenced
to that minimum and ordered to return to
prison.
I reported on the Hammond case and the
resulting protests a few weeks ago in this
column, pointing out that the stated objective
of the protest was being lost in the news
coverage of the protest itself. Ammon Bundy
and his compatriots appeared to be more
interested in generating a confrontation with
federal authorities than in drawing attention
to the Hammonds and the abusive practices of
federal agencies that led to their plight.
The death of LaVoy Finicum is a needless
tragedy.
Federal authorities had wisely been taking a
hands-off approach to the occupation, denying
Bundy and his friends the opportunity for the
tense stand-off they seemed to be seeking.
Unfortunately, politicians like Oregon's
Democrat Gov. Kate Brown, took the occupation
as a personal affront and were calling for law
enforcement to take more aggressive action to
put a stop to the flagrant defiance of federal
authority. The result is a martyr for the
fringe and escalation of the situation from a
nuisance to a volatile and dangerous level.
The strategy was clearly to "remove the head
of the snake" by capturing the leaders of the
occupation, but what if those leaders were the
cooler heads that were keeping the protest
calm and peaceful?
With the death of Finicum, in circumstances
that some are calling murder, a fuse has been
lit, and unless authorities can and do quickly
produce evidence that their actions were
clearly justified, this could blow up in a
very ugly way. And it all could have been
easily avoided.
Realistically, what harm were the protesters
doing? They were occupying buildings of a
remote wildlife refuge in a sparsely populated
area of the country in the dead of winter.
They were making no threats, harming no one,
and getting less and less attention from an
unsympathetic media. They were not supported
by any national or state militia
organizations, and their whole agenda had
pretty well fizzled.
I wish Ammon Bundy had taken my advice,
negotiated a peaceful end to the situation and
sent his supporters home to their families
weeks ago. That didn't happen, and what
happens next is anyone's guess. The remaining
occupiers must be concerned about what might
happen to them if they try to leave,
especially in light of the death of Finicum,
and by setting up roadblocks and checkpoints,
authorities have now committed manpower and
resources to potentially long, cold,
uncomfortable duty that can't help but
engender deeper frustration and resentment
between police and occupiers. Any trust that
might have developed is completely out the
window. Worse, the bloodshed may provoke other
groups to step in and escalate the mess even
further.
Perhaps this week's arrests will bring this
whole thing to a close, but I fear that it is
more likely signaling the beginning of
something much worse than protesters occupying
a wilderness outpost.
Christian persecution reached record high in
2015, report says
By William J. Cadigan, CNN Sun January 17, 2016
Christians flee persecution in the middle
east
(CNN)Last year was the most violent for
Christians in modern history, rising to "a
level akin to ethnic cleansing," according to
a new report by Open Doors USA, a watchdog
group that advocates for Christians.
In total, the survey found that more than
7,100 Christians were killed in 2015 for
"faith-related reasons," up 3,000 from the
previous year, according to the group's
analysis of media reports and other public
information as well as external experts. Open
Door's report is independently audited by the
International Institute of Religious Freedom.
Open Doors USA is an organization that works
with Christians worldwide to "equip and
encourage" those living under persecution
while also helping churches in America
advocate for the persecuted around the world.
The group's report defines Christian
persecution "as any hostility experienced as a
result of one's identification with Christ."
Open Doors found this persecution ranged from
imprisonment, torture, beheadings and rape to
the loss of home and assets, the loss of a
job, or even rejection from a community.
Speaking at the National Press Club on
Wednesday, David Curry, president and CEO of
Open Doors, introduced the annual ranking of
countries based on their severity of Christian
persecution, evaluating levels of violence
worldwide to formulate the global top 50. The
list, now in its 25th year, is topped by North
Korea for the 14th consecutive time. Curry
says that "pariah states" like North Korea are
especially hostile toward Christians.
According to the report, however, much of the
persecution faced by Christians occurs in
predominantly Muslim nations, many of which
are "failed states" that fail to protect any
of their citizens' religious liberty.
The presence of Islamic extremist factions
across the world in 2015 brought religious
persecution for not only Christians, but also
Muslims, Yazidis and other religious
minorities, the report found. Notably, Iraq
(No. 2) and Syria (No. 5) are the epicenter of
ISIS' so called "caliphate," while Afghanistan
(4), Pakistan (6), Iran (9) and Libya (10) all
have elements of Islamic extremism.
Curry said that while "Islamic extremism is
one of the driving forces" of Christian
persecution, "peace-loving Muslims can make an
impact on that part of their culture."
ISIS and other extremist groups are spreading,
the report highlights, not just in the Middle
East but around the world. Curry said he hoped
the list would bring attention to the plight
of Christians across the globe as they face a
"total lack of religious freedom," forced
migration and even genocide.
In fact, part of the reason for the annual
list, according to Curry, is to highlight for
U.S. policymakers the continued persecution of
Christians by our "geopolitical allies."
Countries such as Saudi Arabia and India are
key global partners for the United States, yet
Open Doors ranks both in its top 50 of
persecutors of Christians.
"We believe in religious freedom for all,"
Curry said, "and that does not happen in
countries that we do business with every day."
Open Doors also seeks to inspire and inform
Christians in America, using the annual watch
list "as a clarion call to pray, advocate and
remember their persecuted fellow Christians."
Number of Muslim-Americans born to Middle
Eastern migrants 'off the charts'
Leo Hohmann Published: 1/06/2016
So-called “home-grown” terrorists such as
Syed Farook, who slaughtered 14 people last
month in San Bernardino, or Muhammad
Abdulazeez, who gunned down five U.S.
servicemen in Chattanooga last summer, were
both second-generation Muslim-Americans whose
parents emigrated to the U.S.
Most of the terrorists who attacked Paris in
November, killing 130 people with guns and
bombs, were also described by the media as
“home grown jihadists” when in reality they
still represented a foreign culture, born of
Middle Eastern parents who migrated to Europe
and never fully assimilated. And now there is
fresh evidence that this segment of the U.S.
population is growing exponentially.
Buried in the Social Security data is a count
of babies born with the name Muhammad. While
offering a small sample, the Social Security
database is able to shed light on the growth
of second-generation Muslims in America. It is
highly reliable and accurate. It shows a huge
growth pattern.
“A boy named Mohammed born here is likely to
grow up in a Muslim environment and, at the
same time, be a U.S. citizen,” North writes.
“So we can get a rough proxy of the growth of
the population of second-generation Muslim
immigrants by noting how many of them carry
these names. (Third-generation babies are also
included.)”
The figures show the huge growth in this
population over the last 50 years, starting in
1964 when only 29 baby boys were named after
the Islamic prophet who lived in the seventh
century. By 2014 the number had soared to
2,931, a more than 100-to-one ratio.
Alabama 2nd state to sue feds over refugee
resettlement
Suit claims program too secretive
Leo Hohmann Published: 01/07/2016
Alabama has become the second state to
sue the federal government alleging that it
has failed to “consult” with state officials
while secretly placing foreign refugees into
communities. The suit claims the Obama
administration has violated the terms of the
Refugee Act of 1980, which says the federal
government “shall consult regularly”
with states before placing refugees.
A spokeswoman for Gov. Robert Bentley told the
Associated Press the lawsuit was filed
Thursday, following a similar suit by Texas a
month ago.
But an expert on the 1980 law governing
refugee resettlement told WND that neither
suit stands a chance of stopping the flow of
refugees into Texas or Alabama. Richard
Thompson, president and chief counsel of the
Thomas More Law Center, said his organization
is not involved in either the Texas or the
Alabama cases because he believes there is a
stronger case to be made on the grounds of the
10th Amendment.
“They filed a suit on the grounds that the
feds have failed to consult with the state on
the location of refugees in the state, and
failure to consult is a term that has no real
definition to it. Texas has filed a similar
suit that thus far has not gone anywhere,”
Thompson said. “Thomas More Law Center’s
position is that there is a constitutional
claim and that claim is based on the 10th
Amendment.”
Bentley is one of more than two-dozen
Republican governors who opposed the
settlement of Syrian refugees in their states
after the Nov. 13 jihadist attacks that killed
130 people in Paris.
About 80 GOP congressmen have also signed on
to co-sponsor a bill by Rep. Brian Babin,
R-Texas, which would halt all refugee
resettlement until the program can undergo a
full investigation into its costs and its
risks to national security.
But the U.S. State Department has continued
distributing Muslim refugees into more than
180 U.S. cities and towns. They come not only
from Syria and Iraq, but from Somalia,
Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo,
Burma and other countries with active jihadist
movements.
A stronger response is ready and waiting for a
taker. The Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Thomas
More Law Center has been working since June to
prepare a case that would challenge the
constitutionality of federal authority over
the refugee program. The program is
administered by the U.S. State Department
along with the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement.
Expanding
special rights to the 2% who choose the LGBT
lifestyle in Jacksonville FL
with excerpts from Christopher Hong Jan 13, 2016 Jacksonville Florida Times-Union
"Jacksonville residents crowded Tuesday’s City
Council meeting to voice their stance on the
longstanding question of whether to expand
discrimination protections to the LGBT
community...
Tuesday’s meeting saw the formal introduction
of two bills on the issue. Councilman Tommy
Hazouri introduced a bill to expand the
discrimination protections, while Councilman
Bill Gulliford introduced a bill to let voters
decide.
Next month, the council will begin debating
those two bills.... the council defeated
similar legislation in 2012. Tuesday’s
discussion mostly remained civil, with council
members hearing many of the same arguments
voiced years ago and in a series of community
meetings that (Mayor) Curry hosted late last
year.
Supporters of expanding the law said the LGBT
community deserves the same rights and
protections afforded to other minority groups
and urged the council to vote on it.
Opponents, many citing their religious beliefs
that homosexuality is morally wrong, said
expanded protections amounted to a special
privilege that would interfere with small
business and could allow men into women’s
restrooms. Many urged council members to let
voters decide the issue.
The full council will debate Hazouri’s and
Gulliford’s bills during special meetings
scheduled for Feb. 4, Feb. 18 and March 3."
Has your voice been heard about this
expansion of Special Rights in Jacksonville
FL? Contact your Mayor and your
Council Representatives:
The powers not delegated to the United
States by the Constitution, nor prohibited
by it to the States, are reserved to the
States respectively, or to the people.
Alabama chief justice tells judges to halt
same-sex 'marriages'
Posted By Bob Unruh On 01/06/2016
World Net Daily
Chief Justice Roy Moore of the Alabama Supreme
Court on Wednesday ordered the state’s probate
judges, the only ones in the state who are
allowed to issue marriage licenses, to follow
the state’s Sanctity of Marriage Amendment and
its Marriage Protection Act until the full state
Supreme Court rules on the issue.
Please click here to read the article in its
entirety
January
7, 2016
Subject: URGENT: Stop the LGBT Law
Dear Jacksonville
Family,
This is URGENT. Please forward
this email to others.
Unless we do something about it,
just 10
City Council members will force a LGBT
favoritism law upon Jacksonville, Duval
County, Florida – a law which
will restrict Free Speech and religious
liberties and which will allow men,
claiming to be women, to enter women’s and
children’s dormitories, and dressing,
locker and rest rooms – to view them in
all stages of undress.
And, much more harm will
occur. Get more details at DefendJaxFamilies.
But, you can help
prevent this. How? LET THE
PEOPLE DECIDE this issue.
●Show your
support for the Public Referendum
proposed by Councilman Gulliford.
Complete and return the Petition found
here,
where there are instructions. The
Petition form can be filled out on your
computer and returned by email.
●Forward this
letter. Email it to as
many people as possible.
●Collect
Petition signatures.
Download the Petition
form, print copies and distribute them
at churches and other venues.
●Help fund the
campaign. And please
urge friends to donate
here . They will understand that
it takes funding to fight this battle.
●Attend key
City Council meetings.
The next City Council meeting is January 12,
2016 at 5:00 P.M. Followed by the Finance
Committee meeting on Jan 19 at 9:30 A.M. Click
here to view regularly scheduled City
Council meetings and plan accordingly.
Please act quickly.
Time is short. Please act now to complete
the forms and return.
Thanks for all your help, and for
your support in the past.
Non-Muslims encouraged to wear Islamic head
scarf at school
Click
here to read a thoughtful piece posted by
Leo Hohmann on WND 12/14/2015.This news
occurred courtesy of American educational
systems and Muslim Student Associations
(M.S.A.), a known front group for the Muslim
Brotherhood and an unindicted co-conspirator in
the largest terror-financing trial ever held on
U.S. soil.
(The above may more be correctly
filed under "How Political Correctness is
destroying our nation")
If your blood
pressure is not high enough yet, click
here to read about the Virginia high
school Geography class that passed around the
Koran and included a lesson practicing Arabic
calligraphy, or the California School with the
Muslim fight song. Wonder when is the last
time they sang "Onward, Christian Soldiers"
and passed around a Bible. (Thanks again
to wnd.com)
Facebook censors Michael Savage post of
Muslims protesting
Photos show demonstrators warning 'Behead
those who insult Islam'
Published: 12/10/2015 at 3:38 PM World Net Daily
When Muslims held a demonstration in London in
2006 in protest of cartoons depicting their
founder, Muhammad, many bore signs warning of
beheading and death for “those who insult
Islam.”
Talk-radio host Michael Savage thought that amid
a fierce national debate on whether or not to
allow Muslims to immigrate to the United States,
it would be worth considering what has been
happening in Europe.
So, he posted on his Facebook page photographs
of the Feb. 3, 2006, demonstration outside the
Embassy of Denmark in London. The focus of
protest was the publication of editorial
cartoons depicting Muhammad in the Danish
newspaper Jyllands-Posten. Snopes.com verified
that the photographs were taken at the London
demonstration, with the exception of one, which
was from a protest in the English city of Luton
(which is 33 miles away).
Wednesday night, Facebook removed Savage’s post,
explaining the social media site “determined
that it violated Facebook community standards.”
After Muslim Truckers
Refuse to Deliver Beer… Obama Does the
Unbelievable
From Top Right News on
October 27, 2015
by Bill Callen | Top
Right News
Barack Obama just sided with Muslims to
enforce Islamic Sharia Law on an American
business, leaving many outraged and two
FoxNews anchors absolutely stunned.
Two Muslim truck drivers — former Somali
“refugees” — refused to make deliveries
of beer to stores for their employer. So they
were understandably fired.
They claimed it was a violation of their
religious beliefs — even though Islam bars
only the consumption of alcohol. And, as
the employer pointed out, the workers
knew they would have to deliver alcohol
before they took the job.
So guess what Barack Obama did.
He SUED the employers it on behalf of the
pair, Mahad Abass Mohamed and Abdkiarim Hassan
Bulshale, claiming religious discrimination.
Obama’s Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission (EEOC) represented them in the
case, providing tens of thousands of
taxpayer dollars in legal support, judicial
filings and court appearances against the
employer who was hopelessly outgunned by the
Federal government.
And this week the Muslims were awarded a
stunning $240,000 by a jury, presided over by
an Obama appointee who stunned analysts by
allowing the case to go forward at all.
Hard to believe, isn't it? Why would someone
accept a job knowing he is unable to perform
the work?? This has been fact checked
at this link and it is, sadly, true.
from the Washington Post (which commentator
and author Mark Levin colorfully refers to
as the "Washington Compost":
San Bernardino suspects identified; probe
turns to motive, planning
What we know about
the shooting in San Bernardino
Police
in San Bernardino, Calif.,
said heavily armed gunmen killed 14 people
and injured 17 others during a holiday
party for county employees. Here's what we
know about the mass shooting. (The Washington
Post)
By
William Dauber, Sarah Kaplan and Brian
MurphyDecember
3 at 9:46 AM
SAN BERNARDINO,
Calif. — Investigators grappled
Thursday on two main fronts after the
deadliest U.S. mass shooting since the Sandy
Hook Elementary School bloodshed: Seeking
clues on the motives and apparent
commando-style planning by a couple who
turned an office holiday party into a
killing field with at least 14 dead.
“I don’t think they grabbed the guns and
tactical gear on a spur-of-the-moment
thing,” said San Bernardino Police Chief
Jarrod Burguan hours after Wednesday’s
rampage and a police shootout that left both
alleged shooters dead several miles from the
attack.
In addition, at least 17 people were
wounded, some critically.
Bit by bit, profiles emerged of the
suspects: Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, a former
county health worker who was born in the United
States,
and a woman described as his Pakistani-born
wife, Tashfeen Malik, 27.
As
many as three people opened fire at a
nonprofit facility in San Bernardino
where a holiday party for county employees
was underway, killing at least 14 people
and injuring 17 others.
Also being pieced together were the
hour-by-hour events before police say the
suspects stormed a conference center wearing
black masks and armed with assault rifles
and handguns.
Earlier in the day, the suspects dropped
off their 6-month-old daughter with Farook’s
mother, saying they had a doctor’s
appointment, said Hussam Ayloush, executive
director of the Council on American-Islamic
Relations in Los Angeles.
Later, Farook attended the office party
hosted by the San Bernardino County
Department of Public Health, where he had
once worked as an inspector, earning more
than $71,000 in salary and benefits in 2013.
Farook then left the gathering “under
circumstances described as angry or
something of that nature,” said Burguan, the
police chief.
Police said Farook then returned with Malik
and the pair opened fire on the crowd before
fleeing in a black SUV, which was later
spotted about two miles from the shooting
site with the area under near-total
lockdown. Some unconfirmed reports quoted
police saying the attackers also were
outfitted with body cameras.
A shootout with police left both suspects
dead and the vehicle peppered with bullet
holes and with its windows shattered.
“They came prepared to do what they did, as
if they were on a mission,” Burguan said.
Muslim community leader Ayloush described
Malik as a Pakistani-born immigrant who
lived in Saudi Arabia
before marrying Farook. Two FBI officials
told The Washington Post that Farook was not
under FBI investigation. It’s not clear
whether he had links to any other people
under FBI investigation.
A third person seen fleeing the shootout
was also taken into custody, but it remained
unclear whether there was any link to the
suspect.
“Right now, as we continue to drill down
our information, it looks like we have two
shooters,” Burguan said. “We are comfortable
that the two shooters that went into the
building are the two shooters that are
deceased.”
But many other questions loomed.
Among them was whether the attack was
pre-planned and why the suspects amassed
assault-style gear and arms in a tidy
residential neighborhood about 50 miles east
of Los Angeles where the couple was often
seen relaxing in their back yard.
Burguan declined to comment on what may
have precipitated the attack. But, he said,
the couple seemed too well-prepared for the
shooting to be viewed as a spontaneous act.
He added: “We have not ruled out
terrorism.”
“I have no idea why he would do something
like this,” Farhan Khan, who is married to
Farook’s sister, said at a news conference.
“I cannot express how sad I am today.”
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms
and Explosives said it recovered two rifles
and two handguns and is conducting “urgent
traces” on their origins.
An ATF official, speaking on condition of
anonymity, said two of the weapons were
purchased legally, and investigations
continued into the other two.
“Whatever the results of this investigation
... one thing is clear: Violence like this
has no place in this country,” said Attorney
General Loretta Lynch, speaking at a White
House event on incarceration and poverty.
Recent mass shootings in the United
States
have typically involved a lone gunman, often
someone mentally unstable or consumed with
rage. Multiple-shooter events are extremely
rare: According to a recent FBI report on
160 “active shooter incidents” between 2000
and 2013, all but two involved a single
shooter.
“One
of the big questions that will come up
repeatedly is: ‘Is this terrorism?’ ” said
David Bowdich, assistant director in charge
of the FBI’s Los Angeles
office, said at an earlier news conference.
“It is a possibility. We are making some
adjustments to our investigation. It is a
possibility. But we don’t know that yet. And
we are not willing to go down that road
yet.”
The two left behind little in the way of a
paper trail — no apparent criminal record,
no Facebook page or Twitter account.
An online dating profile for a
“farooksyed49” from Riverside, Calif.,
resembles the suspect described by law
enforcement. The profile, on the “Indian
matrimonial and dating service” iMilap.com,
describes a 22-year-old man from a
“religious but modern family.”
“I work for county as health, safety and
environmental inspector,” it reads. “Enjoy
working on vintage and modern cars, read
religious books, enjoy eating out sometimes
travel and just hang out in back yard doing
target practice with younger sister and
friends.”
The man in the profile picture is tall and
bearded, posed jauntily in front of a
nondescript building flanked by palm trees
and a smooth, green lawn. He writes that he
is interested in “matrimonial.”
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times,
co-workers who knew Farook described him as
a quiet and polite man who held no obvious
grudges against people in the office. They
said he recently traveled to Saudi
Arabia
and returned with a woman he met online.
The officer had recently held a shower for
the couple’s new baby, and the two seemed to
be “living the American dream,” said Patrick
Baccari, a fellow inspector who shared a
cubicle with Farook.
Griselda Reisinger, who worked with Farook
before leaving the agency in May, and other
colleagues told the Los Angeles Times that
Farook was a devout Muslim but not vocal
about his religion.
The site of the shooting, the InlandRegionalCenter,
is a three-building complex that houses a
conference center and serves more than
30,000 people with developmental
disabilities. Nearly 700 staff members work
there, according to the organization’s
Facebook page, promoting “independence,
inclusion, and empowerment.” The
organization says that it is committed to
eliminating barriers for individuals with
developmental disabilities so that they can
“live a typical lifestyle.”
The center held its own holiday party
Tuesday, and a brief video clip showed
staffers and clients in wheelchairs dancing
to the 1980 mega-hit “Celebration” by Kool
& the Gang.
On Wednesday, the city’s public health
department had rented out the conference
center’s first-floor banquet room for a
holiday party, complete with Christmas trees
and other decorations. The event was in full
swing when the first reports of gunfire
came, at 10:59 a.m.
Dauber is a freelance writer. Kaplan and
Murphy reported from Washington.
Freelance writer Martha Groves in San Bernardino
and staff writers Joel Achenbach, Mark
Berman, Adam Goldman, Lindsey Bever, Niraj
Chokshi, Ann Gerhart, Sari Horwitz, Elahe
Izadi, Wesley Lowery, Kevin Sullivan,
Julie Tate, Justin Wm. Moyer, Yanan Wang
and Alice Crites in Washington
contributed to this report.
Sarah Kaplan is a
reporter for Morning Mix.
Brian Murphy joined
the Post after more than 20 years as a
foreign correspondent and bureau chief for
the Associated Press in Europe and the Middle East. He
has reported from more than 50 countries
and has written three books.
November
19. 2015
FROM A
CONCERNED CITIZEN OF JACKSONVILLE
It's
baaack!It's
the so-called “Human Rights
Ordinance” (H.R.O.- not to be
confused with the Holy Roman Empire
which failed centuries ago), a
second attempt to introduce another
"SPECIAL" group with "SPECIAL"
rights un-accorded to you- the
average moral citizen of our city.
Evidently, it is notenough to have EQUAL
rights and EQUAL justice...
at least that is what the paid
lobbyists trolling around city hall
seem to indicate.
My
consternation is that as a
color-blind, sexual orientation-blind,
class-blind person, now the city wants
to FORCE me to look at the
private sexual inclinations
of others, whether I choose to or not,
and then may misinterpret my response,
putting me at risk of criminal actions
against me!
We
have inalienable God-given
rights- Life, Liberty
and the Pursuit of Happiness to
mention a few. These are specifically
mentioned in the U.S. Constitution
which purpose was to limit the
power and control of
general government. As if that was not
enough to confirm the “fully-worthy”
status of all, there is also a Florida
Commission on Human Relations, and
Civil Rights. We need the city to
spend time and our money on this also?
The
Mayor of Jacksonville, Lenny Curry,
has mandated three fact finding
meetings, “Community Conversations”,
so that all sides of the
H.R.O. proposal can be heard.
The
first meeting has taken place.... the
topic was "Supporting the Needs
and Well-Being of Families"-not
ALL families, evidently- not military
families or racially mixed families or
families with one partner living out
of town, or single parent families.
Why a meeting about this little LGBT
segment of families?? Don't all
families have challenges? All
households? Is it the City’s balliwick
to give this SPECIAL
consideration, at the expense
of our public safety, roads, and
pensions for those who keep us safe?
The
first meeting was composed of a panel
of six, four of whom were “for” the
LGBT Special Privilege bill. The
meeting was attended by several
busloads of LGBT supporters who were
shipped in from outside of the city.
Arriving first, it was only they who
were allowed to comment during the
first-come-first served portion of the
meeting. Needless to say, the first
meeting did not prove to be a
successful format to hear “all sides”
of the proposal.
Religious
Freedoms, Thoughts & Beliefs,
Dec.3 at 6 p.m.
EdwardWatersCollege
Milne Auditorium at 1658
Kings Road, Jacksonville,
FL32209
and
Understanding
the
Law & its Effects on Business,
Dec. 15 at 6 p.m.
Jacksonville
University
Policy Institute at 2800
University Blvd. N.,
Jacksonville,
FL32211.
Jacksonville
is a city struggling to pay
the costs and pensions of our public
safety professionals at JFRD and JSO,
to maintain our infrastructure, and to
promote the general welfare and safety
of ALL of our citizens, yet our
elected leaders are spending our
resources discussing how you and I should
respond to the sexual
choices of others, allowing them
into public restrooms frequented by my
family and neighbors. If this should
pass, will the city also spend my
money to retrofit bathroom facilities
so my kids will be safe? Will the city
require private businesses to do
likewise?
So
give this some thought. It's your city
and your tax money.If
you say No No! NO! to this, please
contact your Mayor, Lenny Curry at
This is the time to make your voice
and your priorities for your city of Jacksonville,
heard.
WND EXCLUSIVE
Houston faith leaders
gear up for new transgender fight
'We will work with
Dallas pastors to determine how to
appropriately respond'
Bob Unruh 11/11/2015
The coalition of
pastors from Houston who defeated lesbian
Mayor Annise Parker’s transgender-rights
ordinance – a fight that included her
subpoenas of sermons – now are volunteering to
help pastors in Dallas oppose a similar
measure.
“We will work with Dallas pastors to determine
how to appropriately respond to the wholesale
catering by city council to the radical,
anti-faith, anti-family agenda of the LGBT
Human Rights Campaign,” said Rev. Dave Welch,
president of the Texas Pastor Council.
Welch said Dallas’ change to its existing
nondiscrimination ordinance “not only opens
but essentially removes the doors of women’s
restrooms, showers and locker rooms in Dallas,
as well as criminalizes businesses, employees
as well as eventually, churches who attempt to
keep men out.”
WND has reported extensively on the Houston
fight, which took nearly two years. It ended
last week when citizens, by order of the state
Supreme Court, were allowed to vote on the
measure and soundly rejected it, 62 percent to
38 percent.
The Houston Equal Rights Ordinance would have
banned discrimination against transgender
people, allowing, for example, men who
perceive themselves to be women to use women’s
restrooms, locker rooms and other
gender-specific facilities in the city. Anyone
opposing or obstructing them could have been
fined $5,000.
“Outlasting the Gay Revolution” spells out
eight principles to help Americans with
conservative moral values counter attacks on
our freedoms of religion, speech and
conscience by homosexual activists
The Texas Pastor Council’s Welch condemned the
change in the Dallas ordinance as an attack on
society’s foundation.
“There are many issues that our city
governments should be focused on to improve
the city, and this ordinance patently rejects
cornerstones of our civilization that family
is built upon the covenant of marriage between
a man and a woman, that our sex is embedded in
our chromosomes, and this beautiful created
order is a gift from God.”
Welch added, “A bad tree cannot produce good
fruit and a law based on elevating gender
confusion to being a protected class equal
with race can only produce harm, not good.”
The Dallas law protecting “gender identity and
expression” says the places of public
accommodation that must grant a man who
defines his gender as female full access to
women’s facilities are any inn, hotel,
temporary lodging, restaurant, cafeteria,
lunchroom, soda facility, motion picture
house, theater, concert hall, and retail or
wholesale establishment selling goods or
services.
The measure, Welch said, is a “bottomless
Pandora’s Box.”
“Definition A plus Definition B equals
exposing girls and women to violation of their
privacy as well as their safety,” he said.
He said city officials in Dallas should have
paid attention to the Houston vote and learned
that pastors and citizens will react
negatively to such a social agenda.
“As our very ethnically diverse coalition of
pastors in Houston stated and showed for the
last eighteen months, every one of us are for
equal rights for all, however we cannot allow
special rights for a tiny fraction of society
to endanger the safety and freedom for the
rest,” he said.
Stephen Young at the Dallas Observer wrote
that Dallas didn’t pass an ordinance but
“adjusted the language of an ordinance that’s
existed since 2002 in a way that made very
little change to how anyone in the city is
treated.”
He said in Houston, voters denied “protection”
to their fellow residents.
Young said the Dallas ordinance “doesn’t even
have the word restroom in it, and the failed
Houston law only allowed opposite-gender
restroom use in a fantasy world in which trans
people don’t exist.”
At the Advocate, Dawn Ennis explained that
while “sexual orientation” has been a
protected class for years, “gender identity”
was a class left unprotected.
She noted there was no organized opposition to
the expansion of the sexual identity
protections, but critics say that was because
there was very little notice to the public of
the looming change.
Texas Values Action blasted the Dallas law and
its quick adoption.
“This Dallas bathroom ordinance will allow men
into women’s bathrooms and that’s why the
Dallas city council is deliberately trying to
avoid the people,” said a statement released
by the group’s president, Jonathan Saenz.
“Their fast track method of passing this
dangerous bill that threatens the safety of
women and children is the same strategy used
in Houston to disenfranchise voters with their
failed bathroom bill. Creating law behind
closed doors and forcing it onto the people
the next morning is a recipe for disaster.
These Obama and D.C. style tactics will not
work in Texas. Get ready for a Texas-sized
response.”
“Outlasting the Gay Revolution” spells out
eight principles to help Americans with
conservative moral values counter attacks on
our freedoms of religion, speech and
conscience by homosexual activists
The strategy in Houston was to move the
ordinance through the city council quickly.
City officials then tried to invalidate a
petition demanding a public vote.
After a months-long court fight, the state
Supreme Court stepped in and ordered the city
to repeal the ordinance or put it on the
election ballot in compliance with the city
charter.
Some of the pastors who were targeted by the
mayor’s subpoena have filed a lawsuit charging
her with violating their rights.
It is hard to know where to catalogue the
following ... under Politics? Religious
Liberties? Islamic Threat? Christian or Cult?
Perhaps "Know They Enemy"? You be the judge.
40 Mind-Blowing Quotes
From Barack Hussein Obama On Islam And
Christianity
by Geoffrey Grider nowtheendbegins.com
Oct 2, 2013
When someone shows you
who they are, believe them
Since 2009, NOW THE END
BEGINS has brought you story after story in
detailed accounts of exactly how Obama feels
about Islam, and how he views Christianity and
the Bible. So today, in light of recent events
in Washington, we feel it important that you
know exactly where your president stands in
regards to his faith and his god. Below are 20
quotes he has made about Islam, and 20 quotes
he has made about Christianity. Nothing edited
or mashed up, just exactly in the context he
originally spoke them in with fully-sourced
links so you can see where they come from.
Police Confiscate Mohammed Cartoons At Dutch
Anti-Islam Rally
by Nick Hallett 9 Nov 2015
Police seized “offensive” Mohammed cartoons
during a demonstration by the Dutch branch of
the Patriotic European Against the Islamisation
of the West (PEGIDA) movement in the city of
Utrecht this weekend.
The rally, which attracted around 150
supporters, criticised the “Islamisation” of the
Netherlands, with demonstrators also expressing
their support for the Freedom Party of Geert
Wilders, a noted critic of Islamism.
DutchNews reports that police arrested 32 people
at the demonstration for a variety of offences
including failing to carry IDs, not following
police orders and displaying “insulting
banners”.
One such banner said the “Koran is poison”,
while another claimed “Islamisation is
EU-thanasia”.
Video footage emerged of police removing
Mohammed cartoons, although their ultimate fate
is unknown.
Utrecht City Council had banned the
demonstrators from marching through the city so
they gathered instead in a park on the outskirts
of the city.
The PEGIDA marches started in Dresden, Germany
last year as “evening strolls” through the
streets every Monday to protest against militant
and political Islam. The marches soon grew and
spread across the country, but died down again
at the start of this year to point where most
commentators assumed the movement had petered
out.
However, as the migrant crisis intensifies in
Europe, especially thanks to German Chancellor
Angela Merkel’s relaxed border policies, the
marches have started again and are growing.
Authorities have hit back, however, charging
founder Lutz Bachmann with hate speech for
comments he made in Facebook posts back in 2014.
State prosecutors in Saxony claim private posts
in which Mr Bachmann uses terms such as
“livestock” and “scum” to refer to migrants
risked causing disturbances.
This weekend in the German capital Berlin,
supporters of the anti-mass migration Alternativ
für Deutschland (AfD) party also held a rally
criticising Mrs Merkel’s immigration policy and
calling for her to resign.
The rally passed off largely peacefully,
although violent scuffles broke out between
police and pro-migrant counter-demonstrators.
Thousands Of
German People Chant ‘Merkel Must Go’ At
Anti-Mass Muslim Migration Rally
by Geoffrey Grider
November 7, 2015
The AFD has seen its popularity surge as Germany
struggles to deal with the huge influx of Muslim
migrants, and is currently campaigning in local
elections in the Saxony-Anhalt region that will
be seen as an indicator of public sentiment on
the issue.
The anti-mass Muslim migration Alternativ für
Deutschland (AfD) party held a rally in the
German capital Berlin this afternoon, demanding
the resignation of Chancellor Angela Merkel and
calling for the country to adopt a strong policy
on immigration.
German paper Handelsblatt estimates that 5,000
people joined the rally this afternoon, calling
for the immediate closure of Germany’s borders
and introduction of visa requirements from
migrants from the Balkan states, including
Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro.
Angry demonstrators chanted “Merkel must go” and
“traitor to the people” under the banner “Asylum
has its limits – red card for Merkel”.
Addressing the crowd, Beatrix von Storch, member
of the European Parliament, accused the German
chancellor of causing "asylum chaos” in Germany.
This was a rally in German from about two weeks
ago, as the German people are being forced to
rise up and do what their government refuses to
do.
Although the main protest was largely peaceful,
several counter-protests by pro-migrant
activists descended into violence, with around
40 arrests. Around 800 counter-demonstrators
showed up, far lower than organisers had hoped.
Yesterday, it was reported that the German
government had agreed the downgrade the status
of Syrian migrants, reducing the amount of time
they could stay in the country and banning them
from bringing their families. Today, however,
the government did a U-turn on the plans.
Court rules
against Little Sisters of the Poor in
Contraceptive Coverage Case
By Nigel Duara
L.A. Times
July 14, 2015
A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that
there is a limit to how far the government
must bend to accommodate religious objections
to the federal healthcare exchange.
The U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled
that if the Colorado-based Little Sisters of
the Poor want to refuse contraceptive coverage
to their employees, they must sign a waiver to
be exempted, and that such a waiver is not a
substantial burden on the nuns' religious
freedom.
The 2-1 decision is one of the few victories
the U.S. government can claim in defense of
the healthcare law in the contraceptive
mandate debate.
Hobby Lobby, a business run by evangelical
Christians, successfully argued before the
U.S. Supreme Court last year that a mandate to
provide contraception to female employees
violated their belief that life begins at
conception.
The high court agreed that for-profit
organizations like Hobby Lobby required
protection, but did not say how far such
protections would go.
In response, on Aug. 27, 2014,
Affordable Care Act administrators created a
waiver for religious nonprofits that would
grant them an exemption from contraceptive
coverage.
But the Little Sisters of the Poor, who run
the Mullen Home for the Aged in Denver, argued
before a three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit
that the waiver itself both crosses the nuns’
moral boundary by endorsing contraceptives and
gives control of their healthcare program to
the government.
“Most religious liberty claimants
allege that a generally applicable law or
policy without a religious exception burdens
religious exercise,” according to the
decision, noting that most cases begin with
prisoners demanding a religious right.
But in the Little Sisters of the Poor case
and accompanying suits by self-insured
religious objectors and religious
universities, the government made clear
attempts to offer a religious exemption, the
judges wrote.
“Although plaintiffs allege the
administrative tasks required to opt out of
the mandate make them complicit in the overall
delivery scheme, opting out instead relieves
them from complicity,” according to the
opinion.
The judges said the difference between Hobby
Lobby and the Little Sisters of the Poor is
that Hobby Lobby faced fines for every day of
noncompliance. Ihe Little Sisters of the Poor
faced no such burden, the judges ruled.
10th Circuit Judge Bobby R. Baldock, the lone
dissenter, agreed with the decision on the
Little Sisters of the Poor but said other
self-insured groups were indeed substantially
burdened when they faced fines for refusing to
provide contraceptives because of their
religious belief.
May 9, 2015
Dr. Gene A. Youngblood, Pastor
First Conservative Baptist Church
12021 Old St Augustine Rd
Jacksonville, Florida 32258
TO: All news media outlets
It has come to my attention
that there are some in our community, as
well as, a few media that have expressed
questions or concerns relating to our
Church-Ministry campus/outdoor marquee,
changeable copy sign and its current
message. This marquee generally has a
message change each week. Generally the
message relates in some fashion to those
things and events taking place in our city
or nation. As a pastor and ministry we feel
it needful to keep our citizens informed and
at the same time be relevant through the
Word of GOD.
FIRST:
Let me state my deep love and concern for
our great city, state, and nation. I
am a Bible believing patriot with a deep
concern over the moral declension. I am
deeply saddened to see the morals and family
values under attack on a national basis. I
have invested the past 50 years of my life
in the defense of the WORD of GOD through
religious-theological studies, pastoral,
pulpit, and classroom academic instructional
responsibilities.
SECOND: We are profoundly committed to the
preaching-teaching of God’s Word. God’s Word
commands that I “Preach the WORD” (11Tim
4:1-3) which in the text includes
confronting sin. I do not have the authority
OR permission to change any text of GOD’S
Word-THE BIBLE.
THIRD: Our ministry marquee has been used as
a tool to educate, inspire, and caution for
over 30 years. We have dealt with multiple
Biblical-Theological issues that caution and
confront sin of whatever kind. Our prayer is
that in our small way we may make a
difference in the lives of all those who
pass by. We do realize that any scriptural
absolute may cause conviction resulting in
the attack on the messenger as well as the
message.
FORMALLY: The present message (caution)
comes from the WORD of GOD, The BIBLE as
found in a multitude of Scripture
references:
• Romans 1:24-32, deals
with several kinds of Sin, with the focus on
those believing that they are wise and God
says that they are unwise. God then deals
with the specific sin of homosexuality and
firmly condemns it.
• I Corinthians 6:9-10,
warns that all (including homosexuals) that
commit sin and DO NOT REPENT will die and go
to HELL.
• OTHER text include and
is NOT limited to: Leviticus 20:13,
Leviticus 18:22, Deuteronomy 23:17-18,
Galatians 5:19-21, Revelation 21:8,
Revelation 22:15
Needless to say, the Scriptures are replete
with GOD’S warnings to all of us that SIN
must be confessed and repented of or HELL is
GOD’S judgment upon sin. The wonder of it
all is that God through Jesus Christ will
forgive “ANY” confessed sin that is repented
of.
BECAUSE we love people (yet, as directed in
Scripture to hate the sin), we therefore
want to warn them of the coming Judgment of
God on the sin of Homosexuality (and any
other sin that is NOT repented of). ALL SIN
that is not confessed and repented will
cause a person to GO TO HELL (God says it, I
did not originate the Word), God did. In
fact, according to several of the heretofore
mentioned Biblical text remind us of other
sin specifically mentioned in Scripture
including; “All Liars, Prostitutes, Sexually
Promiscuous, Idolaters, Adulterers,
Homosexuals, Revilers, Extortioners, WILL GO
TO HELL unless they repent and seek God’s
forgiveness.
It is my sincere prayer that perhaps “ONE”
practicing Homosexual will have read our
sign and will REPENT before it is too late
and they are cast into HELL. HELL is a real
place and anyone not believing in the
reality of HELL will not change the
temperature of the FLAMES a single degree.
I am eternally grateful to God for allowing
me to preach HIS WORD at a time when our
Religious FREEDOMS are being challenged and
FREEDOM of speech is being challenged, as
well as, our (all of us) Constitutional
Liberties are under ATTACK.
Notwithstanding all of the above, I do
understand and sympathize with SOME that are
not well instructed or versed in the BIBLE
and thus will consider our marquee’s message
to be incorrect or un-spiritual. PLEASE
allow me to state forthrightly; we stand on
SOLID Biblical TRUTH, therefore we pray for
each person that reads our message (changes
weekly), and prayerfully considers its TRUTH
and Caution.
FURTHERMORE, I pray that the media will NOT
attempt to thwart or interfere with our
FREEDOM OF RELIGIOUS SPEECH. We also pray
that the media will be cautioned NOT to in
any way interfere with or disrupt ANY
worship or other programs or services
conducted in and through FIRST CONSERVATIVE
BAPTIST CHURCH.
May God bless and use all in the MEDIA as an
instrument to preserve society and help
protect AMERICA and our great document THE
CONSTITUTION.
Signed;
DR. GENE A. YOUNGBLOOD
Pastor
Obama blocks Iraqi nun from describing
Christian persecution
Posted By Leo Hohmann World Net Daily 05/01/2015 @ 11:52 am In Faith,Front Page,U.S.,World
Sister Diana Momeka is a Dominican
Catholic nun who fled her home in Iraq last
August along with 50,000 other Christians and
religious minorities escaping ISIS.
A leading conservative is asking why the Obama
State Department is barring a persecuted Iraqi
nun from entry into the United States to share
her message about the brutal treatment of
Christians in her country.
Nina Shea of the Hudson Institute’s Center for
Religious Freedom, writes in a National Review
op-ed that Sister Diana Momeka is “an
internationally respected and leading
representative of the Nineveh Christians who
have been killed and deported by ISIS.”
Yet this nun is being “barred from coming to
Washington to testify about this catastrophe?”
Sister Diana was the only Christian in the
delegation and the only member blocked from the
trip, the Washington Times reported, leading
some of her American supporters to question why
she was singled out.
Shea, in her op-ed titled “With Malice Toward
Nun,” exposed the real reason why Obama denied
the visa for Sister Diana.
“Sister Diana Momeka of the
Dominican Sisters of Saint Catherine of Siena
was informed on Tuesday by the U.S. consulate in
Erbil that her non-immigrant-visa application
has been rejected.
“The reason given in the
denial letter, a copy of which I have obtained,
is:
‘You were not able to
demonstrate that your intended activities in the
United States would be consistent with the
classification of the visa.’”
Shea further explains:
“She told me in a phone
conversation that, to her face, consular officer
Christopher Patch told her she was denied
because she is an ‘IDP’ or Internally Displaced
Person. ‘That really hurt,’ she said.
Essentially, the State Department was calling
her a deceiver.”
Shea states that the State Department officials
made the determination that the Catholic nun
“could be falsely asserting that she intends to
visit Washington when secretly she could be
intending to stay. That would constitute illegal
immigration, and that, of course, is strictly
forbidden. Once here, she could also be at risk
for claiming political asylum, and the U.S.
seems determined to deny ISIS’s Christian
victims that status.”
Shea then outlined Sister Diana’s reasons for
her visit and the endorsements she received from
two politicians – one Republican and one
Democrat — among others:
“In reality, Sister Diana
wanted to visit for one week in mid-May. She has
meetings set up with the Senate and House
foreign-relations committees, the State
Department, USAID, and various NGOs. In support
of her application, Sister Diana had multiple
documents vouching for her and the temporary
nature of her visit. She submitted a letter from
her prioress, Sister Maria Hana. It attested
that the nun has been gainfully employed since
last February with the Babel College of
Philosophy and Theology in Erbil, Kurdistan, and
is contracted to teach there in the 2015–16
academic year.”
Sister Diana also submitted an invitation from
her sponsors, two respected Washington-area
think tanks, the Institute for Global Engagement
and former congressman Frank Wolf’s (R., Va.)
21st Century Wilberforce Initiative.
None of this was good enough for the Obama State
Department.
Yet, as Matthew Balan points out in an article
for News Busters, even as the administration
denies a visa to a persecuted Christian nun, it
has created a “special envoy for the human
rights of LGBT persons.”
“One wonders if any of the major news media
outlets will pick up the story of Sister Diana,”
Balan muses. Just over a month ago, on 60
Minutes, CBS’s Lara Logan refreshingly brought
new attention to ISIS’s genocidal campaign
against the ancient Christian communities in
Iraq. But since then, there has been scant
coverage of the Islamic extremist group’s
persecution of the religious minority. ”
Sister Diana, along with the town’s 50,000
other, mostly Christian, residents, were forced
out of their homes by ISIS in the second week of
August and fled for their lives to
Kurdish-controlled areas.
“Since then, the 30-something religious woman
has served as a spokesperson for this community,
as well as for the over 100,000 other Christians
driven into Kurdistan under the ISIS ‘convert or
die’ policy,” Shea writes.
“Mr. Wolf, who met her in Kurdistan a few months
ago, explained, ‘We had hoped to facilitate her
trip to the States so that she could speak with
great candor, as is her custom, to policymakers.
Perhaps just as significantly, we viewed her as
a critical voice to awaken the church in the
West to the suffering of Christians and other
religious minorities in Iraq.’”
Muslim
congressmen try to boot Islam critic Geert
Wilders
Posted By Art Moore On
04/30/2015 @ 7:38 pm In Front
Page,Politics,U.S.
Reps. Andre
Carson, D-Ind., Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., and
Keith Ellison, D-Minn., in Washington,
D.C., protesting Geert Wilders visit to
the U.S. (Twitter @RepAndreCarson)
As one of the world’s most prominent
critics of Islam, Dutch lawmaker Geert
Wilders doesn’t go anywhere without his
security detail of as many as six
plainclothes police officers, and he rarely
crosses international borders without
causing political uproar, having already
been banned in Britain at one time.
So it was of little surprise that three
U.S. congressmen urged Secretary of State
John Kerry and Secretary of Homeland
Security Jeh Johnson to deny him a visa
ahead of his planned visit to the U.S. this
week, due to his alleged ongoing
“participation in inciting anti-Muslim
aggression and violence.”
Reps. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., and André
Carson, D-Ind., who both are Muslim, along
with Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., wrote a
letter April 23 citing “the International
Religious Freedom Act which allows the
Department of State to deny entry to a
foreign leader who is responsible for severe
violations of religious freedom.”
Nevertheless, Wilders – who insists he
doesn’t hate Muslims but believes Western
civilization is threatened by adherents of
the Islamic supremacy taught in the Quran –
showed up on Capitol Hill Wednesday and
spoke at two events at the invitation of
Reps. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, and
Steve King, R-Iowa
King’s communications director, Sarah
Stevens, told WND the congressman invited
Wilders a month or so ago to speak at the
weekly Conservative Opportunity Society
breakfast he chairs. Wilders spoke Wednesday
on his latest book, “Marked for Death:
Islam’s War Against the West and Me,” and
also attended an evening reception with
Congress members and staff along with
representatives of foreign-policy groups on
Capitol Hill.
Ellison, Carson and Crowley showed up
Thursday at a news conference King and
Gohmert held for Wilders in front of the
U.S. Capitol and voiced their opposition to
the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf in a video
interview.
“Personally, I find it disturbing, but
mostly sad, because, you know, the people of
the Netherlands are a good people, and this
is absolutely true, with a great history of
tolerance, great history of giving art to
the world and great gifts,” Ellison said.
“And it’s unfortunate,” the Minnesota
congressman continued, “that someone such as
this would come over here and sort of
represent himself as a member of that
society.”
Wilders, for his part, would contend that
Ellison actually is drawing attention to the
central issue: It’s the intolerance of
Muslim immigrants and their refusal to
assimilate, Wilders argues, that threatens
the historic Judeo-Christian Dutch culture
that forms the basis of a tolerant,
pluralistic society capable of “giving art
to the world and great gifts.”
As for whether or not Wilders represents
his country, in 2009 he remarked: “Half of
Holland loves me and half of Holland hates
me. There is no in-between.”
King was unable to speak to WND due to
schedule constraints, but he was
interviewed by the De Telegraaf reporter in
front of the Capitol Thursday, who asked him
for his view of Wilders.
“I think he’s solid and courageous. I
introduced him yesterday as a man who will
stand up and speak the truth – even if he’s
under death threats, speak the truth,” King
said in the video interview.
“He’s done that consistently for a decade.”
Wilders is scheduled to be the keynote
speaker at an event Sunday in the Dallas
area called the “Muhammad Art Exhibit and
Contest.” Held at the venue where Muslims
hosted a “Stand with the Prophet in Honor
and Respect” conference one week after the
Paris Charlie Hebdo massacre in January, the
event’s organizers, the American Freedom
Defense Initiative, see Wilders as
representative of their aggressive defense
of freedom of speech.
ADI is run by author and Atlas Shrugs
blogger Pamela Geller, and author and Jihad
Watch Director Robert Spencer, who
themselves have been branded by Ellison,
Carson and their allies as “Islamophobes.”
Geller and Spencer argue their work amounts
to citing the justifications from the Quran
and other Islamic texts used by Muslims who
employ violent acts and other means to
assert Islamic supremacy.
Comparing cultures
Summarizing their complaint, the three
protesting congressmen told Kerry and
Johnson that Wilders’ “policy agenda is
centered on the principle that Christian
culture is superior to other cultures.”
“He justifies his desire to ban the Quran
and Islam from the Netherlands with depraved
comments like, ‘Islam is not a religion,
it’s an ideology, the ideology of a retarded
culture.’ We should not be importing hate
speech,” they write.
Wilders’ defenders point out that the Dutch
word he used to describe Islamic culture can
be translated as “backward” rather than
“retarded,” insisting that while Wilders
doesn’t mince words, he is no hater of
people.
“I don’t hate Muslims, I hate Islam,”
explains Wilders, the leader of the Party
for Freedom, the fourth-largest party in the
Dutch parliament.
That sentiment apparently is of little
consolation to many of the more than 1
billion people who identify as Muslim, but
Wilders contends the orthodox teaching of
Islam derived from Muhammad is an
existential threat to Western civilization.
While he puts the percentage of Islamic
extremists at about 5 to 15 percent of
Muslims, he contends “moderate Islam”
doesn’t exist and notes the Quran itself
states that Muslims who accept the Islam’s
holy book in part are “apostates.”
As evidence of the failure to assimilate,
in a speech to parliament last year he cited
a study showing that nearly three-quarters
of ethnic Turks and Moroccans in the
Netherlands regard those who leave the
European nation to join jihadists in Syria
as “heroes.” Wilders pointed out that the
same percentage of Dutch Muslims condoned
the 9/11 attacks.
Wilders has been under constant security
protection since November 2004, when two
North African Muslims were accused of
planning to murder him and another outspoken
critic of Islam in the parliament, Ayaan
Hirsi Ali. The attack at the Hague came
shortly after the murder of Dutch filmmaker
Theo van Gogh by a Moroccan national.
Wilders was banned from the U.K. as an
“undesirable person” under Prime Minister
Gordon Brown in February 2009, two days
before he was scheduled to show his short
film “Fitna” at the invitation of two
members of the House of Lords. Wilders
appealed the ban to Britain’s Asylum and
Immigration Tribunal, which overturned it in
October 2009.
Wilders writings and film “Fitna” warning
of the “Islamization” of the Netherlands and
Europe prompted Turkish, Moroccan and
Antillean organizations in the country to
bring charges against him of criminally
insulting religious and ethnic groups and
inciting hatred and discrimination.
In June 2011, he was acquitted of all
charges. Judge Marcel van Oosten called
Wilders’ statements about Islam “gross and
denigrating” but ruled they didn’t
constitute hatred against Muslims and,
therefore, were “acceptable within the
context of public debate.”
Limiting free speech
In their letter, Ellison, Carson and
Crowley assert Wilders’ right to speak
freely in the U.S. under the First Amendment
is limited because he allegedly incites
violence and “prejudicial action” against
protected groups.
They write:
In the U.S., freedom of speech is a
bedrock principle that distinguishes free
societies from ones living under
oppressive regimes. Freedom of speech,
however, is not absolute. It is limited by
the legal and moral understanding that
speech that causes the incitement of
violence or prejudicial action against
protected groups is wrong. As Mr. Wilders
continues his pursuit of political power,
granting him entry will embolden him to
engage in further incitement of violence
and discrimination against Muslims.
Legal analyst Eugene Volokh noted the
incitement exception to free speech,
according to Supreme Court precedent, is
“limited to speech intended to and likely to
produce imminent lawless conduct — conduct
in the coming hours or maybe few days.”
Wilders’ statements, Volokh wrote in a
Washington Post blogpost, appear to be
constitutionally protected, he said, because
they “don’t urge any imminent conduct (or
even any criminal conduct, as opposed to
long-term changes in the law). Such
statements’ are “incitement” in the
Congressmen’s opinion only because the
Congressmen apparently view constitutionally
unprotected “incitement” (or, as they term
it earlier, “hate speech”) much more
broadly."
It's hard to say if the following somewhat
abbreviated article should be filed under the
truthsthatfree.com category of
Freedom of Speech, Islamic Threat, Israel and
the Land, Religious Liberty or perhaps
Politics. So it is place in our monthly
archive.
‘Killing Jews is Worship’ posters
will soon appear on NYC subways and buses
Washington Post
Michael Miller
April 22, 2015
‘Killing Jews is Worship’ posters will soon
appear on NYC subways and buses
New Yorkers are used to aggressive
advertising. Banners for breast implants.
Billboards for condoms. But a federal judge’s
ruling has opened the door for far more
controversial posters on buses and subways
across the city.
“Killing Jews is Worship that draws us close
to Allah,” reads one such ad next to the image
of a young man in a checkered headscarf.
“That’s His Jihad. What’s yours?”
The poster is at the center of heated legal
debate over public safety and free speech. On
Tuesday, U.S. District Judge John Koeltl ruled
that New York’s Metropolitan Transportation
Authority (MTA) cannot stop the controversial
ad from running on scores of subway cars and
buses.
The MTA has argued that the ad could incite
violence against Jews, but Koeltl rejected
that idea.
MTA officials “underestimate the tolerant
quality of New Yorkers and overestimate the
potential impact of these fleeting
advertisements,” he ruled. “Moreover, there is
no evidence that seeing one of these
advertisements on the back of a bus would be
sufficient to trigger a violent reaction.
Therefore, these ads — offensive as they may
be — are still entitled to First Amendment
protection.”
Making the case all the stranger is that the
posters are not the work of an Islamist group,
but rather a pro-Israel organization.
“This is a triumph for liberty and free
speech,” tweeted Pamela Geller, the president
of the American Freedom Defense Initiative
(AFDI), the group that purchased the ads and
sued the MTA to run them.
New Yorkers are used to aggressive
advertising. Banners for breast implants.
Billboards for condoms. But a federal judge’s
ruling has opened the door for far more
controversial posters on buses and subways
across the city.
“Killing Jews is Worship that draws us close
to Allah,” reads one such ad next to the image
of a young man in a checkered headscarf.
“That’s His Jihad. What’s yours?”
The poster is at the center of heated legal
debate over public safety and free speech. On
Tuesday, U.S. District Judge John Koeltl ruled
that New York’s Metropolitan Transportation
Authority (MTA) cannot stop the controversial
ad from running on scores of subway cars and
buses.
The MTA has argued that the ad could incite
violence against Jews, but Koeltl rejected
that idea.
MTA officials “underestimate the tolerant
quality of New Yorkers and overestimate the
potential impact of these fleeting
advertisements,” he ruled. “Moreover, there is
no evidence that seeing one of these
advertisements on the back of a bus would be
sufficient to trigger a violent reaction.
Therefore, these ads — offensive as they may
be — are still entitled to First Amendment
protection.”
Making the case all the stranger is that the
posters are not the work of an Islamist group,
but rather a pro-Israel organization.
“This is a triumph for liberty and free
speech,” tweeted Pamela Geller, the president
of the American Freedom Defense Initiative
(AFDI), the group that purchased the ads and
sued the MTA to run them.
AFDI is not your traditional free speech
organization, however. The “about” section on
its Web site starts out pretty
straightforward, then takes a very hard turn.
Whatever you make of the group, AFDI has been
remarkably successful in bringing its message
to America. AFDI has filed at least nine
lawsuits across the country, often against
cities or their contractors that refuse to
display their messages.
Those messages include a poster depicting
Adolf Hitler meeting with “the leader of the
Muslim world” and demanding that the United
States cut off all aid to Islamic countries.
“In any war between the civilized man and the
savage, support the civilized man,” reads
another AFDI poster. “Support Israel. Defeat
Jihad.”
AFDI’s ads have also drawn objections from
Muslims. The Council on American-Islamic
Relations (CAIR), a civil liberties group that
promotes the rights of Muslims and better
relations between Muslims and non-Muslims,
launched its own public relations campaign to
combat AFDI. In 2012 and 2013, CAIR ran
posters in several U.S. cities promoting
peaceful versions of Islam. “‘#MyJihad is to
build friendships across the aisle.’ What’s
yours?” But the ads never ran in New York due
to a disagreement between CAIR and MTA.
The poster attributes the “Killing Jews” quote
to “Hamas MTV,” apparently a reference to the
Palestinian group’s odd blend of violence and
music videos. The ad also has a disclaimer at
the bottom noting that it is “a paid
advertisement sponsored by” AFDI and “does not
imply MTA’s endorsement.”
But MTA Security Director Raymond Diaz worried
that the poster would nonetheless incite
violence, primarily against Jews. “What
matters is not AFDI’s intent, but how the ad
would be interpreted,” he wrote. The line
“What is yours?” could be considered a “call
to violence,” particularly because the CAIR
posters it was mocking never appeared in New
York. When AFDI pointed out that the exact
same poster had not caused any problems in
Chicago or San Francisco, Diaz argued that New
York was different because it is “the prime
terror target” and that the “terrorist
security threat” had grown worse since 2013.
On Tuesday, however, Judge Koeltl tossed out
those arguments and sided with AFDI. The ads
could not reasonably be considered an
incitement to violence, even if someone didn’t
understand them.
“The defendants admit that the actual
intention of the advertisement is not to
advocate the use of force, but to parody the
CAIR ‘My Jihad’ campaign and to criticize
Hamas and radical Islam. However, they argue
that a reasonable New Yorker would not read
the advertisement this way, but would instead
read it as advocating the killing of Jewish
people,” Koeltl wrote. “The defendants’ theory
is thoroughly unpersuasive.”
After AFDI’s victory, Geller posed for photos
outside the federal courthouse while holding
the “Killing Jews” advertisement.
“With our NY win, our ads will make their
debut on New York buses in the coming weeks,”
AFDI’s Web site promises above a “donate”
button. “We want to run 100. Help us make that
happen.”
But even if the ads don’t incite violence in
New York City, they could overseas. Earlier
this month, Egypt’s top religious authority
called AFDI’s posters “racist” and issued a
fatwa, or official edict, against them. “This
hazardous campaign will leave the gate of
confrontation and clashes wide open instead of
exerting efforts towards peaceful coexistence
and harmony,” according to the edict.
Hamas, the group cited on the ads, has not
said whether it approves of the message.
Navy
Official Bans Chaplain From Ministering To
Bereaved Families And Sailors
GOOSE CREEK, S.C.,
March 24, 2015
/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today,
Liberty Institute announces that Chaplain
Modder's commanding officer, Captain Jon R.
Fahs, issued a "no contact" order to Chaplain
Wes Modder (the military version of a
restraining order), forbidding him from
counseling or ministering to members of his
unit. The order comes on the heels of a tragic
death in Modder's unit, banning him from
ministering to grieving sailors and the
deceased sailor's family members.
After a sailor in his unit unexpectedly
passed away, Chaplain Modder immediately
sprung into action to fulfill his usual
chaplain duties of providing comfort and
support to the deceased sailor's grieving
family. But just as Chaplain Modder was about
to perform those duties, the Navy informed him
of the "no contact" order, banning him from
having any contact with any personnel from his
unit, depriving him of the ability to comfort
them during a time of grief and mourning.
Captain Fahs also banished Chaplain Modder
from the Naval base where Modder is stationed
on the day of the memorial service for the
fallen sailor. The order also comes just days
after Captain Fahs denied Chaplain Modder's
request for a religious accommodation to
provide pastoral counseling in accordance with
his faith. (See Captain Fahs' denial letter at
https://www.libertyinstitute.org/ModderFacts)
"This Navy official is using the 'no contact'
order as a weapon to punish and humiliate a
decorated military chaplain," said Mike Berry,
Liberty Institute Senior Counsel and Director
of Military Affairs. "I am stunned that he
would deny Chaplain Modder the ability to
minister to a grieving family and other
sailors."
Liberty Institute President and CEO Kelly
Shackelford said, "Of the most critical times
for chaplains, the death of a colleague is
near the top of the list. For this Navy
official to bar a chaplain from comforting and
ministering to sailors and families is a
reprehensible violation of religious freedom
and common human decency."
Case Background: Chaplain Wes Modder is a
Navy chaplain and former Marine who previously
served as the Force chaplain for Naval Special
Warfare Command. He has deployed overseas
multiple times during the War on Terror,
including in support of Navy SEAL Teams. In
October 2014, Chaplain Modder's commander
called him a "consummate professional leader,"
"the best of the best," and said he sets the
"clear benchmark" for chaplain
professionalism. Now, the Navy is threatening
Chaplain Modder with career-ending punishment
because, when asked, he expressed faith-based
views on marriage and human sexuality in
private counseling sessions. Liberty Institute
is defending Chaplain Modder and asserts that
censoring his religious expression is
unconstitutional religious discrimination. The
"no contact" order comes only days after the
Navy officially denied Chaplain Modder's
request for religious accommodation, in
violation of federal law and Department of
Defense (DoD) regulations. (Read more about
Modder's case at https://www.libertyinstitute.org/ModderFacts)
About Liberty Institute
Liberty Institute is the largest nonprofit
legal organization in the nation dedicated
solely to defending religious liberty in
America. Liberty Institute protects freedom of
religious expression in our military, schools,
churches, and throughout the public arena. For
more information, visit
www.LibertyInstitute.org.
March 12, 2015 In mid February of this year Navy
Chaplain Wesley Modder received a
"detachment for cause" letter after commanders
concluded he was "intolerant" and "unable to
function in the diverse and pluralistic
environment" of his current assignment. Lt Cmdr.
Modder has served more than 19 years with
commendations as "best of the best" and a
"talented and inspirational leader. Click
here to read the March 11 article in the
Military Times.
Muslim
Brotherhood princess' used Clinton email
server
03/11/2015 @ 9:10 pm WND.com In Front Page,Politics,U.S.
Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedin
At least three of Hillary Clinton’s top aides –
including one with ties to the Muslim
Brotherhood – used emails hosted on Clinton’s
private server while she was secretary of state,
according to several reports.
At a news conference Tuesday at the U.N.,
Clinton directly addressed media about the
revelation that she conducted her business as
secretary of state using a private email account
instead of the secure and archived government
system.
She acknowledged she deleted thousands of
personal emails and said she turned over hard
copies of messages to the State Department that
she deemed to be work related.
But Clinton apparently wasn’t the only one at
the State Department using private email.
Weekly Standard senior writer Stephen Hayes told
Fox News, “Two of Hillary Clinton’s top aides
used personal email while they were employed at
the State Department.”
Hayes specifically named Clinton Chief of Staff
Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin, who served as
Clinton’s longtime deputy chief of staff. Abedin
and Clinton worked closely together for nearly
20 years.
“The State Department has evidence of this,” he
said.
In another report, the gossip website Gawker
claimed both Abedin and Phillippe Reines,
Clinton’s communications strategist, used the
private email addresses.
The London Daily Mail confirmed one of Abedin’s
email addresses was listed as
Huma@clintonemail.com.
Abedin’s emails would be of particular interest
because she has known ties to the Muslim
Brotherhood – a group that’s bent on “destroying
Western civilization from within” – and other
Islamic supremacists.
Hayes said, “The question, I think becomes: Were
they emailing with Hillary Clinton from their
personal email addresses to her personal email
address about State Department business, about
Benghazi, including sensitive classified
information?
“Those are questions that I think (Rep.) Trey
Gowdy and the House Benghazi Committee is going
to want to look at very carefully.”
What do YOU think? Will Hillary’s email troubles
delete her run for president? Sound off in
today’s WND poll
Government watchdog Judicial Watch has filed a
lawsuit against the State Department seeking all
emails from 2009 to 2013 between Clinton, Abedin
and Nagla Mahmoud, wife of Muslim Brotherhood
leader Mohammed Morsi.
“Now we know why the State Department didn’t
want to respond to our specific request for
Hillary Clinton’s and Huma Abedin’s
communications,” Judicial Watch President Tom
Fitton said in a statement. “The State
Department violated FOIA law rather than admit
that it couldn’t and wouldn’t search the secret
accounts that the agency has known about for
years. This lawsuit shows how the latest Obama
administration cover-up isn’t just about
domestic politics but has significant foreign
policy implications.”
Get the details about what really happened in
one of America’s biggest foreign operations
failures, in “The REAL Benghazi Story.”
Transforming America
Abedin and Clinton worked closely together for
nearly 20 years. As WND has extensively
reported, the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic
supremacist connections not only extend to
Abedin’s mother and father, who are both deeply
tied to al-Qaida fronts, but to Abedin herself.
Major news media profiles of Abedin report she
was born of Pakistani and Indian parents,
without delving much further into her family’s
history.
As WND reported, a manifesto commissioned by the
ruling Saudi Arabian monarchy places the work of
an institute that employed Abedin at the
forefront of a grand plan to mobilize U.S.
Muslim minorities to transform America into a
Saudi-style Islamic state, according to
Arabic-language researcher Walid Shoebat.
Abedin was an assistant editor for a dozen years
for the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs for
the Institute for Muslim Minority Affairs. The
institute – founded by her late father and
currently directed by her mother – is backed by
the Muslim World League, an Islamic organization
in the Saudi holy city of Mecca that was founded
by Muslim Brotherhood leaders.
The 2002 Saudi manifesto shows that “Muslim
Minority Affairs” – the mobilizing of Muslim
communities in the U.S. to spread Islam instead
of assimilating into the population – is a key
strategy in an ongoing effort to establish
Islamic rule in America and a global Shariah, or
Islamic law, “in our modern times.”
WND reported Abedin also was a member of the
executive board of the Muslim Student
Association, which was identified as a Muslim
Brotherhood front group in a 1991 document
introduced into evidence during the
terror-financing trial of the Texas-based Holy
Land Foundation.
At her father’s Saudi-financed Islamic think
tank, WND reported, Abedin worked alongside
Abdullah Omar Naseef, who is accused of
financing al-Qaida fronts.
Naseef is deeply connected to the Abedin family.
WND was first to report Huma’s mother, Saleha
Abedin, was the official representative of
Naseef’s terror-stained Muslim World League in
the 1990s.
Shoebat previously reported that as one of 63
leaders of the Muslim Sisterhood, the de facto
female version of the Muslim Brotherhood, Saleha
Abedin served alongside Nagla Ali Mahmoud, the
wife of Muslim Brotherhood figure Mohammed
Morsi, Egypt’s now ousted president.
Saleha Abedin and Morsi’s wife both were members
of the Sisterhood’s Guidance Bureau, Shoebat
found.
Huma worked with al-Qaida front man
Abdullah Omar Naseef is secretary-general of the
Muslim World League, an Islamic charity known to
have spawned terrorist groups, including one
declared by the U.S. government to be an
official al-Qaida front.
The institute founded by Huma Abedin’s father
reportedly was a quiet, but active, supporter of
Naseef.
The institute bills itself as “the only
scholarly institution dedicated to the
systematic study of Muslim communities in
non-Muslim societies around the world.”
Huma served on the Journal of Muslim Minority
Affairs’s editorial board from 2002 to 2008.
Documents obtained by Shoebat revealed that
Naseef served on the board with Huma from at
least December 2002 to December 2003.
Naseef’s sudden departure from the board in
December 2003 coincides with the time at which
various charities led by Naseef’s Muslim World
League were declared illegal terrorism fronts
worldwide, including by the U.S. and U.N.
The MWL, founded in Mecca in 1962, bills itself
as one of the largest Islamic non-governmental
organizations.
But according to U.S. government documents and
testimony from the charity’s own officials, it
is heavily financed by the Saudi government.
The MWL has been accused of terrorist ties, as
have its various offshoots, including the
International Islamic Relief Organization, or
IIRO, and Al Haramain, which was declared by the
U.S. and U.N. as a terror financing front.
Indeed, the Treasury Department, in a September
2004 press release, alleged Al Haramain had
“direct links” with Osama bin Laden. The group
is now banned worldwide by U.N. Security Council
Committee resolution 1267.
There long have been accusations that the IIRO
and MWL also repeatedly funded al-Qaida.
In 1993, bin Laden reportedly told an associate
that the MWL was one of his three most important
charity fronts.
An Anti-Defamation League profile of the MWL
accuses the group of promulgating a
“fundamentalist interpretation of Islam around
the world through a large network of charities
and affiliated organizations.”
“Its ideological backbone is based on an
extremist interpretation of Islam,” the profile
states, “and several of its affiliated groups
and individuals have been linked to
terror-related activity.”
In 2003, U.S. News and World Report documented
that accompanying the MWL’s donations,
invariably, are “a blizzard of Wahhabist
literature.”
“Critics argue that Wahhabism’s more extreme
preachings – mistrust of infidels, branding of
rival sects as apostates and emphasis on violent
jihad –laid the groundwork for terrorist groups
around the world,” the report continued.
An Egyptian-American cab driver, Ihab Mohamed
Ali Nawawi, was arrested in Florida in 1990 on
accusations he was an al-Qaida sleeper agent and
a former personal pilot to bin Laden. At the
time he was accused of serving bin Laden, he
also reportedly worked for the Pakistani branch
of the MWL.
The MWL in 1988 founded the Al Haramain Islamic
Foundation, developing chapters in about 50
countries, including for a time in Oregon until
it was designated a terrorist organization.
In the early 1990s, evidence began to grow that
the foundation was funding Islamist militants in
Somalia and Bosnia, and a 1996 CIA report
detailed its Bosnian militant ties.
The U.S. Treasury designated Al Haramain’s
offices in Kenya and Tanzania as sponsors of
terrorism for their role in planning and funding
the 1998 bombings of two American embassies in
East Africa. The Comoros Islands office was also
designated because it “was used as a staging
area and exfiltration route for the perpetrators
of the 1998 bombings.”
The New York Times reported in 2003 that Al
Haramain had provided funds to the Indonesian
terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah, which was
responsible for the 2002 Bali bombings that
killed 202 people. The Indonesia office was
later designated a terrorist entity by the
Treasury.
In February 2004, the U.S. Treasury Department
froze all Al Haramain’s financial assets pending
an investigation, leading the Saudi government
to disband the charity and fold it into another
group, the Saudi National Commission for Relief
and Charity Work Abroad.
In September 2004, the U.S. designated
Al-Haramain a terrorist organization.
In June 2008, the Treasury Department applied
the terrorist designation to the entire
Al-Haramain organization worldwide
Bin Laden’s brother-in-law
In August 2006, the Treasury Department also
designated the Philippine and Indonesian branch
offices of the MWL-founded IIRO as terrorist
entities “for facilitating fundraising for
al-Qaida and affiliated terrorist groups.”
The Treasury Department added: “Abd Al Hamid
Sulaiman Al-Mujil, a high-ranking IIRO official
[executive director of its Eastern Province
Branch] in Saudi Arabia, has used his position
to bankroll the al-Qaida network in Southeast
Asia. Al-Mujil has a long record of supporting
Islamic militant groups, and he has maintained a
cell of regular financial donors in the Middle
East who support extremist causes.”
In the 1980s, Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, Osama bin
Laden’s brother-in-law, ran the Philippines
offices of the IIRO. Khalifa has been linked to
Manila-based plots to target the pope and U.S.
airlines.
The IIRO has also been accused of funding Hamas,
Algerian radicals, Afghanistan militant bases
and the Egyptian terror group Al-Gamaa
al-Islamiyya.
The New York Post reported the families of the
9/11 victims filed a lawsuit against IIRO and
other Muslim organizations for having “played
key roles in laundering of funds to the
terrorists in the 1998 African embassy bombings”
and for having been involved in the “financing
and ‘aiding and abetting’ of terrorists in the
1993 World Trade Center bombing.”
‘Saudi government front’
In a court case in Canada, Arafat El-Asahi, the
Canadian director of both the IIRO and the MWL,
admitted the charities are near entities of the
Saudi government.
Stated El-Asahi: “The Muslim World League, which
is the mother of IIRO, is a fully
government-funded organization. In other words,
I work for the government of Saudi Arabia. I am
an employee of that government.
“Second, the IIRO is the relief branch of that
organization, which means that we are controlled
in all our activities and plans by the
government of Saudi Arabia. Keep that in mind,
please,” he said.
Despite its offshoots being implicated in terror
financing, the U.S. government never designated
the MWL itself as a terror-financing charity.
Many have speculated the U.S. has been trying to
not embarrass the Saudi government.
Huma’s mother represented Muslim World League
Saleha Abedin has been quoted in numerous press
accounts as both representing the MWL and
serving as a delegate for the charity.
In 1995, for example, the Washington Times
reported on a United Nations-arranged women’s
conference in Beijing that called on governments
throughout the world to give women statistical
equality with men in the workplace.
The report quoted Saleha Abedin, who attended
the conference as a delegate, as “also
representing the Muslim World League based in
Saudi Arabia and the Muslim NGO Caucus.”
The U.N.’s website references a report in the
run-up to the Beijing conference that also lists
Abedin as representing the MWL at the event.
The website posted an article from the now
defunct United States Information Agency quoting
Abedin and reporting she attended the Beijing
conference as “a delegate of the Muslim World
League and member of the Muslim Women’s NGO
caucus.”
In the article, Abedin was listed under a
shorter name, “Dr. Saleha Mahmoud, director of
the Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs.”
WND confirmed the individual listed is Huma
Abedin’s mother. The reports misspelled part of
Abedin’s name. Her full professional name is at
times listed as Saleha Mahmood Abedin S.
Hillary praise
Saleha Mahmood formerly directed the Institute
of Muslim Minority Affairs in the U.K. and
served as a delegate for the Muslim World
League, an Islamic fundamentalist group Osama
bin Laden reportedly told an associate was one
of his most important charity fronts.
In February 2010, Clinton spoke at Dar Al-Hekma
College in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where Abedin
was an associate professor of sociology at the
time.
Clinton, after she was introduced by Abedin,
praised the work of the terror-tied professor.
“I have to say a special word about Dr. Saleha
Abedin,” Clinton said. “You heard her present
the very exciting partnerships that have been
pioneered between colleges and universities in
the United States and this college. And it is
pioneering work to create these kinds of
relationships.
“But I have to confess something that Dr. Abedin
did not,” Clinton continued, “and that is that I
have almost a familial bond with this college.
Dr. Abedin’s daughter, one of her three
daughters, is my deputy chief of staff, Huma
Abedin, who started to work for me when she was
a student at George Washington University in
Washington, D.C.”
The Clarion Project was founded
in 2006 by Raphael Shore. It is dedicated to
"exposing the dangers of Islamic extremism
while providing a platform for the voices of
moderation and promoting grassroots activism."
Shore produced the 2008 documentary The
Third Jihad: Radical Islam's Vision For
America.. (View
at this link.)
The main web page of the Clarion Project is www.clarionproject.org.
They are currently sponsoring an email
campaign to your elected officials "No Nukes
For Iran".
As Prime Minister Netanyahu stated in his
speech to the U.S. Congress on March 3,
2015, "for over a year, we've been told
that no deal is better than a bad deal (with
Iran). Well, this is a bad deal. It's a very
bad deal. We're better off without
it." Visit this
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File Under the category of
"Unintended Consequences"
Side effects of a Nuclear Deal with
Iran: A Middle East Arms Race?:
According
to two FCC commissioners, those new
regulations are bad all around
By Brad
Matthews
Watchdog.org
March 4, 2015
The Obama administration and proponents
of the FCC’s version of net neutrality
may be ecstatic at the passing of
regulations that make the Internet a
public utility on Feb. 26th, but not all
FCC members are so sunny in their
outlook for the future.
TechFreedom held a fireside chat on Feb.
27th with two FCC commissioners, Ajit
Pai and Mike O’Rielly, and the two of
them concurred that the new regulations
are far-reaching, largely unchecked and
pose a threat to consumer bills and to
innovation in the industry.
Ajit Pai openly questioned what the
problem was, saying, “There’s never been
a systemic analysis of what the problem
with the Internet is. In this order, you
see scattered niche examples [Comcast
and BitTorrent, Apple and FaceTime,
others] all of which were resolved, mind
you, through private sector
initiatives.” He continued, saying that
the FCC’s net neutrality regulatory
regime is a solution that won’t work in
search of a problem that doesn’t
exist.” Essentially, this is,
contrary to the assertion of activists
and others, a vaguely justified power
grab by a government agency.
Mike O’Rielly added, in a bit of humor
that “there is a problem, and it’s the
document we adopted [Feb. 26].” Neither
of them were reticent in explaining
exactly how and why the document was the
problem. For one, the document was, as
Commissioner Pai pointed out, written to
solve a problem that wasn’t readily
apparent. O’Rielly said the document is
“guilt by imagination, trying to guess
what will go wrong in the future”;
instead of tackling a readily apparent
and current issue, the FCC proposal is
instead stumbling forward, trying to
find future, hypothetical transgressions
to retroactively justify its own
regulations.
This conspiratorial and wide-ranging
thinking on the part of FCC is not a
bug, but rather a feature. O’Rielly
openly said that “it’s intended to catch
everybody”. Pai noted that the FCC was
going to centralize powers over what
infrastructure was deployed and where
through the use of statutes and other
laws; O’Rielly mentioned specifically
that the FCC was going to “use Section
201 [of the Communications Act] to do
it’s dirty work.”
Pai continued, saying that the FCC was
largely focused on the ends of Internet
regulation rather than the means, and
that “a lot of these promises of
regulatory restraint are pretty
ephemeral.” O’Rielly mentioned that
mobile data policies were likely to be
subsumed by the new regulations into
policies on the wider Internet as a
whole. This one-size-fits-all approach
ignores the differences in how mobile
data is used versus the way the Internet
is used by a normal computer or other
devices. Many features of mobile
service, the two said, could be
construed as a company favoring one app
or one site over another in terms of
data, which would violate the FCC’s
standards.
The consumer will inherit many of these
new costs and burdens. O’Rielly outright
told the audience that “Rates are going
to go up because of this.” The new
regulations also fail to recognize the
burden of local telecommunications
taxes, especially in major cities where
tax rates on mobile service are often
incredibly high. The new regulations,
combined with the laws of local
governments, stand to impose even more
costs onto consumers.
The outlook the two gave was anything
but bright–the worries of small
government advocates seem justified. The
new FCC regulations will, in concert
with other laws and under the directive
of an organization looking for future
problems rather than current problems,
give more power to government, more
restrictions to innovators, and more
costs to the people.
Commissioner Pai summed it up best:
“This issue has been largely fact-free
for the better part of a decade, and I
think it’s frankly shocking that
decision-making on something as
important as this has been thrown by the
wayside in favor of what I consider to
be an ideological agenda.”
The net may be “neutral” but the FCC is
most certainly not.
Islamic
state: Fears Grow For Abducted Syrian
Christians United Kingdom BBC Wednesday 25 Feb 2015
There are fears that more members of an
Assyrian Christian community in north-eastern
Syria were abducted by Islamic State militants
than at first thought. Initial reports had put
the number of missing at 90, but one activist
said as many as 285 people had been seized on
Monday in Hassakeh province. Efforts to try to
negotiate their release are reported to be
under way.
Some 1,000 local Assyrian families are
believed to have fled their homes in the wake
of the abductions.
Kurdish and Christian militia are battling IS
in the area, amid reports of churches and
homes having been set ablaze.
Thousands of Christians in Syria have been
forced from their homes by the threat from IS
militants.
In areas under their control, Christians have
been ordered to convert to Islam, pay jizya (a
religious levy), or face death. IS militants
in Libya also recently beheaded 21 Egyptian
Coptic Christians.
The Assyrians were seized by the militants as
they swept into 12 villages along the southern
bank of the Khabur river near the town of Tal
Tamr before dawn on Monday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a
UK-based activist group, said at least 90
people had been abducted, most of them women,
children and the elderly.
However, the Syriac National Council of Syria
put the figure as high as 150, while Afram
Yakoub of the Assyrian Federation of Sweden
said sources on the ground had told him that
up to 285 people were missing, including 156
from the village of Tal Shamran and 90 from
Tal al-Jazira.
"These were peaceful villages that had nothing
to do with the battles," Nasir Haj Mahmoud, a
Kurdish official in the YPG militia in
north-eastern Syria, told the Reuters news
agency.
There are conflicting reports as to where the
families have been taken.
Kino Gabriel, a spokesman for the Syriac
Military Council - a Christian militia
fighting alongside the Kurdish Popular
Protection Units (YPG) - told the BBC that it
believed the captives had been taken to Abdul
Aziz mountain.
Osama Edward of the Sweden-based Assyrian
Human Rights Network told the AFP news agency
that the captives had been taken to the IS
stronghold of Shaddadi, as did Syria's state
news agency, Sana.
Another report said they were in Raqqa, 145km
(90 miles) to the west, the de facto capital
of the "caliphate" declared by IS last June.
The BBC's Jonny Dymond in Beirut says the
motive for the seizure of so many Assyrians is
not yet clear. Our correspondent says it may
be that the captives are to be used as part of
a swap with the Kurdish forces.
Hundreds of Assyrians who were living in
villages on the north bank of the Khabur river
and elsewhere are reported to have fled
following the attack to the largely
Kurdish-controlled provincial capital of
Hassakeh, to the south-east, and Qamishli,
another city to the north-east.
Mr Edward said two historic churches had been
burned down in captured villages - one in Tal
Hurmiz and the other in Qaber Shamiya. The
Syrian Observatory also reported that a church
in Tal Shamran had also been damaged.
Mr Gabriel said IS had moved a big force into
the area and were trying to take control of
Tal Tamr.
The Syriac Military Council had about 400
fighters in the area and at least four had
been killed in clashes with the jihadists, he
added. The YPG has deployed between 1,000 and
1,500 fighters.
The YPG is also continuing a major offensive
launched on Sunday against IS some 100km (60
miles) to the east, near the border with Iraq
- an area of vital importance to the
jihadists.
ISIS
beheading of Coptic Christians on
Libyan beach brings Islamists to the
doorstep of Europe
United Kingdom The Independent, Thursday 19 Feb 2015
The beheading of 21 Coptic Christians on a beach
in Libya has brought ISIS to the doorstep of
Europe.
The mass murder, which provoked a volley of
Egyptian air strikes on the group’s Libyan
stronghold of Derna, realised long-held fears of
militants reaching the Mediterranean coast.
ISIS started in Iraq and now controls swathes of
adjoining Syria, including along the Turkish
border, as part of its so-called Islamic State.
Its ideology has spread much further, with
pledges of allegiance from terrorist groups in
Egypt, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia,
Tunisia, Yemen and now Libya.
Days before ISIS released its gory video
depicting the Egyptians’ beheadings, Libya’s
former Prime Minister warned that the group
would soon reach the Mediterranean and even
Europe if order was not restored in the country.
Ali Zeidan said Libya’s fractured government and
easy access to weapons seized during the fall of
Colonel Gaddafi made it more susceptible to the
activities of jihadists, according to The Times.
“(ISIS) are growing. They are everywhere,” he
added.
“In Libya, the situation is still under control.
If we leave it one month or two months more I
don’t think you can control it.
“It will be a big war in the country and it will
be here in Europe as well.”
Libya has seen fierce fighting between rival
militias since Gaddafi was overthrown during the
2011 Arab Spring.
Mr Zeidan, who fled to Europe after losing a
parliamentary vote of confidence, reported that
ISIS had a growing presence in some of the
bigger cities and was trying to recruit fighters
from rival Islamist groups.
Libya's former Prime Minister Ali Zeidan warned
that Isis would reach the Mediterranean Aref Ali
Nayed, Libya’s ambassador to the United Arab
Emirates, also said Isis’s presence in Libya was
increasing “exponentially”.
Its military gains last summer sparked a rush by
other Islamist groups in the Middle East and
North Africa to ally themselves with the group
by pledging allegiance and changing their names.
The jihadists behind the beheadings in Libya
call themselves the Tripoli Province of the
Islamic State.
As the turmoil in Libya continued last year,
they gained control of the port city of Derna
and nearby Sirte, where Isis seized the murdered
Coptic hostages in December and January.
The location of their murders could not be
confirmed but footage showed them dressed in
orange jumpsuits kneeling on a beach. Behind
each of them were masked militants who wielded
their knives to kill the bound hostages
simultaneously.
ISIS affiliates have also claimed responsibility
for attacks on the Egyptian military and police
in the Sinai Peninsula, further along the
Mediterranean coast between Egypt and Gaza.
England and Europe's greater concern than the
United States is evident in this article, due to
their proximity to the menacing Radical Islamic
peril. Learn more about this with accompanying
links at the UK's INDEPENDENT
website by clicking here.
ISIS burn 45
people to death in captured Iraqi town of
al-Baghdadi as Islamists attack the homes
of security forces' families
United Kingdom's Daily Mail
Dailymail.com
Karen Pickles for Mailonline
February 17, 2015
ISIS burn 45 people to death in captured
Iraqi town of al-Baghdadi as Islamists
attack the homes of security forces'
families
Western town
al-Baghdadi captured by ISIS fighters last
week
Victims thought to be
members of security forces and their
families
Follows barbaric video
of Jordanian pilot Lieutenant Muath
al-Kaseasbeh
Attack is only five
miles from air base with 320 US Marines
Militants from Islamic State have burned 45
people to death in the western Iraqi town of
al-Baghdadi, according to the local police
chief.
Col. Qasim al-Obeidi said the motive was unknown
but he believed some of the victims were members
of the security forces.
He has pleaded for help from the government and
international community and said the compound,
which houses the families of security personnel
and local officials, was now under attack.
It follows the capture of al-Baghdadi, near Ain
al-Asad air base, by ISIS fighters last week.
The unconfirmed reports have haunting
similarities to the video published earlier this
month, showing militants burning alive a
Jordanian air force pilot, whose plane crashed
in Syria in December.
Al-Baghdadi had been besieged for months by
Islamic State fighters before its fall. It had
been one of the few towns to still be controlled
by the Iraqi government in Anbar province, where
IS and allied Sunni Arab tribesmen launched an
offensive in January 2014.
On Friday, Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm John
Kirby, played down its capture, telling
reporters it was the first time in the last
couple of months that the jihadist group had
taken new ground.
But with 320 US Marines stationed just five
miles away at the Ain al-Asad air base, training
members of the Iraqi army's 7th Division, it
will cause concern.
The base was attacked by several suicide
bombers, on Friday with the militant repelled by
Iraqi troops backed by US-led coalition
aircraft.
In a separate development on Tuesday, the
influential Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr announced
he was withdrawing his forces from an umbrella
group of Shia militia fighting IS alongside the
Iraqi army.
He cited what he called the bad behaviour of
other militia within the Popular Mobilisation
Forces, whom he accused of 'wreaking havoc
through murdering, kidnapping and violating
sanctuaries'.
Shia militia have been accused of kidnapping and
killing scores of Sunni civilians since Islamic
State launched an offensive in northern Iraq
last June that saw it seize large swathes of the
country.
Elsewhere, there are reports at least 35
more Egyptian Christians are feared to have been
kidnapped by jihadists in retaliation for air
strikes on targets in Libya.
Militants from the Islamic State and Ansar
Al-Sharia are understood to have rounded up
dozens of farm workers in the wake of bombings
by Cairo, it was reported by local media.
The move is believed to be a direct response to
strikes by Egyptian warplanes yesterday which
came after fanatics released a horrific video
showing the beheading of 21 Christians on a
beach.
Netanyahu: Israel is standing by
Europe, Europe must stand by Israel
January 8, 2015
The Jerusalem Post
By HERB KEINON
In meeting with Norwegian FM, Netanyahu says
radical Islam is a "threat to our common
civilization."
Israel is being attacked by the same forces
attacking Europe, and just as Israel stands
with Europe, so too Europe must stand with
Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
said Thursday.
Netanyahu, speaking following a meeting with
visiting Norwegian Foreign Minister Børge
Brende, said that Wednesday’s terrorist
attack in Paris “clearly demonstrates the
disdain of radical Islam for the values we
hold dear. We cherish freedom and tolerance;
they worship tyranny and terror. And through
this terror they seek to impose a new dark
age on humanity.”
Netanyahu said the terrorists were “part of
a global movement and this necessitates a
global response. I believe that with the
strength of our resolve and the unity of our
action, we can defeat this threat to our
common civilization. And what the battle
against terror requires is courage, clarity
and consistency.”
Deputy Foreign Minister Tzahi Hanegbi said
in an Israel Radio interview that precisely
that type of determination has been missing
up until now in France and elsewhere in
Europe in the battle against terrorism.
Hanegbi said the French in the past tried to
delude themselves regarding the true nature
of threat, saying “maybe it was only
sporadic incidents, maybe it is only
anti-Semitism, maybe it is only against the
Jews.”
He said that the French at times tried to
understand the terrorists motivations, and
at other times tried to downplay their ties
to Islam. The sheer brutality of Wednesday
attack, especially the murder of the
policeman on the sidewalk, will compel the
French government to “look at the reality
square in the face” and realize there is a
serious danger at their gates, he said.
Hanegbi predicted that France will be
forced, like the US was after the September
11, 2001 attacks, to empower the security
establishment with tools to effectively deal
with the threats.
“France must deal with the threat coming
from within,” he said. Hanegbi added that
Israel, unfortunately, has quite a
deal of experience dealing with terrorism,
and that “anyone who cooperates with a
county as experienced [in dealing with
terrorism] as Israel, only benefits.”
He said that Israel has the capability to
help France a lot more than the French have
requested in the past. Now, he said, France
“ will have an interest in being helped by
anyone who can help them, including israel.”
Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman,
meanwhile, took the Paris attack and used it
to prove a point regarding domestic Israeli
policies.
If there was an important lesson to be
learned from the attack, he said, it is that
extremist movements must be dealt with
early, and that there are only small legal
and semantic differences separating those
organizations from terrorist groups.
Those who demonstrate tolerance toward those
organizations, he said, will ultimately pay
a high price in blood, as well as in threats
to their very democracies that allows those
organizations to work.
Israel's lesson, he said, must be not to
tarry and to stop the activities of Raed
Salah and the northern branch of the Islamic
Movement in Israel.
Liberman said Salah's organization was an
inseparable link in the chain of terrorist
organizations that includes Hamas, Islamic
Jihad, al-Qaida and the Islamic State. He
said the organization “shares exactly the
same values of the perpetrators of the
massacre in Paris and its intolerance of
criticism and of anything inconsistent with
its extreme world view.”
Liberman said the the northern branch is a
threat to Israeli democracy and the
country's citizens, and that it needed to be
outlawed.
Houston Subpoenas Pastors’ Sermons in Gay
Rights Ordinance Case
By Sarah Pulliam Bailey
Religion News Service
October 15, 2014
Evangelical
leaders are angry after city officials in
Houston subpoenaed sermons given by local
pastors who oppose an equal rights ordinance
that provides protections to the LGBT
community.
Houston Mayor Annise Parker, who drew
headlines for becoming the first openly
lesbian mayor of a major American city, led
support for the ordinance. The measure bans
anti-gay discrimination among businesses
that serve the public, private employers, in
housing and in city employment and city
contracting.
Under one of the hotly contested parts of
the ordinance, transgender people barred
access to a restroom would be able to file a
discrimination complaint.
The ordinance, which exempted religious
institutions, was passed in May, though its
implementation has been delayed due to legal
complaints.
Opponents were hoping to repeal the
ordinance through a ballot measure and
claimed the city’s attorney incorrectly
determined they had not gathered enough
signatures to qualify for a ballot.
Supporters of the repeal reportedly gathered
50,000 signatures, well over the 17,269
needed for inclusion on the November ballot.
Opponents of the repeal have questioned the
validity of the signatures.
A group of Christians sued the city. In
response, city attorneys issued subpoenas to
five local pastors during the case’s
discovery phase, though the five pastors
were not involved in the lawsuit.
The subpoenas sought “all speeches,
presentations, or sermons related to HERO,
the Petition, Mayor Annise Parker,
homosexuality, or gender identity prepared
by, delivered by, revised by, or approved by
you or in your possession,” according to the
Houston Chronicle.
“The subpoenas were issued to pastors who
have been involved in the political campaign
to organize a repeal of Houston’s new equal
rights ordinance,” said Janice Evans, chief
policy officer to the mayor, in a statement.
“It is part of the discovery process in a
lawsuit brought by opponents of the
ordinance, a group that is tied to the
pastors who have received the subpoenas.”
An Arizona-based religious liberty group,
Alliance Defending Freedom, has filed a
motion on behalf of the pastors seeking to
halt the subpoenas. The ministers call the
subpoenas “overbroad, unduly burdensome,
harassing, and vexatious.”
“The pastors made their sermons relevant to
the case by using the pulpit to do political
organizing,” Evans said in her statement.
“This included encouraging congregation
members to sign petitions and help gather
signatures for equal rights ordinance foes.
The issue is whether they were speaking from
the pulpit for the purpose of politics. If
so, it is not protected speech.”
The lawsuit is scheduled for trial in
January.
“It’s procedural — it’s common to ask for a
wide range of documents — but the mayor is
playing real hardball,” said David Skeel,
professor of law at the University of
Pennsylvania. “The fact that she’s
subpoenaing pastors seems quite unusual in a
case that’s mostly about politics, and the
fact that she’s going inside the church is
even more radical. It would be easy enough
to get sermons, of course, but asking for
them is clearly meant to send a signal.”
City Attorney David Feldman argues the
subpoenas are justified because the churches
are where opponents of the ordinance met to
organize.
“We’re certainly entitled to inquire about
the communications that took place in the
churches regarding the ordinance and the
petitions because that’s where they chose to
do it,” Feldman told KTRH News. “It’s
relevant to know what representations and
instructions were given regarding these
petitions.”
The issue has angered evangelicals
nationwide, prompting outcry from people
such as Russell Moore, president of the
Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious
Liberty Commission.
“The separation of church and state means
that we will render unto Caesar that which
is Caesar’s, and we will,” Moore wrote. “But
the preaching of the church of God does not
belong to Caesar, and we will not hand it
over to him. Not now. Not ever.”
More than 1,800 pastors participated in
ADF’s seventh annual Pulpit Freedom Sunday
event on Oct. 5, daring the Internal Revenue
Service to prosecute them for endorsing
political candidates. Under IRS regulations,
tax-exempt churches are not allowed to
engage in partisan politics.
The Khaleej
Times - a daily U.S. language
newspaper published in United Arab
Emirates.It
is the second most popular English
language newspapers published in the UAE.
Armageddon Can
Wait
Mahir Ali
Kaleej Times
3 September
2014
Global
threat is used to deflect attention
from domestic woes
Barack Obama’s recent confession that his
country did not so far have a strategy as
far as the so-called ISIS
is concerned has been pilloried as a gaffe.
It could, however, also be seen as the plain
truth.
The United States did not really have a
strategy a decade or so ago either, when the
administration of George W. Bush decided to
invade Iraq, evidently expecting that the
various pieces would magically fall into
place once Saddam Hussein was toppled. The
tactic represented a disastrous combination
of hubris and ignorance.
The extent to which the subsequent
implosions and explosions in the region are
a direct consequence of that particular
debacle is arguable, but there can be little
doubt that the big picture would have been
decidedly different, and in all probability
considerably less unpleasant, in the absence
of that monumental neoconservative folly.
Of course, what’s done cannot be undone,
and the present crisis demands a resolute
response. It’s by no means undesirable,
however, for that response to take account
of all that has gone wrong in the recent
past.
Obama has come under attack, for instance,
for hesitating to strike Syria
in the early days of the revolt against the
Bashar Al Assad dictatorship, and thereby
purportedly facilitating the expansion of
Islamist outfits such as ISIS and Jabhat Al
Nusra. Too many of the critics are inclined,
however, to ignore in this context the
consequences of NATO’s role in Libya.
Washington
allowed itself to be catapulted into that
conflict, partly on the basis of Paris and London’s
aggressive
enthusiasm, and NATO’s mission was a success
in terms of achieving the overthrow of
Muammar Gaddafi’s regime. But Libya
today is being torn apart by rival militias,
many of them distinguishable not so much by
ideology as by tribal affiliations.
Under similar circumstances, would the
outcome the Syria
have been remarkably different? Who can
claim with any confidence that Assad’s early
overthrow would have prevented Islamist
forces from sooner or later gaining the
upper hand?
The US
has lately been thinking aloud about
launching airstrikes in Syria with
the ostensible aim of undermining ISIS
rather than Assad, based on the assumption
that Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi’s troops cannot be
quelled by focusing on Iraq
alone. That may be so, but there is the
wider question of whether they can
effectively be tackled at all mainly through
air assaults.
There have evidently been some tactical
successes in Iraq
in this respect, beginning with the besieged
Yazidis stranded on SinjarMountain
— most of whom appear to have made it to
relative safety in Iraqi Kurdistan, although
the reported numbers are open to question.
Then there was the recapture of Mosul Dam,
and most recently the apparent rescue of
Amerli.
In the latter instance, the US
airstrikes were effectively in aid of Shia
militias spearheading the assault against
ISIS — the same militias, with links to Iran, that
not many years ago were dedicated to
undermining the American occupation of Iraq.
“Should such military actions continue,” The
New York Times noted on Monday, “they could
signal a dramatic shift for the United States
and Iran,
which have long vied for control in Iraq.”
Naturally, neither Washington
nor Tehran
is keen to emphasise this aspect of the
emerging situation. Matters are further
complicated by the fact that some of the
militias betray a penchant for sectarian
brutality that, although no match for the
revolting atrocities that ISIS is so keen to
broadcast, nonetheless provides cause for
concern.
The United Nations this week decided to
investigate “acts of inhumanity on an
unimaginable scale” by ISIS,
as well as atrocities by Iraqi government
forces. Whether or not such an investigation
serves any practical purpose in the murkily
unfolding circumstances, the ostensible
even-handedness of the approach is
interesting.
Meanwhile, there has been considerable
concern across several nations in Europe as
well as in the US and Australia
over young Muslim citizens’ tendency towards
jihadist adventurism, with thousands — the
numbers are again uncertain — travelling to
Syria
or Iraq
as Islamist volunteers.
This is hardly a novel trend — it can be
traced back at least to Afghanistan
in the 1980s. The worries over it are
understandable, although there is thus far
no clear evidence of returnees planning
domestic acts of terrorism. It is at the
same time difficult to altogether dispense
with the notion that projecting ISIS as an
unprecedented global threat helps some
Western governments to deflect attention
from domestic woes.
The ISIS
threat should not be underestimated, but
exaggerations can have the perverse effect
of increasing its cachet both within and
outside the region. Nobody has a clear idea
of precisely how this story will unfold, let
alone end. But there’s not much value in
pretending it portends some kind of
Armageddon.
The Western insistence on “no boots on the
ground” is open to interpretation as
insufficient commitment or even cowardice.
But in fact it’s a welcome augury, not least
in the light of recent experience. When,
since the Second World War, have Western
boots on the ground produced positive
consequences in the Middle
East (or, for that matter,
anywhere else)?
The ideal response
to the regional dilemmas of the moment would
be an unprecedented level of cooperation,
coordination and collaboration between
Middle Eastern states, notwithstanding
longstanding rivalries in some cases. That,
unfortunately, cannot be described as an
imminent prospect, despite the tentative
emergence of intriguing alliances. But
there’s never been a better time for it.
by Martin Chulov
at theguardian.com
Thursday 7 August 2014
Thousands of Yazidi and Christian people flee to
Erbil after the latest wave of Isis advances.
Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Iraq's largest Christian city was all but
abandoned on Thursday as the jihadist advance
through minority communities in the country's
north-west rampaged towards the Kurdish
stronghold of Erbil.
UN officials said an estimated 200,000 new
refugees were seeking sanctuary in the Kurdish
north from Islamic extremists who had pursued
them since the weekend. The city of Qaraqosh,
south-east of Mosul, home to around 50,000
Christians was the latest to fall, with most
residents fleeing before dawn as convoys of
extremists drew near.
Other Christian towns near Mosul, including Tel
Askof, Tel Keif and Qaramless have also largely
been emptied. Those who remained behind have
reportedly been given the same stark choice
given to other minorities, including Yazidis:
flee, convert to Islam, or be killed.
Christians, Yazidis and Turkmen have been at the
frontlines of Iraq's war with the Islamic State
(Isis) ever since the jihadist group stormed
into Mosul and Tikrit and mid-June. The Iraqi
army capitulated within hours, with at least
60,000 officers and soldiers fleeing on the
first day of the assault alone.
Ever since, the jihadists have continued to make
advances, while Iraqi troops have concentrated
on defending Baghdad and the Shia south, leaving
the defence of minorities in the north to the
Kurdish peshmurga.
However, even the much vaunted Kurdish forces
were no match for the heavy weapons wielded by
the jihadists as they advanced in recent days.
Peshmurga officers ordered troops to withdraw to
areas administered by the Kurdish regional
government – a clear sign of priorities and of
where the battle lines are being drawn.
Without any protection, Yazidis, Christians and
Turkmen are being uprooted from communities they
have lived in for millennia and the geo-social
fabric of Iraq is being rapidly shredded.
While those who have managed to flee the
Christian areas have so far had a relatively
safe passage to Erbil, tens of thousands of
Yazidis remain besieged on a mountain top near
Sinjar, with little food or water.
The UN said on Thursday it was able to get some
supplies overland to the stranded hordes –
avoiding Isis fighters who have surrounded most
of Mount Sinjar. Turkish foreign minister Ahmet
Davutoglu announced that Turkish helicopters had
dropped food and water on the mountain top.
Iraqi helicopters have also made food drops, but
stranded Yazidis say they do not have enough to
survive.
The Chaldean
archbishop of Kirkuk, Joseph Thomas, described
the situation in northern Iraq as "catastrophic,
a crisis beyond imagination". He demanded urgent
intervention to save what remained of the area's
Christian heritage.
Kurdish officials on Thursday demanded more help
in catering for refugees. The Kurdish
administered areas have seen staggering numbers
cross their notional border since the original
Isis onslaught two months ago. In the first week
alone, some 500,000 people are thought to have
fled towards Erbil.
The capital of the Kurdish north is already home
to a new Chaldean Christian community, which
fled Baghdad in the wake of an Isis-led massacre
inside a cathedral in October 2010. Many fleeing
Christians have headed for the Ainkawa
neighbourhood, which is home to Baghdad's
Christian exiles.
The past 11 years of war and insurrection since
the US invasion have led to most of Iraq's
Christians fleeing. Numbers have plummeted
starkly from an estimated one million before
2003 to around 150,000 now. A large number of
those who remain are now displaced.
Miriam Dagher, 53, from Qaraqosh, said churches
in the city had already been torched and
religious insignia smashed. "We stayed as long
as we could," she said. "But nothing could save
us. This is the end of our community.
If the federal government were a person, if
Congress were subject to the laws they create,
they would face fines, prison or both for many
of their actions. The ENLIST Act, being touted
as a “pathway” to citizenship for illegal aliens
may be one of those actions. It could be argued
that the very act itself violates federal law.
Consider this:
Immigration law, 8 US Code 1324 states that it
is a crime to, either knowingly or recklessly,
“conceal, harbor, or shield from detection, or
attempt to conceal, harbor, or shield from
detection… transport, or move or attempt to
transport or move” or to even “encourage or
induce” an illegal alien “to come to, enter, or
reside in the United States, knowingly or in
reckless disregard of the fact that such coming
to, entry, or residence is or will be in
violation of law.”
It is not only a crime to actually commit these
offenses, but it is a crime to even attempt to
do so. Anyone found guilty of violating 8 US
Code 1324 is subject to fines, prison or both.
However, if it can be proven that this person
has committed this act for personal gain, the
fines go up and the prison sentence can be as
much as ten years.
By David Boaz From The Cato Institute May 8, 2014 2:19PM
In the Washington Post, Paul Kane reports
that recent experiences with
ultra-conservative Senate candidates have
made Republican leaders fearful of
candidates like Rep. Paul Broun in Georgia.
There may be reasons for party leaders or
voters to have doubts about Broun, but I
hope they aren’t actually concerned about
the purported problem that Kane identifies:
Broun is prone to fiery speeches invoking
the Founding Fathers and applying those 1789
principles to issues 225 years later.
Seriously? He thinks the Constitution is
still the law of the land? And that the
framework it established for individual
rights and limited government is still
relevant today? Do Republican leaders
really think that’s a bad message? Or does
the Washington Post?
Thomas Jefferson and his followers hailed
“the principles of ‘76” or “the spirit of
‘76” in their battles with Federalists. As
historian Joseph Ellis put it, “Jefferson’s
core conviction was that what might be
called ‘the spirit of ‘76’ had repudiated
all energetic expressions of government
power, most especially power exercised from
faraway places, which included London,
Philadelphia or Washington.” Good thing
there isn’t an actual Jeffersonian running!
But the principles of 1789, or actually of
1787, also protect freedom from government
power and are just as essential today as
they were at the Founding. The Framers knew
their history. They knew that people with
power tend to abuse it and to restrict
freedom. In his last letter, 50 years after
the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson
wrote:
All eyes are opened, or
opening, to the rights of man. The general
spread of the light of science has already
laid open to every view the palpable truth,
that the mass of mankind has not been born
with saddles on their backs, nor a favored
few booted and spurred, ready to ride them
legitimately, by the grace of God.
Because they feared the exercise of power,
the Framers wrote a Constitution that
established a government of delegated,
enumerated, and thus limited powers. Then
the people insisted on a Bill of Rights to
further protect their rights even from the
very limited federal government established
in the Constitution. Then, after identifying
specific rights that individuals retained,
they also added, “for greater caution,” as
James Madison put it, the Ninth Amendment to
clarify that “The enumeration in the
Constitution, of certain rights, shall not
be construed to deny or disparage others
retained by the people.”
One would hope that all members of Congress
– and voters, and political reporters –
believe that those principles and those
constitutional rules should be applied to
issues of today. Surely the First Amendment
remains relevant. And the Fourth. And the
limits on unconstrained power in the basic
structure of the Constitution. The merits of
any particular candidate aside, support of
the Constitution and the principles it
embodies seems like a good, even minimal,
qualification for public office.
"Thus saith the
LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for
the old paths, where is the good way, and walk
therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls." Jeremiah 6:16
Dr. Robert G Lee was the pastor of Bellevue
Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee for
thirty-two years. During his lifetime he was a
strong leader in the Southern Baptist
Convention, known as a preacher’s preacher, and
was highly respected among his peers. This
sermon has been accepted as a classic by all
that have heard and read it, and through its
message, the Lord still speaks to mankind.
Dr. Lee originally published the following
message in 1926. It is said that he developed it
following the suggestion of a deacon at a prayer
meeting in 1919 and that he preached it at least
once a year at his home church. All total, it is
related that he preached the messsage over 1,000
times. Like many Baptists, Lee was known more as
a preacher than a theologian but his doctrine
was sound to the core. Lee believed in and
preached a doctrine often overlooked in our day,
that of the necessity of regeneration.
Ala.
Supreme Court: 'Unborn Child Has
Inalienable Right to Life From its
Earliest Stages
By
Michael W Chapman
CNSNews.com
| Apr 23, 2014
In a case about a pregnant woman who used
cocaine and endangered her unborn child, the
Alabama Supreme Court affirmed (8-1) that
the word "child" includes "an unborn child,"
and that the law therefore "furthers the
State's interest in protecting the life of
children from the earliest stages of their
development."
In his concurring opinion, Alabama Chief
Justice Roy S. Moore wrote that "an unborn
child has an inalienable right to life from
its earliest stages of development," and
added, "I write separately to emphasize that
the inalienable right to life is a gift of
God that civil government must secure for
all persons - born and unborn."
The court decision on April 18 was in
reference to Sarah Janie Hicks v. State of
Alabama. Hicks had been charged in 2009 with
violating Alabama's chemical-endangerment
statute, which in part says that a "person
commits the crime of chemical endangerment"
by "knowingly, recklessly, or intentionally
causes or permits a child to be exposed to,
to ingest or inhale, or to have contact with
a controlled substance, chemical substance,
or drug paraphernalia," a felony.
In Hicks' case, she was charged with using
cocaine while pregnant. Her child, "J.D.,"
tested positive for cocaine "at the time of
his birth," reads the court document.
In January 2010, Hicks pleaded guilty to the
crime but also "reserved the right to appeal
the issues" she and her attorneys had
presented earlier in trying to get the
charges dismissed. Hicks got a three year
suspended prison sentence and was placed on
probation.
Hicks appealed to the Court of Criminal
Appeals in Alabama, arguing that because the
chemical-endangerment statute did not
specifically use the words "unborn children"
or "fetuses," the law was ambiguous and
could not have applied to her unborn child.
The Appeals Court ruled against Hicks,
stating that "the plain language of
26-15-3.2 [chemical-endangerment statute]
was clear and unambiguous and that the plain
meaning of the term 'child' in [the statute]
included an unborn child or viable fetus.'"
Hicks then petitioned the Alabama Supreme
Court in 2012 to review the Appeals Court
decision. Last Friday's ruling
affirmed the judgment of the Court of
Criminal Appeals.
In their conclusion, eight of the nine
Alabama Supreme Court justices said:
"Consistent with this Court's opinion in
Ankrom [a similar chemical-endangerment
case], by its plain meaning, the word
'child' in the chemical-endangerment statute
includes an unborn child, and, therefore,
the statute furthers the State's interest in
protecting the life of children from the
earliest stages of their development."
The law to protect the life of unborn
children "is consistent with many statutes
and decisions throughout our nation that
recognize unborn children as persons with
legally enforceable rights in many areas of
the law," said the justices.
In his own concurring opinion, Chief Justice
Moore argued that natural rights come from
God, not from the government. He cited the
Declaration of Independence that there is a
"self-evident" truth that "all Men are
created equal, [and] that they are endowed
by their creator with certain unalienable
rights," particularly "life."
The Declaration of Independence
"acknowledges as 'self-evident' the
truth that all human beings are endowed with
inherent dignity and the right to life as a
direct result of having been created by
God," said Chief Justice Moore.
He also cited Sir William Blackstone's
Commentaries on the Laws of England, which
says, "This law of nature, being co-eval
[beginning at the same time] with mankind
and dictated by God himself, is of course
superior in obligation to any other. It is
binding over all the globe, in all
countries, and at all times: no human laws
are of any validity, if contrary to this."
Chief Justice Moore went on to explain how
at the Nuremburg Trials at the end of World
War II, Nazi criminals could not argue that
they were only following orders or just
following the laws of the German government
because there is a higher law, the "very law
of nature."
"Although the Nuremberg defendants were
following orders and the laws of their own
officials and country, they were guilty of
violating a higher law to which all nations
are equally subject: the laws of nature and
of nature's God," wrote Justice Moore.
That law binds all nations, including the
State of Alabama, said Justice Moore. "In
2006, the AlabamaLegislature amended the
homicide statute to define 'person' to
include 'an unborn child in utero at any
stage of development, regardless of
viability," he wrote, "thus recognizing
under the statute that, when an 'unborn
child' is killed, a 'person' is killed."
In conclusion, he wrote, "The Equal
Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment
provides that a state may not 'deny to any
person within its jurisdiction the equal
protection of the laws. Unborn children are
a class of persons entitled to equal
protection of the laws."
"States have an obligation to provide to
unborn children at any stage of their
development the same legal protection from
injury and death they provide to persons
already born," wrote Justice Moore. "Because
a human life with a full genetic endowment
comes into existence at the moment of
conception, the self-evident truth that 'all
men are created equal and are endowed by
their Creator with certain unalienable
rights' encompasses the moment of
conception."
"Legal recognition of the unborn as members
of the human family derives ultimately from
the laws of nature and of nature's God, Who
created human life in His image and
protected it with the commandment: 'Thou
shalt not kill,'" wrote Chief Justice
Moore. "Therefore, the interpretation
of the word 'child' in Alabama's
chemical-endangerment statute, § 26-15- 3.2,
Ala. Code 1975, to include all human beings
from the moment of conception is fully
consistent with these first principles
regarding life and law."
Former British Prime Minister
Tony Blair gave a landmark speech yesterday
calling on the world to unite against
Islamism.
Tony Blair, the Former British Prime Minister,
delivered a keynote speech at Bloomberg HQ in
London entitled 'Why the Middle East Still
Matters.' In it he described radical Islam as
the greatest threat facing the world today.He
argued "there are four reasons why the Middle
East remains of central importance and cannot
be relegated to the second order."
Blair rapidly moved on to the fourth and
most important reason: Islamic extremism also
known as Islamism.
He identifies the conflict in the Middle East
as one between an open and tolerant viewpoint
and a fundamentalist Islamist ideology. He
said "wherever you look – from Iraq to Libya
to Egypt to Yemen to Lebanon to Syria and then
further afield to Iran, Pakistan and
Afghanistan – this is the essential battle."
Addressing those who regard these conflicts as
distinct he said "there is something frankly
odd about the reluctance to accept what is so
utterly plain: that they have in common a
struggle around the issue of the rightful
place of religion, and in particular Islam, in
politics." It is this central point that he
hammered home again and again over the course
of his 40 minute speech.
He argued that this struggle does not end at
the borders of the region. Rather, "The reason
this matters so much is that this ideology is
exported around the world."
More
Attacks on the Freedom of
Speech, In the Form of Religious
Persecution
Of our Air Force Cadets
From The
Traditional Values Coalition:
Earlier
this month, an Air Force Academy cadet was
forced to remove a Bible verse on his
personal white board after the Military
Religious Freedom Foundation claimed
offense.
"I
have been crucified with Christ, and I no
longer live, but Christ lives in me. The
life I now live in the body, I live by faith
in the Son of God, who loved me and gave
himself for me." - Galatians 2:20
MRFF
President Michael "Mikey" Weinstein, self
proclaimed "undisputed leader of the
national movement to restore the obliterated
all separating church and state" in the
military, described the student's white
board quoting of scripture as pouring
"fundamentalist Christian gasoline on an
already raging out-of-control conflagration
of fundamentalist Christian tyranny,
exceptionalism, and supremacy."
The
Air Force Academy complied with Weinstein's
demands, having the scripture removed. But
that's not enough -- Weinstein is demanding
that not only should the cadet be punished,
but that their entire chain of command
should be as well.
At
least a dozen cadets responded in support of
religious freedom, posting Bible verses on
their personal white boards. Please join me
and thousands of others in standing with our
cadets for their right to express their
religious beliefs without fear of
persecution <http://capwiz.com/traditional/utr/1/KTQOTSLPVY/KFTWTSLUWE/10253908236>
.
No
one, especially those who volunteer to risk
their lives to defend our freedoms, should
be denied their constitutional rights and
religious freedoms. Groups like the Military
Religious Freedom Foundation are seeking to
silence those who profess their faith,
stripping them of their religious liberties
in the name of political correctness.
Our
Constitution protects the free exercise of
religion. Yet that doesn't seem to be enough
for some groups.
The
Clash of Law: Parsing the Modern War against
Catholics, Catholicism and the Church
FromCatholicCulture.org
ByDr.
Jeff Mirus
Date March
25, 2014
Opposition to Catholicism in the modern
West is brought to a head almost universally
through the pressure of today’s legal
systems. .... what bother us are the
increasing restrictions on the exercise of
our Christian duties by bureaucratic laws
and regulations, administered by people who
otherwise do not care much about our
religious identity one way or another.
This is the result of a utopian vision of
the future implemented at the highest levels
of the social order. It is not the
cruel and unthinking persecution of those
who have simply been raised, in their local
enclaves and neighborhoods, to hate
Catholics. It is rather a relatively high
brow and carefully orchestrated process of
civic improvement. As such, the
anti-Catholic prejudice today wears a mantle
of utter reasonableness and courtesy.
Whatever is done is portrayed as necessary
for the noblest of reasons, to serve an
exalted vision of human good. As we will see
shortly, this is a deception which even its
proponents probably do not understand.
Consider how varied are the pressure points
which have been attacked in exactly this
way. There is the progressive public
pressure for Catholic social service
agencies to conform to the values of our
secular elites. There is the growing
impossibility of running Catholic
organizations as a part of student life on
college campuses. There are the battles over
freedom of conscience in an ever-widening
array of professions, beginning with
doctors, nurses and pharmacists and
extending now to anyone who might provide
business services to same-sex couples. There
are escalating battles over religious
liberty. There is the HHS Mandate in the United
States
and similar rules in other Western nations
which force even private individuals to
actively participate in mandated actions
which they find deeply immoral.
Meanwhile, in another part of the world,
there is the unending pressure against
Catholic life imposed by the theocratic laws
of Islamic states, called Shari’a law. This
alternative form of coercion is in the
process of entering the West through Europe, where the
presence of high percentages of Islamic
immigrants raises the question of
alternative legal systems for different
communities and regions. Almost nowhere can
we any longer find a legal system which
is not essentially hostile to
Catholicism, with its own transcendent
source of moral knowledge.
A Striking Parallel
Interestingly, in his Regensburg Address in
2006, Pope Benedict XVI drew a close
parallel between the habits of thought which
underlie Islamic law and those that lie at
the basis of contemporary European (or
Western) law. Benedict saw that neither
Islam nor the contemporary West (any longer)
assigns to reason the role of identifying
natural moral principles which can allow
people of different beliefs and cultural
backgrounds to share a common good and a
common polity. Islam believes Shari’a Law
covers all of life and is rooted purely in
the will of God, completely unbound by any
rational characteristic of consistency or
fairness. Similarly, the old natural law
tradition of the West—in which rational
consistency and fairness were perhaps the
most easily-grasped components—has given way
to the sovereignty of the human will to
remake reality according to whatever happens
to be desired by those who have political,
social and cultural power.
One of the greatest Christian gifts to the
world has been the distinction between two
fonts of law which arise without any
possible contradiction from the same
profoundly rational Divine source. On the
one hand, there is the natural law, which is
accessible to human reason and which opens
to the human community a common ground of
morality as the basis for human flourishing
in the social order. On the other hand,
there is the law derived from Revelation,
equally rational but containing mysteries
which are accessible only by faith. While in
no way conflicting with the natural law—and
in fact presupposing it in the created
order—this Revelation enables the believer
to rise to greater perfection through grace,
in a direct relationship with God Himself,
expressed in voluntary service to others.
.......
Fortunately, reading through the material
has at least enabled me grasp the central
issue more clearly, and to stress three
important principles which might be used to
guide our thinking and our response to the
characteristic anti-Catholic pressures of
our time. First, the practical points of
serious clash and conflict are now primarily
creations of law. Second, when it comes to
law, the primary problem is not an attack on
Faith but an attack on reason—the
presumption that law derives its authority
from the specific will of those in power,
and is not limited by clear and consistent
natural or supernatural principles. Third,
and precisely because rational consistency
is lacking, it will take great
creativity to navigate this increasingly
repressive legal landscape.
In closing, I should emphasize one even
deeper truth: The will darkens the intellect
by ordering it to cease its independent
explorations in order to serve what the will
desires. This is not something that we can
expect to counteract naturally; it is in
fact the mechanism which human nature uses
to refuse cooperation with grace. Yet
paradoxically the pandemic loss of
the recognition of reason, and even of
nature itself, must be remedied by grace.
And so, in the midst of growing suffering
and sacrifice for Catholics, it is not only
arguments and creativity that we need, but
prayer.
From The Canada Free Press
By Jim Yardley
Thursday, March 20, 2014
Checking to make sure that there was an easily
understandable definition of the word, the
dictionary defines Constitution as “the
fundamental political principles on which a
nation-state is governed, especially when
considered as embodying the rights of the
subjects of that nation-state and the statute
embodying such principles.”
One would think that the President of the first
nation to create that very thing, a legal
statute that embodied the fundamental political
principles, and who also was a college level
lecturer on the topic of the Constitution, would
have absolutely no problem in dealing with the
concept.
Unfortunately for us, and for several other
nations, Mr. Obama seems to view constitution to
be infinitely malleable, and are subject to
change upon a change in his whims of the day.
As far back as 2001, Barack Obama said in a
radio interview with Public Radio station
WBEZ-FM that the U.S. Supreme Court (under Chief
Justice Earl Warren)
“…didn’t break free from the
essential constraints that were placed by the
founding fathers in the Constitution, at least
as it’s been interpreted and Warren Court
interpreted in the same way, that generally the
Constitution is a charter of negative liberties.
Says what the states can’t do to you. Says what
the Federal government can’t do to you, but
doesn’t say what the Federal government or State
government must do on your behalf…”
So even at that time, the President announced
clearly that he disagreed with the judgments of
the Founding Fathers and two centuries of
successfully working within the framework of the
U.S. Constitution. He had a different view
of how the Constitution should have been
written, and that had he been alive in 1789, he
would have made sure it was different.
Of course he would have been limited to having
only a pen at that time, since his Blackberry
wasn’t even a science fiction fantasy at that
time.
Apparently Obama’s disdain for Constitutions is
not limited to only home grown ones, or limited
to only with regard to “negative
liberties.” Fast forward to June 2009 and
look at Honduras.
Manuel Zelaya, who was then in his second term
as president of Honduras, violated that
country’s Constitution (specifically Article
239) which bans presidents from holding office
if they even propose to alter the constitutional
term limits for presidents.
Apparently Mr. Zelaya really liked being
president of Honduras, and wanted to change his
country’s Constitution so that he could continue
in the job. Note again that any president
of Honduras loses the right to serve as
president if he even proposes a change like
that. The Honduran Supreme Court,
expressly had the right to remove the president
for seeking to alter the constitutional term
limit, under Article 272 of the Honduran
Constitution.
But apparently this made Obama upset, so he
declared the Constitutional crisis in Honduras
to have been a “coup”. It wasn’t, of
course. Sadly, for Obama, if he were to snivel
that he didn’t like that part of the Honduran
Constitution it probably would have been a
public relations nightmare for him.
One might infer that Obama personally wanted
that presidential term limit article to be
ignored by the citizens of Honduras because it
might set a bad precedent if he wanted to run
for a third term himself. Then Senator
(and now Secretary of State) John Kerry agreed
with Obama’s idea that the removal of a
president who had acted contrary to the clear
language of his nation’s Constitution must have
been a “coup.” This view was vocally
supported by the then Secretary of State,
Hillary Rodham Clinton who lusts after the idea
of being Obama’s replacement.
Mr. Obama’s disdain for the U.S. Constitution
has been demonstrated on a continuing basis over
the five years that he has been in office, with
“recess appointments” to the NLRB when the
Senate was not in recess, the innumerable
delays, waivers, interpretations and so on
related to the Patient Protection and Affordable
Care Act, and so on.
Given Obama’s disdain for any constitutional
limits on doing whatever pops into his head at
any time, his reaction to the situation in
Ukraine becomes almost comical. Sadly, even the
always irreverent magazine The Onion couldn’t
have seen the idea that Obama would leap to the
defense of Ukraine by saying that the Crimean
referendum was illegitimate and (wait for it)
unconstitutional. Even Nancy Pelosi was
probably tempted to ask “Are you serious?”
The idea that Barack Obama would demand
deference to any nation’s constitution is on a
par with, well, nothing readily comes to mind.
Well perhaps it would be like seeing Dr. Jack
Kervorkian leading a Right-to-Life rally, or
perhaps seeing Willy Sutton doing an infomercial
telling people how safe banks are.
It’s possible I suppose that Obama’s defense of
Ukraine’s constitutional authority would be
equivalent to listening to Bill Clinton
lecturing on the benefits of sexual abstinence.
But given his history on the subject of
adherence to constitutional principles, is it
any wonder that no one, anywhere in the world,
believes one word of what the man is saying?
Click here to read the original article in its
entirety
Trust, but
Verify
March,
2014
They are still at it. I am thankful for the
newsletters of people like Dave Gaubatz who
report current affairs that are ignored or
overlooked by most news sources. It is hard to
imagine how people like Dave can be so
vilified for reporting well documented
FACTS. Although the truth may set one free it
can also become tiring to be a target and
cause grey hairs and ulcers. But enough about
the messenger.... on to the message.
There are many Muslim organizations in
America, raising money that sometimes end up
supporting known terrorist organizations (viz:
the well documented CAIR connections).
Recently a united alliance of these
organizations was formed, with the purpose of
becoming more influential. Our presidential
election of 2016 was the example cited, once a
consensus would be agreed upon by individual
members.
Dave's recent newsletter linked to the
report about this new alliance at
religiousnews.com. Click
here to read it.
While I wouldn't bet the farm on it, my
prayer is that the uniting voice of American
Muslims is the foremost recognition of
individual freedom and opportunity that has
drawn so many families to America. EACH
individual's freedom of beliefs, associations,
and speech (to mention a few of our
inalienable God-given freedoms) are worthy
principles that all Americans should
recognize, be thankful for, and do our level
best to protect and preserve. In the meantime
I will continue to "Trust, but verify."
To
find Mr Gaubatz blogspot, click here,
and you can send him an email to
subscribe to his newsletter.
Department
views it as a hate crime. It’s time for our
government and media to apply the same
standard abroad on behalf of Christians.
m
holiday). Observers hoped the four-day holiday
would mark a temporary ceasefire, but that hope
proved to be false. I see this as another
example that Christians are increasingly
targeted."
A believer from Damascus
reports that last Sunday a car bomb was found
in a Christian neighborhood in the old part of
the city. The car was parked next to two
churches, a Maronite and Latin church. The two
churches were warned and church officials
instructed all their parishioners to go home
in case the bomb exploded. Authorities were
successful in disabling the bomb.
Situation
in Aleppo, Homs and ChristianValley
An Open Doors contact in Aleppo
reports that, "the situation is not getting
any better, but we are hoping the situation
will cool down."
Last week Open Doors received a report from a
believer in Aleppo,
the largest city in Syria,
that about 100 insurgents infiltrated a main
street in a Christian area of the city. Aleppo
is one of the hot spots in the 21-month civil
war between rebels and the Syrian government.
According to the report, the Syrian army
quickly surrounded the insurgents and drove
them out.
Another believer reports that in some of the
predominantly Christian villages in the Homs
area there is not a threat against the entire
Christian community, however, individual
Christians are being targeted.
In a village in the ChristianValley,
a region west of Homs
and Hama,
three Christian men were kidnapped and one
killed. "One of my contacts is stuck there,
waiting to find a way back to Damascus.
The roads are the worst now," the believer
shares.
The Open Doors country coordinator for Syria
adds: "The violent situation deeply hurts the
entire Syrian population, the Christian
community as well as other people groups. But
about two or three weeks ago we observed an
increase of violence that specifically is
targeting Christians or Christian
neighborhoods. Bombs now are placed in
Christian areas where there is no strategic or
military target at all. We are deeply
concerned about our brothers and sisters and
call all churches and all Christians to
continue praying for this dangerous situation
for Christians."
Jerry Dykstra, media relations director for
Open Doors, says the request for prayer from
Syrian Christians comes as the International
Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (IDOP)
will be observed in the United States
on Sunday, Nov. 11.
All politics is local, even the US
election as seen by Kenyans
Villagers in the
home village of President's
Obama's father are cheering on the
Democrat, while Kenyan Mormons are excited
by challenger Mitt Romney’s run.
By
Fredrick Nzwili, Correspondent
November
1, 2012
Nairobi,
Kenya
Kenyans are closely watching the US
presidential election, with two groups in
particular rooting for each of the
candidates.
US President Barack Obama’s reelection bid is
preoccupying the people in Nyang’oma Kogelo,
his Kenyan father’s home village, as
challenger Mitt Romney’s run is invigorating
Mormons in the East African country.
Mr. Romney’s candidacy has thrust the
Christian group into the spotlight here, with
its leaders on Monday unveiling a website
called Kenya Mormon Newsroom to help answer
questions ignited by the American political
process. Leaders say the church maintains a
firm political neutrality.
“In the most recent past, questions have been
asked about who we are. The reasons is we have
a member of the church running as president of
the UnitedState
of America,”
said
Elder Hesbon Usi, an official here with the
Mormons' Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day
Saints. “Since people do not have
the right source of information and truth they
are looking for, a lot tend to go to other
websites that are misleading. They get
information that is not correct.”
Elder Thomas Hatch, a former Utah
state senator who now serves as the church’s
deputy director of public affairs for the
region, said questions the church has
encountered have prompted leaders to share
more through a network of websites.
Hatch says Mormons would relish the idea of a
Romney presidency, hoping it would bring the
church out of obscurity. However, he cautioned
that there could be many downsides as well as
upsides, since presidents have to make tough
decisions.
“If Mr. Romney is seen as a Mormon
president, there could be retaliation by other
countries against our church and missions,” he
says.
Meanwhile, in Nyang’oma Kogelo, the western
Kenyan village that is home to the president's
step-grandmother, Sarah Obama, the
community is organizing daily prayers for
Obama, with special prayers reported in
churches and mosques. Often gathering in small
groups to listen to news and discussions on FM
radios from mobile phones, the residents say
they have learned Obama was facing a stiff
challenge.
“We would like to organize bigger meetings to
show support, but we fear the security is not
good. Terrorists may attack us because of our
Obama links. The threats and attacks in Kenya
make use very cautious,” says Vitalis Ogombe,
the chairman of a community group called the
Obama Kogelo Cultural Committee.
For them, the interest in the American
election is driven by pride more than economic
or material gains, since Obama is viewed as a
grandson there.
“We are proud because we have seen he can
make a good global leader. People now know us
globally because of him. We are praying that
he continues,” says Mr. Ogombe.
But since Obama’s election in 2008, Kogelo
can also count material gains. Electricity has
been installed in the area and infrastructure
improved. Micro-finance organizations and
nongovernmental organizations have also moved
here to help improve the community’s living
standards. The local people say they are
better since he became president.
For Jesse Mugambi of the University of
Nairobi, America foreign policy on Africa remains the
same, irrespective of whoever is the "boss."
“The voters out there will decide what is
good for them, and Kenyans will put up with
whoever wins. That is what democracy demands,”
he says.
Some analysts have also considered an Obama
loss. Charles Onyango-Obbo, in an opinion in
the Daily Nation today, analyzed why an Obama
loss would be good for him and the world.
“Obama has the energy and smarts to be an
influential international citizen and
non-state actor to join Clinton and Gates as
the non-white face at the top of international
NGO priesthood. To do that, he has first to
lose the election,” wrote Mr. Onyango-Obbo.
Sixty Percent of US
Muslims Reject Freedom of Expression
RIGHT
SIDE NEWS.com
Thursday, 01 November 2012
Dr.
Andrew Bostom
After
violent Muslim reactions to the amateurish
“Innocence of Muslims” video, which simply
depicted a few of the less salutary aspects of
Muhammad’s biography, international and
domestic Islamic agendas have openly converged
with vehement calls for universal application
of Islamic blasphemy law. This demand to
abrogate Western freedom of expression was
reiterated in a parade of speeches by Muslim
leaders at the UN General Assembly. The US
Muslim community echoed such admonitions, for
example during a large demonstration in Dearborn,
Michigan,
and in a press release by the Islamic Circle
of North America.
Now the results of polling data collected by
Wenzel Strategies during October 22 to 26,
2012, from 600 US Muslims, indicate widespread
support among rank and file American votaries
of Islam for this fundamental rejection of
freedom expression, as guaranteed under the US
Constitution. The first amendment states,
plainly,
Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting
the free exercise thereof; or abridging the
freedom of speech, or of the press;
When asked, “Do you believe that criticism of
Islam or Muhammad should be permitted under
the Constitution’s First Amendment?, 58%
replied “no,” while only 42%
affirmed this most basic manifestation of
freedom of speech, i.e., to criticize
religious, or any other dogma. Indeed,
oblivious to US
constitutional law, as opposed to Islam’s
Sharia, a largely concordant 45% of
respondents agreed “…that those who criticize
or parody Islam in the U.S.
should face criminal charges,” while 38% did
not, and 17% were “unsure”. Moreover,
fully 12% of this Muslim sample even admitted
they believed in application of the draconian,
Sharia-based punishment for the non-existent
crime of “blasphemy” in the US
code, answering affirmatively, “…that
Americans who criticize or parody Islam should
be put to death.”
Also, consistent with such findings 43% of
these US Muslims rejected the right of members
of other faiths to proselytize to adherents of
Islam, disagreeing, “…that U.S.
citizens have a right to evangelize Muslims to
consider other faiths.” Additional
confirmatory data revealed that nearly
two-fifths (39%) agreed “…that Shariah law
should be considered when adjudicating cases
that involve Muslims,” while nearly
one-third (32%) of this American Muslim
sample believed “…Shariah law should be the
supreme law of the land in the US.”
These alarming data remind us that despite
intentionally obfuscating apologetics, Sharia,
Islamic law, is not merely holistic, in the
general sense of all-encompassing, but
totalitarian, regulating everything from the
ritual aspects of religion, to personal
hygiene, to the governance of a Muslim
minority community, Islamic state, bloc of
states, or global Islamic order. Clearly, this
latter political aspect is the most troubling,
being an ancient antecedent of more familiar
modern totalitarian systems. Specifically,
Sharia’s liberty-crushing and dehumanizing
political aspects feature: open-ended jihadism
to subjugate the world to a totalitarian
Islamic order; rejection of bedrock Western
liberties—including freedom of conscience and
speech—enforced by imprisonment, beating, or
death; discriminatory relegation of
non-Muslims to outcast, vulnerable pariahs,
and even Muslim women to subservient chattel;
and barbaric punishments which violate human
dignity, such as amputation for theft, stoning
for adultery, and lashing for alcohol
consumption.
And the US Muslim data mirror global Islamic
trends. Previously, the 57-member Organization
of the Islamic Conference (subsequently
renamed the Organization of Islamic
Cooperation [OIC])—the largest voting bloc in
the UN, which represents all the major Muslim
countries, and the Palestinian Authority—had
sponsored and actually navigated to passage a
compromise U.N. resolution insisting countries
criminalize what it calls “defamation of
religion.” Though the language of the OIC
“defamation of religion” resolution has been
altered at times, the OIC’s goal has remained
the same—to impose at the international level
a Sharia-compliant conception of freedom of
speech and expression that would severely
limit anything it arbitrarily deemed critical
of, or offensive to, Islam or Muslims. This is
readily apparent by reading the OIC’s
supervening “alternative” to both the US Bill
of Rights and the UN’s own 1948 Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, i.e., the 1990
Cairo Declaration, or Universal Declaration of
Human Rights in Islam.
The opening of the preamble to the Cairo
Declaration repeats a Koranic injunction
affirming Islamic supremacism (Koran 3:110,
“You are the best nation ever
brought forth to men . . . you believe in Allah”);
and its last articles, 24 and 25, maintain
[article 24], “All the rights and freedoms
stipulated in this Declaration are subject to
the Islamic Sharia”; and [article 25] “The
Islamic Sharia is the only source
of reference for the explanation or
clarification to any of the articles of this
Declaration.” The gravely negative
implications of the OIC’s Sharia-based Cairo
Declaration are most apparent in its transparent
rejection of freedom of conscience in
Article 10, which proclaims:
Islam is the religion of unspoiled
nature. It is prohibited to exercise any
form of compulsion on man or to exploit his
poverty or ignorance in order to convert him
to another religion, or to atheism.
Ominously, articles 19 and 22 reiterate a
principle stated elsewhere throughout the
document, which clearly applies to the
“punishment” of so-called apostates from
Islam, as well as “blasphemers”:
There shall be no crime or punishment
except as provided for in the Sharia.
Everyone shall have the right to express his
opinion freely in such manner as would not
be contrary to the principles of the
Sharia. Everyone shall have the right to
advocate what is right, and propagate what
is good, and warn against what is wrong and
evil according to the norms of Islamic
Sharia.
Information is a vital necessity to
society. It may not be exploited or misused
in such a way as may violate sanctities and
the dignity of Prophets, undermine moral and
ethical values or disintegrate, corrupt or
harm society or weaken its faith.
Institutional Islam in North
America—epitomized by the
Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America
(AMJA)—also endorses and promotes this Sharia
supremacism. AMJA’s mission statement
maintains that the organization was, “founded
to provide guidance for Muslims living in North America. . . .
AMJA is a religious organization that does not
exploit religion to achieve any political
ends, but instead provides practical solutions
within the guidelines of Islam and the
nation’s laws to the various challenges
experienced by Muslim communities. ” It is
accepted by the mainstream American Muslim
community, and regularly trains imams from
throughout North America.
Notwithstanding this mainstream acceptance,
AMJA has issued rulings which sanction the
killing of apostates, “blasphemers,”
(including non-Muslims guilty of this
“crime”), and adulterers (by stoning to
death); condoned female genital mutilation,
marital rape, and polygamy; and even endorsed
the possibility for offensive jihad against
the U.S.,
as soon as Muslims are strong enough to wage
it.
Finally, it should be noted, 81% of this
sample of Muslim Americans were either
“definitely for Obama,” or “leaning Obama”.
The Obama administration told the Palestinian
Authority it cannot significantly help advance
a Palestinian state until after the 2012
presidential elections, a top PA official told
WND.
The official, however, said the U.S. will
press for a Palestinian state quickly if
President Obama is re-elected.
"The main message we received from the U.S.
is that nothing will happen in a serious
The PA official said Obama "will not accept
the Palestinian request of a state at the
(U.N.) Security Council and cannot help on the
ground for now."
"We were told to wait for Obama's reelection,
and that before then nothing serious will
happen for a state," the official continued.
"But after the reelection, the U.S. said the
schedule will be short to reach a Palestinian
state."
Obama's policies toward Israel have been
highlighted in local and national campaigns,
with many Democrats fearing voters will oppose
them due to the perception the president is
anti-Israel.
Obama's treatment of Israel was a significant
issue in the recent election of Republican Bob
Turner to former Rep. Anthony Weiner's seat in
a district that had not elected a GOP
candidate since 1923.
Also, presidential contenders such as Texas
Gov. Rick Perry and Rep. Michele Bachmann,
R-Minn., have been strongly criticizing Obama
on Israel.
Please read current events from a
variety of sources.
May
2018
As England Moves Submarines Armed With Cruise
Missiles Within Striking Range Of Syria Theresa May
Convenes ‘War Cabinet’
Geoffrey Grider Apr. 11, 2018 Nowthenedbegins.com
Theresa May was poised last night to defy calls
for a Commons vote on military action in Syria. The
Prime Minister summoned ministers back
to London to seek their support for joining an
American-led attack on the Assad regime within days.
EDITOR’S NOTE: British Prime
Minister Theresa May is prepared to act with or
without the consent of Parliament, sources are now
saying. UK submarines armed with Tomahawk cruise
missiles have already been positioned off the coast
of Syria to support the United States just as soon
as President Trump gives the go ahead to launch the
missile strike. Kinda funny to think that a
potential war of such Biblical proportions could be
waged largely on Twitter and social media, yet it
is. The end times clock is ticking, the only
question is will it blink or go boom?
Clearing the way for action, she
declared the use of chemical weapons could not go
unchallenged and said ‘all the indications’ suggested
that Bashar Assad’s forces were responsible for
Saturday’s atrocity near Damascus.
"Colonel Bohannon had the right to exercise his
sincerely held religious beliefs and did not unlawfully
discriminate." Please
click here to read the article in The Patriot Post
in its entirety.
Islamic intimidation of the secular British school
system
Click
here to read an interesting article from
the Gatestone Institute about intimidation of
the secular British school system.
Islamist threats that would be unacceptable coming
from other groups, are not prosecuted by law
enforcement policies in Britain. Policies do not
defend school administrators, or the general
public. But Brits do have a choice- they can be
engulfed by the misogenist totalitarian rule of
Sharia, or die.
What will be the tipping point in America?
The First Amendment Is In Far Greater Danger Than
The Second
Frank Cannon
Town Hall
March 1, 2018
Our
nation’s elites are waging war on the American
people, wielding the institutions they’ve spent
several decades capturing to punish those who
disagree with their preferred positions and to deny
them the ability to speak publicly, all in an effort
to stifle free and open debate. And no, this isn’t a
George Orwell novel — this is the United States of
America.
While
many still mistakenly view our political arena as a
skirmish between “liberals” and “conservatives”, it
would be more accurate to describe it as an all-out
war between “elitists” and “populists”. As my late
friend Jeff Bell argued in his 1992 book, “Populism
and Elitism: Politics in the Age of Equality”,
elitists believe in a top-down approach where a
cadre of experts rule the country and determine what
is acceptable discourse and what is not, while
populists believe the people should ultimately
determine the course of our politics and culture.
Traditionally,
the “elitists” have always had the upper hand in
this battle by controlling many of our cultural
institutions, but the respect for the will of the
people — exercised by the ability to elect our
political leaders — remained in place. Over time,
however, that respect eroded, and today, it is
completely gone. Now the “elitists” find the
“populists” to be repugnant, backward, and bigoted,
and they believe the only way to defeat the people
is to use elite institutional power in academia,
corporate America, the administrative state, and the
mainstream media to stifle debate, force-feed elite
opinions masquerading as facts, and stamp out
dissent.
For
example, consider these three widely held views by
the American people:
Young children should
not be taught about transgenderism or changing
their gender.
Abortion is wrong,
especially after the first trimester.
The right to bear
arms shall not be infringed.
Despite
their relative popularity, these views are repulsive
to our elites, and in recent years, they have sought
to shut down debate on all three topics by calling
anti-gender ideology activists “transphobic”,
anti-abortion activists “anti-women”, and defenders
of the Constitution “gun nuts” who have “blood on
their hands”. On the gender ideology issue, elites
have been wildly successful in completely removing
debate over transgenderism from the public square
and even politics. On abortion, they have largely
failed as pro-life sentiment among the people has
proven too strong for elites to overcome. And on
guns, the jury is still out, but elites are engaging
in perhaps their most brazenly outrageous effort to
silence opposing views to date.
It’s About Tactics, Not Issues
The
battle between elite opinion and popular opinion is
as old as time, but the recent tactical change among
elites seeking to stifle dissenting speech is a new,
and frightening, development. In a departure from
the normal give-and-take of American democracy, the
elites have begun using their clout within every
major institution of civil society to demonize and
punish their opposition — through public shaming in
the media, economic extortion and retaliation by big
businesses, and even criminalization of certain
protest activities. And given their entrenchment
within these institutions, the elites face little or
no consequences for their blatant illiberality.
A
case in point of this change has been the aftermath
of the Parkland school shooting. Despite the
complexity of the issues involved and the diversity
of views held by Americans as to the proper
response, the elites have pursued a scorched earth
campaign against those who do not hold their
black-and-white views on guns. In the news media, a
narrative emphasizing the immediate necessity of
national gun control legislation has become a
24-hour rallying cry, with victims of the tragedy
exploited to advance this narrative and brand those
who disagree as somehow complicit in the violence.
Meanwhile, corporations have begun to sever ties
with the NRA, sending a message that only one side
of the debate is socially acceptable while the other
is deserving of punishment.
A
similar strategy has been playing out with the
movement to normalize the Left’s gender ideology.
Despite a lack of scientific evidence — and
widespread parental skepticism — regarding the
soundness of treating young, gender dysphoric
children with highly experimental puberty blockers
and hormonal treatments, elites have slowly co-opted
influential medical associations in order to ensure
that these treatments are not only widely adopted
but also that alternative approaches to gender
dysphoria are marginalized and even criminalized.
Moreover, opponents of this takeover, no matter how
well-grounded their opposition, are branded by the
media and its self-appointed experts as
“transphobes” and “bigots” while being denied any
opportunity to make their arguments in a respected
forum.
Most Americans Already Understand
What’s Happening
Make
no mistake: an America with total elite control over
the population and where dissent from their views is
vilified is not an America at all. The gun debate is
simply another battle in the all-out war elites are
waging on the American people’s right to even have
an opinion, let alone speak out about it and not be
punished for it.
Fortunately,
the American people are fully cognizant of what is
taking place, which is why they voted for Donald
Trump in 2016. Instead of looking at Trump and
Clinton through the two lenses voters typically use,
moral character and issue positions, voters applied
a third lens: would their views be allowed to be
articulated at all without dire consequences under a
Clinton administration?
We
cannot keep pretending, like so many Never Trumpers
do, that we are operating in an environment of
normal political give-and-take on issues. That time
has passed. We are instead operating in a country
now where elites demonize the populist position with
such ferocity that many are afraid to voice their
opinion at all, which is, of course, the entire
point of their strategy. Our fight is no longer just
over political issues — it is a battle against the
very tactics being used by elites to stifle debate
and destroy the essence of what makes America
great.
Frank Cannon is the president at
American Principles Project.
Islamists seem to be influencing the
British school system with ease: there is simply
no solid opposition to them. The government even
stays silent about the harassment and
intimidation.
Islamists in Britain seem to be
intent on establishing regressive requirements,
such as the hijab for young girls, wife beating,
making homosexuality illegal, death for apostates,
halala rituals in divorce, and exploitation
of women and children through Sharia courts as
part and parcel of British culture.
That St. Stephen's School allowed
itself to be blackmailed in this way bodes ill for
both Britain and its education system.
St. Stephen's School in East London recently imposed
a ban on hijabs (Islamic headscarves), but reversed
its decision after administrators received hundreds
of threats from enraged Muslims.
"This
is an important step in promoting religious
extremism, mob rule and refusing to give #Muslim
young girls equal gender equality rights.... So much
for choice and individual liberty. Terribly sad day
for a secular democracy."
While
secular British values need to be upheld to provide
equal opportunities to everyone, regardless of
caste, creed, gender or color, Islamists seem to be
influencing the British school system with ease:
there is simply no solid opposition to them. The
government even stays silent about the harassment
and intimidation.
Was
St. Stephen's forced to succumb to the pressure of
ignorant zealots, who either do not know or choose
to ignore that under Islamic law (Sharia), girls are
not required to cover their heads until they reach
puberty? Ignorance also seems not to have prevented
them from accusing anyone who says or acts otherwise
of "Islamophobia." It is a form of political
blackmail used by Muslim extremists against the
Western institutions, the values of which they
abhor.
Parliamentary
Under
Secretary of State for the School System, Lord Agnew
of Oulton, pledged to support the schools that are
trying to ban hijabs as well as obligatory fasting:
in Islam, young children are not subject to either.
Lord
Agnew said that the government should support head
teachers in making difficult and "sensitive"
decisions in the face of vitriolic opposition. We
have yet to see the effects of his statement.
Supporting head teachers is one thing, but there is
also a dire need to confront these extremists on all
levels, including law enforcement, if they try to
harass or intimidate anyone.
Someone
please
needs to back up Lord Agnew: there are only a few
such policy-makers left willing to offer rational
help during such crises.
Islamists
in
Britain seem to be intent on establishing regressive
requirements, such as the hijab for young girls,
wife-beating, halala rituals in divorce,
making homosexuality illegal, death for apostates, and the exploitation
of women and children through Sharia courts
as part and parcel with British culture.
Instead
of making statements, the British government needs
to take concrete steps to stop the further
infiltration of these practices into Britain's
social fabric, the warping of children's minds, and
the harassment of whoever disagrees with those
plans.
That
St. Stephen's allowed itself to be blackmailed in
this way bodes ill for both Britain and its
education system.
Khadija Khan is a Pakistani
journalist and commentator, currently based in
Germany.
Under Islamic repression, 'Christianity has ignited
like a flame'
By Bob Unrah 19 February 2018 World Net Daily
Hopeful news out of Iran....
Has Iran taken on a fight that it can never win?
Evidence suggests that might be the case, as the
internationally renowned American Center for Law and
Justice points out that the Islamic regime now is
becoming desperate to extinguish a surging population
of Christians inside its borders.
Iran, after all, is a nation that has exported
terrorism for decades. It has the free world worried
about its nuclear-weapons program. It routinely
threatens to destroy Israel. It interferes with Middle
East conflicts and engages in cyberwar against the
West.
But the American Center for Law and Justice reports
Christianity “has ignited like a flame across the
country of Iran, making the Iranian government so
nervous they’re desperate to extinguish it quickly.”
Iranians are converting to Christianity at a
record-setting pace, with an estimated 360,000 to
800,000 Christians in the country.
There were fewer than 500 back in the 1980s.
“It’s difficult to take an accurate census because
fears of retribution, arrest, and violence keep many
Christian converts from self-identifying. Iranian
authorities have been raiding the homes of suspected
Christians, confiscating their books, computers, and
other media and arresting the men,” ACLJ said.
The government has spent millions of dollars to fight
the growing interest in Christianity, the mission
group Elam Ministries told Mohabat News, a website
that reports on Christians in Iran.
The money has gone toward Islamic propaganda, jailing
church members, confiscation of Christian materials
and more, the report said.
Ayatollah Alavi Boroujerdi, an official at an Islamic
seminary, has confirmed that “youth are becoming
Christians in Qom and attending house churches.”
Christians are being forced to hide their faith to
protect themselves and their families, because
worshipping Jesus “will get you arrested, and very
possibly get you killed,” a critic reported.
“This is something we at the ACLJ have witnessed first
hand, advocating for a number of imprisoned Christians
pastors in Iran – including Youcef Nadarkhani, who we
successfully fought to free from multiple false
imprisonments for his faith. In each of these cases,
Iran has targeted pastors in an attempt to squelch the
Christian church. It has failed each and every time.
In fact, the attempts to silence the church has only
made it louder as Christianity grows in Iran,” ACLJ
said.
What
'peace' means to Muslims; just ask Jefferson By Bill Federer
16 February 2018
World Net Daily
Bill Federer recounts brief history of American
conflicts with brutality of Islam
“The first nation to recognize my country was Morocco,”
stated President Obama in Cairo, Egypt, June 4, 2009.
Morocco began recognizing American colonists in 1625.
Governor William Bradford described the incident in the
History of the Plymouth Settlement. In 1625, the
Pilgrims sent two ships back to England carrying dried
fish and 800 lbs of beaver skins to trade for much
needed supplies.
What happened next?
Bradford related the fate of one ship: “They … were well
within the England channel, almost in sight of Plymouth.
But … there she was unhapply taken by a Turkish
man-of-war and carried off to Morocco where the captain
and crew were made slaves. … Now by the ship taken by
the Turks … all trade was dead.”
...
When America became independent, it was no longer
covered by the British extortion tribute payment to the
Muslim pirates. Morocco “recognized” the United States
in 1785 by capturing two American ships and holding the
sailors for ransom. Thomas Jefferson worked to free
them, writing to John Jay, 1787: “There is an order of
priests called the Mathurins, the object of whose
institution is to beg alms for the redemption of
captives. They keep members always in Barbary, searching
out the captives of their country, and redeem, I
believe, on better terms than any other body, public or
private. It occurred to me, that their agency might be
obtained for the redemption of our prisoners at
Algiers.”
In 1786, Thomas Jefferson wrote to William Carmichael
regarding Tripoli’s demand for extortion tribute
payment, 1786: “Mr. Adams and I had conferences with a
Tripoline ambassador, named Abdrahaman. He asked us
thirty thousand guineas for a peace with his court.”
When Jefferson asked the Muslim Ambassador what the new
country of America had done to offend them, he reported
to John Jay, March 28, 1786: “The ambassador answered us
that it was founded on the laws of the prophet, it was
written in their Qur’an, that all nations which had not
acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the
right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave;
and that every mussulman (Muslim) who was slain in this
warfare was sure to go to paradise. He said, also, that
the man who was the first to board a vessel had one
slave over and above his share, and that when they
sprang to the deck of an enemy’s ship, every sailor held
a dagger in each hand and a third in his mouth; which
usually struck such terror into the foe that they cried
out for quarter at once.”
Jefferson read the Qur’an, not out of admiration but to
understand why Muslims were attacking Americans
unprovoked.
Crisis Magazine
William Kilpatrick
January 2, 2018
Secularists like to advise Christians
that, for the sake of social harmony, they ought to
keep their religion to themselves. Religion, they
argue, is a private affair between an individual and
his designated deity, and ought not to be dragged into
the public square. Moreover, they helpfully add, it’s
an imposition on others to confront them with beliefs
that they may find offensive.
As for themselves, secularists have no
qualms about imposing their own values on everyone
within reach. They are convinced of the rightness of
their beliefs, and consequently they don’t think twice
about forcing Christian bakers, florists, and
photographers to endorse gay weddings. They are also
convinced that they know what’s best for your
children. And what’s best for them, they are quite
certain, is that they learn all the latest fashions in
gender identity and marriage equality. In his groundbreaking 1984 book, The
Naked Public Square, Richard John Neuhaus argued that
the public square can never be naked for long. In
other words, it cannot be neutral about values: “If it
is not clothed with the ‘meanings’ borne by religion,
new ‘meanings’ will be imposed by virtue of the
ambitions of the modern state.” In short, the committed secularist won’t
be satisfied with the removal of the crèche from the
town square. He’ll insist that it be replaced with
something that more accurately reflects American
diversity—say, a monument to Margaret Sanger or a
statue of James Obergefell. Of course, secular
society’s reach extends well beyond the town green.
The religion of secularism is constantly being
advanced in a variety of venues—in courtrooms, school
rooms, and in the newly remodeled bathrooms that
accommodate the newly invented genders. Fr. Neuhaus was right in predicting that
“a perverse notion of the disestablishment of religion
leads to the establishment of the state as Church.”
The secular state quickly moves to enshrine whatever
values it currently smiles upon. And it defends them
as though they were divinely revealed dogma. But,
despite his prescience, Neuhaus did fail to anticipate
another development—namely, that the Judeo-Christian
tradition might be displaced from the public square
not only by the state, but also by another religion.
The possibility that Islam would one day
be a contender for control of the public square
probably didn’t enter his mind. That’s no surprise.
Except for the blip caused by the Iranian Revolution,
Islam wasn’t on anyone’s radar in the early eighties.
Yet Islam is now well on its way to controlling the
public square in parts of Europe. And, were it not for
the election of Donald Trump and the defeat of the
Muslim Brotherhood-friendly Clinton machine, the U.S.
would now be playing catch-up. As has often been observed, Islam is a
political religion. Some, like Dutch MP Geert Wilders,
contend that it is almost totally political with only
a thin and deceptive veneer of religiosity. Whatever
the exact proportion of politics to religion, it’s
hard to deny that the political dimension looms large
in Islam. Muhammad, after all, was a warlord. He
conquered all of Arabia, and within a relatively short
time after his death, his followers conquered an area
larger than the Roman Empire. Sayyid Abul A’la
Maududi, one of the most important twentieth-century
Islamic theorists, wrote that “Islam requires the
earth—not just a portion, but the whole planet.”
Islamic
State Fighter Calls on Muslims to Exploit 2nd
Amendment for Terror Attacks
by Dan Riehl
28 December 2017
Breitbart News
An alleged ISIS fighter with an American accent and
one leg, identified as Abu Salih al-Amriki, used
a web video to call on Muslims to “take
advantage of the gun laws” in America to carry out
terror attacks.
The man also denounced President Donald Trump,
according to reports.
The fighter appeared in a
propaganda video released on Wednesday saying Trump’s
war on Islam was making the US more vulnerable to
terror attacks and would help fuel support globally.
Using the name Abu Salih al-Amriki,
the fighter wore khaki fatigues and had a gun strapped
to him as he condemned President Trump for playing up
a clash of civilizations.
....
According to a report in the Washington Post, the SITE
intelligence group published the video:
...
Last week, the outgoing director of
the National Counterterrorism Center, Nicholas
Rasmussen, told reporters that U.S. gun laws are
undermining efforts to protect the country from
mass-casualty attacks.
“We find ourselves in a more
dangerous situation because our population of violent
extremists has no difficulty gaining access to weapons
that are quite lethal,” Rasmussen said. “I wish that
weren’t so.”
The Post also could be said to have reported the news
with something of an anti-Second Amendment bent as
evidenced by the quotes above.
France allows Muslim street prayers
but bans Christmas movie because it was “too
Christian”
By Voice of Europe
26 December 2017
France is a secular Republic, because it separates
religion and state and it mostly sees religion as a
private matter; restricted to the home and places of
worship.
But for years, France has allowed Muslim street prayers
and to heavily criticise them was simply not done.
Sometimes even roads were blocked and cars were being
redirected to make room for Muslim street prayers. It
looks like when Islam is involved, France’s secular
principles have suddenly disappeared.
For Christianity in France it’s a totally different
story. According to the European Post, a Christmas movie
in the French city of Langon was banned, because it was
“too Christian”, or “not secular enough”. The European
Post writes:
A Christmas movie was judged by teachers as “not secular
enough” and was therefore banned from schools in the
French city of Langon in the department of Gironde on 13
December.
83 students of a French school started to watch the
movie “The Star“, a computer animated adventure comedy
based on the history of Jesus, a movie produced by
Columbia Pictures.
But when the teachers realised the subject of the movie
was the nativity of Jesus Christ, they immediately
cancelled it because it was “not secular enough”. All
students were obliged to go back to school without
watching the end of the movie.
There are more examples. Please
click here to read the article in its entirety.
The
Muslim Brotherhood is launching today a solidarity
call with all Palestinian factions and Islamic
movements to ignite an uprising throughout the Islamic
world against the Zionist occupation and the American
administration in support of the occupation and
against the rights and freedoms of the peoples.
The
last “uprising” some 15 years ago resulted in the
deaths of hundreds of civilians – Christians, Jews and
Muslims.
While
the Brotherhood issued the
statement in the wake of President
Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s
capital a week ago, the organization has been
fomenting anti-American, pro-sharia sentiment for some
time.
Clarion
Project is closely following
Muslim Brotherhood activities on Capitol Hill, across
the United States and beyond.
There
are growing concerns about the strong ties between the
Brotherhood, ISIS and al-Qaeda.
British Intelligence Reportedly Foils Plot To Kill
Prime Minister
Scott Neuman
December 6, 2017
NPR
Britain's domestic intelligence agency MI5 has foiled
a terrorist plot to assassinate Prime Minister Theresa
May, U.K. media report.
Two men have been charged with terrorism-related
offenses in connection with the plot, which reportedly
involved using improvised explosives to blow up the
gate at No. 10 Downing St., the prime minister's
residence, and to kill May in the ensuing chaos,
various media say.
The men, who Sky News said were arrested last week,
were scheduled to appear on Wednesday in Westminster
Magistrates' Court, according to The Telegraph, which
said the information was provided on Tuesday in a
briefing by Andrew Parker, the head of MI5.
However, the prime minister's spokesman declined to
discuss details of the plot.
Sky quoted unnamed sources as describing the planned
attack as "an extreme Islamist suicide plot."
Reuters reports that police have confirmed that the
two suspects are Naa'imur Zakariyah Rahman, 20, of
north London, and Mohammed Aqib Imran, 21, of
southeast Birmingham.
The SuperPAC Attacking Roy Moore
Won’t Disclose Its Donors Before the Vote
Highway 31 has spent millions to
defeat the GOP candidate. And it won’t reveal who
finances it till after the election. The kicker:
It’s all legal.
Lachlan Markay 12.01.17 8:52 AM ET The Daily Beast
The biggest independent spender in the contentious
Alabama Senate race is a super PAC backing Democrat Doug
Jones. But voters will have no idea who is funding its
seven-figure ad blitz until the election is over.
Super PACs are required to disclose their donors, but
the group Highway 31 has structured its spending in a
way that campaign-finance experts say is almost
unprecedented. While legal, it will have the effect of
obscuring the group’s benefactors, who will have
financed a series of ads over the last two months of the
campaign propping up Jones and hammering his Republican
opponent, former State Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore.
Highway 31 has reported nearly $2 million worth of ads
in the race, according to filings with the Federal
Election Commission, making it the single largest
independent spender of the general-election contest. The
group filed what was expected to be its first itemized
disclosure of donors and expenditures Thursday. But in
the filing, Highway 31 said it had received and spent no
money whatsoever.
....
Assuming, as Fischer predicted, that the vendors do not
end up having provided their services pro-bono, he said,
“this looks like a shady scheme to deprive voters of
information about who is trying to influence them.”
U.S. Muslim stokes violence against Coptic
Christians
Posted By Leo Hohmann
11/09/2017
World Net Daily
“As for Muslims, they are the food
of the nations. This is a period when the Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) told us
that the Caliphate will come again.”
– Ayat Oraby, Egyptian
Muslim activist who migrated to U.S. in 1993
Some of the most vicious incitement against Christians
in Egypt originates from a petite Egyptian woman sitting
at a computer in her home in a quiet suburb of New
Jersey.
It is not as though Egypt’s Muslim community needs any
encouragement to go after Coptic Christians, but Arat
Oraby does her part, calling the Copts a “gang” that
needs to be boycotted and subjugated.
“The
racist president who is a supremacist — white, who
does not like Blacks, does not like the Chinese, he
does not like the Muslims, he doesn’t like the
Hispanics,” Vicente Adolfo Solano declared in Spanish,
standing in front an ISIS flag. “In the name of Allah
and our leader, Abu, we are going to defeat you.”
Solano, a 53-year-old Honduran living in Miami,
seemed like an unlikely candidate to join ISIS.
“I am
going to plant a bomb like in Boston, in the name
of Allah”
But there he is on video lashing out at President
Trump. Solano was resentful over his “temporary
immigration status”. Hondurans living in the United
States had been automatically converted to “refugees”
after Hurricane Mitch in 1999. Temporary Protected
Status for the eighteen year hurricane refugees
expires in Jan 2018. And President Trump appears
unwilling to extend it any further.
Inside Hillary Clinton's Secret Takeover of the DNC
by Donna Brazile Politico November 2, 2017
"When I was asked to run the Democratic Party after the
Russians hacked our emails, I stumbled on to a shocking
truth about the Clinton campaign." Click
here to read more from this American author and
political analyst. Ms Brazile is a member of the
Democratic Party, serving as the interim chairperson fo
rthe Democratic National Committee in spring 2011, and
assumed that role again in July 2016, until February
2017.
FLASHBACK:
Author sees Islam's 20-year plan for U.S.
Arab-American author outlined secret, in 2003
World Net Daily Joseph Farah August 4, 2003
(reposted November 2, 2017 for your consideration)
"You've Come A Long Way Baby"
These just a few of the TWENTY action points for Islam
to conquer the United States:
* Terminate America's freedom of speech by replacing it
with statewide and nationwide hate-crime bills.
*Nominate Muslim sympathizers to political office to
bring about favorable legislation toward Islam and
support potential sympathizers by block voting.
*Take control of as much of Hollywood, the press, TV,
radio and the Internet as possible by buying the related
corporations or a controlling stock.
*Yell "foul, out-of-context, personal interpretation,
hate crime, Zionist, un-American, inaccurate
interpretation of the Quran” anytime Islam is criticized
or the Quran is analyzed in the public arena.
*Encourage Muslims to penetrate the White House,
specifically with Islamists who can articulate a
marvelous and peaceful picture of Islam.
What about that Justice
Gorsuch upholding the Constitution that our leaders
and defenders pledge to protect and defend?
The liberal NPR (National Propaganda Reporting) and
other traditional unschooled libs, chide a Supreme Court
justice for basing his judgements upon the U.S.
Constitution. Hail to that unprecedented document
that recognized some self-evident unchangeable values of
individual liberty, and the importance to rein in a
national government that (like gravity) tends to
encroach individual freedoms.
Chuck Todd: Roy Moore Doesn't 'Believe in the
Constitution' Because He Thinks Rights Come From God
BY:
Alex Griswold
Washington Free Beacon
September 27, 2017 6:33 pm
MSNBC host Chuck Todd said Wednesday that Republican
Alabama senatorial candidate Roy Moore doesn't believe
in the U.S. Constitution because he believes in
God-given rights.
Todd, introducing his discussion of the former Alabama
chief justice, said that "the phrase ‘Christian
conservative' doesn't even begin to describe him."
"First off, he doesn't appear to believe in the
Constitution as it's written," Todd said.
He then played a clip of Moore saying, "Our rights
don't come from government, they don't come from the
Bill of Rights, they come from Almighty God."
"Those are just a taste of what are very
fundamentalist views that have gotten him removed from
office twice as Alabama's chief justice," Todd said.
Moore's views are actually well in line with the
philosophy of many of the Founders. As they saw it,
the Constitution and the government only protected
inalienable rights that were endowed by God or some
other divine provenance.
Please click here to read more of the article
From Transgender to Transformed
by Brian Hobbs The Baptist Messenger posted Tuesday, August 08, 2017
BARTLESVILLE, Okla. -- Francine Perry and her daughter
Laura recently sat down to look at family photos. As
they reflected on the good times, they also could see
how God was at work, especially through the difficult
times -- and there were many of those.
On the heels of rebellious teenage years, Laura
lived as a transgender man for nearly a decade of her
adult life. Other than her family and select friends,
though, most people just knew Laura as "Jake."
...It would be a long road leading home, but God began
to awaken faith and belief in Laura.
"I always knew about Jesus and believed. But I never
knew Jesus personally or made Him Lord of my life,"
Laura said.
Francine and Paul (Laura's parents) kept the lines
of communication open, and met with Laura from time to
time.
Francine said, "It was as if God said to me, 'If you
keep trying to fix Laura yourself, I will not. If you
just sit down and leave Laura to me, I will work.'"
That began the change, not only in Francine's life and
heart but Laura's.
"I didn't know what came next," Laura said. "But I was
clinging to God's promise that He would take care of me.
I experienced such love and acceptance from my mother's
Bible study group. It was hard, but I had never
experienced such peace and love as when I came back to
the church."
...Last August, Laura made her decision to follow Christ
public in front of the church and was baptized the
following month.
The journey home, which took place a year ago, has led
to both restoration and reconciliation. Francine and
Paul believe God answered their prayers, and they
believe that parents should never stop praying for their
"prodigal" child or children.
They give all glory to God. "Only God could have done
this," Francine said.
Pastor James also sees God's grace demonstrated in the
Perry family.
Brian Hobbs is editor of The Baptist Messenger (www.baptistmessenger.com),
newsjournal of the Baptist General Convention of
Oklahoma, and communications director of the BGCO.
An NSC Staffer Is Forced Out Over a Controversial
Memo
The document charges that globalists, Islamists, and
other forces within and outside the government are
subverting President Trump’s agenda.
Rosie Gray
August 2, 2017
TheAtlantic.com
A top official of the National Security Council was
fired last month after arguing in a memo that President
Trump is under sustained attack from subversive forces
both within and outside the government who are deploying
Maoist tactics to defeat President Trump’s nationalist
agenda.
His dismissal marks the latest victory by National
Security Adviser H.R. McMaster in the ongoing war within
Trump’s White House between those who believe that the
president is under threat from dark forces plotting to
undermine him, and those like McMaster who dismiss this
as conspiratorial thinking.
Rich Higgins, a former Pentagon official who served in
the NSC’s strategic-planning office as a director for
strategic planning, was let go on July 21. Higgins’s
memo describes supposed domestic and international
threats to Trump’s presidency, including globalists,
bankers, the “deep state,” and Islamists. The memo
characterizes the Russia story as a plot to sabotage
Trump’s nationalist agenda. It asserts that globalists
and Islamists are seeking to destroy America. The memo
also includes a set of recommendations, arguing that the
problem constitutes a national-security priority.
(Why does it seem to me that McM is the one with the
blindspot? Is he so young that he doesn't recognize a
threat when it is more subtle than a North Korean
missile? My WWII era military Dad recognized and
taught threats to America, but that was from a time
when global security threats like Communism and
totalitarianism were recognized and taught in our
schools as well as to our fighting forces. Just
saying...)
Former U.N. Amb. Power Unmasked ‘Hundreds’ In Final
Year Of Obama Admin
Congress moves closer to detailing potentially
illicit national security leaks
by Adam Kredo
of the Free Beacon
August 2, 2017
Former United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power is
believed to have made "hundreds" of unmasking requests
to identify individuals named in classified intelligence
community reports related to Trump and his presidential
transition team, according to multiple sources who said
the behavior is unprecedented for an official in her
position.
Will There Be Justice For Family Whose Home Was
Raided Because Cops Couldn't Tell Tea From Pot?
August 1, 2017 Forbes.com George Leef, contributor
A case just decided by the Tenth Circuit shows how
utterly absurd the “war on drugs” has become, how petty
and power-mad the police can be, and how blindly
deferential some of our federal judges are.
The case, Harte v. Johnson County Board of
Commissioners, arose out of an idiotic, military-style
raid by Kansas police on the home of Robert and Adlynn
Harte in 2012. They were not in any way involved with
drugs (particularly marijuana), but a few officers came
to the conclusion that they might be.
Ohio Muslim plotted U.S. attack after
training in Syria
Lied to FBI about
international terrorist activities
World Net Daily
Art Moore
July 5, 2017
An Ohio Muslim who pleaded guilty to
plotting a “big” terrorist attack in the United
States after receiving training from jihadists in
Syria was found to have lied to the FBI.
The public release of the plea deal came
Thursday as President Trump’s executive order
temporarily banning travelers from Syria and five
other terror hot spots went into effect.
A federal grand jury charged Abdirahman
Sheik Mohamud with providing material support to
terrorists, providing support to a designated
terrorist organization and lying to the FBI about
international terrorism.
His lack of cooperation with the FBI is a
salient point, says Jihad Watch Director Robert
Spencer, because the leading Islamic civil rights
organization, the Council on American-Islamic
Relations, or CAIR, urges Muslims in the U.S. not to
answer the bureau’s questions if interviewed
regarding terrorist activity.
Government: Can't share 'teachings that
denigrate or vilify someone's sexual orientation'
World Net Daily
July 5, 2017
A Christian school in Alberta, Canada, is
learning the perils of depending on public funding
for its operation.
Cornerstone Christian Academy and Battle
River School Division have enjoyed a nine-year
cooperative arrangement where the Christian school
is operated as an alternative public school,
providing nondenominational Christian instruction.
BRSD leased facilities to the school and provided
instructional resources available to other public
schools. Thanks to the partnership, student tuition
was lower than private Christian schooling, with
fees going primarily to cover facility costs and bus
transportation.
But that has come to an end in a dispute
over the school’s use of two biblical passages that
BRSD board members contend “denigrate” and “vilify”
LGBT individuals.
Cornerstone Chairwoman Deanna Margel said
school staff were told by email the passages from
the letters of St. Paul “should not be read or
studied.” She called the directive “shocking,”
reported the London Express.
“We’re talking about freedom of religion,
but we’re also talking about freedom of expression.
We need every single word there [from the Bible] to
challenge us, to call us to greater understanding.
It’s just so important.”
A spokesman with the Justice Center for
Constitutional Freedom, a legal group representing
Cornerstone, said BRSD’s funding-body members “have
no right to impose their own ideology on schools
they disagree with.”
written by Ron Bischof July 6, 2017 The Signal of Santa Clarita Valley
Our republic is again embroiled in a contentious debate
over the federal government’s role in “health care.” I
use “scare quotes” here because the issue currently
under debate is fundamentally about funding of medical
services and who pays for them.
My fellow columnists have written thoughtful and
concerning columns that have addressed their challenges
with PPACA (Obamacare), health insurance carriers and
prospective legislative solutions to address the defects
in our health-care delivery and financing system.
Sweden on the Brink of CIVIL WAR, National Police
Chief: “HELP US, HELP US!”
Jihad Watch June 25, 2017 By Nicolai Sennels
Sweden is being torn to pieces by Muslim immigrants
and refugees. Law enforcement is crying out for help,
and it is only a question of time before the country
will need military intervention from abroad in order
to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe.
A leaked report concludes that the number of lawless
areas (commonly referred to as “no-go zones”) in
Sweden now totals 61. That is up from 55 in just one
year’s time. This increase includes not only the total
number, but also the geographical size of these areas.
Sweden’s National Police Commissioner, Dan Eliasson,
spoke on national television and pleaded for
assistance: “Help us, help us!,” he said, while
warning that Swedish police forces no longer can
uphold the law and therefore must ask all good powers
in the country to support them.
Moms declare holy war after school teaches
Islam 'true faith'
Women pilloried as 'KKK' for going public with
lesson concerns
Updated: 04/01/2017 at 6:15 PM Author: Leo Hohmann World Net Daily
A middle school in Chatham, New Jersey, is using a
cartoon video to teach the Five Pillars of Islam to
seventh-grade students, and now two parents have
obtained legal services to fight the school district
which has ignored their concerns.
Seventh graders in this school are taught: “May God
help us all find the true faith, Islam.”
Also taught in the video is the Shahada, which is the
Muslim prayer of conversion “There is no god but Allah
and Muhammad is his messenger.”
The parents say no other religion is taught nearly to
this level of detail in the “world cultures and
geography” class.
The parents wanted to know who picked the curriculum,
who picked the video and the accompanying PowerPoint.
None of their concerns have been addressed by the
school board or the superintendent.
So, the two mothers have retained legal help from the
Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Thomas More Law Center.
For speaking out, the moms have been attacked by
members of their community. Their crime: appearing on
Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” to voice concerns
about Islamic indoctrination of Chatham Middle School
seventh graders.
Trump Wins Saudi Praise for ‘Turning Point’ After
Meeting Prince
by Nafeesa Syeed and Glen Carey March 15, 2017, 11:08 AM EDT
Saudi Arabia, seeking to breathe life into its
decades-old alliance with the U.S., claimed “a
historic turning point” in bilateral relations after
President Donald Trump welcomed Deputy Crown Prince
Mohammed bin Salman to the White House.
“Relations had undergone a
period of difference of opinion,” a senior adviser to
the crown prince said in a statement after Tuesday’s
meeting. “However, today’s meeting has put things on
the right track, and marked a significant shift in
relations, across all political, military, security
and economic fields.”
Sunni Arab leaders are embracing Trump with praise
the president isn’t finding from other U.S. allies in
the world, reflecting an eagerness to reset ties after
feeling shunned by President Barack Obama, who crafted
the 2015 nuclear deal with their Shiite rival Iran.
The Saudi statement said Trump had a “great
understanding” of the bilateral relationship. The
president and the prince “share the same views on the
gravity of the Iranian expansionist moves in the
region,” the adviser said.
In a statement Wednesday, the White House said that
Trump and the prince “directed their teams to explore
additional steps across a broad range of political,
military, security, economic, cultural, and social
dimensions to further strengthen and elevate the
United States-Saudi strategic relationship” and to
confront “Iran’s destabilizing regional activities.”
But while Trump has signaled his plans for a more
aggressive policy against the Islamic Republic,
political analysts say it’s unlikely he’d seek an open
confrontation with Iran or deepen the U.S. role in
Iraq, Syria and Yemen, which are serving as proxy
battlegrounds between the regional rivals.
“The administration will give the Saudis the rhetoric
they want on Iran -- more confrontational, emphasize
the threat,” said Gregory Gause, a professor of
international affairs at Texas A&M University and
a Saudi specialist. “But in terms of specifics, I do
not think that the Trump administration wants to get
more deeply involved in Iraq, Syria or other places
where the Saudis would want help in turning back
Iranian influence.”
Saudi Arabia and its closest regional ally, the
United Arab Emirates, are bogged down in a two-year
war in Yemen against Shiite rebels they say are armed
by Iran. Its leaders have openly complained about the
rising Iranian influence in Iraq. In Syria, the Sunni
rebels they have backed are losing ground against
President Bashar al-Assad and Hezbollah, the
Iranian-backed Shiite militant group.
Germany: Muslim migrant killed “infidel” landlady,
scrawled Qur’an verses on wall
Jihadwatch.org
January 26, 2017 2:09 pm
By Robert Spencer
Remember: if you think this is reprehensible, you’re a
racist, bigoted “Islamophobe.”
“Asylum seeker in court for killing ‘infidel’ landlady,”
Express, January 26, 2017:
An asylum seeker has appeared in
court accused of having killed his landlady because she
was an infidel.
The man named only as Abubaker C.
appeared for the first time in the courthouse of
Heilbronn, a city in the south-western German state of
Baden-Wuerttemberg, on murder charges.
Prosecutors say the asylum seeker
killed his landlady Maria M., 70, in the nearby town of
Bad Friedrichshall because she was an infidel.
Although the man’s full surname has
been withheld under Germany’s privacy laws, his real
name is unclear because he has given various names and
ages when questioned about himself, telling detectives
on one occasion: “I am known by many names.”
The asylum seeker is estimated to be
27 years old and thought to have been born in Pakistan,
although he says his family moved to Saudi Arabia with
him later on in life.
In court he had a Punjabi translator,
a language spoken in Pakistan.
The prosecution alleges that the
defendant strangled his victim with a telephone cable.
Afterwards, he is said to have
smashed his victim’s face with an iron rod and fled the
house with cash and jewellery.
When the police arrived, the walls
were full of Arabic writing, including verses of the
Quran, and also the English phrase: “It’s payback time.”
A lawyer for the prosecution said:
“The accused wanted to kill a person who disbelieved in
his view.”
This ^ ten minute youtube video is an aid in your
understanding, as a westerner and American, of ISIL,
radical Islam, an enemy of freedom, through the words of
a British Islamist, Anjem Choudary. His view of Islam
upholds the totalitarian notion that those non-Muslims
and apostates who do not agree with, and bow to the
tenets of his religion should be killed, and the entire
world should be under the rule of sharia (Muslim) law.
He repeatedly proclaims that the killing of non-Muslims,
is legitimate.
On 6 September 2016, Choudary was sentenced to five
years and six months in prison for his support for a
proscribed organization ISIS.
Several quotes from that trial:
The judge: “The jury were sure that you knowingly
crossed the line between the legitimate expression of
your own views and the criminal act of inviting support
for an organisation which was at the time engaged in
appalling acts of terrorism.”
The judge said both men (he and his acolyte Mohammed
Rahman, 33) justified Isis’s most appalling acts and
expressed contempt for democracy. They had “encouraged
your audience ... to believe that no one who failed to
support the caliphate established by Isis could be a
true Muslim,” the judge said.
Pam Geller does a fine job (when she has a chance to
speak) of defending the Western notion that the Lord God
created people as free beings rather than robots, an
inconvenient truth for tyrants and despots.
To allude to a comic strip, Pogo, from the 1950s to
1970s, We have met the enemy and this time it isn't us.
House Dems demand 'full, categorical pardon' for
illegals
Say Obama misunderstands extent of
own powers
By Stephen Dinan The Washington Time Wednesday, December 7, 2016
House Democrats renewed their call for President Obama
to issue a “full, categorical pardon” for illegal
immigrants, saying Wednesday that he is misunderstanding
the extent of his powers and he can, in fact, help out
hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrant Dreamers.
Young adults who came to the U.S. as children, the more
than 740,000 Dreamers who gained tentative legal status
under Mr. Obama’s 2012 deportation amnesty, are the most
sympathetic figures in the debate.
Democrats demand ‘full, categorical pardon’ for illegal
immigrants, say Obama ignoring own powers
Democrats said they trusted Mr. Obama’s promises and
came forward, announcing themselves as illegal
immigrants, and now a Trump administration would have a
road map for how to deport them, unless the president
finds a way to shield them.
“You’re the president of the United States, you asked
them to join this program, you use the power of your
pardon,” said Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez, an Illinois
Democrat who led a letter signed by more than 60 House
Democrats in asking for the relief.
The White House’s top domestic policy adviser shot down
the idea of a pardon, saying that they had concluded
that the president’s powers apply to criminal offenses,
while immigration status is a civil offense. Cecilia
Munoz, the adviser, also said a pardon couldn’t grant
legal status, so the Dreamers would still not be on firm
footing even if they could be pardoned for their
immigration offenses.
A Toronto conference last week asked: Why is the world
silent about Christian genocide?
“If Christianity [in the Middle East] survives, it will
not be because of any interest taken by Christians in
our part of the world, but rather because the State of
Israel, the people of Israel, and conscientious Jews
everywhere are dedicated to saving it,” said Dr. Paul
Merkley, Professor of History at Carleton University,
last week in a panel discussion at Toronto’s Beth Radom
synagogue.
The academic conference, titled “Christian Genocide in
the Middle East: Why is the World Silent?” was
co-sponsored by the International Christian Embassy
Jerusalem and the Canadian Institute for Jewish
Research.
“In 1910, it’s estimated that Christians were 14% of the
Middle Eastern population” said Dr. Frederick Krantz,
Director of CIJR. “Today, they are under 4% and rapidly
declining.”
Other figures were highlighted throughout the
conference, such as how in Iraq alone, there were 1.5
million Christians until 2003. Today, that number is
estimated at 275,000 with the strong likelihood that
there won’t be any more of a community left within five
years.
Much of the present-day persecution was tied to the
Islamic State. National Executive Director of ICEJ
Canada, Donna Holbrook, showed graphic images of the
genocide of Christians currently taking place in Iraq.
“This mother was killed, but not before the terrorists
made her watch them kill her baby,” said Holbrook,
showing a horrific image of an Iraqi Christian woman
murdered by ISIS terrorists. Please
click here to read the complete article on the
American Spectator.
AMERICA TO TRUMP: YOU'RE HIRED!
November 9, 2016
The Following Article is
preprinted from the Family Research Council's
website of November 9, 2016 with their permission.
Read on or click here to go directly to their
website:
"Weeping
may endure for the night," the Psalmist David wrote,
"but joy comes in the morning." In the case of most
Americans, those nights stretched into very long
years -- a nightmare from which the nation finally
awoke last night with the astonishing news that
voters rejected the continuation of the anti-faith,
anti-family policies of Barack Obama. Instead, a
nation, spurned by almost a decade of a radical
liberalism, turned out with a vengeance -- electing
Donald Trump in perhaps the most stunning political
upset of the modern age. In a year of surprises, the
ultimate outsider delivered the biggest, tapping
into the frustration that pollsters didn't detect
and liberal elites never took seriously.
"The
forgotten men and women of our country will be
forgotten no longer," vowed the president-elect, who
not only overcame the opposition of the Democratic
Party, but his own -- soaring to victory in spite of
a biased media, his own personal baggage, lopsided
polls, and a bevy of Hollywood stars. In disbelief,
pundits watched the electoral map turn into a sea of
red, colored by eight years of disillusionment with
the president's extremist agenda. Fueled by massive
turnout, the highest in history, voters delivered a
stinging repudiation -- not just of Hillary
Clinton's ultra-liberal agenda, but of the entire
Obama era. Tired of the Left's contempt and
unwilling to answer to pollsters, a silent
majority, propelled the GOP to a victory no
one saw coming.
But the
night wasn't just a vindication of Donald Trump. It
was also a validation of the evangelical movement,
which once again overcame the media's narrative of
division to deliver one of the most significant
political messages this country has ever seen. In
nearly every election cycle for the last 40 years,
liberals have tried to bury a movement they wish had
never been born. And last night, they learned just
how impossible that prospect will be. Evangelicals,
many of whom (myself included) backed other
candidates during the primary, quietly assessed the
perilous state of the nation and unified behind
Trump in greater numbers than they had behind the
last three GOP nominees. To the astonishment of
everyone, Trump outperformed John McCain, Mitt
Romney, and even George W. Bush-winning an
overwhelming 81% of the evangelical vote . FRC
was proud to play a crucial role in that surge,
calling or knocking on the doors of more than
264,000 in North Carolina alone. We rolled
through 20 states on our Values Bus with the message
of what was at stake in this election, making more
than 140 stops, and moving the needle on a vital
bloc of voters who undoubtedly helped deliver
Trump's win.
If the
media had questions about the influence of the
religious right, they were answered early Wednesday
morning by the greatest coalescence around a
Republican nominee in two decades. Turns out, the
press had about as much success writing the obituary
of the evangelical movement as it had predicting
this election. (And that isn't much!) Anyone who
traveled the country these last few months saw how
values voters connected with Donald Trump, not
because of shared values, but because of shared
concerns over the damage a Clinton Supreme Court
would do to our freedom. Combine that with targeted
videos like ours , and it's no wonder the
number of voters who ranked the Supreme Court as
their most important issue soared to 21 percent by
Election Day (and even higher among evangelicals!).
Making
the night even worse for Democrats, the GOP held on
to its majorities in Congress, giving Donald Trump
the keys to a unified Republican government -- and
ousting a handful of gutless moderates in the
process. Of the Senate's True Bluers (members who
voted with FRC Action 100 percent of the time), 14
out of 14 won -- a feat replicated in the House,
where 139 of 158 also held on to their seats. With
their hands on the levers of power, Republicans
finally have the mandate they need to roll back the
oppression of the Obama era, defund Planned
Parenthood (both of which Congress has done before),
defend the ban on taxpayer-funded abortion, repeal
Obamacare, restore pulpit freedom, appoint pro-life
judges, tear up the Iranian nuclear deal, invalidate
Obama's executive orders, beef up our military,
protect the privacy of women and children in
bathrooms, and so much more. Truly, this is an
unprecedented opportunity to turn back the clock on
a radical administration that was on the cusp of
driving America into the ground. Instead, it seems
Barack Obama decimated his own party, putting
Democrats in a significantly weakened position.
In
states, where conservatives have made the most
strides under Obama, the GOP continued its
state-level dominance. The historic gains that
started under this president continued, resulting in
another major increase of Republican governors. By
week's end, the GOP will hold at least 33
gubernatorial seats -- up from 22 in 2008 .
Winners included Missouri's former Navy SEAL Eric
Greitens, Vermont's Lieutenant Governor Phil Scott,
Indiana's Lieutenant Governor Eric Holcomb, Utah's
incumbent Gary Herbert, and North Dakota's Doug
Burgum (with Montana still too close to call). The
celebration continued in the Kentucky legislature,
which flipped to Republican control for the first
time in 100 years. Iowa's Senate was next,
leading the New York Times to mourn that, "At least
20 chambers were seen as highly competitive in the
election, and a majority of those are now controlled
by Republicans."
One of
the biggest prizes of the night, however, was North
Carolina -- which not only helped push Trump over
the top but also beat back the narrative on H.B. 2,
the state's Public Facilities Privacy & Security
Act. While liberals continue to pump out phony
argument that gender-specific bathrooms will cost
Republicans their majority, nothing could be farther
from the truth! If protecting women and children
were as unpopular as the Left claims it is, why did
the GOP add to their veto-proof majority in both
chambers and reelect Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest
(R), who was the driving force behind the law? While
Governor Pat McCrory's (R) race is too close to
call, there's plenty of evidence that his opponent's
surge had nothing to do with outrage over H.B. 2 and
everything to do with the shady decision of a Durham
County judge to leave the polls open when it was
clear that Roy Cooper (D) was significantly behind.
In the
end, what we witnessed wasn't just the revenge of
the deplorables, but the collapse of the Obama
legacy. After the spectacular failures of Obamacare,
the demoralization of our military, the explosion of
lawlessness, tolerance of corruption, and obsession
with social engineering, Americans finally have the
opportunity to rebuild the country they once knew.
But the election is just the starting gun. Donald
Trump may open the door to America's solutions, but
he was never meant to be the solution. The
true transformation of a society starts in the
hearts and minds of men. And under an administration
with no interest in continuing the eight-year war on
the First Amendment, we may finally see what the
Church is capable of. In the meantime, one thing
about this historic uprising is clear: Americans are
looking for leaders of conviction. And as last
night's results show, they will accept no
substitutes.
Tony
Perkins' Washington Update is written with the aid
of FRC Action senior writers.
November 3, 2016
US taxpayers (by way of deficit spending to be
inherited by our children) are footing the bill for
the U.S. State Department's refurbishment of mosques
and setting up of internet service in Muslim countries
of the Middle East.
Those Muslim nations (rightly) views us as
weak, appeasing fools, worthy of contempt.
As a US citizen and taxpayer, I regard the
U.S. federal government as a poor steward of my hard
earned money and US State Department expenditures as
treasonous to my children and our way of life. Check
out this short video and see what you think.
In Colo.,
a look at life after marijuana legalization
Boston Globe
Joshua
Miller
Feb 22, 2016
DENVER —
Nestled between a 7-Eleven and a store selling
Broncos jerseys, the door to the generic-looking
retail establishment is easy to miss. But once
inside, the smell is unmistakable.
At Euflora, tables are filled
with glass containers of marijuana next to
interactive tablets describing each strain (“sweet
floral aroma,” “intoxicatingly potent”). An array
of marijuana-infused products beckon behind locked
cases: from energy shots to sour gummies, brownies
to bacon brittle. And if you’re 21 or older, it’s
all legal to buy.
This is Colorado,
where a billion-dollar-a-year legal marijuana
industry has emerged since January 2014. It offers
an early look at what Massachusetts
could face should voters greenlight an expected
ballot question and legalize the drug this fall.
So has legalization been a plus
or a minus?
“Yes,” Colorado Senate
President Bill Cadman replied with a laugh.
The consensus among several top
state officials — who emphasize that their job is
to carry out the will of the voters rather than
mull whether their constituents made the right
choice — is that there have been no widely felt
negative effects on the state since marijuana
became legal, and a crop of retail stores,
cultivation facilities, and manufacturers sprung
up from Aurora to Telluride.
Legalization has ushered in
thousands of new jobs in the burgeoning industry,
brought $135 million into state coffers last year,
and ended the prohibition of a widely used
substance.
But police say they struggle to
enforce a patchwork of laws covering marijuana,
including drugged driving. Officials fret about
the industry becoming like big tobacco, dodging
regulation and luring users with slick
advertising. And this state, long a leader in
cannabis use, has the highest
youth rate of marijuana use in the nation,
according to the most recent data available from a
federal drug-use survey.
Colorado
voters approved a constitutional amendment in
November 2012 legalizing the sale of recreational
marijuana, which began in 2014.
The drug is heavily regulated.
Each plant for sale must be tagged with a radio
frequency identification chip, from an early stage
of its life to sale, to help the state track it.
Marijuana, both in plant form and infused in
products, is required to be tested for potency and
contaminants, and sold in child-resistant
containers.
Tourists and locals alike can
buy recreational marijuana as long as they are at
least 21 and can possess up to 1 ounce. Only those
with a medical marijuana “red card,” issued by the
state on the recommendation of a physician, can
possess more at one time.
While the popular image of
marijuana use remains joints and vaporizers, a
significant percentage of marijuana sales in
Colorado — nearly half according to some estimates
— take the form of infused products, such as
edible treats, pills, drops, bath soak, and even
“sensual enhancement oil.”
More than two years into the
still-rapidly growing industry, how do top
officials and their constituents see legalization?
“There are a certain number of
folks, like myself, who were pretty reticent about
it to begin with,” said House Speaker Dickey Lee
Hullinghorst, a Democrat. But “the sky didn’t
fall. Everything seems to be working pretty well.”
That’s in line with the view of
Colorado
voters, according to a November 2015 survey. The
poll found 53 percent believe legalizing marijuana
has been good for the state, while 39 percent
believe it has been bad.
And Dr. Larry Wolk, the top
medical official in Colorado’s
public health department, said that since
legalization no large troubling public health
trends have cropped up yet. But he noted
sporadic reports of impaired driving and people
getting violently ill from ingesting too much
marijuana in edibles, such as candy bars.
He said this month new data
indicate that the biggest
increases in marijuana hospitalizations have
been seen among out-of-staters, who might be
naive about the drug’s effects.
All marijuana, including
medical, is subject to standard state and local
sales tax in Colorado.
But recreational marijuana is also subject to an
additional 10 percent special state tax, along
with additional local marijuana taxes. And there’s
also a 15 percent excise tax on wholesale
transfers of recreational marijuana, that ends up
raising retail prices.
For producers, the tax picture
is among the many complexities of running a
marijuana business.
Sally Vander Veer, president of
one of the state’s largest dispensaries and
cultivation operations, which has 70 employees and
a payroll of about $3.8 million a year, is bullish
on her rapidly expanding business. Medicine Man
has a 40 percent profit margin, she said. But her
company struggles with what she estimates to be an
effective tax rate of nearly 50 percent, as well
as having to deal almost exclusively in cash.
Because marijuana remains illegal under federal
law, access to banking services is severely
restricted.
The state saw $135 million in
tax and fee revenue last year from the
recreational and medical marijuana industry, money
that has gone to, among other efforts, education
for youth and law enforcement on the drug.
State Representative Jonathan
Singer, a leader on marijuana issues in the House,
said what legalization has done is “allowed
marijuana to pay its own way,” with the cost of
regulation paid for by dispensaries and consumers.
Yet law
enforcement officials offer a more negative,
chaotic view. They paint a picture of a quickly
evolving array of laws, regulations, and
ordinances that outpace their enforcement tools
for related issues, such as drugged driving.
For one, they say, there’s no
quick, reliable check to see whether drivers are
too high to operate a vehicle safely, as
there is for blood-alcohol level. And there’s no
easy way to determine whether food products in a
vehicle are infused with pot.
“You have no ability to test
the gummy bear laying there on the dashboard,”
said Chief John Jackson of the Greenwood Village,
Colo., Police Department said.
“Edibles pose a problem because
there is no way to tell the potency of it, there
is no way to test it in the field. And no law
enforcement officer is going to lick it and say,
‘Well, there’s marijuana, THC in that.’ ” (THC is
the primary psychoactive compound in marijuana.)
Jackson, former president of
the Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police, and
other police officials said legalization simply
moved much faster than law enforcement officers’
ability to keep up with it.
Jackson, who sounded
beleaguered in an interview, said a fallacy of
legalization is that it would give law enforcement
time back to focus on more serious, complicated
criminal issues and bigger drug problems.
Two years and two months into
full legalization, he said, “we’re not seeing
that.”
Another problem with edible
marijuana products, said Dr. Michael DiStefano,
who directs emergency medicine clinical operations
at Colorado’s
only top-level pediatric trauma center: the
inability of kids to distinguish between normal
products and those infused with THC.
When marijuana is “handled
responsibly, it’s not an issue for children’s
health. The problem is a lot of these edibles,” he
said. “They look like regular candy. . . . There’s
no way to discern what is an edible gummy bear
that has THC in it, versus a regular gummy bear.
In fact, you cannot distinguish them unless
they’re in the package.”
He said he’s seen an uptick in
kids admitted to the ER at Children’s Hospital Colorado
— to about 15 last year — ill from accidentally
ingesting edible marijuana-infused foods since the
drug became legal for recreational use in January
2014.
Indeed, the most grinding
concerns and the biggest question marks focus on
kids and young adults. But the effects of
legalization on children remain effectively
unknown with about two years of experience and
lagging statistics.
Opponents of legalization point
to a federal drug survey that estimates Colorado
had the highest level of any state of 12- to
17-year-olds reporting marijuana use in the last
30 days for 2013-2014. But the change in
Colorado’s youth use rate from 2012-2013 — before
full legalization— to 2013-2014 — partly after —
was not statistically significant. And federal
statisticians say the findings are not sufficient
to draw conclusions about changes in youth
marijuana use patterns as a result of
legalization.
Wolk, the top doctor at the
state’s public health department, said Colorado
marijuana use has always been high compared with
the rest of the country.
“No pun intended,” he said, “we
started high and stayed high — use hasn’t
increased in a statistically significant way since
legalization. Those that were using before are
still using now, among youths and adults.”
For some opponents, a big
concern isn’t just what has happened so far, but
what’s yet to come. They worry that the burgeoning
marijuana industry, like alcohol and tobacco
before it, could eventually use its profits to
gain clout and subvert attempts at regulation.
Jeffrey Zinsmeister, executive
vice president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a
national nonprofit group cofounded by former US
representative Patrick Kennedy that opposes
legalization and commercialization of marijuana,
said there have been several red flags.
“You’re seeing this headlong
rush into another addictive industry without
knowing what widespread marijuana use is going to
do to society,” he warned. “And the signs from Colorado
are not good.”
Officials say their primary
concerns include: adults being
able to legally consume the drug normalizes it
for kids; Joe
Camel-like ads that make pot smoking seem
appealing to kids; and legalization
increasing availability, thus making the barrier
to getting marijuana lower.
“I worry about normalization, I
worry about commercialization, and I worry about
availability,” said Andrew Freedman, who directs
Governor John Hickenlooper’s Office of Marijuana
Coordination.
“What happens to people over
the long term, especially kids over the long term,
as they see marijuana normalized, as they see
people advertising for marijuana, and as
accessibility becomes greater and greater?” he
asked. “Kids who are, right now, saying, ‘No
thanks,’ will that change over time?”
Freedman and other people
deeply involved in the day-to-day oversight of the
new market say it functions pretty smoothly. But they
emphasize the broader question of whether or not
legalization ends up a success will probably
take five or 10 years to answer fully.
Joshua Miller
can be reached at joshua.miller@globe.com.
Follow him on Twitter @jm_bos. Click here to
subscribe to his weekday e-mail update on
politics.
File this Under U S Constitution or Religious
Freedom??
September 22, 2016
A 300 page report
issued by the United States Council on Civil Rights
(USCCR) on 7 September of 2016, has caused a righteous
outcry from many religious and other liberty loving
institutions. You may rightly question the authority
of a commission that blindly ignores the
fundamental liberty of individuals alluded to in the
first amendment of the Bill of Rights of the U.S.
Constitution. The commission, headed by chairman
Martin R Castro, appointed by President Obama in 2011,
suffers a serious blind spot of vision.
The USCCR recommends particular protections for people
who fall within a variety of groups designated by
particular labels adopted over the years, offering these
groups special privileges beyond that of
"regular" Americans, those generic citizens, whose basic
liberties were noted and codified in the founding
documents of our country to be protected from the
encroachment of the rules and restrictions and
regulations of an ever-growing totalitarian government which
has usurped some non-existent power to brand my conscience
and beliefs as "intolerant" or
discriminatory.
There is a blind spot on the part of the commission that
does not recognize the freedom of faith-abiding people
of conscience to live by the tenets of their respective
religions, that do not infringe upon health and welfare
of others.
There are a number of links to explore- first of all a
link to the report itself, followed by reactions and
comments of a variety of faith-based organizations, as
well as the watchdog groups that recognize the freedoms
that our Constitution attempted to protect.
U.S. Slams Israel for New West Bank Settlement
Expansion
Marcy Oster
September 1, 2016
(JTA) — The U.S. State Department condemned the
announcement that an Israeli planning committee
approved the construction of hundreds of housing units
in four West Bank settlements.
“We’re deeply concerned by the government’s
announcement to advance plans for these settlement
units in the West Bank,” State Department Spokesman
John Kirby said Wednesday, in answer to a reporter’s
question during a briefing, hours after reports of the
approval. “Since the Quartet report came out, we have
seen a very significant acceleration of Israeli
settlement activity that runs directly counter to the
conclusions of the report. So far this year, Israel
has promoted plans for over 2,500 units, including
over 700 units retroactively approved in the West
Bank.”
Kirby said that the State Department is “particularly
troubled by the policy of retroactively approving
unauthorized settlement units and outposts that are
themselves illegal under Israeli law. These policies
have effectively given the Israeli Government a green
light for the pervasive advancement of settlement
activity in a new and potentially unlimited way. This
significant expansion of the settlement enterprise
poses a very serious and growing threat to the
viability of the two-state solution.”
“Potentially unlimited” is a recent term used by the
State Department, and seems to indicate that State
believes Israel wants to annex the West Bank.
The Civil Administration’s High Planning Committee on
Wednesday approved construction of 234 living units in
Elkana in the northern West Bank, designated to be a
nursing home; 30 homes in Beit Arye in the northern
West Bank; and 20 homes in the Jerusalem ring
neighborhood of Givat Zeev.
The committee also retroactively legalized 179 housing
units built in the 1980s in Ofarim, part of the Beit
Arye municipality.
The approval comes less than a week after Nickolay
Mladenov, the U.N. special coordinator for the Middle
East peace process, criticized Israel for continuing
to build in West Bank settlements and neighborhoods in
eastern Jerusalem, going against the recommendations
issued in June by the Mideast Quartet. The Quartet,
made up of the United States, Russia, the European
Union and the U.N., called on Israel in June to stop
building in the settlements and on the Palestinians to
halt incitement.
In Saudi Arabia, signs of an effort to break the
Israel taboo
By Michael Wilner, Herb Keinon 08/30/2016 21:30
Saudi state-run media appears to be softening its
reporting on Israel, running unprecedented columns
floating the prospect of direct relations, quoting
Israeli officials and filling its news holes with fewer
negative stories on Israel’s relationship with the
Palestinians.
The public shift – from outlets such as al-Arabiya and
Riyadh newspaper, among other local or state-owned
outlets – reflects secret, under-the-table contact
between the Arab kingdom and the Jewish state that has
been a work in progress for years.
But media movement marks a new phase in that diplomatic
process, according to some experts on the kingdom, who
see signs of a monarchy effort to prepare Saudi society
for debate that had previously been off limits.
“The key here is that everybody understands this is not
going to turn around overnight, and its probably not
going to convince a lot of people. But that’s not really
the point,” said David Pollock, an expert on the region
at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “The
point is to establish this as a debatable proposition,
and to break the taboo of even debating about it – about
the prospect of normalizing relations.”
“Once you’ve done that, you’ve made it legitimate,”
Pollock added. “There are suddenly two sides.”
One column called for Saudis to “leave behind” their
“hatred of Jews,” and another said that talks between
the two nations should be direct, without
intermediaries, based on Saudi national interests.
Those national interests appear to align with Israel’s,
primarily on the issue of Iran, which has dominated the
Saudi news cycle in recent months– from Islamic Republic
activities in Lebanon, Syria and Yemen.
Saudi conservative Islamists view Iran, the Shi’ite and
Hezbollah as “much worse than the Jews,” Pollock
commented. “So that kind of takes the edge off – and
actually pushes them in the same direction.”
An official in the Foreign Ministry said there have been
some positive signals from Riyadh – such as an interview
that ambassador to Washington Ron Dermer gave recently
to the Saudi media, and one that Foreign Ministry
Director-General Dore Gold had last year with a Saudi
website – but that there is no sense this is part of an
organized campaign to prepare the ground for better
ties.
“These are positive signs, but I would not say they are
game changers,” the official said. “Good things are
happening.
But rather than seeing this as trying to prepare the
ground for something, I’d say it is a sign that there is
less enmity.”
A source in the Prime Minister’s Office concurred. He
acknowledged a few articles of late from “some pretty
big journalists” against hating Jews, but said that he
knows nothing about it coming from the top as part of an
organized campaign.
Quiet talks between Israel and Saudi Arabia began
leaking into public view in June, when a handshake
between Gold and former Saudi government adviser Anwar
Eshki raised eyebrows. Putting to rest any doubt that
the handshake was an isolated affair, Eshki led a Saudi
delegation to Jerusalem the following month that was
publicly acknowledged.
Saudi Prince Turki bin Faisal Al Saud also shared a
stage with Israel’s former military intelligence chief,
Amos Yadlin, in 2014.
A similar effort is under way in Egypt, Pollock said.
“I gather from talking to some of the people who are
directly involved with it that there are different camps
– different schools of thought in these countries,” said
Pollock. “There is definitely internal opposition, and
it’s very delicate, and fragile. But in both countries,
the government and the establishment media – and their
spin-offs and allies – are pursuing a deliberate
strategy to do this.”
International org calls for federalization of U.S.
law enforcement to be 'beefed up,' cover all of
America
by Robert Romano | Updated 04 Aug 2016 at 10:04 AM
“The Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice
has provided oversight and recommendations for
improvement of police services in a number of cities
with consent decrees. This is one of the most effective
ways to reduce discrimination in law enforcement and it
needs to be beefed up and increased to cover as many of
the 18,000-plus local law enforcement jurisdictions.”
That was United Nations Rapporteur Maina Kai on July 27,
a representative of the U.N. Human Rights Council, who
on the tail-end of touring the U.S., endorsed a
little-known and yet highly controversial practice by
the Justice Department to effect a federal takeover of
local police and corrections departments.
The Obama administration has been
pursuing the federal takeover of local police right
under Congress' nose — and Republicans in Congress were
apparently unaware it was happening.
The consent decrees are already being implemented in
Newark, New Jersey; Miami, Florida; Los Angeles,
California; Ferguson, Missouri; Chicago, Illinois; and
other municipalities.
Here's how it works: the Civil Rights Division at the
Department of Justice files a lawsuit in federal court
against a city, county, or state, alleging
constitutional and civil rights violations by the police
or at a corrections facility. It is done under 42 U.S.C.
§ 14141, a section of the 1994 Violent Crime Control and
Law Enforcement Act, granting the attorney general the
power to prosecute law enforcement misconduct. The
municipality then simply agrees to the judicial finding
— without contest — and the result is a wide-reaching
federal court order that imposes onerous regulations on
local police.
The federal court orders are designed to undo Rudy
Giuliani-style policing tactics that were effective at
reducing crime in big cities in the 1990s and 2000s.
In short, the much-feared nationalization of local
police departments is already being initiated by the
Obama administration's Justice Department. And somehow
nobody noticed.
Federal requirements include how searches are conducted,
what constitutes legitimate use of force, the mandatory
use of on-body cameras by the police, and so forth. The
agreements impose years-long compliance review regimes,
implementation deadlines, and regular reviews by federal
bureaucrats. This makes local police directly answerable
to the Civil Rights Division at the DOJ.
One example includes a 77-page March 30 consent decree
between the department and the City of Newark, New
Jersey, that resulted from a 2011 investigation, a 2014
series of findings by the Civil Rights Division, and
then finally a federal lawsuit alleging police
misconduct in the U.S. District Court in the District of
New Jersey.
The original complaint alleged that the Newark Police
Department (NPD) "has engaged in a pattern or practice
of constitutional violations in its stop and arrest
practices, responses to individuals' exercise of their
rights under the First Amendment, uses of force, and
theft by officers. The investigation also revealed that
the pattern or practice of constitutional violations
stems in part from deficiencies in NPD's systems that
are designed to prevent and detect misconduct, including
its systems for reviewing force and investigating
complaints regarding officer conduct."
The city of Newark, via the consent decree, agreed to
the allegations and to implement a "comprehensive and
agency-wide policies and procedures that are consistent
with and incorporate all substantive requirements of
this agreement," including rules on stops, searches, use
of force, etc. The city has two years to implement, with
the full agreement lasting five years. Meaning — even if
the political parties change power in the city of
Newark, the new mayor and city council would still be
required to implement the court order.
U.S. Cities with Active DOJ Consent Decrees
City State Police
Force
Chicago IL 11944
Los Angeles CA 10000
Miami FL 1259
Ferguson MO 54
Source: Americans for Limited Government
These consent decrees are in essence regulations. That,
is, without the niceties of administrative procedures
requirements, public comments, or even any congressional
oversight.
Remarkably, congressional offices contacted by this
author were generally unaware of the regulation of local
policing via DOJ consent decrees with cities — even
though the agreements have been implemented for years.
Not a single hearing or word of protest has occurred on
this topic.
The lack of oversight is pathetic enough — but to make
matters even worse, this could actually be the first
step in a new wide-ranging body of federal rules on
local police.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development
regulation "Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing"
(AFFH) actually originated as a consent decree in 2009
against Westchester County, New York, requiring
affordable housing units to be built in the county.
Afterward, Republican Robert Astorino was elected county
executive and yet was still required to implement the
court order.
Westchester became the basis for AFFH, where every city
and county in the country that accepts any part of $3
billion of annual community development block grants to
1,200 recipient cities and counties now has to comply
with HUD's dictates on zoning along racial and income
guidelines.
DOJ may very well end up doing the same thing with the
local police — that is, if Congress does not wise up to
what's really happening and defund implementation of 42
U.S.C. § 14141. This is dangerous. What is most chilling
is how far along the Obama Justice Department is in this
process. The breadth of regulation here shatters any
notion of local governance or federalism. The Obama
administration has been pursuing the federal takeover of
local police right under Congress' nose — and
Republicans in Congress were apparently unaware it
was happening.
No doubt the practice would continue under a Hillary
Clinton administration too. Do you want a Clinton
Justice Department running your local police force? That
is how important the election in November suddenly
becomes — with law and order already hanging in the
balance and police being targeted by domestic terrorists
in the slayings in Dallas and Baton Rouge.
As Americans for Limited Government President Rick
Manning noted in a statement calling attention to the
U.N.'s interest in the DOJ program and urging Congress
to act, "The fact that the U.N. Human Rights Council —
which includes some of the worst abusers of human rights
in the world that hate the U.S. — is cheering for this
DOJ national takeover of the police should tell members
everything they need to know. It's time to support local
police, not render them impotent via federal
restrictions against maintaining law and order. No less
than the very existence of local government is at
stake."
Robert Romano is the senior editor of Americans for
Limited Government.
Panic Mode: Khizr Khan Deletes Law Firm
Website that Specialized in Muslim Immigration
by Matthew Boyle Breitbart August 2, 2016
Khizr Khan, the Muslim Gold Star father that
Democrats and their allies media wide have been using
to hammer GOP presidential nominee Donald J. Trump,
has deleted his law firm’s website from the Internet.
This development is significant, as his website
proved—as Breitbart News and others have reported—that
he financially benefits from unfettered pay-to-play
Muslim migration into America.
A snapshot of his now deleted
website, as captured by the Wayback Machine which
takes snapshots archiving various websites on the
Internet, shows that as a lawyer he engages in
procurement of EB5 immigration visas and other
“Related Immigration Services.”
The website is completely removed
from the Internet, and instead directs visitors to the
URL at which it once was to a page parking the URL run
by GoDaddy.
The EB5 program, which helps
wealthy foreigners usually from the Middle East
essentially buy their way into America, is fraught
with corruption. U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee
chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has detailed such
corruption over the past several months, and in
February issued a blistering statement about it.
Islamic State Answers Pope Francis: Ours Is a
Religious War, and We Hate You
breitbart.com Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D. 2 Aug 2016
The Islamic State terror group
has come out publicly to reject Pope Francis’ claims
that the war being waged by Islamic terrorists is not
religious in nature, assuring the pontiff that their
sole motivation is religious and sanctioned by Allah
in the Qur’an.
In the most recent issue of Dabiq, the propaganda
magazine of the Islamic State, ISIS criticizes Pope
Francis for his naïveté in clinging to the conviction
that Muslims want peace and that acts of Islamic terror
are economically motivated.
“This is a divinely-warranted war between the Muslim
nation and the nations of disbelief,” the authors state
in an article titled “By the Sword.”
The Islamic State directly attacks Francis for claiming
that “authentic Islam and the proper reading of the
Quran are opposed to every form of violence,” saying
that by doing this, “Francis continues to hide behind a
deceptive veil of ‘good will,’ covering his actual
intentions of pacifying the Muslim nation.”
Pope Francis “has struggled against reality” in his
efforts to portray Islam as a religion of peace, the
article insists, before going on to urge all Muslims to
take up the sword of jihad, the “greatest obligation” of
a true Muslim.
Despite the obviously religious nature of their attacks,
the article states, “many people in Crusader countries
express shock and even disgust that Islamic State
leadership ‘uses religion to justify violence.’”
“Indeed, waging jihad – spreading the rule of Allah by
the sword – is an obligation found in the Quran, the
word of our Lord,” it reads.
“The blood of the disbelievers is obligatory to spill by
default. The command is clear. Kill the disbelievers, as
Allah said, ‘Then kill the polytheists wherever you find
them.’”
The Islamic State also reacted to Pope Francis’s
description of recent acts of Islamic terror as
“senseless violence,” insisting that there is nothing
senseless about it.
“The gist of the matter is that there is indeed a rhyme
to our terrorism, warfare, ruthlessness, and brutality,”
they declare, adding that their hatred for the Christian
West is absolute and implacable.
The fact is, even if you were to stop bombing us,
imprisoning us, torturing us, vilifying us, and usurping
our lands, we would continue to hate you because our
primary reason for hating you will not cease to exist
until you embrace Islam. Even if you were to pay jizyah
[tax for infidels] and live under the authority of Islam
in humiliation, we would continue to hate you.
In a recent press conference, Pope Francis told
journalists that the world is at war. “But it’s a
real war, not a religious war,” he said.
“It’s a war of interests, a war for money. A war for
natural resources and for the dominion of the peoples.”
PM draws parallel to attacks
in Israel and across Middle East, says Islamic
terror driven by ‘fanatical hatred’
from Times of Israel by Raoul Wootliff June 16, 2016,
12:29 am
In an English language video
posted to Facebook on Wednesday, Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu said the casualties in Sunday’s
deadly nightclub shooting in Orlando were victims of
homophobia and intolerance and called on people not to
give in to “hate and fear.”
~>~>~>~>>~>~>~>~>
Here is the complete text of his statement:
"In Orlando, a terrorist walks
into a nightclub and murders nearly 50 human beings.
Sons and daughters, brothers and sisters cut down in
cold blood.
They did nothing wrong. They
were dancing with friends, they were enjoying music
with loved ones.
Why did the terrorist murder
them?
Because he was driven by a fanatical hatred.
He targeted the LGBT community
because he believed they were evil.
Now, the murderer wasn't
alone.
Regimes and terrorist
organizations around the world ruthlessly persecute
the LGBT community.
In Syria, ISIS throws gays off
rooftops.
In Iran, the regime hangs gays from cranes.
Too many people have remained
silent in the face of this awful persecution.
This week's shooting wasn't
merely an attack on the LGBT community. It was an
attack on all of us, on our common values of freedom
and diversity and choice.
Radical Islamist terror makes
no distinction between shades of infidel.
This week it was gays in
Orlando. A few days before that it was Jews in Tel
Aviv. Before that it was music fans in Paris;
Travelers in Brussels; Yazidis in Iraq; Community
workers in San Bernardino; Christians and
journalists in Syria.
All of us are targets.
We believe that all people are
created in the image of God.
ISIS, by contrast, believes
that all people who aren't just like them deserve to
die.
We will not be terrified into
submission. We will fight back. And we will triumph.
Today I ask you to reach out
to friends in the LGBT community. Comfort them. Tell
them you stand together, we stand together as one.
And that you will always remember the victims. Tell
them they will never be alone, that we are all one
family deserving of dignity, deserving of life.
I have no doubt that those who
seek to spread hate and fear will be defeated.
Working together we will
defeat them even faster.
We need to stand united,
resolute in the belief that all people regardless of
their sexual orientation, regardless of their race,
regardless of their ethnicity, all people deserve
respect, deserve dignity."
Continental
Chutzpah: EU Building on Israeli Land, Warning
Against Demolitions
the JewishPress.com by David Israel Published June 1, 2016
The European Union over the past few years has been
erecting illegal structures in Area C, which according
to the Oslo agreement is under Israeli control. After
several rightwing NGOs have complained, the IDF set out
to demolish some of those structures. By rights, they
should have taken all of them down, what with their
being built without a permit. Israeli media publicized
the demolition of those structures, some of which
actually flew the EU flag — like those mythical cat
burglars who leave their personal business card in the
open safe. But last week the EU chutzpah has reached
unprecedented highs when Lars Faaborg-Andersen, the
Danish diplomat who since 2013 has been the ambassador
of the European Union to Jerusalem, met with Coordinator
of Government Activities in the Territories Gen. Yoav
Mordechai, to warn him that if Israel keeps demolishing
those “Palestinian homes” it would damage relations with
Brussels.
According to a senior Israeli official who spoke to
Ha’aretz, the meeting was tense and loaded. The
ambassador accused Israel of hurting the “weakest
Palestinian populations.” What the senior official did
not share was that those structures are a means by which
the EU has been challenging Israel’s claim to
sovereignty in Area C (the PA is currently in charge in
Areas A and B). It has to do with the diametrically
opposed views of Israel and the EU of what constitutes
the “two-state solution.”
Essentially, the Israeli politicians who are now in
government, as well as more than a few in the
opposition, envision a future peace deal that turns
Areas A and B into an independent Palestinian entity,
either as a state or an autonomy. The same Israeli
leaders envision some permanent legal solution for the
upwards of 400 thousand Jews living in Judea and
Samaria, all of them in Area C, most likely with Israel
annexing the large settlement clusters and giving away
the rest of the land.
Virtually no one outside Israel supports this idea at
the moment. Even Israel’s best friends in the world
envision the ousting of the Jews from Area C, possibly
while allowing Israel to retain eastern Jerusalem. How
would that actually be done—no one cares to say, nor
where would Israel gather the tens of billions of
dollars required for such a move, never mind whether the
settler population would acquiesce or opt instead for
resistance that would make the traumatic evacuation of
8,000 Jews from Gaza’s Gush Katif look like a picnic.
Meanwhile, while Area C in Israel’s view is eventually
going to be annexed as part of a peace deal — to the
Europeans Area C is Palestinian land ready to be
redeemed.
Which is why the EU has been relentless at challenging
Israel’s claim to Area C. And it’s why they’ve come up
with the delusional notion that taking down 531 illegal
Arab structures in 2015, 75 of which had been built by
the EU, was damaging the two-state solution. Because the
two-state solution the Europeans envision is without any
Jews in Area C.
For the same reason, Ambassador Faaborg-Andersen was
complaining that Israel is quick to condemn and demolish
those illegal structures, but at the same time refuses
to give Arabs permits to build legally in Area C.
Because while the Arabs view Area C as soon to be part
of free Palestine, Israelis plan to keep most of it,
thank you very much.
There’s going to be another meeting with the EU envoy,
on June 15, this time at the Israeli foreign ministry.
The Europeans are going to demand a freeze on
demolishing Arab structures in Area C, while at the same
time also demanding a freeze on Jewish construction in
the same Area C. And at some point something will have
to give.
About the Author: David writes news at
JewishPress.com.
ISIS Kills Scores of Christians in Retaken Syrian
Town: Report
By Conor Gaffey Newsweek.com 4/11/16
The Islamic State militant group (ISIS) killed scores of
Christians when they captured a Syrian town recently
liberated by the government, a Syrian Christian leader
has said.
ISIS swept into the town of Al-Qaryatain in August 2015,
kidnapping at least 230 civilians including dozens of
Christians in the central Syrian town, which lies 104
kilometers (65 miles) southwest of Palmyra. The town had
a population of some 2,000 Syriac Catholics and Orthodox
Christians prior to the outbreak of civil war in Syria
in 2011, but this had dropped to just 300 before ISIS
took control.
Al-Qaryatain was retaken by Syrian government forces
with the backing of Russian airstrikes earlier in April
and reports are just beginning to emerge of life under
the extremist group for civilians in the town. Patriarch
Ignatius Aphrem II, the head of the Syrian Orthodox
Church, told the BBC on Sunday that 21 Christians were
murdered when ISIS first captured the city.
Some died trying to escape while others were killed for
violating the terms of contracts they had signed
requiring them to submit to the extremists’
interpretation of Islamic law. Hundreds of Christians in
Al-Qaryatain were reportedly forced to sign so-called
dhimmi contracts, which enabled them to live under ISIS
rule in the town. The patriarch added that five other
Christians are missing and presumed dead, while ransoms
had been paid to ISIS to secure the release of the rest
of the Christians.
The civil war in Syria has had a devastating impact on
the country’s Christian contingent, which made up
approximately 10 percent of Syria’s population before
the outbreak of the conflict. The European Parliament
stated in October 2015 that about 40 percent of Syria’s
Christian population—or 700,000 people—had fled the
country.
NOTE: Jesus Christ was crucified in Jerusalem, was dead
for three days, and rose from the dead, and walked among
us for forty days until his Ascension. After the
Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came to the Apostles,
they spread out to different areas of the land to spread
the good news, of our salvation. One of the first places
they went to was what is now Syria, which was the home
of Simon Peter. Not only does ISIS eradicate people who
do not bow down to their cult they attempt to erase the
ancient traces of preceding times like in Palmyra which
was a Roman outpost in Syria, from the first or second
century after the year of our Lord. Click
here to view more about that.
R.I.P. Justice Scalia
Feb. 18, 2016
It is hard to imagine a greater
loss to Liberty in America than has occurred in the
passing of Justice Antonin Scalia. His understanding
of the Constitution as a pact between free people
and government, and our protection from oppressive
government, was unparalleled.
The fact that 30% of Americans do not know who he
was, speaks volumes about the state of our Union and
our education system.
My words and thoughts are totally inadequate but you
can easily find more about the great man's life and
legacy. Click
here for a link to wikipedia. Or click
here to read the thoughts of the other
Justices on the Supreme Court about him.
R.I.P. Justice Scalia.
Shariah Law at work in the Obama Administration
Obama DHS scrubs records of hundreds of Muslim
terrorists
Published: 7 Feb 2016 World Net Daily Pamela Geller
Not only did the Obama
administration scrub counter-terror programs of jihad
and Islam, now we find out that his administration
scrubbed the records of Muslim terrorists. If the
enemedia were not aligned with the jihad force, this
would be front-page news across the nation.
An agent of the Department of Homeland Security, or DHS,
for 15 years, Philip Haney, reported Friday that after
the Christmas Day underwear bomber, Umar Farouk
Abdulmutallab, tried to blow up a crowded passenger jet
over Detroit, “President Obama threw the intelligence
community under the bus for its failure to ‘connect the
dots.’ He said, ‘This was not a failure to collect
intelligence; it was a failure to integrate and
understand the intelligence that we already had.'”
Haney revealed: “Most Americans were unaware of the
enormous damage to morale at the Department of Homeland
Security, where I worked, his condemnation caused. His
words infuriated many of us because we knew his
administration had been engaged in a bureaucratic effort
to destroy the raw material – the actual intelligence we
had collected for years, and erase those dots. The dots
constitute the intelligence needed to keep Americans
safe, and the Obama administration was ordering they be
wiped away.”
What Haney discloses is truly shocking: “Just before
that Christmas Day attack, in early November 2009, I was
ordered by my superiors at the Department of Homeland
Security to delete or modify several hundred records of
individuals tied to designated Islamist terror groups
like Hamas from the important federal database, the
Treasury Enforcement Communications System (TECS). These
types of records are the basis for any ability to
‘connect dots.’ Every day, DHS Customs and Border
Protection officers watch entering and exiting many
individuals associated with known terrorist
affiliations, then look for patterns. Enforcing a
political scrubbing of records of Muslims greatly
affected our ability to do that. Even worse, going
forward, my colleagues and I were prohibited from
entering pertinent information into the database.”
Who gave the order to scrub the records of Muslims with
ties to terror groups?
These new shocking revelations come fresh on the heels
of whistleblower testimony in the wake of the San
Bernardino jihad slaughter, revealing that the Obama
administration shut down investigations into jihadists
in America (and quite possible the San Bernardino
shooters) at the request of the Department of State and
the DHS’ own Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Division.
Haney noted: “They claimed that since the Islamist
groups in question were not Specially Designated
Terrorist Organizations (SDTOs) tracking individuals
related to these groups was a violation of the
travelers’ civil liberties. These were almost
exclusively foreign nationals: When were they granted
the civil rights and liberties of American citizens?”
How is this not impeachable? When did foreign terrorists
get civil rights?
Haney described how he began investigating scores of
individuals with links to the traditionalist Islamic
Indo-Pakistani Deobandi movement, and its related
offshoots, prominently, Tablighi Jamaat.
I have reported on this infiltration for years. I
reported on it extensively in my book, “Stop the
Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the
Resistance.” Obama has partnered with terror-tied groups
such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the
Islamic Society of North America, the Muslim American
Society and others. The stealth jihad in the information
battle-space has led to the vigorous enforcement of
blasphemy laws under the Shariah, as Obama ordered that
counter-terror training materials must avoid all
reference to Islam and jihad. Under Islamic law, it is
prohibited to criticize Islam.
The Obama administration is Shariah-compliant at all
costs. Its number one priority is to protect Islam, even
when it puts American lives at risk. The cold-blooded
slaughter of Americans in the homeland by Muslims has
not tempered Obama’s Shariah enthusiasm. On the
contrary, Garland, Fort Hood, Chattanooga, UCMED, San
Bernardino, etc., have accelerated it.
My civil liberties and your civil liberties are being
abridged in accordance with the blasphemy laws under
Shariah. My organization is engaged in 15 different
free-speech lawsuits against various cities. Our
free-speech lawsuit against Boston is heading to the
Supreme Court, because even though truthful, our ads
violate the laws of Shariah (“do not criticize Islam”).
We are being forced to adhere to Shariah mores, but
jihad murderers are given sanctuary and protection – to
slaughter Americans.
The moral, or in this case the immoral, of the story is
this: Jihad terror works.
Pamela Geller is the publisher of AtlasShrugs.com and
the author of the WND Books title "Stop the
Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the
Resistance."
Wisconsin firm fires Muslims in prayer dispute
Religious breaks disrupted production at lawn mower,
snowblower manufacturer
Published: 02/04/2016 (ABC News) A civil liberties group said
Wednesday that it plans to file federal discrimination
and harassment complaints after a Wisconsin manufacturer
fired seven Muslim employees for violating a company
break policy that doesn’t provide extra time for prayer.
Ariens Co. terminated the workers in a dispute that
began last month when it moved to enforce an existing
rule of two 10-minute breaks per work shift and dozens
of Muslim staffers of Somali descent walked off the job
in protest.
Of the 53 employees involved, 32 have abided with the
policy, 14 resigned and seven were terminated Tuesday,
according to Ariens spokeswoman Ann Stilp. The news of
the terminations was first reported by WLUK-TV in Green
Bay.
If shouting 'No!' doesn't work, then swat attacker
with purse
World Net Daily Published: 02/03/2016 by Leo Hohmann
A public-service advertisement running on Finland TV
instructs women in the Scandinavian country on how to
fend off a rapist.
But rather than pull out a handgun or even pepper
spray, the women of Finland are taught to confront
their attackers with bare hands and a purse.
Rape epidemics have engulfed Finland, Sweden and
Germany in a sea of fear since the mass influx of
migrants from the Middle East and North Africa began
two years ago.
Alan Gottlieb, executive vice president and
founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, said he
found the video laughable.
Anti-Shariah activist and author Pamela Geller posted
the video on her website earlier this week under the
title "It just gets more absurd."
Netanyahu: Islamic terrorism is flooding the
world from Jakarta to California
The prime minister says the struggle against
terrorism will take time but that Israel is fighting
hard.
Jerusalem Post by JPOST.COM STAFF BEN HARTMAN 02/04/2016
Islamic terrorism is flooding the world and inciting
millions from Jakarta to Africa and all the way to
California, said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
during a trip on Thursday to the Jerusalem hospital
treating a Border Police officer who was injured in
yesterday's attack at the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's
Old City.
Netanyahu praised the courage of the security forces
and the courage and strength the Border Police officer
shown during Wednesday's attack. He also expressed his
condolences to the family of Border Police officer
Hadar Cohen who was killed in the combined shooting
and stabbing attack.
Three Arab terrorists wielding machine guns, pipe
bombs and knives carried out the attack on Wednesday
killing Cohen, 19, who died of her wounds shortly
after being rushed to the capital's Hadassa University
Medical Center at Mt. Scopus. Her partner, Ravit, was
seriously wounded and underwent emergency surgery at
the hospital. As of Thursday morning she was
considered to be in moderate condition.
"We are all saddened by the death of Hadar Cohen, a
real hero. We all embrace the family," Netanyahu said.
The prime minister emphasized that a great effort is
being put into the fight against terrorism, during the
lengthy effort to defeat it.
"It will take time, it is a long struggle," Netanyahu
said. "We are in this fight, it is not passing us by,
but we are fighting it with great force and will
continue to do so."
"Kabatiya has been closed off while the IDF and the
Shin bet make widespread arrests of wanted suspects,
we have cancelled many work permits and the
attorney-general informed me yesterday that he has
added a number of houses belonging to terrorists to be
slated for demolition," Netanyahu said of the West
Bank village, from where Wednesday's terrorists
hailed.
Police Commissioner Inspector General Roni Alsheich
paid a visit to the wounded Border Police officer on
Wednesday night.
During his visit, Alsheich praised the two teenager
Border Police officers who had recently drafted into
the force for preventing a major terror attack.
Alsheich said “I have no doubt that a terror cell that
comes with an arsenal like this has every intention of
carrying out a massive attack.”
Ravit and Cohen were part of a three-man patrol along
with their commander. They had only been drafted a
couple months before and their deployment at Damascus
Gate in East Jerusalem was part of their training.
Since the attack yesterday, police and the Border
Police have drawn criticism for the fact that the two
women were posted at one of the most dangerous
flashpoints in the country so soon after they were
drafted.
The three terrorists were responsible for the attack
were identified as Ahmed Rajeh Zakarneh, Muhammad
Ahmed Kmail, and Ahmed Najeh Abu al-Rub. All three
were shot dead at the scene. Their explosives did not
detonate and were later neutralized by a police bomb
disposal team.
No holds barred: Torrent of anti-Israel advice found
in Hillary’s emails
Jerusalem Post - Opinion By Shmuley Boteach 02/01/2016
Clandestinely stirring up potentially violent protests
in an attempt to try and force Israel to go against its
best interests? Advice like this was par for the course
with Clinton’s advisers.
It’s already been established that one of Hillary
Clinton’s most trusted advisers, Sid
Blumenthal, sent her anti-Israel articles, ideas
and advice during her time as secretary of state. But
the stream of anti-Israel advice received by Clinton was
much more comprehensive.
In the entire forced dump of Clinton’s emails, you will
be hard pressed to find a single one sympathetic toward
the Jewish state from any of the people she relied on.
The negative, poisonous approach to Israel throughout
this email expose shows the atmosphere that she had
established around herself. These emails seem to
demonstrate that a huge segment of her close advisers
and confidantes were attacking Israel, condemning Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and strategizing how to
force Israel to withdraw from Judea and Samaria at all
costs.
This was occurring against the backdrop of Israel’s
recent Gaza withdrawal, which led to the takeover of
Gaza by Hamas. There is almost zero mention of the huge
risks to Israel’s security in withdrawing as Clinton and
the Obama administration did everything they could to
pressure Israel to capitulate to their demands.
Take a look at a sampling of the advice being sent to
Clinton from her many advisers that we have now become
privy to.
Sandy
Berger was Clinton’s foreign policy adviser during
her 2008 presidential campaign. In September of 2010 he
sent her ideas on how to pressure Israel to make
concessions for peace. Berger acknowledged “how fragile
is Abbas’s political position,” and how “Palestinians
are in disarray,” and that “failure is a real
possibility.” Berger was well aware of, and informed
Hillary of, the very real possibility that Israel would
be placing its national security at grave risk in a deal
that would very likely fail and lead to a Hamas
takeover.
But Berger felt the risks to Israeli lives were worth
it.
He advised the need to make Netanyahu feel “uneasy about
incurring our displeasure....”
Berger emphasizes the need “to convince the prime
minister – through various forms of overt persuasion and
implicit pressure – to make the necessary compromises”
and talks of the “possibility – to turn his position
against him.”
Astoundingly, Berger seems to accuse the Jews in America
of racism toward Obama. He writes, “At a political
level, the past year has clearly demonstrated the degree
to which the U.S. has been hamstrung by its low ratings
in Israel and among important segments of the domestic
Jewish constituency....” He then adds, “Domestically, he
faces a reservoir of skepticism on this issue which
reflects many factors, including inexcusable prejudice.”
Anne Marie Slaughter was Clinton’s director of policy
planning from 2009-2011. She wrote to Clinton in
September of 2010 and devised a scheme to encourage
wealthy philanthropists to pledge millions to the
Palestinians (which no doubt would have been embezzled
by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his
cronies as were other funds).
She wrote: “This may be a crazy idea.... Suppose we
launched a “Pledge for Palestine” campaign... Such a
campaign among billionaires/multi-millionaires around
the world would reflect a strong vote of confidence in
the building of a Palestinian state....”
She adds: “There would also be a certain shaming effect
re Israelis who, would be building settlements in the
face of a pledge for peace.”
Clinton’s response to this email: “I am very interested-
pls flesh out. Thx.”
Robert
Russo, one of Clinton’s aides and currently her
campaign’s “director of correspondence and briefings”
sent an email in April of 2012 informing her of
Netanyahu’s father’s death and advising her to give him
a condolence call. Included with Russo’s
email is an extremely biased article attacking both
Netanyahu and his father, describing them as virulently
racist warmongers and calling the elder Netanyahu “a
behindthe- scenes adviser to his son, the most powerful
person in Israel.”
The article noted that “Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu repeatedly denied that his father was a
one-dimensional ideologue. He further emphasized that he
himself was a different person from his father.”
But then it goes on to say, without providing any proof
whatsoever, “Israelis seemed in the dark about the
extent of paternal influence on their leader,” and “To
understand Bibi, you have to understand the father.”
One might be forgiven for questioning Clinton’s sympathy
and sincerity when she later placed the call and gave
Netanyahu her condolences.
Thomas
Pickering, former US ambassador to Israel, wrote
to Clinton on December 18, 2011, and suggested a secret
plan to stir up major Palestinian protests in an attempt
to force the Israeli government into peace negotiations.
He stated that the protests “must be all and only women.
Why? On the Palestinian side the male culture is to use
force.”
Pickering’s goal was to ignite protests that would
engulf the West Bank, “just like Tahrir square.” He adds
that the Palestinian “leadership has shied away from
this idea because they can’t control it,” and they are
“afraid of being replaced.”
This idiotic reasoning that somehow only women would
participate and things would stay peaceful is obviously
absurd. As Pickering himself notes, “Palestinian men
will not for long patiently demonstrate – they will be
inclined over time and much too soon to be frustrated
and use force. Their male culture comes close to
requiring it.”
Regardless, Pickering writes that the protests could be
used against Israel “to influence the political
leadership.”
The idea was as dangerous for the Palestinians as it was
for Israel. As Pickering himself admits, widespread
protests could overthrow Abbas’ government, and if
Palestinian men joined in, widespread violence would
inevitably break out. It would obviously be impossible
to prevent men from participating in these
demonstrations.
Yet Pickering felt this extreme risk was worth taking,
even if it meant the replacement of Abbas with another
Hamas-led government. And even if meant violence
breaking out across the West Bank leading to a third
intifada and the murder of countless Jews. He also
emphasizes the need to hide all US involvement in this
plot. Clinton forwarded this email to Monica Hanley and
asked her to “pls print.”
Clandestinely stirring up potentially violent protests
in an attempt to try and force Israel to go against its
best interests? Advice like this was par for the course
when it came to Clinton’s advisers.
In a follow-up column we’ll illuminate even more
anti-Israel advice that was given the then-secretary of
state. Sadly, there was just so much of it.
The author, “America’s Rabbi,” is the international
bestselling author of 30 books including his upcoming
The Israel Warrior’s Handbook. Follow him on Twitter @
RabbiShmuley.
Senate resolution calls for a US constitutional
convention
Posted: February 3, 2016 at 10:37 am
KFQD Radio Anchorage, Alaska
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) – An Alaska Senate committee is
set to consider a resolution calling for a convention
of the states to propose a countermand, or veto,
amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The measure calls on legislators in the other 49
states to apply for a convention as well.
In his sponsor statement, Chugiak Republican Senator
Bill Stoltze says the resolution is meant to restore
the balance of power between the states and the
federal government.
The resolution calls for a convention of states to
amend the U.S. Constitution and provide states with
the power to vote on nullifying federal laws.
Click here to realize that Alaska is not the
only state that has called for a Constitutional
Convention.
Turkish Court Rules Government Failed to Protect
Christians Killed in Malatya
Civil suit results in order to pay damages to
relatives of victims.
January 27, 2016
By Our Middle East Correspondent
Morning Star News
ISTANBUL, Turkey (Morning Star News) – A Turkish court
ruled on Tuesday (Jan. 26) that the government was
negligent in its duty to protect three Christians who
were tortured and killed in 2007 and ordered it
to pay damages to the victims’ families.
The Malatya Administrative Court ruled that, nearly nine
years ago, the Interior Ministry and the Malatya
Governor’s Office ignored reliable intelligence that
Turkish nationalists were targeting the three Christians
days prior to the April 2007 killings.
At the present rate, it is doubtful what year money
might actually change hands
Man with Quran, guns arrested near Disneyland Paris
Manhunt underway for female companion
CNN by Laura Akhoun and Jason Hanna Published: 01/28/2016
(CNN) French police are looking for a woman who was with
the Paris man who was arrested with guns Thursday at a
Disney hotel near Disneyland Paris, police official
Michael Le Provost told CNN.
When security guards discovered the firearms, they
noticed the woman was with him, but she eluded arrest,
Le Provost said.
Bomb disposal experts are inspecting the man’s car, Le
Provost said.
Posted By David Barton On 01/27/2016 @ 10:32 pm In Education,Faith,Front
Page,Politics,U.S.,World World Net Daily
Democrats have long heralded Thomas Jefferson (along
with Andrew Jackson) as the founder of their Party.
They traditionally hold annual Jefferson-Jackson Day
fundraising dinners, and President Obama is one of
their most sought after speakers. But this past year,
Democrats began to remove any mention of Jefferson’s
name from their functions. They claim that this
is because Jefferson was a bigoted racist, iii but
this excuse is historically inaccurate, based on an
errant modern portrayal.
If you doubt this, ask yourself why black civil rights
leaders over the past two centuries (such as Frederick
Douglass, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Benjamin
Banneker, Francis Grimke, Henry Highland Garnett, and
so many others) openly praised Jefferson as a racial
civil rights pioneer and champion, as did
abolitionists such as John Quincy Adams, Abraham
Lincoln, and others They recognized that Jefferson led
a vocal lifelong campaign to emancipate all slaves in
the United States, but that the laws of Virginia
prevented him from freeing his own slaves. (All of
this is covered in my new book, “The Jefferson
Lies.”)
The real reason that Democrats should discard
Jefferson is that he held nearly no policy position
similar to those Democrats hold today. Consider
fifteen major categories where the policies of
Presidents Jefferson and Obama are opposite.
Posted By Jeff Knox On 01/27/2016 @ 7:42 pm
In Commentary,Opinion
World Net Daily
The occupation of a remote wildlife refuge
turned violent yesterday when federal agents stopped
two vehicles carrying protesters to a town hall
meeting in John Day, Oregon. Victoria Sharp, a
passenger in one of those vehicles, has reported that
federal agents opened fire on the group without
provocation after conflicting and confusing demands
for the protesters to surrender. Sharp reported that
shots were first fired at Ryan Payne as he complied
with orders to show his hands out of the window of the
vehicle in which she was riding, but that the shots
missed. Payne was calling for police to not shoot, as
there were women in the vehicle, and exited the
vehicle, asking that the women be allowed out.
At this point, LaVoy Finicum, one of the spokesmen for
the occupiers, who was driving the vehicle in which
Ms. Sharp was riding, yelled out the window that they
were going to go talk to the sheriff (at the meeting
in John Day), or that agents could just shoot him. He
told the passengers to get down, and drove forward,
precipitating heavy gunfire from the agents, and
crashing the vehicle into a snowbank.
Sharp said that Finicum then exited the vehicle, hands
in the air, yelling, “Just shoot me then!” A volley of
shots rang out, and Finicum fell to his back, hands
still over his head, and was shot several more times
on the ground, Sharp said.
According to Sharp, agents continued shooting at the
car, striking Ryan Bundy in the shoulder as he
shielded her on the floorboard, and deploying tear gas
before finally taking the rest of the group into
custody. She also claims that none of the protesters
fired a shot or even touched a gun during the
encounter.
The full audio of Victoria Sharp’s account is posted
on YouTube, and comes across as very credible.
Listen to Victoria Sharp’s testimony:
Another report suggested that Finicum "charged" at
police after exiting the vehicle but does not dispute
the claim that his hands were in the air. Cliven
Bundy, father of Ammon and Ryan Bundy, leaders of the
occupation who were both taken into custody during the
incident, has further charged that, not only were
Finicum's hands in the air, but he was not armed at
the time.
In interviews during the occupation protest, Finicum,
a soft-spoken rancher and father of 11 from Arizona,
had insisted that he would rather be killed than "put
in a cement box" prison. He said that some things were
more important than life, and that freedom was one of
those things.
The occupation was initiated in protest of the
re-incarceration of a pair of Oregon ranchers who had
been convicted of terrorism for starting two
controlled burns on their graze lands back in 2001 and
2005. The ranchers, father and son Dwight and Steven
Hammond, were initially sentenced to, and served short
sentences and fined $400,000 for their actions, but a
federal appeals court later concluded that the judge
in the case had improperly waived a five-year minimum
sentence for the charges, and the two were resentenced
to that minimum and ordered to return to prison.
I reported on the Hammond case and the resulting
protests a few weeks ago in this column, pointing out
that the stated objective of the protest was being
lost in the news coverage of the protest itself. Ammon
Bundy and his compatriots appeared to be more
interested in generating a confrontation with federal
authorities than in drawing attention to the Hammonds
and the abusive practices of federal agencies that led
to their plight.
The death of LaVoy Finicum is a needless tragedy.
Federal authorities had wisely been taking a hands-off
approach to the occupation, denying Bundy and his
friends the opportunity for the tense stand-off they
seemed to be seeking. Unfortunately, politicians like
Oregon's Democrat Gov. Kate Brown, took the occupation
as a personal affront and were calling for law
enforcement to take more aggressive action to put a
stop to the flagrant defiance of federal authority.
The result is a martyr for the fringe and escalation
of the situation from a nuisance to a volatile and
dangerous level. The strategy was clearly to "remove
the head of the snake" by capturing the leaders of the
occupation, but what if those leaders were the cooler
heads that were keeping the protest calm and peaceful?
With the death of Finicum, in circumstances that some
are calling murder, a fuse has been lit, and unless
authorities can and do quickly produce evidence that
their actions were clearly justified, this could blow
up in a very ugly way. And it all could have been
easily avoided.
Realistically, what harm were the protesters doing?
They were occupying buildings of a remote wildlife
refuge in a sparsely populated area of the country in
the dead of winter. They were making no threats,
harming no one, and getting less and less attention
from an unsympathetic media. They were not supported
by any national or state militia organizations, and
their whole agenda had pretty well fizzled.
I wish Ammon Bundy had taken my advice, negotiated a
peaceful end to the situation and sent his supporters
home to their families weeks ago. That didn't happen,
and what happens next is anyone's guess. The remaining
occupiers must be concerned about what might happen to
them if they try to leave, especially in light of the
death of Finicum, and by setting up roadblocks and
checkpoints, authorities have now committed manpower
and resources to potentially long, cold, uncomfortable
duty that can't help but engender deeper frustration
and resentment between police and occupiers. Any trust
that might have developed is completely out the
window. Worse, the bloodshed may provoke other groups
to step in and escalate the mess even further.
Perhaps this week's arrests will bring this whole
thing to a close, but I fear that it is more likely
signaling the beginning of something much worse than
protesters occupying a wilderness outpost.
Christian persecution reached record high in 2015,
report says
By William J. Cadigan, CNN Sun January 17, 2016
Christians flee persecution in the middle east
(CNN)Last year was the most violent for Christians in
modern history, rising to "a level akin to ethnic
cleansing," according to a new report by Open Doors
USA, a watchdog group that advocates for Christians.
In total, the survey found that more than 7,100
Christians were killed in 2015 for "faith-related
reasons," up 3,000 from the previous year, according
to the group's analysis of media reports and other
public information as well as external experts. Open
Door's report is independently audited by the
International Institute of Religious Freedom. Open
Doors USA is an organization that works with
Christians worldwide to "equip and encourage" those
living under persecution while also helping churches
in America advocate for the persecuted around the
world.
The group's report defines Christian persecution "as
any hostility experienced as a result of one's
identification with Christ." Open Doors found this
persecution ranged from imprisonment, torture,
beheadings and rape to the loss of home and assets,
the loss of a job, or even rejection from a community.
Speaking at the National Press Club on Wednesday,
David Curry, president and CEO of Open Doors,
introduced the annual ranking of countries based on
their severity of Christian persecution, evaluating
levels of violence worldwide to formulate the global
top 50. The list, now in its 25th year, is topped by
North Korea for the 14th consecutive time. Curry says
that "pariah states" like North Korea are especially
hostile toward Christians.
According to the report, however, much of the
persecution faced by Christians occurs in
predominantly Muslim nations, many of which are
"failed states" that fail to protect any of their
citizens' religious liberty.
The presence of Islamic extremist factions across the
world in 2015 brought religious persecution for not
only Christians, but also Muslims, Yazidis and other
religious minorities, the report found. Notably, Iraq
(No. 2) and Syria (No. 5) are the epicenter of ISIS'
so called "caliphate," while Afghanistan (4), Pakistan
(6), Iran (9) and Libya (10) all have elements of
Islamic extremism.
Curry said that while "Islamic extremism is one of the
driving forces" of Christian persecution,
"peace-loving Muslims can make an impact on that part
of their culture."
ISIS and other extremist groups are spreading, the
report highlights, not just in the Middle East but
around the world. Curry said he hoped the list would
bring attention to the plight of Christians across the
globe as they face a "total lack of religious
freedom," forced migration and even genocide.
In fact, part of the reason for the annual list,
according to Curry, is to highlight for U.S.
policymakers the continued persecution of Christians
by our "geopolitical allies." Countries such as Saudi
Arabia and India are key global partners for the
United States, yet Open Doors ranks both in its top 50
of persecutors of Christians.
"We believe in religious freedom for all," Curry said,
"and that does not happen in countries that we do
business with every day."
Open Doors also seeks to inspire and inform Christians
in America, using the annual watch list "as a clarion
call to pray, advocate and remember their persecuted
fellow Christians."
Ethics Complaint Says Big Clinton Donors Got
State Dept Access
The Daily Caller Richard Pollock, Reporter 01/10/2016
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton violated
federal ethics statutes by giving “preferential
treatment” to wealthy political campaign donors and
financial supporters of the Clinton Foundation,
according to a formal complaint filed Friday by the
Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust.
The non-profit government watchdog group filed the
complaint with the Office of Government Ethics, asking
it to conduct a “full investigation” into Clinton’s
“apparent breach of ethics rules.” A copy of the
complaint was exclusively obtained by The Daily Caller
News Foundation.
The organization charged Clinton gave “preferential
treatment to individuals with which she had financial
ties” and “regularly granted access” to rich donors,
celebrities, and even powerful foreign nationals.
The FACT complaint follows the State Department’s latest
release of thousands of Clinton emails that she turned
over to the government more than two years after leaving
the office in 2013. She used a private email address and
a home-brew server in her private New York residence to
conduct official government business throughout her
tenure.
Number of Muslim-Americans born to Middle Eastern
migrants 'off the charts'
Leo Hohmann Published: 1/06/2016
So-called “home-grown” terrorists such as Syed
Farook, who slaughtered 14 people last month in San
Bernardino, or Muhammad Abdulazeez, who gunned down
five U.S. servicemen in Chattanooga last summer, were
both second-generation Muslim-Americans whose parents
emigrated to the U.S.
Most of the terrorists who attacked Paris in November,
killing 130 people with guns and bombs, were also
described by the media as “home grown jihadists” when
in reality they still represented a foreign culture,
born of Middle Eastern parents who migrated to Europe
and never fully assimilated. And now there is fresh
evidence that this segment of the U.S. population is
growing exponentially.
Buried in the Social Security data is a count of
babies born with the name Muhammad. While offering a
small sample, the Social Security database is able to
shed light on the growth of second-generation Muslims
in America. It is highly reliable and accurate. It
shows a huge growth pattern.
“A boy named Mohammed born here is likely to grow up
in a Muslim environment and, at the same time, be a
U.S. citizen,” North writes. “So we can get a rough
proxy of the growth of the population of
second-generation Muslim immigrants by noting how many
of them carry these names. (Third-generation babies
are also included.)”
The figures show the huge growth in this population
over the last 50 years, starting in 1964 when only 29
baby boys were named after the Islamic prophet who
lived in the seventh century. By 2014 the number had
soared to 2,931, a more than 100-to-one ratio.
Alabama 2nd state to sue feds over refugee
resettlement
Suit claims program too secretive
Leo Hohmann Published: 01/07/2016
Alabama has become the second state to sue the
federal government alleging that it has failed to
“consult” with state officials while secretly placing
foreign refugees into communities. The suit claims the
Obama administration has violated the terms of the
Refugee Act of 1980, which says the federal government
“shall consult regularly” with states before
placing refugees.
A spokeswoman for Gov. Robert Bentley told the
Associated Press the lawsuit was filed Thursday,
following a similar suit by Texas a month ago.
But an expert on the 1980 law governing refugee
resettlement told WND that neither suit stands a
chance of stopping the flow of refugees into Texas or
Alabama. Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel
of the Thomas More Law Center, said his organization
is not involved in either the Texas or the Alabama
cases because he believes there is a stronger case to
be made on the grounds of the 10th Amendment.
“They filed a suit on the grounds that the feds have
failed to consult with the state on the location of
refugees in the state, and failure to consult is a
term that has no real definition to it. Texas has
filed a similar suit that thus far has not gone
anywhere,” Thompson said. “Thomas More Law Center’s
position is that there is a constitutional claim and
that claim is based on the 10th Amendment.”
Bentley is one of more than two-dozen Republican
governors who opposed the settlement of Syrian
refugees in their states after the Nov. 13 jihadist
attacks that killed 130 people in Paris.
About 80 GOP congressmen have also signed on to
co-sponsor a bill by Rep. Brian Babin, R-Texas, which
would halt all refugee resettlement until the program
can undergo a full investigation into its costs and
its risks to national security.
But the U.S. State Department has continued
distributing Muslim refugees into more than 180 U.S.
cities and towns. They come not only from Syria and
Iraq, but from Somalia, Afghanistan, the Democratic
Republic of Congo, Burma and other countries with
active jihadist movements.
A stronger response is ready and waiting for a taker.
The Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Thomas More Law Center
has been working since June to prepare a case that
would challenge the constitutionality of federal
authority over the refugee program. The program is
administered by the U.S. State Department along with
the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Office of Refugee Resettlement.
Expanding special rights
to the 2% who choose the LGBT lifestyle in
Jacksonville FL
with excerpts from Christopher Hong Jan 13, 2016 Jacksonville Florida Times-Union
"Jacksonville residents crowded Tuesday’s City Council
meeting to voice their stance on the longstanding
question of whether to expand discrimination
protections to the LGBT community...
Tuesday’s meeting saw the formal introduction of two
bills on the issue. Councilman Tommy Hazouri
introduced a bill to expand the discrimination
protections, while Councilman Bill Gulliford
introduced a bill to let voters decide.
Next month, the council will begin debating those two
bills.... the council defeated similar legislation in
2012. Tuesday’s discussion mostly remained civil, with
council members hearing many of the same arguments
voiced years ago and in a series of community meetings
that (Mayor) Curry hosted late last year.
Supporters of expanding the law said the LGBT
community deserves the same rights and protections
afforded to other minority groups and urged the
council to vote on it.
Opponents, many citing their religious beliefs that
homosexuality is morally wrong, said expanded
protections amounted to a special privilege that would
interfere with small business and could allow men into
women’s restrooms. Many urged council members to let
voters decide the issue.
The full council will debate Hazouri’s and Gulliford’s
bills during special meetings scheduled for Feb. 4,
Feb. 18 and March 3."
Has your voice been heard about this expansion of
Special Rights in Jacksonville FL? Contact
your Mayor and your Council Representatives:
The powers not delegated to the United States by
the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the
States, are reserved to the States respectively, or
to the people.
Alabama chief justice tells judges to halt same-sex
'marriages'
Posted By Bob Unruh On 01/06/2016
World Net Daily
Chief Justice Roy Moore of the Alabama Supreme Court on
Wednesday ordered the state’s probate judges, the only
ones in the state who are allowed to issue marriage
licenses, to follow the state’s Sanctity of Marriage
Amendment and its Marriage Protection Act until the full
state Supreme Court rules on the issue.
Please click here to read the article in its entirety
January 7, 2016
Subject: URGENT: Stop the LGBT Law
Dear
Jacksonville
Family,
This is URGENT. Please forward this
email to others.
Unless we do something
about it, just 10
City Council members will force a LGBT
favoritism law upon Jacksonville, Duval County,
Florida – a law which will restrict Free
Speech and religious liberties and which will
allow men, claiming to be women, to enter women’s
and children’s dormitories, and dressing, locker
and rest rooms – to view them in all stages of
undress.
And, much more harm will
occur. Get more details at DefendJaxFamilies.
But,
you can help
prevent this. How? LET THE PEOPLE
DECIDE this issue.
●Show
your support for the Public Referendum
proposed by Councilman Gulliford. Complete and
return the
Petition found here,
where there are instructions. The Petition
form can be filled out on your computer and returned
by email.
●Forward
this letter. Email it to as
many people as possible.
●Collect
Petition signatures. Download
the Petition
form, print copies and distribute them at
churches and other venues.
●Help
fund the campaign. And please
urge friends to donate
here . They will understand that it
takes funding to fight this battle.
●Attend
key City Council meetings. The
next City Council meeting is January 12, 2016 at
5:00 P.M. Followed by the Finance Committee meeting
on Jan 19 at 9:30 A.M. Click
here to view regularly scheduled City Council
meetings and plan accordingly.
Please act quickly.
Time is short. Please act now to complete the forms
and return.
Thanks for all your help,
and for your support in the past.
Non-Muslims encouraged to wear Islamic head scarf at
school
Click
here to read a thoughtful piece posted by Leo
Hohmann on WND 12/14/2015.This news occurred
courtesy of American educational systems and Muslim
Student Associations (M.S.A.), a known front group for
the Muslim Brotherhood and an unindicted co-conspirator
in the largest terror-financing trial ever held on U.S.
soil.
(The above may more be correctly filed under
"How Political Correctness is destroying our nation")
If your blood
pressure is not high enough yet, click
here to read about the Virginia high school
Geography class that passed around the Koran and
included a lesson practicing Arabic calligraphy, or
the California School with the Muslim fight song.
Wonder when is the last time they sang "Onward,
Christian Soldiers" and passed around a Bible.
(Thanks again to wnd.com)
Facebook censors Michael Savage post of Muslims
protesting
Photos show demonstrators warning 'Behead those who
insult Islam'
Published: 12/10/2015 at 3:38 PM World Net Daily
When Muslims held a demonstration in London in 2006 in
protest of cartoons depicting their founder, Muhammad,
many bore signs warning of beheading and death for
“those who insult Islam.”
Talk-radio host Michael Savage thought that amid a
fierce national debate on whether or not to allow
Muslims to immigrate to the United States, it would be
worth considering what has been happening in Europe.
So, he posted on his Facebook page photographs of the
Feb. 3, 2006, demonstration outside the Embassy of
Denmark in London. The focus of protest was the
publication of editorial cartoons depicting Muhammad in
the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. Snopes.com
verified that the photographs were taken at the London
demonstration, with the exception of one, which was from
a protest in the English city of Luton (which is 33
miles away).
Wednesday night, Facebook removed Savage’s post,
explaining the social media site “determined that it
violated Facebook community standards.”
After Muslim Truckers Refuse
to Deliver Beer… Obama Does the Unbelievable
From Top Right News on October
27, 2015
by Bill Callen | Top Right News
Barack Obama just sided with Muslims to enforce
Islamic Sharia Law on an American business, leaving
many outraged and two FoxNews anchors absolutely
stunned.
Two Muslim truck drivers — former Somali “refugees”
— refused to make deliveries of beer to stores
for their employer. So they were understandably fired.
They claimed it was a violation of their religious
beliefs — even though Islam bars only the consumption
of alcohol. And, as the employer pointed out, the
workers knew they would have to deliver
alcohol before they took the job.
So guess what Barack Obama did.
He SUED the employers it on behalf of the pair,
Mahad Abass Mohamed and Abdkiarim Hassan Bulshale,
claiming religious discrimination.
Obama’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
represented them in the case, providing tens of
thousands of taxpayer dollars in legal support,
judicial filings and court appearances against the
employer who was hopelessly outgunned by the Federal
government.
And this week the Muslims were awarded a stunning
$240,000 by a jury, presided over by an Obama
appointee who stunned analysts by allowing the case to
go forward at all.
Hard to believe, isn't it? Why would someone accept a
job knowing he is unable to perform the work?? This
has been fact checked
at this link and it is, sadly, true.
from the Washington Post (which commentator and
author Mark Levin colorfully refers to as the
"Washington Compost":
San Bernardino suspects identified; probe turns to
motive, planning
What we know about the
shooting in San Bernardino
Police
in San
Bernardino, Calif.,
said heavily armed gunmen killed 14 people and
injured 17 others during a holiday party for
county employees. Here's what we know about the
mass shooting. (The Washington
Post)
By
William Dauber, Sarah Kaplan and Brian MurphyDecember 3 at 9:46 AM
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. —
Investigators grappled Thursday on two main fronts
after the deadliest U.S. mass shooting since the
Sandy Hook Elementary School bloodshed: Seeking
clues on the motives and apparent commando-style
planning by a couple who turned an office holiday
party into a killing field with at least 14 dead.
“I don’t think they grabbed the guns and tactical
gear on a spur-of-the-moment thing,” said San
Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan hours after
Wednesday’s rampage and a police shootout that left
both alleged shooters dead several miles from the
attack.
In addition, at least 17 people were wounded, some
critically.
Bit by bit, profiles emerged of the suspects: Syed
Rizwan Farook, 28, a former county health worker who
was born in the United States,
and a woman described as his Pakistani-born wife,
Tashfeen Malik, 27.
As many as
three people opened fire at a nonprofit facility
in San
Bernardino where a
holiday party for county employees was underway,
killing at least 14 people and injuring 17 others.
Also being pieced together were the hour-by-hour
events before police say the suspects stormed a
conference center wearing black masks and armed with
assault rifles and handguns.
Earlier in the day, the suspects dropped off their
6-month-old daughter with Farook’s mother, saying
they had a doctor’s appointment, said Hussam
Ayloush, executive director of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations in Los Angeles.
Later, Farook attended the office party hosted by
the San Bernardino County Department of Public
Health, where he had once worked as an inspector,
earning more than $71,000 in salary and benefits in
2013. Farook then left the gathering “under
circumstances described as angry or something of
that nature,” said Burguan, the police chief.
Police said Farook then returned with Malik and the
pair opened fire on the crowd before fleeing in a
black SUV, which was later spotted about two miles
from the shooting site with the area under
near-total lockdown. Some unconfirmed reports quoted
police saying the attackers also were outfitted with
body cameras.
A shootout with police left both suspects dead and
the vehicle peppered with bullet holes and with its
windows shattered.
“They came prepared to do what they did, as if they
were on a mission,” Burguan said.
Muslim community leader Ayloush described Malik as
a Pakistani-born immigrant who lived in Saudi Arabia
before marrying Farook. Two FBI officials told The
Washington Post that Farook was not under FBI
investigation. It’s not clear whether he had links
to any other people under FBI investigation.
A third person seen fleeing the shootout was also
taken into custody, but it remained unclear whether
there was any link to the suspect.
“Right now, as we continue to drill down our
information, it looks like we have two shooters,”
Burguan said. “We are comfortable that the two
shooters that went into the building are the two
shooters that are deceased.”
But many other questions loomed.
Among them was whether the attack was pre-planned
and why the suspects amassed assault-style gear and
arms in a tidy residential neighborhood about 50
miles east of Los Angeles where the couple was often
seen relaxing in their back yard.
Burguan declined to comment on what may have
precipitated the attack. But, he said, the couple
seemed too well-prepared for the shooting to be
viewed as a spontaneous act.
He added: “We have not ruled out terrorism.”
“I have no idea why he would do something like
this,” Farhan Khan, who is married to Farook’s
sister, said at a news conference. “I cannot express
how sad I am today.”
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives said it recovered two rifles and two
handguns and is conducting “urgent traces” on their
origins.
An ATF official, speaking on condition of
anonymity, said two of the weapons were purchased
legally, and investigations continued into the other
two.
“Whatever the results of this investigation ... one
thing is clear: Violence like this has no place in
this country,” said Attorney General Loretta Lynch,
speaking at a White House event on incarceration and
poverty.
Recent mass shootings in the United States
have typically involved a lone gunman, often someone
mentally unstable or consumed with rage.
Multiple-shooter events are extremely rare:
According to a recent FBI report on 160 “active
shooter incidents” between 2000 and 2013, all but
two involved a single shooter.
“One of
the big questions that will come up repeatedly is:
‘Is this terrorism?’ ” said David Bowdich, assistant
director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles
office, said at an earlier news conference. “It is a
possibility. We are making some adjustments to our
investigation. It is a possibility. But we don’t
know that yet. And we are not willing to go down
that road yet.”
The two left behind little in the way of a paper
trail — no apparent criminal record, no Facebook
page or Twitter account.
An online dating profile for a “farooksyed49” from
Riverside,
Calif.,
resembles the suspect described by law enforcement.
The profile, on the “Indian matrimonial and dating
service” iMilap.com, describes a 22-year-old man
from a “religious but modern family.”
“I work for county as health, safety and
environmental inspector,” it reads. “Enjoy working
on vintage and modern cars, read religious books,
enjoy eating out sometimes travel and just hang out
in back yard doing target practice with younger
sister and friends.”
The man in the profile picture is tall and bearded,
posed jauntily in front of a nondescript building
flanked by palm trees and a smooth, green lawn. He
writes that he is interested in “matrimonial.”
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, co-workers who
knew Farook described him as a quiet and polite man
who held no obvious grudges against people in the
office. They said he recently traveled to Saudi Arabia
and returned with a woman he met online.
The officer had recently held a shower for the
couple’s new baby, and the two seemed to be “living
the American dream,” said Patrick Baccari, a fellow
inspector who shared a cubicle with Farook.
Griselda Reisinger, who worked with Farook before
leaving the agency in May, and other colleagues told
the Los Angeles Times that Farook was a devout
Muslim but not vocal about his religion.
The site of the shooting, the InlandRegionalCenter, is
a three-building complex that houses a conference
center and serves more than 30,000 people with
developmental disabilities. Nearly 700 staff members
work there, according to the organization’s Facebook
page, promoting “independence, inclusion, and
empowerment.” The organization says that it is
committed to eliminating barriers for individuals
with developmental disabilities so that they can
“live a typical lifestyle.”
The center held its own holiday party Tuesday, and
a brief video clip showed staffers and clients in
wheelchairs dancing to the 1980 mega-hit
“Celebration” by Kool & the Gang.
On Wednesday, the city’s public health department
had rented out the conference center’s first-floor
banquet room for a holiday party, complete with
Christmas trees and other decorations. The event was
in full swing when the first reports of gunfire
came, at 10:59 a.m.
Dauber is a freelance writer. Kaplan and Murphy
reported from Washington.
Freelance writer Martha Groves in San Bernardino and
staff writers Joel Achenbach, Mark Berman, Adam
Goldman, Lindsey Bever, Niraj Chokshi, Ann
Gerhart, Sari Horwitz, Elahe Izadi, Wesley Lowery,
Kevin Sullivan, Julie Tate, Justin Wm. Moyer,
Yanan Wang and Alice Crites in Washington
contributed to this report.
Sarah Kaplan is a reporter for
Morning Mix.
Brian Murphy joined the Post
after more than 20 years as a foreign
correspondent and bureau chief for the Associated
Press in Europe and the Middle
East. He has reported from more
than 50 countries and has written three books.
November
19. 2015
FROM A CONCERNED
CITIZEN OF JACKSONVILLE
It's
baaack!It's
the so-called “Human Rights Ordinance”
(H.R.O.- not to be confused with the Holy
Roman Empire which failed centuries ago), a
second attempt to introduce another
"SPECIAL" group with "SPECIAL" rights
un-accorded to you- the average moral
citizen of our city.
Evidently,
it is notenough to have EQUAL
rights and EQUAL justice... at least
that is what the paid lobbyists trolling
around city hall seem to indicate.
My
consternation is that as a color-blind, sexual
orientation-blind, class-blind person, now the
city wants to FORCE me to look at the
private sexual inclinations
of others, whether I choose to or not, and
then may misinterpret my response, putting me
at risk of criminal actions against me!
We have inalienable
God-given rights- Life, Liberty
and the Pursuit of Happiness to mention a few.
These are specifically mentioned in the U.S.
Constitution which purpose was to limit
the power and control of general
government. As if that was not enough to
confirm the “fully-worthy” status of all,
there is also a Florida Commission on Human
Relations, and Civil Rights. We need the city
to spend time and our money on this also?
The Mayor
of Jacksonville, Lenny Curry, has mandated
three fact finding meetings, “Community
Conversations”, so that all sides of
the H.R.O. proposal can be heard.
The first
meeting has taken place.... the topic was "Supporting
the Needs and Well-Being of Families"-not
ALL families, evidently- not military families
or racially mixed families or families with
one partner living out of town, or single
parent families. Why a meeting about this
little LGBT segment of families?? Don't all
families have challenges? All households? Is
it the City’s balliwick to give this SPECIAL
consideration, at the expense of our
public safety, roads, and pensions for those
who keep us safe?
The first
meeting was composed of a panel of six, four
of whom were “for” the LGBT Special Privilege
bill. The meeting was attended by several
busloads of LGBT supporters who were shipped
in from outside of the city. Arriving first,
it was only they who were allowed to comment
during the first-come-first served portion of
the meeting. Needless to say, the first
meeting did not prove to be a successful
format to hear “all sides” of the proposal.
Religious
Freedoms, Thoughts & Beliefs, Dec.3 at
6 p.m.
EdwardWatersCollege Milne
Auditorium at 1658 Kings Road, Jacksonville, FL32209
and
Understanding
the
Law & its Effects on Business, Dec. 15
at 6 p.m.
Jacksonville
University
Policy Institute at 2800 University Blvd. N.,
Jacksonville,
FL32211.
Jacksonville
is a city struggling to pay the costs
and pensions of our public safety
professionals at JFRD and JSO, to maintain our
infrastructure, and to promote the general
welfare and safety of ALL of our citizens, yet
our elected leaders are spending our resources
discussing how you and I should respond
to the sexual choices of others,
allowing them into public restrooms frequented
by my family and neighbors. If this should
pass, will the city also spend my money to
retrofit bathroom facilities so my kids will
be safe? Will the city require private
businesses to do likewise?
So give
this some thought. It's your city and your tax
money.If
you say No No! NO! to this, please contact
your Mayor, Lenny Curry at
This is the time to make your voice and
your priorities for your city of Jacksonville,
heard.
WND EXCLUSIVE
Houston faith leaders gear up
for new transgender fight
'We will work with Dallas
pastors to determine how to appropriately respond'
Bob Unruh 11/11/2015
The coalition of pastors
from Houston who defeated lesbian Mayor Annise
Parker’s transgender-rights ordinance – a fight that
included her subpoenas of sermons – now are
volunteering to help pastors in Dallas oppose a
similar measure.
“We will work with Dallas pastors to determine how to
appropriately respond to the wholesale catering by
city council to the radical, anti-faith, anti-family
agenda of the LGBT Human Rights Campaign,” said Rev.
Dave Welch, president of the Texas Pastor Council.
Welch said Dallas’ change to its existing
nondiscrimination ordinance “not only opens but
essentially removes the doors of women’s restrooms,
showers and locker rooms in Dallas, as well as
criminalizes businesses, employees as well as
eventually, churches who attempt to keep men out.”
WND has reported extensively on the Houston fight,
which took nearly two years. It ended last week when
citizens, by order of the state Supreme Court, were
allowed to vote on the measure and soundly rejected
it, 62 percent to 38 percent.
The Houston Equal Rights Ordinance would have banned
discrimination against transgender people, allowing,
for example, men who perceive themselves to be women
to use women’s restrooms, locker rooms and other
gender-specific facilities in the city. Anyone
opposing or obstructing them could have been fined
$5,000.
“Outlasting the Gay Revolution” spells out eight
principles to help Americans with conservative moral
values counter attacks on our freedoms of religion,
speech and conscience by homosexual activists
The Texas Pastor Council’s Welch condemned the change
in the Dallas ordinance as an attack on society’s
foundation.
“There are many issues that our city governments
should be focused on to improve the city, and this
ordinance patently rejects cornerstones of our
civilization that family is built upon the covenant of
marriage between a man and a woman, that our sex is
embedded in our chromosomes, and this beautiful
created order is a gift from God.”
Welch added, “A bad tree cannot produce good fruit and
a law based on elevating gender confusion to being a
protected class equal with race can only produce harm,
not good.”
The Dallas law protecting “gender identity and
expression” says the places of public accommodation
that must grant a man who defines his gender as female
full access to women’s facilities are any inn, hotel,
temporary lodging, restaurant, cafeteria, lunchroom,
soda facility, motion picture house, theater, concert
hall, and retail or wholesale establishment selling
goods or services.
The measure, Welch said, is a “bottomless Pandora’s
Box.”
“Definition A plus Definition B equals exposing girls
and women to violation of their privacy as well as
their safety,” he said.
He said city officials in Dallas should have paid
attention to the Houston vote and learned that pastors
and citizens will react negatively to such a social
agenda.
“As our very ethnically diverse coalition of pastors
in Houston stated and showed for the last eighteen
months, every one of us are for equal rights for all,
however we cannot allow special rights for a tiny
fraction of society to endanger the safety and freedom
for the rest,” he said.
Stephen Young at the Dallas Observer wrote that Dallas
didn’t pass an ordinance but “adjusted the language of
an ordinance that’s existed since 2002 in a way that
made very little change to how anyone in the city is
treated.”
He said in Houston, voters denied “protection” to
their fellow residents.
Young said the Dallas ordinance “doesn’t even have the
word restroom in it, and the failed Houston law only
allowed opposite-gender restroom use in a fantasy
world in which trans people don’t exist.”
At the Advocate, Dawn Ennis explained that while
“sexual orientation” has been a protected class for
years, “gender identity” was a class left unprotected.
She noted there was no organized opposition to the
expansion of the sexual identity protections, but
critics say that was because there was very little
notice to the public of the looming change.
Texas Values Action blasted the Dallas law and its
quick adoption.
“This Dallas bathroom ordinance will allow men into
women’s bathrooms and that’s why the Dallas city
council is deliberately trying to avoid the people,”
said a statement released by the group’s president,
Jonathan Saenz.
“Their fast track method of passing this dangerous
bill that threatens the safety of women and children
is the same strategy used in Houston to disenfranchise
voters with their failed bathroom bill. Creating law
behind closed doors and forcing it onto the people the
next morning is a recipe for disaster. These Obama and
D.C. style tactics will not work in Texas. Get ready
for a Texas-sized response.”
“Outlasting the Gay Revolution” spells out eight
principles to help Americans with conservative moral
values counter attacks on our freedoms of religion,
speech and conscience by homosexual activists
The strategy in Houston was to move the ordinance
through the city council quickly. City officials then
tried to invalidate a petition demanding a public
vote.
After a months-long court fight, the state Supreme
Court stepped in and ordered the city to repeal the
ordinance or put it on the election ballot in
compliance with the city charter.
Some of the pastors who were targeted by the mayor’s
subpoena have filed a lawsuit charging her with
violating their rights.
It is hard to know where to catalogue the following
... under Politics? Religious Liberties? Islamic
Threat? Christian or Cult? Perhaps "Know They Enemy"?
You be the judge.
40 Mind-Blowing Quotes From
Barack Hussein Obama On Islam And Christianity
by Geoffrey Grider nowtheendbegins.com
Oct 2, 2013
When someone shows you who
they are, believe them
Since 2009, NOW THE END BEGINS has
brought you story after story in detailed accounts of
exactly how Obama feels about Islam, and how he views
Christianity and the Bible. So today, in light of
recent events in Washington, we feel it important that
you know exactly where your president stands in
regards to his faith and his god. Below are 20 quotes
he has made about Islam, and 20 quotes he has made
about Christianity. Nothing edited or mashed up, just
exactly in the context he originally spoke them in
with fully-sourced links so you can see where they
come from.
Police Confiscate Mohammed Cartoons At Dutch
Anti-Islam Rally
by Nick Hallett 9 Nov 2015
Police seized “offensive” Mohammed cartoons during a
demonstration by the Dutch branch of the Patriotic
European Against the Islamisation of the West (PEGIDA)
movement in the city of Utrecht this weekend.
The rally, which attracted around 150 supporters,
criticised the “Islamisation” of the Netherlands, with
demonstrators also expressing their support for the
Freedom Party of Geert Wilders, a noted critic of
Islamism.
DutchNews reports that police arrested 32 people at the
demonstration for a variety of offences including
failing to carry IDs, not following police orders and
displaying “insulting banners”.
One such banner said the “Koran is poison”, while
another claimed “Islamisation is EU-thanasia”.
Video footage emerged of police removing Mohammed
cartoons, although their ultimate fate is unknown.
Utrecht City Council had banned the demonstrators from
marching through the city so they gathered instead in a
park on the outskirts of the city.
The PEGIDA marches started in Dresden, Germany last year
as “evening strolls” through the streets every Monday to
protest against militant and political Islam. The
marches soon grew and spread across the country, but
died down again at the start of this year to point where
most commentators assumed the movement had petered out.
However, as the migrant crisis intensifies in Europe,
especially thanks to German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s
relaxed border policies, the marches have started again
and are growing.
Authorities have hit back, however, charging founder
Lutz Bachmann with hate speech for comments he made in
Facebook posts back in 2014. State prosecutors in Saxony
claim private posts in which Mr Bachmann uses terms such
as “livestock” and “scum” to refer to migrants risked
causing disturbances.
This weekend in the German capital Berlin, supporters of
the anti-mass migration Alternativ für Deutschland (AfD)
party also held a rally criticising Mrs Merkel’s
immigration policy and calling for her to resign.
The rally passed off largely peacefully, although
violent scuffles broke out between police and
pro-migrant counter-demonstrators.
Thousands Of German
People Chant ‘Merkel Must Go’ At Anti-Mass Muslim
Migration Rally
by Geoffrey Grider
November 7, 2015
The AFD has seen its popularity surge as Germany
struggles to deal with the huge influx of Muslim
migrants, and is currently campaigning in local
elections in the Saxony-Anhalt region that will be seen
as an indicator of public sentiment on the issue.
The anti-mass Muslim migration Alternativ für
Deutschland (AfD) party held a rally in the German
capital Berlin this afternoon, demanding the resignation
of Chancellor Angela Merkel and calling for the country
to adopt a strong policy on immigration.
German paper Handelsblatt estimates that 5,000 people
joined the rally this afternoon, calling for the
immediate closure of Germany’s borders and introduction
of visa requirements from migrants from the Balkan
states, including Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and
Montenegro.
Angry demonstrators chanted “Merkel must go” and
“traitor to the people” under the banner “Asylum has its
limits – red card for Merkel”.
Addressing the crowd, Beatrix von Storch, member of the
European Parliament, accused the German chancellor of
causing "asylum chaos” in Germany.
This was a rally in German from about two weeks ago, as
the German people are being forced to rise up and do
what their government refuses to do.
Although the main protest was largely peaceful, several
counter-protests by pro-migrant activists descended into
violence, with around 40 arrests. Around 800
counter-demonstrators showed up, far lower than
organisers had hoped.
Yesterday, it was reported that the German government
had agreed the downgrade the status of Syrian migrants,
reducing the amount of time they could stay in the
country and banning them from bringing their families.
Today, however, the government did a U-turn on the
plans.
Court rules against
Little Sisters of the Poor in Contraceptive Coverage
Case
By Nigel Duara
L.A. Times
July 14, 2015
A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that there is a
limit to how far the government must bend to
accommodate religious objections to the federal
healthcare exchange.
The U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that if
the Colorado-based Little Sisters of the Poor want to
refuse contraceptive coverage to their employees, they
must sign a waiver to be exempted, and that such a
waiver is not a substantial burden on the nuns'
religious freedom.
The 2-1 decision is one of the few victories the U.S.
government can claim in defense of the healthcare law
in the contraceptive mandate debate.
Hobby Lobby, a business run by evangelical
Christians, successfully argued before the U.S.
Supreme Court last year that a mandate to provide
contraception to female employees violated their
belief that life begins at conception.
The high court agreed that for-profit organizations
like Hobby Lobby required protection, but did not say
how far such protections would go.
In response, on Aug. 27, 2014, Affordable Care
Act administrators created a waiver for religious
nonprofits that would grant them an exemption from
contraceptive coverage.
But the Little Sisters of the Poor, who run the
Mullen Home for the Aged in Denver, argued before a
three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit that the waiver
itself both crosses the nuns’ moral boundary by
endorsing contraceptives and gives control of their
healthcare program to the government.
“Most religious liberty claimants allege that a
generally applicable law or policy without a religious
exception burdens religious exercise,” according to
the decision, noting that most cases begin with
prisoners demanding a religious right.
But in the Little Sisters of the Poor case and
accompanying suits by self-insured religious objectors
and religious universities, the government made clear
attempts to offer a religious exemption, the judges
wrote.
“Although plaintiffs allege the administrative tasks
required to opt out of the mandate make them complicit
in the overall delivery scheme, opting out instead
relieves them from complicity,” according to the
opinion.
The judges said the difference between Hobby Lobby
and the Little Sisters of the Poor is that Hobby Lobby
faced fines for every day of noncompliance. Ihe Little
Sisters of the Poor faced no such burden, the judges
ruled.
10th Circuit Judge Bobby R. Baldock, the lone
dissenter, agreed with the decision on the Little
Sisters of the Poor but said other self-insured groups
were indeed substantially burdened when they faced
fines for refusing to provide contraceptives because
of their religious belief.
May 9, 2015
Dr. Gene A. Youngblood, Pastor
First Conservative Baptist Church
12021 Old St Augustine Rd
Jacksonville, Florida 32258
TO: All news media outlets
It has come to my attention that there are
some in our community, as well as, a few media that
have expressed questions or concerns relating to our
Church-Ministry campus/outdoor marquee, changeable
copy sign and its current message. This marquee
generally has a message change each week. Generally
the message relates in some fashion to those things
and events taking place in our city or nation. As a
pastor and ministry we feel it needful to keep our
citizens informed and at the same time be relevant
through the Word of GOD.
FIRST: Let me state
my deep love and concern for our great city, state,
and nation. I am a Bible believing patriot
with a deep concern over the moral declension. I am
deeply saddened to see the morals and family values
under attack on a national basis. I have invested
the past 50 years of my life in the defense of the
WORD of GOD through religious-theological studies,
pastoral, pulpit, and classroom academic
instructional responsibilities.
SECOND: We are profoundly committed to the
preaching-teaching of God’s Word. God’s Word
commands that I “Preach the WORD” (11Tim 4:1-3)
which in the text includes confronting sin. I do not
have the authority OR permission to change any text
of GOD’S Word-THE BIBLE.
THIRD: Our ministry marquee has been used as a tool
to educate, inspire, and caution for over 30 years.
We have dealt with multiple Biblical-Theological
issues that caution and confront sin of whatever
kind. Our prayer is that in our small way we may
make a difference in the lives of all those who pass
by. We do realize that any scriptural absolute may
cause conviction resulting in the attack on the
messenger as well as the message.
FORMALLY: The present message (caution) comes from
the WORD of GOD, The BIBLE as found in a multitude
of Scripture references:
• Romans 1:24-32, deals with
several kinds of Sin, with the focus on those
believing that they are wise and God says that they
are unwise. God then deals with the specific sin of
homosexuality and firmly condemns it.
• I Corinthians 6:9-10, warns that
all (including homosexuals) that commit sin and DO
NOT REPENT will die and go to HELL.
• OTHER text include and is NOT
limited to: Leviticus 20:13, Leviticus 18:22,
Deuteronomy 23:17-18, Galatians 5:19-21, Revelation
21:8, Revelation 22:15
Needless to say, the Scriptures are replete with
GOD’S warnings to all of us that SIN must be
confessed and repented of or HELL is GOD’S judgment
upon sin. The wonder of it all is that God through
Jesus Christ will forgive “ANY” confessed sin that
is repented of.
BECAUSE we love people (yet, as directed in
Scripture to hate the sin), we therefore want to
warn them of the coming Judgment of God on the sin
of Homosexuality (and any other sin that is NOT
repented of). ALL SIN that is not confessed and
repented will cause a person to GO TO HELL (God says
it, I did not originate the Word), God did. In fact,
according to several of the heretofore mentioned
Biblical text remind us of other sin specifically
mentioned in Scripture including; “All Liars,
Prostitutes, Sexually Promiscuous, Idolaters,
Adulterers, Homosexuals, Revilers, Extortioners,
WILL GO TO HELL unless they repent and seek God’s
forgiveness.
It is my sincere prayer that perhaps “ONE”
practicing Homosexual will have read our sign and
will REPENT before it is too late and they are cast
into HELL. HELL is a real place and anyone not
believing in the reality of HELL will not change the
temperature of the FLAMES a single degree.
I am eternally grateful to God for allowing me to
preach HIS WORD at a time when our Religious
FREEDOMS are being challenged and FREEDOM of speech
is being challenged, as well as, our (all of us)
Constitutional Liberties are under ATTACK.
Notwithstanding all of the above, I do understand
and sympathize with SOME that are not well
instructed or versed in the BIBLE and thus will
consider our marquee’s message to be incorrect or
un-spiritual. PLEASE allow me to state forthrightly;
we stand on SOLID Biblical TRUTH, therefore we pray
for each person that reads our message (changes
weekly), and prayerfully considers its TRUTH and
Caution.
FURTHERMORE, I pray that the media will NOT attempt
to thwart or interfere with our FREEDOM OF RELIGIOUS
SPEECH. We also pray that the media will be
cautioned NOT to in any way interfere with or
disrupt ANY worship or other programs or services
conducted in and through FIRST CONSERVATIVE BAPTIST
CHURCH.
May God bless and use all in the MEDIA as an
instrument to preserve society and help protect
AMERICA and our great document THE CONSTITUTION.
Signed;
DR. GENE A. YOUNGBLOOD
Pastor
Obama blocks Iraqi nun from describing Christian
persecution
Posted By Leo Hohmann World Net Daily 05/01/2015 @ 11:52 am In Faith,Front Page,U.S.,World
Sister Diana Momeka is a Dominican Catholic nun
who fled her home in Iraq last August along with 50,000
other Christians and religious minorities escaping ISIS.
A leading conservative is asking why the Obama State
Department is barring a persecuted Iraqi nun from entry
into the United States to share her message about the
brutal treatment of Christians in her country.
Nina Shea of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious
Freedom, writes in a National Review op-ed that Sister
Diana Momeka is “an internationally respected and
leading representative of the Nineveh Christians who
have been killed and deported by ISIS.”
Yet this nun is being “barred from coming to Washington
to testify about this catastrophe?”
Sister Diana was the only Christian in the delegation
and the only member blocked from the trip, the
Washington Times reported, leading some of her American
supporters to question why she was singled out.
Shea, in her op-ed titled “With Malice Toward Nun,”
exposed the real reason why Obama denied the visa for
Sister Diana.
“Sister Diana Momeka of the Dominican
Sisters of Saint Catherine of Siena was informed on
Tuesday by the U.S. consulate in Erbil that her
non-immigrant-visa application has been rejected.
“The reason given in the denial
letter, a copy of which I have obtained, is:
‘You were not able to demonstrate
that your intended activities in the United States would
be consistent with the classification of the visa.’”
Shea further explains:
“She told me in a phone conversation
that, to her face, consular officer Christopher Patch
told her she was denied because she is an ‘IDP’ or
Internally Displaced Person. ‘That really hurt,’ she
said. Essentially, the State Department was calling her
a deceiver.”
Shea states that the State Department officials made the
determination that the Catholic nun “could be falsely
asserting that she intends to visit Washington when
secretly she could be intending to stay. That would
constitute illegal immigration, and that, of course, is
strictly forbidden. Once here, she could also be at risk
for claiming political asylum, and the U.S. seems
determined to deny ISIS’s Christian victims that
status.”
Shea then outlined Sister Diana’s reasons for her visit
and the endorsements she received from two politicians –
one Republican and one Democrat — among others:
“In reality, Sister Diana wanted to
visit for one week in mid-May. She has meetings set up
with the Senate and House foreign-relations committees,
the State Department, USAID, and various NGOs. In
support of her application, Sister Diana had multiple
documents vouching for her and the temporary nature of
her visit. She submitted a letter from her prioress,
Sister Maria Hana. It attested that the nun has been
gainfully employed since last February with the Babel
College of Philosophy and Theology in Erbil, Kurdistan,
and is contracted to teach there in the 2015–16 academic
year.”
Sister Diana also submitted an invitation from her
sponsors, two respected Washington-area think tanks, the
Institute for Global Engagement and former congressman
Frank Wolf’s (R., Va.) 21st Century Wilberforce
Initiative.
None of this was good enough for the Obama State
Department.
Yet, as Matthew Balan points out in an article for News
Busters, even as the administration denies a visa to a
persecuted Christian nun, it has created a “special
envoy for the human rights of LGBT persons.”
“One wonders if any of the major news media outlets will
pick up the story of Sister Diana,” Balan muses. Just
over a month ago, on 60 Minutes, CBS’s Lara Logan
refreshingly brought new attention to ISIS’s genocidal
campaign against the ancient Christian communities in
Iraq. But since then, there has been scant coverage of
the Islamic extremist group’s persecution of the
religious minority. ”
Sister Diana, along with the town’s 50,000 other, mostly
Christian, residents, were forced out of their homes by
ISIS in the second week of August and fled for their
lives to Kurdish-controlled areas.
“Since then, the 30-something religious woman has served
as a spokesperson for this community, as well as for the
over 100,000 other Christians driven into Kurdistan
under the ISIS ‘convert or die’ policy,” Shea writes.
“Mr. Wolf, who met her in Kurdistan a few months ago,
explained, ‘We had hoped to facilitate her trip to the
States so that she could speak with great candor, as is
her custom, to policymakers. Perhaps just as
significantly, we viewed her as a critical voice to
awaken the church in the West to the suffering of
Christians and other religious minorities in Iraq.’”
Muslim
congressmen try to boot Islam critic Geert Wilders
Posted By Art Moore On
04/30/2015 @ 7:38 pm In Front Page,Politics,U.S.
Reps. Andre Carson,
D-Ind., Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., and Keith Ellison,
D-Minn., in Washington, D.C., protesting Geert
Wilders visit to the U.S. (Twitter
@RepAndreCarson)
As one of the world’s most prominent critics of
Islam, Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders doesn’t go
anywhere without his security detail of as many as
six plainclothes police officers, and he rarely
crosses international borders without causing
political uproar, having already been banned in
Britain at one time.
So it was of little surprise that three U.S.
congressmen urged Secretary of State John Kerry and
Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson to deny
him a visa ahead of his planned visit to the U.S.
this week, due to his alleged ongoing “participation
in inciting anti-Muslim aggression and violence.”
Reps. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., and André Carson,
D-Ind., who both are Muslim, along with Rep. Joe
Crowley, D-N.Y., wrote a letter April 23 citing “the
International Religious Freedom Act which allows the
Department of State to deny entry to a foreign
leader who is responsible for severe violations of
religious freedom.”
Nevertheless, Wilders – who insists he doesn’t hate
Muslims but believes Western civilization is
threatened by adherents of the Islamic supremacy
taught in the Quran – showed up on Capitol Hill
Wednesday and spoke at two events at the invitation
of Reps. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, and Steve
King, R-Iowa
King’s communications director, Sarah Stevens, told
WND the congressman invited Wilders a month or so
ago to speak at the weekly Conservative Opportunity
Society breakfast he chairs. Wilders spoke Wednesday
on his latest book, “Marked for Death: Islam’s War
Against the West and Me,” and also attended an
evening reception with Congress members and staff
along with representatives of foreign-policy groups
on Capitol Hill.
Ellison, Carson and Crowley showed up Thursday at a
news conference King and Gohmert held for Wilders in
front of the U.S. Capitol and voiced their
opposition to the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf in a
video interview.
“Personally, I find it disturbing, but mostly sad,
because, you know, the people of the Netherlands are
a good people, and this is absolutely true, with a
great history of tolerance, great history of giving
art to the world and great gifts,” Ellison said.
“And it’s unfortunate,” the Minnesota congressman
continued, “that someone such as this would come
over here and sort of represent himself as a member
of that society.”
Wilders, for his part, would contend that Ellison
actually is drawing attention to the central issue:
It’s the intolerance of Muslim immigrants and their
refusal to assimilate, Wilders argues, that
threatens the historic Judeo-Christian Dutch culture
that forms the basis of a tolerant, pluralistic
society capable of “giving art to the world and
great gifts.”
As for whether or not Wilders represents his
country, in 2009 he remarked: “Half of Holland loves
me and half of Holland hates me. There is no
in-between.”
King was unable to speak to WND due to schedule
constraints, but he was interviewed by the De
Telegraaf reporter in front of the Capitol Thursday,
who asked him for his view of Wilders.
“I think he’s solid and courageous. I introduced
him yesterday as a man who will stand up and speak
the truth – even if he’s under death threats, speak
the truth,” King said in the video interview.
“He’s done that consistently for a decade.”
Wilders is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at
an event Sunday in the Dallas area called the
“Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest.” Held at the
venue where Muslims hosted a “Stand with the Prophet
in Honor and Respect” conference one week after the
Paris Charlie Hebdo massacre in January, the event’s
organizers, the American Freedom Defense Initiative,
see Wilders as representative of their aggressive
defense of freedom of speech.
ADI is run by author and Atlas Shrugs blogger
Pamela Geller, and author and Jihad Watch Director
Robert Spencer, who themselves have been branded by
Ellison, Carson and their allies as “Islamophobes.”
Geller and Spencer argue their work amounts to
citing the justifications from the Quran and other
Islamic texts used by Muslims who employ violent
acts and other means to assert Islamic supremacy.
Comparing cultures
Summarizing their complaint, the three protesting
congressmen told Kerry and Johnson that Wilders’
“policy agenda is centered on the principle that
Christian culture is superior to other cultures.”
“He justifies his desire to ban the Quran and Islam
from the Netherlands with depraved comments like,
‘Islam is not a religion, it’s an ideology, the
ideology of a retarded culture.’ We should not be
importing hate speech,” they write.
Wilders’ defenders point out that the Dutch word he
used to describe Islamic culture can be translated
as “backward” rather than “retarded,” insisting that
while Wilders doesn’t mince words, he is no hater of
people.
“I don’t hate Muslims, I hate Islam,” explains
Wilders, the leader of the Party for Freedom, the
fourth-largest party in the Dutch parliament.
That sentiment apparently is of little consolation
to many of the more than 1 billion people who
identify as Muslim, but Wilders contends the
orthodox teaching of Islam derived from Muhammad is
an existential threat to Western civilization.
While he puts the percentage of Islamic extremists
at about 5 to 15 percent of Muslims, he contends
“moderate Islam” doesn’t exist and notes the Quran
itself states that Muslims who accept the Islam’s
holy book in part are “apostates.”
As evidence of the failure to assimilate, in a
speech to parliament last year he cited a study
showing that nearly three-quarters of ethnic Turks
and Moroccans in the Netherlands regard those who
leave the European nation to join jihadists in Syria
as “heroes.” Wilders pointed out that the same
percentage of Dutch Muslims condoned the 9/11
attacks.
Wilders has been under constant security protection
since November 2004, when two North African Muslims
were accused of planning to murder him and another
outspoken critic of Islam in the parliament, Ayaan
Hirsi Ali. The attack at the Hague came shortly
after the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh by
a Moroccan national.
Wilders was banned from the U.K. as an “undesirable
person” under Prime Minister Gordon Brown in
February 2009, two days before he was scheduled to
show his short film “Fitna” at the invitation of two
members of the House of Lords. Wilders appealed the
ban to Britain’s Asylum and Immigration Tribunal,
which overturned it in October 2009.
Wilders writings and film “Fitna” warning of the
“Islamization” of the Netherlands and Europe
prompted Turkish, Moroccan and Antillean
organizations in the country to bring charges
against him of criminally insulting religious and
ethnic groups and inciting hatred and
discrimination.
In June 2011, he was acquitted of all charges.
Judge Marcel van Oosten called Wilders’ statements
about Islam “gross and denigrating” but ruled they
didn’t constitute hatred against Muslims and,
therefore, were “acceptable within the context of
public debate.”
Limiting free speech
In their letter, Ellison, Carson and Crowley assert
Wilders’ right to speak freely in the U.S. under the
First Amendment is limited because he allegedly
incites violence and “prejudicial action” against
protected groups.
They write:
In the U.S., freedom of speech is a bedrock
principle that distinguishes free societies from
ones living under oppressive regimes. Freedom of
speech, however, is not absolute. It is limited by
the legal and moral understanding that speech that
causes the incitement of violence or prejudicial
action against protected groups is wrong. As Mr.
Wilders continues his pursuit of political power,
granting him entry will embolden him to engage in
further incitement of violence and discrimination
against Muslims.
Legal analyst Eugene Volokh noted the incitement
exception to free speech, according to Supreme Court
precedent, is “limited to speech intended to and
likely to produce imminent lawless conduct — conduct
in the coming hours or maybe few days.”
Wilders’ statements, Volokh wrote in a Washington
Post blogpost, appear to be constitutionally
protected, he said, because they “don’t urge any
imminent conduct (or even any criminal conduct, as
opposed to long-term changes in the law). Such
statements’ are “incitement” in the Congressmen’s
opinion only because the Congressmen apparently view
constitutionally unprotected “incitement” (or, as
they term it earlier, “hate speech”) much more
broadly."
It's hard to say if the following somewhat
abbreviated article should be filed under the truthsthatfree.com
category of Freedom of Speech, Islamic Threat, Israel
and the Land, Religious Liberty or perhaps Politics.
So it is place in our monthly archive.
‘Killing Jews is Worship’ posters will soon
appear on NYC subways and buses
Washington Post
Michael Miller
April 22, 2015
‘Killing Jews is Worship’ posters will soon appear on
NYC subways and buses
New Yorkers are used to aggressive advertising.
Banners for breast implants. Billboards for condoms.
But a federal judge’s ruling has opened the door for
far more controversial posters on buses and subways
across the city.
“Killing Jews is Worship that draws us close to
Allah,” reads one such ad next to the image of a young
man in a checkered headscarf. “That’s His Jihad.
What’s yours?”
The poster is at the center of heated legal debate
over public safety and free speech. On Tuesday, U.S.
District Judge John Koeltl ruled that New York’s
Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) cannot
stop the controversial ad from running on scores of
subway cars and buses.
The MTA has argued that the ad could incite violence
against Jews, but Koeltl rejected that idea.
MTA officials “underestimate the tolerant quality of
New Yorkers and overestimate the potential impact of
these fleeting advertisements,” he ruled. “Moreover,
there is no evidence that seeing one of these
advertisements on the back of a bus would be
sufficient to trigger a violent reaction. Therefore,
these ads — offensive as they may be — are still
entitled to First Amendment protection.”
Making the case all the stranger is that the posters
are not the work of an Islamist group, but rather a
pro-Israel organization.
“This is a triumph for liberty and free speech,”
tweeted Pamela Geller, the president of the American
Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), the group that
purchased the ads and sued the MTA to run them.
New Yorkers are used to aggressive advertising.
Banners for breast implants. Billboards for condoms.
But a federal judge’s ruling has opened the door for
far more controversial posters on buses and subways
across the city.
“Killing Jews is Worship that draws us close to
Allah,” reads one such ad next to the image of a young
man in a checkered headscarf. “That’s His Jihad.
What’s yours?”
The poster is at the center of heated legal debate
over public safety and free speech. On Tuesday, U.S.
District Judge John Koeltl ruled that New York’s
Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) cannot
stop the controversial ad from running on scores of
subway cars and buses.
The MTA has argued that the ad could incite violence
against Jews, but Koeltl rejected that idea.
MTA officials “underestimate the tolerant quality of
New Yorkers and overestimate the potential impact of
these fleeting advertisements,” he ruled. “Moreover,
there is no evidence that seeing one of these
advertisements on the back of a bus would be
sufficient to trigger a violent reaction. Therefore,
these ads — offensive as they may be — are still
entitled to First Amendment protection.”
Making the case all the stranger is that the posters
are not the work of an Islamist group, but rather a
pro-Israel organization.
“This is a triumph for liberty and free speech,”
tweeted Pamela Geller, the president of the American
Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), the group that
purchased the ads and sued the MTA to run them.
AFDI is not your traditional free speech organization,
however. The “about” section on its Web site starts
out pretty straightforward, then takes a very hard
turn.
Whatever you make of the group, AFDI has been
remarkably successful in bringing its message to
America. AFDI has filed at least nine lawsuits across
the country, often against cities or their contractors
that refuse to display their messages.
Those messages include a poster depicting Adolf Hitler
meeting with “the leader of the Muslim world” and
demanding that the United States cut off all aid to
Islamic countries. “In any war between the civilized
man and the savage, support the civilized man,” reads
another AFDI poster. “Support Israel. Defeat Jihad.”
AFDI’s ads have also drawn objections from Muslims.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a
civil liberties group that promotes the rights of
Muslims and better relations between Muslims and
non-Muslims, launched its own public relations
campaign to combat AFDI. In 2012 and 2013, CAIR ran
posters in several U.S. cities promoting peaceful
versions of Islam. “‘#MyJihad is to build friendships
across the aisle.’ What’s yours?” But the ads never
ran in New York due to a disagreement between CAIR and
MTA.
The poster attributes the “Killing Jews” quote to
“Hamas MTV,” apparently a reference to the Palestinian
group’s odd blend of violence and music videos. The ad
also has a disclaimer at the bottom noting that it is
“a paid advertisement sponsored by” AFDI and “does not
imply MTA’s endorsement.”
But MTA Security Director Raymond Diaz worried that
the poster would nonetheless incite violence,
primarily against Jews. “What matters is not AFDI’s
intent, but how the ad would be interpreted,” he
wrote. The line “What is yours?” could be considered a
“call to violence,” particularly because the CAIR
posters it was mocking never appeared in New York.
When AFDI pointed out that the exact same poster had
not caused any problems in Chicago or San Francisco,
Diaz argued that New York was different because it is
“the prime terror target” and that the “terrorist
security threat” had grown worse since 2013.
On Tuesday, however, Judge Koeltl tossed out those
arguments and sided with AFDI. The ads could not
reasonably be considered an incitement to violence,
even if someone didn’t understand them.
“The defendants admit that the actual intention of the
advertisement is not to advocate the use of force, but
to parody the CAIR ‘My Jihad’ campaign and to
criticize Hamas and radical Islam. However, they argue
that a reasonable New Yorker would not read the
advertisement this way, but would instead read it as
advocating the killing of Jewish people,” Koeltl
wrote. “The defendants’ theory is thoroughly
unpersuasive.”
After AFDI’s victory, Geller posed for photos outside
the federal courthouse while holding the “Killing
Jews” advertisement.
“With our NY win, our ads will make their debut on New
York buses in the coming weeks,” AFDI’s Web site
promises above a “donate” button. “We want to run 100.
Help us make that happen.”
But even if the ads don’t incite violence in New York
City, they could overseas. Earlier this month, Egypt’s
top religious authority called AFDI’s posters “racist”
and issued a fatwa, or official edict, against them.
“This hazardous campaign will leave the gate of
confrontation and clashes wide open instead of
exerting efforts towards peaceful coexistence and
harmony,” according to the edict.
Hamas, the group cited on the ads, has not said
whether it approves of the message.
Navy
Official Bans Chaplain From Ministering To
Bereaved Families And Sailors
GOOSE CREEK, S.C.,
March 24, 2015
/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, Liberty
Institute announces that Chaplain Modder's commanding
officer, Captain Jon R. Fahs, issued a "no contact"
order to Chaplain Wes Modder (the military version of
a restraining order), forbidding him from counseling
or ministering to members of his unit. The order comes
on the heels of a tragic death in Modder's unit,
banning him from ministering to grieving sailors and
the deceased sailor's family members.
After a sailor in his unit unexpectedly passed away,
Chaplain Modder immediately sprung into action to
fulfill his usual chaplain duties of providing comfort
and support to the deceased sailor's grieving family.
But just as Chaplain Modder was about to perform those
duties, the Navy informed him of the "no contact"
order, banning him from having any contact with any
personnel from his unit, depriving him of the ability
to comfort them during a time of grief and mourning.
Captain Fahs also banished Chaplain Modder from the
Naval base where Modder is stationed on the day of the
memorial service for the fallen sailor. The order also
comes just days after Captain Fahs denied Chaplain
Modder's request for a religious accommodation to
provide pastoral counseling in accordance with his
faith. (See Captain Fahs' denial letter at
https://www.libertyinstitute.org/ModderFacts)
"This Navy official is using the 'no contact' order
as a weapon to punish and humiliate a decorated
military chaplain," said Mike Berry, Liberty Institute
Senior Counsel and Director of Military Affairs. "I am
stunned that he would deny Chaplain Modder the ability
to minister to a grieving family and other sailors."
Liberty Institute President and CEO Kelly Shackelford
said, "Of the most critical times for chaplains, the
death of a colleague is near the top of the list. For
this Navy official to bar a chaplain from comforting
and ministering to sailors and families is a
reprehensible violation of religious freedom and
common human decency."
Case Background: Chaplain Wes Modder is a Navy
chaplain and former Marine who previously served as
the Force chaplain for Naval Special Warfare Command.
He has deployed overseas multiple times during the War
on Terror, including in support of Navy SEAL Teams. In
October 2014, Chaplain Modder's commander called him a
"consummate professional leader," "the best of the
best," and said he sets the "clear benchmark" for
chaplain professionalism. Now, the Navy is threatening
Chaplain Modder with career-ending punishment because,
when asked, he expressed faith-based views on marriage
and human sexuality in private counseling sessions.
Liberty Institute is defending Chaplain Modder and
asserts that censoring his religious expression is
unconstitutional religious discrimination. The "no
contact" order comes only days after the Navy
officially denied Chaplain Modder's request for
religious accommodation, in violation of federal law
and Department of Defense (DoD) regulations. (Read
more about Modder's case at https://www.libertyinstitute.org/ModderFacts)
About Liberty Institute
Liberty Institute is the largest nonprofit legal
organization in the nation dedicated solely to
defending religious liberty in America. Liberty
Institute protects freedom of religious expression in
our military, schools, churches, and throughout the
public arena. For more information, visit
www.LibertyInstitute.org.
March 12, 2015 In mid February of this year Navy Chaplain
Wesley Modder received a "detachment for
cause" letter after commanders concluded he was
"intolerant" and "unable to function in the diverse and
pluralistic environment" of his current assignment. Lt
Cmdr. Modder has served more than 19 years with
commendations as "best of the best" and a "talented and
inspirational leader. Click
here to read the March 11 article in the Military
Times.
Muslim Brotherhood
princess' used Clinton email server
03/11/2015 @ 9:10 pm WND.com In Front Page,Politics,U.S.
Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedin
At least three of Hillary Clinton’s top aides –
including one with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood – used
emails hosted on Clinton’s private server while she was
secretary of state, according to several reports.
At a news conference Tuesday at the U.N., Clinton
directly addressed media about the revelation that she
conducted her business as secretary of state using a
private email account instead of the secure and archived
government system.
She acknowledged she deleted thousands of personal
emails and said she turned over hard copies of messages
to the State Department that she deemed to be work
related.
But Clinton apparently wasn’t the only one at the State
Department using private email.
Weekly Standard senior writer Stephen Hayes told Fox
News, “Two of Hillary Clinton’s top aides used personal
email while they were employed at the State Department.”
Hayes specifically named Clinton Chief of Staff Cheryl
Mills and Huma Abedin, who served as Clinton’s longtime
deputy chief of staff. Abedin and Clinton worked closely
together for nearly 20 years.
“The State Department has evidence of this,” he said.
In another report, the gossip website Gawker claimed
both Abedin and Phillippe Reines, Clinton’s
communications strategist, used the private email
addresses.
The London Daily Mail confirmed one of Abedin’s email
addresses was listed as Huma@clintonemail.com.
Abedin’s emails would be of particular interest because
she has known ties to the Muslim Brotherhood – a group
that’s bent on “destroying Western civilization from
within” – and other Islamic supremacists.
Hayes said, “The question, I think becomes: Were they
emailing with Hillary Clinton from their personal email
addresses to her personal email address about State
Department business, about Benghazi, including sensitive
classified information?
“Those are questions that I think (Rep.) Trey Gowdy and
the House Benghazi Committee is going to want to look at
very carefully.”
What do YOU think? Will Hillary’s email troubles delete
her run for president? Sound off in today’s WND poll
Government watchdog Judicial Watch has filed a lawsuit
against the State Department seeking all emails from
2009 to 2013 between Clinton, Abedin and Nagla Mahmoud,
wife of Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Morsi.
“Now we know why the State Department didn’t want to
respond to our specific request for Hillary Clinton’s
and Huma Abedin’s communications,” Judicial Watch
President Tom Fitton said in a statement. “The State
Department violated FOIA law rather than admit that it
couldn’t and wouldn’t search the secret accounts that
the agency has known about for years. This lawsuit shows
how the latest Obama administration cover-up isn’t just
about domestic politics but has significant foreign
policy implications.”
Get the details about what really happened in one of
America’s biggest foreign operations failures, in “The
REAL Benghazi Story.”
Transforming America
Abedin and Clinton worked closely together for nearly 20
years. As WND has extensively reported, the Muslim
Brotherhood and Islamic supremacist connections not only
extend to Abedin’s mother and father, who are both
deeply tied to al-Qaida fronts, but to Abedin herself.
Major news media profiles of Abedin report she was born
of Pakistani and Indian parents, without delving much
further into her family’s history.
As WND reported, a manifesto commissioned by the ruling
Saudi Arabian monarchy places the work of an institute
that employed Abedin at the forefront of a grand plan to
mobilize U.S. Muslim minorities to transform America
into a Saudi-style Islamic state, according to
Arabic-language researcher Walid Shoebat.
Abedin was an assistant editor for a dozen years for the
Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs for the Institute for
Muslim Minority Affairs. The institute – founded by her
late father and currently directed by her mother – is
backed by the Muslim World League, an Islamic
organization in the Saudi holy city of Mecca that was
founded by Muslim Brotherhood leaders.
The 2002 Saudi manifesto shows that “Muslim Minority
Affairs” – the mobilizing of Muslim communities in the
U.S. to spread Islam instead of assimilating into the
population – is a key strategy in an ongoing effort to
establish Islamic rule in America and a global Shariah,
or Islamic law, “in our modern times.”
WND reported Abedin also was a member of the executive
board of the Muslim Student Association, which was
identified as a Muslim Brotherhood front group in a 1991
document introduced into evidence during the
terror-financing trial of the Texas-based Holy Land
Foundation.
At her father’s Saudi-financed Islamic think tank, WND
reported, Abedin worked alongside Abdullah Omar Naseef,
who is accused of financing al-Qaida fronts.
Naseef is deeply connected to the Abedin family.
WND was first to report Huma’s mother, Saleha Abedin,
was the official representative of Naseef’s
terror-stained Muslim World League in the 1990s.
Shoebat previously reported that as one of 63 leaders of
the Muslim Sisterhood, the de facto female version of
the Muslim Brotherhood, Saleha Abedin served alongside
Nagla Ali Mahmoud, the wife of Muslim Brotherhood figure
Mohammed Morsi, Egypt’s now ousted president.
Saleha Abedin and Morsi’s wife both were members of the
Sisterhood’s Guidance Bureau, Shoebat found.
Huma worked with al-Qaida front man
Abdullah Omar Naseef is secretary-general of the Muslim
World League, an Islamic charity known to have spawned
terrorist groups, including one declared by the U.S.
government to be an official al-Qaida front.
The institute founded by Huma Abedin’s father reportedly
was a quiet, but active, supporter of Naseef.
The institute bills itself as “the only scholarly
institution dedicated to the systematic study of Muslim
communities in non-Muslim societies around the world.”
Huma served on the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs’s
editorial board from 2002 to 2008.
Documents obtained by Shoebat revealed that Naseef
served on the board with Huma from at least December
2002 to December 2003.
Naseef’s sudden departure from the board in December
2003 coincides with the time at which various charities
led by Naseef’s Muslim World League were declared
illegal terrorism fronts worldwide, including by the
U.S. and U.N.
The MWL, founded in Mecca in 1962, bills itself as one
of the largest Islamic non-governmental organizations.
But according to U.S. government documents and testimony
from the charity’s own officials, it is heavily financed
by the Saudi government.
The MWL has been accused of terrorist ties, as have its
various offshoots, including the International Islamic
Relief Organization, or IIRO, and Al Haramain, which was
declared by the U.S. and U.N. as a terror financing
front.
Indeed, the Treasury Department, in a September 2004
press release, alleged Al Haramain had “direct links”
with Osama bin Laden. The group is now banned worldwide
by U.N. Security Council Committee resolution 1267.
There long have been accusations that the IIRO and MWL
also repeatedly funded al-Qaida.
In 1993, bin Laden reportedly told an associate that the
MWL was one of his three most important charity fronts.
An Anti-Defamation League profile of the MWL accuses the
group of promulgating a “fundamentalist interpretation
of Islam around the world through a large network of
charities and affiliated organizations.”
“Its ideological backbone is based on an extremist
interpretation of Islam,” the profile states, “and
several of its affiliated groups and individuals have
been linked to terror-related activity.”
In 2003, U.S. News and World Report documented that
accompanying the MWL’s donations, invariably, are “a
blizzard of Wahhabist literature.”
“Critics argue that Wahhabism’s more extreme preachings
– mistrust of infidels, branding of rival sects as
apostates and emphasis on violent jihad –laid the
groundwork for terrorist groups around the world,” the
report continued.
An Egyptian-American cab driver, Ihab Mohamed Ali
Nawawi, was arrested in Florida in 1990 on accusations
he was an al-Qaida sleeper agent and a former personal
pilot to bin Laden. At the time he was accused of
serving bin Laden, he also reportedly worked for the
Pakistani branch of the MWL.
The MWL in 1988 founded the Al Haramain Islamic
Foundation, developing chapters in about 50 countries,
including for a time in Oregon until it was designated a
terrorist organization.
In the early 1990s, evidence began to grow that the
foundation was funding Islamist militants in Somalia and
Bosnia, and a 1996 CIA report detailed its Bosnian
militant ties.
The U.S. Treasury designated Al Haramain’s offices in
Kenya and Tanzania as sponsors of terrorism for their
role in planning and funding the 1998 bombings of two
American embassies in East Africa. The Comoros Islands
office was also designated because it “was used as a
staging area and exfiltration route for the perpetrators
of the 1998 bombings.”
The New York Times reported in 2003 that Al Haramain had
provided funds to the Indonesian terrorist group Jemaah
Islamiyah, which was responsible for the 2002 Bali
bombings that killed 202 people. The Indonesia office
was later designated a terrorist entity by the Treasury.
In February 2004, the U.S. Treasury Department froze all
Al Haramain’s financial assets pending an investigation,
leading the Saudi government to disband the charity and
fold it into another group, the Saudi National
Commission for Relief and Charity Work Abroad.
In September 2004, the U.S. designated Al-Haramain a
terrorist organization.
In June 2008, the Treasury Department applied the
terrorist designation to the entire Al-Haramain
organization worldwide
Bin Laden’s brother-in-law
In August 2006, the Treasury Department also designated
the Philippine and Indonesian branch offices of the
MWL-founded IIRO as terrorist entities “for facilitating
fundraising for al-Qaida and affiliated terrorist
groups.”
The Treasury Department added: “Abd Al Hamid Sulaiman
Al-Mujil, a high-ranking IIRO official [executive
director of its Eastern Province Branch] in Saudi
Arabia, has used his position to bankroll the al-Qaida
network in Southeast Asia. Al-Mujil has a long record of
supporting Islamic militant groups, and he has
maintained a cell of regular financial donors in the
Middle East who support extremist causes.”
In the 1980s, Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, Osama bin Laden’s
brother-in-law, ran the Philippines offices of the IIRO.
Khalifa has been linked to Manila-based plots to target
the pope and U.S. airlines.
The IIRO has also been accused of funding Hamas,
Algerian radicals, Afghanistan militant bases and the
Egyptian terror group Al-Gamaa al-Islamiyya.
The New York Post reported the families of the 9/11
victims filed a lawsuit against IIRO and other Muslim
organizations for having “played key roles in laundering
of funds to the terrorists in the 1998 African embassy
bombings” and for having been involved in the “financing
and ‘aiding and abetting’ of terrorists in the 1993
World Trade Center bombing.”
‘Saudi government front’
In a court case in Canada, Arafat El-Asahi, the Canadian
director of both the IIRO and the MWL, admitted the
charities are near entities of the Saudi government.
Stated El-Asahi: “The Muslim World League, which is the
mother of IIRO, is a fully government-funded
organization. In other words, I work for the government
of Saudi Arabia. I am an employee of that government.
“Second, the IIRO is the relief branch of that
organization, which means that we are controlled in all
our activities and plans by the government of Saudi
Arabia. Keep that in mind, please,” he said.
Despite its offshoots being implicated in terror
financing, the U.S. government never designated the MWL
itself as a terror-financing charity. Many have
speculated the U.S. has been trying to not embarrass the
Saudi government.
Huma’s mother represented Muslim World League
Saleha Abedin has been quoted in numerous press accounts
as both representing the MWL and serving as a delegate
for the charity.
In 1995, for example, the Washington Times reported on a
United Nations-arranged women’s conference in Beijing
that called on governments throughout the world to give
women statistical equality with men in the workplace.
The report quoted Saleha Abedin, who attended the
conference as a delegate, as “also representing the
Muslim World League based in Saudi Arabia and the Muslim
NGO Caucus.”
The U.N.’s website references a report in the run-up to
the Beijing conference that also lists Abedin as
representing the MWL at the event.
The website posted an article from the now defunct
United States Information Agency quoting Abedin and
reporting she attended the Beijing conference as “a
delegate of the Muslim World League and member of the
Muslim Women’s NGO caucus.”
In the article, Abedin was listed under a shorter name,
“Dr. Saleha Mahmoud, director of the Institute of Muslim
Minority Affairs.”
WND confirmed the individual listed is Huma Abedin’s
mother. The reports misspelled part of Abedin’s name.
Her full professional name is at times listed as Saleha
Mahmood Abedin S.
Hillary praise
Saleha Mahmood formerly directed the Institute of Muslim
Minority Affairs in the U.K. and served as a delegate
for the Muslim World League, an Islamic fundamentalist
group Osama bin Laden reportedly told an associate was
one of his most important charity fronts.
In February 2010, Clinton spoke at Dar Al-Hekma College
in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where Abedin was an associate
professor of sociology at the time.
Clinton, after she was introduced by Abedin, praised the
work of the terror-tied professor.
“I have to say a special word about Dr. Saleha Abedin,”
Clinton said. “You heard her present the very exciting
partnerships that have been pioneered between colleges
and universities in the United States and this college.
And it is pioneering work to create these kinds of
relationships.
“But I have to confess something that Dr. Abedin did
not,” Clinton continued, “and that is that I have almost
a familial bond with this college. Dr. Abedin’s
daughter, one of her three daughters, is my deputy chief
of staff, Huma Abedin, who started to work for me when
she was a student at George Washington University in
Washington, D.C.”
The Clarion Project was founded in 2006
by Raphael Shore. It is dedicated to "exposing the
dangers of Islamic extremism while providing a
platform for the voices of moderation and promoting
grassroots activism." Shore produced the 2008
documentary The Third Jihad: Radical Islam's
Vision For America.. (View
at this link.)
The main web page of the Clarion Project is www.clarionproject.org.
They are currently sponsoring an email campaign to
your elected officials "No Nukes For Iran".
As Prime Minister Netanyahu stated in his speech to
the U.S. Congress on March 3, 2015, "for over a
year, we've been told that no deal is better than a
bad deal (with Iran). Well, this is a bad deal. It's a
very bad deal. We're better off without
it." Visit this link to
quickly send an email to your elected
officials in Washington www.acttoimpact.com. ~>~>~>~>~>~>~>~>
File Under the category of
"Unintended Consequences"
Side effects of a Nuclear Deal with Iran: A Middle East Arms Race?:
According to two FCC commissioners, those new
regulations are bad all around
By Brad Matthews
Watchdog.org
March 4, 2015
The Obama administration and proponents of the
FCC’s version of net neutrality may be ecstatic
at the passing of regulations that make the
Internet a public utility on Feb. 26th, but not
all FCC members are so sunny in their outlook
for the future.
TechFreedom held a fireside chat on Feb. 27th
with two FCC commissioners, Ajit Pai and Mike
O’Rielly, and the two of them concurred that the
new regulations are far-reaching, largely
unchecked and pose a threat to consumer bills
and to innovation in the industry.
Ajit Pai openly questioned what the problem was,
saying, “There’s never been a systemic analysis
of what the problem with the Internet is. In
this order, you see scattered niche examples
[Comcast and BitTorrent, Apple and FaceTime,
others] all of which were resolved, mind you,
through private sector initiatives.” He
continued, saying that the FCC’s net neutrality
regulatory regime is a solution that won’t work
in search of a problem that doesn’t
exist.” Essentially, this is, contrary to
the assertion of activists and others, a vaguely
justified power grab by a government agency.
Mike O’Rielly added, in a bit of humor that
“there is a problem, and it’s the document we
adopted [Feb. 26].” Neither of them were
reticent in explaining exactly how and why the
document was the problem. For one, the document
was, as Commissioner Pai pointed out, written to
solve a problem that wasn’t readily apparent.
O’Rielly said the document is “guilt by
imagination, trying to guess what will go wrong
in the future”; instead of tackling a readily
apparent and current issue, the FCC proposal is
instead stumbling forward, trying to find
future, hypothetical transgressions to
retroactively justify its own regulations.
This conspiratorial and wide-ranging thinking on
the part of FCC is not a bug, but rather a
feature. O’Rielly openly said that “it’s
intended to catch everybody”. Pai noted that the
FCC was going to centralize powers over what
infrastructure was deployed and where through
the use of statutes and other laws; O’Rielly
mentioned specifically that the FCC was going to
“use Section 201 [of the Communications Act] to
do it’s dirty work.”
Pai continued, saying that the FCC was largely
focused on the ends of Internet regulation
rather than the means, and that “a lot of these
promises of regulatory restraint are pretty
ephemeral.” O’Rielly mentioned that mobile data
policies were likely to be subsumed by the new
regulations into policies on the wider Internet
as a whole. This one-size-fits-all approach
ignores the differences in how mobile data is
used versus the way the Internet is used by a
normal computer or other devices. Many features
of mobile service, the two said, could be
construed as a company favoring one app or one
site over another in terms of data, which would
violate the FCC’s standards.
The consumer will inherit many of these new
costs and burdens. O’Rielly outright told the
audience that “Rates are going to go up because
of this.” The new regulations also fail to
recognize the burden of local telecommunications
taxes, especially in major cities where tax
rates on mobile service are often incredibly
high. The new regulations, combined with the
laws of local governments, stand to impose even
more costs onto consumers.
The outlook the two gave was anything but
bright–the worries of small government advocates
seem justified. The new FCC regulations will, in
concert with other laws and under the directive
of an organization looking for future problems
rather than current problems, give more power to
government, more restrictions to innovators, and
more costs to the people.
Commissioner Pai summed it up best: “This issue
has been largely fact-free for the better part
of a decade, and I think it’s frankly shocking
that decision-making on something as important
as this has been thrown by the wayside in favor
of what I consider to be an ideological agenda.”
The net may be “neutral” but the FCC is most
certainly not.
Islamic
state: Fears Grow For Abducted Syrian
Christians United Kingdom BBC Wednesday 25 Feb 2015
There are fears that more members of an Assyrian
Christian community in north-eastern Syria were
abducted by Islamic State militants than at first
thought. Initial reports had put the number of missing
at 90, but one activist said as many as 285 people had
been seized on Monday in Hassakeh province. Efforts to
try to negotiate their release are reported to be
under way.
Some 1,000 local Assyrian families are believed to
have fled their homes in the wake of the abductions.
Kurdish and Christian militia are battling IS in the
area, amid reports of churches and homes having been
set ablaze.
Thousands of Christians in Syria have been forced from
their homes by the threat from IS militants.
In areas under their control, Christians have been
ordered to convert to Islam, pay jizya (a religious
levy), or face death. IS militants in Libya also
recently beheaded 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians.
The Assyrians were seized by the militants as they
swept into 12 villages along the southern bank of the
Khabur river near the town of Tal Tamr before dawn on
Monday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based
activist group, said at least 90 people had been
abducted, most of them women, children and the
elderly.
However, the Syriac National Council of Syria put the
figure as high as 150, while Afram Yakoub of the
Assyrian Federation of Sweden said sources on the
ground had told him that up to 285 people were
missing, including 156 from the village of Tal Shamran
and 90 from Tal al-Jazira.
"These were peaceful villages that had nothing to do
with the battles," Nasir Haj Mahmoud, a Kurdish
official in the YPG militia in north-eastern Syria,
told the Reuters news agency.
There are conflicting reports as to where the families
have been taken.
Kino Gabriel, a spokesman for the Syriac Military
Council - a Christian militia fighting alongside the
Kurdish Popular Protection Units (YPG) - told the BBC
that it believed the captives had been taken to Abdul
Aziz mountain.
Osama Edward of the Sweden-based Assyrian Human Rights
Network told the AFP news agency that the captives had
been taken to the IS stronghold of Shaddadi, as did
Syria's state news agency, Sana.
Another report said they were in Raqqa, 145km (90
miles) to the west, the de facto capital of the
"caliphate" declared by IS last June.
The BBC's Jonny Dymond in Beirut says the motive for
the seizure of so many Assyrians is not yet clear. Our
correspondent says it may be that the captives are to
be used as part of a swap with the Kurdish forces.
Hundreds of Assyrians who were living in villages on
the north bank of the Khabur river and elsewhere are
reported to have fled following the attack to the
largely Kurdish-controlled provincial capital of
Hassakeh, to the south-east, and Qamishli, another
city to the north-east.
Mr Edward said two historic churches had been burned
down in captured villages - one in Tal Hurmiz and the
other in Qaber Shamiya. The Syrian Observatory also
reported that a church in Tal Shamran had also been
damaged.
Mr Gabriel said IS had moved a big force into the area
and were trying to take control of Tal Tamr.
The Syriac Military Council had about 400 fighters in
the area and at least four had been killed in clashes
with the jihadists, he added. The YPG has deployed
between 1,000 and 1,500 fighters.
The YPG is also continuing a major offensive launched
on Sunday against IS some 100km (60 miles) to the
east, near the border with Iraq - an area of vital
importance to the jihadists.
ISIS
beheading of Coptic Christians on Libyan beach
brings Islamists to the doorstep of Europe
United Kingdom The Independent, Thursday 19 Feb 2015
The beheading of 21 Coptic Christians on a beach in
Libya has brought ISIS to the doorstep of Europe.
The mass murder, which provoked a volley of Egyptian air
strikes on the group’s Libyan stronghold of Derna,
realised long-held fears of militants reaching the
Mediterranean coast.
ISIS started in Iraq and now controls swathes of
adjoining Syria, including along the Turkish border, as
part of its so-called Islamic State.
Its ideology has spread much further, with pledges of
allegiance from terrorist groups in Egypt, Gaza, Jordan,
Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Yemen and now Libya.
Days before ISIS released its gory video depicting the
Egyptians’ beheadings, Libya’s former Prime Minister
warned that the group would soon reach the Mediterranean
and even Europe if order was not restored in the
country.
Ali Zeidan said Libya’s fractured government and easy
access to weapons seized during the fall of Colonel
Gaddafi made it more susceptible to the activities of
jihadists, according to The Times.
“(ISIS) are growing. They are everywhere,” he added.
“In Libya, the situation is still under control. If we
leave it one month or two months more I don’t think you
can control it.
“It will be a big war in the country and it will be here
in Europe as well.”
Libya has seen fierce fighting between rival militias
since Gaddafi was overthrown during the 2011 Arab
Spring.
Mr Zeidan, who fled to Europe after losing a
parliamentary vote of confidence, reported that ISIS had
a growing presence in some of the bigger cities and was
trying to recruit fighters from rival Islamist groups.
Libya's former Prime Minister Ali Zeidan warned that
Isis would reach the Mediterranean Aref Ali Nayed,
Libya’s ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, also
said Isis’s presence in Libya was increasing
“exponentially”.
Its military gains last summer sparked a rush by other
Islamist groups in the Middle East and North Africa to
ally themselves with the group by pledging allegiance
and changing their names.
The jihadists behind the beheadings in Libya call
themselves the Tripoli Province of the Islamic State.
As the turmoil in Libya continued last year, they gained
control of the port city of Derna and nearby Sirte,
where Isis seized the murdered Coptic hostages in
December and January.
The location of their murders could not be confirmed but
footage showed them dressed in orange jumpsuits kneeling
on a beach. Behind each of them were masked militants
who wielded their knives to kill the bound hostages
simultaneously.
ISIS affiliates have also claimed responsibility for
attacks on the Egyptian military and police in the Sinai
Peninsula, further along the Mediterranean coast between
Egypt and Gaza.
England and Europe's greater concern than the United
States is evident in this article, due to their
proximity to the menacing Radical Islamic peril. Learn
more about this with accompanying links at the UK's INDEPENDENT
website by clicking here.
ISIS burn 45 people to
death in captured Iraqi town of al-Baghdadi as
Islamists attack the homes of security forces'
families
United Kingdom's Daily Mail
Dailymail.com
Karen Pickles for Mailonline
February 17, 2015
ISIS burn 45 people to death in captured Iraqi
town of al-Baghdadi as Islamists attack the homes
of security forces' families
Western town al-Baghdadi
captured by ISIS fighters last week
Victims thought to be members
of security forces and their families
Follows barbaric video of
Jordanian pilot Lieutenant Muath al-Kaseasbeh
Attack is only five miles from
air base with 320 US Marines
Militants from Islamic State have burned 45 people to
death in the western Iraqi town of al-Baghdadi,
according to the local police chief.
Col. Qasim al-Obeidi said the motive was unknown but he
believed some of the victims were members of the
security forces.
He has pleaded for help from the government and
international community and said the compound, which
houses the families of security personnel and local
officials, was now under attack.
It follows the capture of al-Baghdadi, near Ain al-Asad
air base, by ISIS fighters last week.
The unconfirmed reports have haunting similarities to
the video published earlier this month, showing
militants burning alive a Jordanian air force pilot,
whose plane crashed in Syria in December.
Al-Baghdadi had been besieged for months by Islamic
State fighters before its fall. It had been one of the
few towns to still be controlled by the Iraqi government
in Anbar province, where IS and allied Sunni Arab
tribesmen launched an offensive in January 2014.
On Friday, Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm John Kirby,
played down its capture, telling reporters it was the
first time in the last couple of months that the
jihadist group had taken new ground.
But with 320 US Marines stationed just five miles away
at the Ain al-Asad air base, training members of the
Iraqi army's 7th Division, it will cause concern.
The base was attacked by several suicide bombers, on
Friday with the militant repelled by Iraqi troops backed
by US-led coalition aircraft.
In a separate development on Tuesday, the influential
Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr announced he was withdrawing
his forces from an umbrella group of Shia militia
fighting