Saturday, October 13, 2012
Pushback against growing anti-Muslim sentiment in America results in more anti-Muslim sentiment
http://www.barenakedislam.com/2012/10/12/pushback-against-growing-anti-muslim-sentiment-in-america-results-in-more-anti-muslim-sentiment/
Friday, October 12, 2012
The Islamic Republic of Catalonia
Soeren Kern
October 12, 2012
An independent Catalonia, with its capital in Barcelona, would also be home to the largest concentration of radical Islamists in Europe; it would emerge as ground-zero for Salafi-Jihadism on the continent and become one of the top incubators for Islamist terrorism in the West.
Catalonia, historically one of the wealthiest and most industrialized regions of Spain, has harbored a strong streak toward independence since medieval times, when Barcelona was a Mediterranean trade center with its own parliament. But the ongoing economic crisis in Spain has redoubled calls for Catalonian secession from Spain and the establishment of an independent state.
October 12, 2012
"We will all vote for the Islamic parties because we do not believe in left and right. This will make us win local councils, and as we begin to accumulate power in the Catalan autonomous region, Islam will begin to be implemented." — Abdelwahab Houzi, Salafist preacher, Lleida.A successful push for independence in the Spanish autonomous region of Catalonia would lead to the establishment of a country with the third-largest percentage of Muslims in Western Europe, just behind France and Belgium, and far ahead of Britain and Germany.
An independent Catalonia, with its capital in Barcelona, would also be home to the largest concentration of radical Islamists in Europe; it would emerge as ground-zero for Salafi-Jihadism on the continent and become one of the top incubators for Islamist terrorism in the West.
Catalonia, historically one of the wealthiest and most industrialized regions of Spain, has harbored a strong streak toward independence since medieval times, when Barcelona was a Mediterranean trade center with its own parliament. But the ongoing economic crisis in Spain has redoubled calls for Catalonian secession from Spain and the establishment of an independent state.
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Disgrace in Benghazi
Mark Steyn www.nationalreview.com
So, on a highly symbolic date, mobs storm American diplomatic facilities and drag the corpse of a U.S. ambassador through the streets. Then the president flies to Vegas for a fundraiser. No, no, a novelist would say; that’s too pat, too neat in its symbolic contrast. Make it Cleveland, or Des Moines.
The president is surrounded by delirious fanbois and fangurls screaming “We love you,” too drunk on his celebrity to understand this is the first photo-op in the aftermath of a national humiliation. No, no, a filmmaker would say; too crass, too blunt. Make them sober, middle-aged midwesterners, shocked at first, but then quiet and respectful.
So, on a highly symbolic date, mobs storm American diplomatic facilities and drag the corpse of a U.S. ambassador through the streets. Then the president flies to Vegas for a fundraiser. No, no, a novelist would say; that’s too pat, too neat in its symbolic contrast. Make it Cleveland, or Des Moines.
The president is surrounded by delirious fanbois and fangurls screaming “We love you,” too drunk on his celebrity to understand this is the first photo-op in the aftermath of a national humiliation. No, no, a filmmaker would say; too crass, too blunt. Make them sober, middle-aged midwesterners, shocked at first, but then quiet and respectful.
Wednesday, September 05, 2012
Dems Claim They Led Fight for Civil Rights By Supporting Slavery
by Daniel Greenfield
I’m starting to wonder if the Democratic Party isn’t a party of liars, but a party of people so abysmally ignorant of basic history that they don’t even know that they’re lying anymore.
For more than 200 years, our party has led the fight for civil rights, health care, Social Security, workers’ rights, and women’s rights.That’s the claim on the Democrats site under “Our History”
I’m interested to hear about Andrew Jackson’s support for health care reform and his civil rights achievements on the Trail of Tears. And I doubt that Andrew Jackson’s Petticoat Affair (not what you think) really qualifies as feminism.
The Democrats seem to think that they were fighting for civil rights while supporting slavery. Perhaps they mean this notable support for civil rights from the Democratic Party Platform of 1868.
After the most solemn and unanimous pledge of both Houses of Congress to prosecute the war exclusively for the maintenance of the government and the preservation of the Union under the Constitution, it has repeatedly violated that most sacred pledge, under which alone was rallied that noble volunteer army which carried our flag to victory. Instead of restoring the Union, it has, so far as in its power, dissolved it, and subjected ten States, in time of profound peace, to military despotism and negro supremacy.That was only 144 years ago.
Monday, August 27, 2012
The Muslim Brhood, Part II – Haj Amin al-Husseini
PETER FARMER
August 27, 2012
Part I - A Brief History of the Muslim Brotherhood (Can be found by clicking here)
The identity of today's Muslim Brotherhood, in many ways, parallels the lives of just three influential men, who founded and shaped the Brotherhood as it grew into the largest and most-influential Pan-Islamic movement in the world today. The three men were Hasan al-Banna, Mohammed Amin al-Husseini, and Sayyid Qutb. In the previous installment of this series, we examined the life of the founder of the movement, Hasan al-Banna. In this, the second installment, we turn our attention to a second key figure - Haj Mohammed Amin al-Husseini.
Mohammed Amin al-Husseini was born in 1895 in Jerusalem in what was then British Mandatory Palestine into an influential, politically-powerful clan. Young al-Husseini was indoctrinated by his father and other clan members, who hated the British and the Jews. He attended a Koranic primary school and then a Turkish-funded secondary school, where he learned the language of that nation. He matriculated briefly in 1912 at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, where he learned Islamic (sharia) law. In 1913, he made the pilgrimage to Mecca required of all Muslims, and thereafter appended the prefix "Haj" to his name.
With the start of World War One in 1914, al-Husseini joined the Turkish army and became an artillery officer. He was on disability leave in Jerusalem in 1916 when British forces captured the city. During the period 1916-1918, al-Husseini participated in the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire. Immediately after the war, al-Husseini's views remained those of an Arab nationalist, but his political and ideological views shifted towards overt anti-Semitism and a greater Muslim consciousness. Other Palestinian Muslims began to look to him for leadership. Al-Husseini then participated in efforts to destabilize the British mandatory government; he also became a hardline opponent of Jewish immigration into Palestine. In 1920, during the implementation of the Balfour Declaration, violent rioting between Jerusalem's Jews and Arabs broke out; al-Husseini was charged with incitement for his role in the uprising and received a ten-year prison sentence from a military court. He fled to Trans-Jordan before being apprehended.
In 1921, his brother Kamel, the mufti of Jerusalem, died - and fate intervened on Amin's behalf; in a move designed to placate Palestinian Arabs, British High Commissioner Herbert Samuel pardoned al-Husseini, and appointed him the new Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and head of the Supreme Islamic Council. Hoping to neutralize growing discontent among the Arab population, Samuel appointed members of the rival Nashashibi clan to the council, in addition to those selected from the Husseini clan. For a time, this gambit worked, as infighting among the two clans prevented a united front. Al-Husseini, however, led an international Muslim effort to restore the site of the al-Aqsa and Dome of the Rock mosques (Haram ash-Sharif), upon the Temple Mount - a site claimed as a holy place by both Jews and Muslims. Husseini's efforts rallied other Arab Muslims to his cause, and strengthened resistance to the influx of Jews into Palestine and Jerusalem.
Tensions between Jews and Muslims mounted over the next few years, and inevitably, finally burst into the open in August 1929. On August 17, a Jewish boy was stabbed to death while retrieving a football and a young Palestinian Arab was subsequently badly beaten by a group of Jews. From 23-29 August, civil unrest and violence broke out in the Old City of Jerusalem in a dispute over access to the "Wailing Wall" at the foot of the Temple Mount, as Muslims attacked Jewish families and businesses, and British police and Jewish defenders retaliated. Casualties and property damage were extensive; 133 Jews were killed and 339 injured, while 110 Arabs were killed and another 232 injured, mostly by British police. Some accused al-Husseini with inciting the riots, but he emerged from the episode unscathed and with his credibility as a leader much-enhanced among his own people.
During the 1930s, al-Husseini consolidated his leadership position and expanded the Pan-Islamic movement. He founded the World Islamic Congress and supervised the creation of a number of clandestine organizations, including the "Holy Struggle" youth movement (al-jihad al-muqaddas) and the paramilitary al-Futuwwah, and helped funnel arms and equipment to them. He traveled widely in the Middle East and interacted with his counterparts in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. Among his associates was the Syrian-born leader of the militant anti-Zionist "Black Hand" group (al-Kaff al-Aswad), Izz ad-Din al-Qassam.
In November, 1935, after killing a police officer, al-Qassam and three of his men were surrounded by British security forces and all were killed in a gun battle. On April 15, 1936, Arab gunmen attacked a truck convey, killing two Jews. The next day, in retaliation, Irgun (Jewish paramilitary) gunmen killed two Arab workers. Thus began the second Arab revolt of 1936-1939. Al-Husseini quickly formed and headed a coalition of Muslim leaders called the Arab High Command (AHC), which demanded a series of strikes, boycotts of British and Jewish businesses, and similar measures. Thousands of Jewish farms and orchards were burned or otherwise destroyed, and many rural Jews had to flee to safer areas. Under the threat of more-substantial British military intervention, and the arrival of a British Royal Commission of Inquiry, the AHC called an end to the general strikes in October 1936.
In the summer of 1937, British security forces attempted to arrest al-Husseini for his part in the revolt, but - tipped off by an informer - the mufti fled into the protection of a haram (religious sanctuary or mosque). After the assassination of a British official in September, al-Husseini was deposed from his post on the Supreme Islamic Council, and warrants issued for the arrest of a number of its members. Husseini fled to French-controlled Lebanon. Husseini became increasingly paranoid over the prospect of betrayal by friends and associates, and on his orders, a number of them were executed.
In 1941, by then living in Iraq, al-Husseini participated in the coup d'état against Prime Minister Nouri al-Said and pro-British regent Crown Prince Abdullah, and the abortive Anglo-Iranian War of 1941. After escaping to Persia, al-Husseini made his way to Italy and arrived in exile in Berlin in November, 1941 - where he spent the remainder of the Second World War as a guest of the Nazi Party.
----
In part III of this series, we will examine Haj Amin al-Husseini's wartime life in Nazi Germany and his post-war role in the Pan-Islamic movement.
Copyright 2012 Peter Farmer
Peter
Farmer is a historian and commentator on national security,
geopolitics and public policy issues. He has done original research on
wartime resistance movements in WWII Europe, and has delivered seminars
on such subjects as political violence and terrorism, the evolution of
conflict, combat medicine, and related subjects. Mr. Farmer is also a
scientist and a medic.
The identity of today's Muslim Brotherhood, in many ways, parallels the lives of just three influential men, who founded and shaped the Brotherhood as it grew into the largest and most-influential Pan-Islamic movement in the world today. The three men were Hasan al-Banna, Mohammed Amin al-Husseini, and Sayyid Qutb. In the previous installment of this series, we examined the life of the founder of the movement, Hasan al-Banna. In this, the second installment, we turn our attention to a second key figure - Haj Mohammed Amin al-Husseini.
Mohammed Amin al-Husseini was born in 1895 in Jerusalem in what was then British Mandatory Palestine into an influential, politically-powerful clan. Young al-Husseini was indoctrinated by his father and other clan members, who hated the British and the Jews. He attended a Koranic primary school and then a Turkish-funded secondary school, where he learned the language of that nation. He matriculated briefly in 1912 at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, where he learned Islamic (sharia) law. In 1913, he made the pilgrimage to Mecca required of all Muslims, and thereafter appended the prefix "Haj" to his name.
With the start of World War One in 1914, al-Husseini joined the Turkish army and became an artillery officer. He was on disability leave in Jerusalem in 1916 when British forces captured the city. During the period 1916-1918, al-Husseini participated in the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire. Immediately after the war, al-Husseini's views remained those of an Arab nationalist, but his political and ideological views shifted towards overt anti-Semitism and a greater Muslim consciousness. Other Palestinian Muslims began to look to him for leadership. Al-Husseini then participated in efforts to destabilize the British mandatory government; he also became a hardline opponent of Jewish immigration into Palestine. In 1920, during the implementation of the Balfour Declaration, violent rioting between Jerusalem's Jews and Arabs broke out; al-Husseini was charged with incitement for his role in the uprising and received a ten-year prison sentence from a military court. He fled to Trans-Jordan before being apprehended.
In 1921, his brother Kamel, the mufti of Jerusalem, died - and fate intervened on Amin's behalf; in a move designed to placate Palestinian Arabs, British High Commissioner Herbert Samuel pardoned al-Husseini, and appointed him the new Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and head of the Supreme Islamic Council. Hoping to neutralize growing discontent among the Arab population, Samuel appointed members of the rival Nashashibi clan to the council, in addition to those selected from the Husseini clan. For a time, this gambit worked, as infighting among the two clans prevented a united front. Al-Husseini, however, led an international Muslim effort to restore the site of the al-Aqsa and Dome of the Rock mosques (Haram ash-Sharif), upon the Temple Mount - a site claimed as a holy place by both Jews and Muslims. Husseini's efforts rallied other Arab Muslims to his cause, and strengthened resistance to the influx of Jews into Palestine and Jerusalem.
Tensions between Jews and Muslims mounted over the next few years, and inevitably, finally burst into the open in August 1929. On August 17, a Jewish boy was stabbed to death while retrieving a football and a young Palestinian Arab was subsequently badly beaten by a group of Jews. From 23-29 August, civil unrest and violence broke out in the Old City of Jerusalem in a dispute over access to the "Wailing Wall" at the foot of the Temple Mount, as Muslims attacked Jewish families and businesses, and British police and Jewish defenders retaliated. Casualties and property damage were extensive; 133 Jews were killed and 339 injured, while 110 Arabs were killed and another 232 injured, mostly by British police. Some accused al-Husseini with inciting the riots, but he emerged from the episode unscathed and with his credibility as a leader much-enhanced among his own people.
During the 1930s, al-Husseini consolidated his leadership position and expanded the Pan-Islamic movement. He founded the World Islamic Congress and supervised the creation of a number of clandestine organizations, including the "Holy Struggle" youth movement (al-jihad al-muqaddas) and the paramilitary al-Futuwwah, and helped funnel arms and equipment to them. He traveled widely in the Middle East and interacted with his counterparts in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. Among his associates was the Syrian-born leader of the militant anti-Zionist "Black Hand" group (al-Kaff al-Aswad), Izz ad-Din al-Qassam.
In November, 1935, after killing a police officer, al-Qassam and three of his men were surrounded by British security forces and all were killed in a gun battle. On April 15, 1936, Arab gunmen attacked a truck convey, killing two Jews. The next day, in retaliation, Irgun (Jewish paramilitary) gunmen killed two Arab workers. Thus began the second Arab revolt of 1936-1939. Al-Husseini quickly formed and headed a coalition of Muslim leaders called the Arab High Command (AHC), which demanded a series of strikes, boycotts of British and Jewish businesses, and similar measures. Thousands of Jewish farms and orchards were burned or otherwise destroyed, and many rural Jews had to flee to safer areas. Under the threat of more-substantial British military intervention, and the arrival of a British Royal Commission of Inquiry, the AHC called an end to the general strikes in October 1936.
In the summer of 1937, British security forces attempted to arrest al-Husseini for his part in the revolt, but - tipped off by an informer - the mufti fled into the protection of a haram (religious sanctuary or mosque). After the assassination of a British official in September, al-Husseini was deposed from his post on the Supreme Islamic Council, and warrants issued for the arrest of a number of its members. Husseini fled to French-controlled Lebanon. Husseini became increasingly paranoid over the prospect of betrayal by friends and associates, and on his orders, a number of them were executed.
In 1941, by then living in Iraq, al-Husseini participated in the coup d'état against Prime Minister Nouri al-Said and pro-British regent Crown Prince Abdullah, and the abortive Anglo-Iranian War of 1941. After escaping to Persia, al-Husseini made his way to Italy and arrived in exile in Berlin in November, 1941 - where he spent the remainder of the Second World War as a guest of the Nazi Party.
----
In part III of this series, we will examine Haj Amin al-Husseini's wartime life in Nazi Germany and his post-war role in the Pan-Islamic movement.
Copyright 2012 Peter Farmer
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Obama supporters in birtherism-banner blunder
http://www.wnd.com/2012/08/obama-supporters-in-birtherism-banner-blunder/print/
2nd 'potatoe' moment this week for campaign in Ohio
Today, at a Republican rally in Powell, Ohio, an airplane pulling a banner attempted to capitalize on Mitt Romney’s “joke” yesterday in Michigan about not needing to show his birth certificate. The Democrats have responded by accusing Romney of having joined the “birthers,” and the airplane banner continued that theme.
Unfortunately, the supporters who sponsored the banner – MoveOn.org, as reported by a Los Angeles Times reporter onsite – failed to do a spell-check before take-off.
“AMERICA IS BETTER THEN BIRTHERISM,” it read, incorrectly substituting “then” for “than”.
The rally was the first time Romney and his running mate, Paul Ryan, have appeared together and the last public event before the pair head to Tampa for the GOP convention.
The blundered banner comes in the same week Obama and three supporters, acting as human letters, YMCA-style, misspelled “Ohio” as “Oiho”.
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Terrorist said to have been a Swedish citizen with a history of Muslim extremist activities
http://israel-commentary.org/?p=4133
The Times of Israel
July 22, 2012
The one-stop news site covering Israel, the region and the Jewish people worldwide
Mehdi Ghezali (screen capture, Channel 10)
Bulgarian media on Thursday named the suicide bomber who blew up a bus full of Israeli tourists, killing five Israelis and a local bus driver, in the Black Sea resort of Burgas on Wednesday as 36-year-old Mehdi Ghezali.
Ghezali reportedly arrived in Bulgaria five weeks before the bombing and arrived at the airport via taxi, Channel 2 reported.
He was also reportedly given the bomb by someone else, but no further details were provided. There was no independent confirmation of the veracity of the information. The reports surfaced soon after Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had publicly accused Hezbollah, directed by Iran, of responsibility for the bombing. The Prime Minister’s Office made no comment on the reports.
The Bulgarian reports, rapidly picked up by Hebrew media, posited various versions of how the bomber had detonated the bomb, including the suggestion that the bomber had not intended to die in the blast, but may have wanted to place the bomb on the bus and flee.
Ghezali has a Wikipedia page, which describes him as a Swedish citizen, with Algerian and Finnish origins. He had been held at the US’s Guantanamo Bay detainment camp on Cuba from 2002 to 2004, having previously studied at a Muslim religious school and mosque in Britain, and traveled to Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, it says. He was taken into custody on suspicion of being an al-Qaeda agent, having been arrested along with a number of other al-Qaeda operatives.
Following a lobbying effort by Swedish prime minister Göran Persson, Guantanamo authorities recommended Ghezali be transferred to another country for continued detainment, and he was handed over to Swedish authorities in 2004. The Swedish government did not press charges.
A 2005 Swedish documentary about the Guantanamo Bay detention camp starred Ghezali, who detailed his experience in American custody. He was also reportedly among 12 foreigners captured trying to cross into Afghanistan in 2009.
Earlier on Thursday the Bulgarian police released a brief video clip that claimed to show the suicide bomber, responsible for Wednesday’s terror attack on a tour bus full of Israeli citizens, walking around shortly before the blast at Burgas International Airport.
The Bulgarian news agency Sofia reported that the bomber was carrying an American passport and Michigan driver’s license, both believed to be forgeries. Sofia also reported that the Bulgarian Interior Ministry managed to recover the fingerprints of the bomber, which they submitted to the FBI in the United States and the international police organization Interpol. The FBI and CIA joined Israeli and Bulgarian officials in investigating the attack.
Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov told Sofia that DNA tests were being run to determine the identity of the Caucasian man, who the minister described as casually dressed with nothing suspicious about his appearance to set him apart from the crowd of people at the airport. (I guess everyone carries huge back packs, nowadays?)
The ministry did not indicate how the police came to the conclusion that the man was the suicide bomber.
The Times of Israel
July 22, 2012
The one-stop news site covering Israel, the region and the Jewish people worldwide
Mehdi Ghezali (screen capture, Channel 10)
Bulgarian media on Thursday named the suicide bomber who blew up a bus full of Israeli tourists, killing five Israelis and a local bus driver, in the Black Sea resort of Burgas on Wednesday as 36-year-old Mehdi Ghezali.
Ghezali reportedly arrived in Bulgaria five weeks before the bombing and arrived at the airport via taxi, Channel 2 reported.
He was also reportedly given the bomb by someone else, but no further details were provided. There was no independent confirmation of the veracity of the information. The reports surfaced soon after Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had publicly accused Hezbollah, directed by Iran, of responsibility for the bombing. The Prime Minister’s Office made no comment on the reports.
The Bulgarian reports, rapidly picked up by Hebrew media, posited various versions of how the bomber had detonated the bomb, including the suggestion that the bomber had not intended to die in the blast, but may have wanted to place the bomb on the bus and flee.
Ghezali has a Wikipedia page, which describes him as a Swedish citizen, with Algerian and Finnish origins. He had been held at the US’s Guantanamo Bay detainment camp on Cuba from 2002 to 2004, having previously studied at a Muslim religious school and mosque in Britain, and traveled to Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, it says. He was taken into custody on suspicion of being an al-Qaeda agent, having been arrested along with a number of other al-Qaeda operatives.
Following a lobbying effort by Swedish prime minister Göran Persson, Guantanamo authorities recommended Ghezali be transferred to another country for continued detainment, and he was handed over to Swedish authorities in 2004. The Swedish government did not press charges.
A 2005 Swedish documentary about the Guantanamo Bay detention camp starred Ghezali, who detailed his experience in American custody. He was also reportedly among 12 foreigners captured trying to cross into Afghanistan in 2009.
Earlier on Thursday the Bulgarian police released a brief video clip that claimed to show the suicide bomber, responsible for Wednesday’s terror attack on a tour bus full of Israeli citizens, walking around shortly before the blast at Burgas International Airport.
The Bulgarian news agency Sofia reported that the bomber was carrying an American passport and Michigan driver’s license, both believed to be forgeries. Sofia also reported that the Bulgarian Interior Ministry managed to recover the fingerprints of the bomber, which they submitted to the FBI in the United States and the international police organization Interpol. The FBI and CIA joined Israeli and Bulgarian officials in investigating the attack.
Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov told Sofia that DNA tests were being run to determine the identity of the Caucasian man, who the minister described as casually dressed with nothing suspicious about his appearance to set him apart from the crowd of people at the airport. (I guess everyone carries huge back packs, nowadays?)
The ministry did not indicate how the police came to the conclusion that the man was the suicide bomber.
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