IPT Testifies on Trends in Terror Financing

My fellow Americans, if you believe the silent majority of moderate Muslims are not influenced by the vocal minority of purist-reforming Muslims dubbed as followers of Radical Islam, then look at this article of big bucks funneled from Islamic oriented banks on a global scale.

JRH 9/30/10
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IPT Testifies on Trends in Terror Financing

IPT News
September 30, 2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8RZjcj8Vo4

Note: To view the complete hearing webcast, please go here.
…

Although the United States and its allies have closed off the formal financial sector to terrorist money, fighting the "evolving threat of terrorist financing" needs amended regulations and expanded enforcement, witnesses told a House subcommittee Tuesday.

The witnesses, including the IPT's Stephen I. Landman, focused much of their testimony before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations on the abuse of the formal financial sector. Besides Landman, the witnesses were Victor D. Comras, Special Counsel to The Eren Law Firm; Eric L. Lewis, a partner with Baach Robinson Lewis; and David Caruso, CEO of Dominion Advisory Group.

All witnesses agreed the banking industry is on the front lines in countering terrorist financing. "Through a combination of criminal prosecution, regulatory enforcement, and civil litigation, traditional banking methods are no longer open to terrorist dollars," Landman said. But as the witnesses would go on to explain, while the system is generally secure, more can be done.

Caruso and Landman both proposed efforts to ease banks' burdens to comply with current regulations while also making reports more useful to investigators. For example, Landman said, law enforcement officials provide classified briefings to compliance officers to help them better understand the threat and focus their resources. Caruso suggested re-examining the ways in which banks report suspicious activities. In particular, he urged Congress to consider a revised, more streamlined version of "Suspicious Activity Reports" (SARs). This new form would be completed if there was evidence that a customer was attempting to evade Currency Transaction Reporting requirements by "structuring" their transactions.

"Such a SAR would still provide the government with needed information and would reduce the time and effort needed by institutions to complete the form, thus enabling more energy to be directed at uncovering terrorist financing and significant money laundering," Caruso said.

While agreeing that the American banking sector has done tremendous work in countering terrorist financing, Comras highlighted a substantial gap in current terrorist financing programs:

"U.S. banks are intricately networked into an international banking system that has not yet fully come to terms with halting terrorism financing. And, while we have made great strides in cutting off the flow of money to terrorism from the United States, our banks remain awkwardly vulnerable to getting caught up in handling terrorist-group related transactions that originate overseas. This is because US banks must rely so heavily on the veracity and accuracy of the transactional information provided to them by their overseas clients and associates."

Discussing the threat posed by foreign institutions, Comras identified Arab Bank and Doha Bank, both of which were recently fined for funneling millions of dollars to suspected terrorists and terrorist groups throughout the Middle East.

In order to resolve this weakness, Comras suggested putting increased pressure on foreign countries, particularly those in Europe and the Middle East, to ban support to all terrorist groups. As Comras explained:

"Only a limited number of countries have joined with us in designating such organizations as Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist organizations. This includes, for the most part, our European friends and allies. Yet, some European countries still exempt the political and humanitarian wings of these organizastions from such designation. Many other countries have not even gone that far and openly permit their financial institutions to process transactions in Hamas' and Hizballah's favor."

If banks don't comply, Landman said, the "material support" law could be changed to ensure that victims of terrorism can continue to hold liable banks that provide financial support to designated terrorist groups.

Indeed, greater cooperation will be needed between the international community and American financial institutions. As an example of what can happen when banks don't cooperatied, Lewis discussed an ongoing investigation into an alleged fraud committed by a Saudi named Maan al-Sanea. According to Lewis, al-Sanea moved at least $1 trillion dollars through New York bank accounts as part of a $20 billion fraud. And while the transactions should have raised numerous red flags, Lewis explained, "there appear to have been no questions asked—not by banks, not by regulators, not by prosecutors—until the whole scheme collapsed."

The hearing came a day after the Department of the Treasury announced a new proposal that would expand reporting requirements for banks to include all electronic money transfers into and out of the country. Under the current policy, banks are only required to report transactions in excess of $10,000 and others they deem suspicious. Announcing the proposed rule, FinCEN Director James H. Freis Jr, explained:

"by establishing a centralized database, this regulatory plan will greatly assist law enforcement in detecting and ferreting out transnational organized crime, multinational drug cartels, terrorist financing, and international tax evasion."

Some critics, such as Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, have claimed the rule will be a major burden to banks and will bury investigators under mountains of new reporting. But if Treasury can figure out a way to streamline the procedure, it is the type of smarter regulations that would benefit terror-finance investigators.
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FBI denials; here's the truth

ACT for America runs a story that the FBI gave Sheikh Kifah Mustapha a grand tour of a high security Counter Terrorism facility. When ACT for America members and sympathizers began a mass contact campaign the FBI spurned them by telling them the ACT story was a lying fabrication. Why is this important? Mustapha is a Hamas member listed high on America’s Terrorist Watch list!

Below is an email alert which is a response to the FBI in which ACT for America asserts the veracity of the tour given to Hamas terrorist Mustapha.

JRH 9/30/10

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FBI denials; here's the truth

Sent by: ACT for America

Sent: 9/30/2010 1:12 PM

In spite of denials by FBI officials, yesterday’s story was accurate! ACT! members berated by FBI officials. Contact Congress today!!

Yesterday’s email about the FBI inviting a sheikh with connections to Hamas on a tour of a top-secret counterterrorism facility led to hundreds of patriotic, concerned ACT! for America members calling the national FBI office.

But instead of “thank you’s,” many encountered belligerent FBI officials who berated them, insisted the story was a “lie” and a “fabrication,” and in at least two instances made snide, derogatory comments about ACT! for America.

After we had received numerous emails and some phone calls from ACT! members describing the shameful way they were treated, a member of our staff placed a call to the FBI and was told that the story was a “fabrication” and that the photo of the tour participants was “doctored.”

Well, folks, here’s the truth: THE STORY WAS ACCURATE.

·       The FBI did invite Sheikh Kifah Mustapha on a VIP tour of the top-secret National Counterterrorism Center. ·       The picture of those on the tour, which included Mustapha, was NOT doctored. ·       According to a Daily Herald news story which ran over three weeks ago, earlier this year Sheikh Mustapha flunked an Illinois State Police background check and was dismissed from the police chaplaincy program. ·       Patrick Poole, whose story we emailed you yesterday, posted a follow-up this morning on Big Peace (see below) that asserts that a Department of Homeland Security official told him Mustapha is on “the highest watch list we have.” YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST READ POOLE’S STORY BELOW.

THIS ISSUE IS OUTRAGEOUS ON MULTIPLE FRONTS!

·       Why did the FBI invite Mustapha, a man on terrorist watch lists who failed an Illinois police background check, on a tour of a top-secret counterterrorism facility? ·       And when this outrageous act of politically correct “outreach” was exposed, the response by FBI officials to concerned, patriotic Americans was to bully them and insist the story was a lie!

We know there are many FBI field agents who are as upset about these kinds of actions by FBI leadership as we are. It’s time for concerned Americans to blow the whistle on this and Congress to investigate this.

Enough is enough.

Please contact your Member of Congress’s Washington, DC office TODAY to inform them of this and insist they take action which will lead to a congressional investigation. To contact by phone, dial the Capitol switchboard, 202/224-3121, and ask for your Senator or House Member of Congress. To email, click here, look for the “Get Involved” tab on the right, and you’ll be able to obtain your Member’s DC office email address. You could even email them this email!

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http://bigpeace.com/pspoole/2010/09/30/fallout-plugs-had-to-be-pulled-on-our-system-to-clear-hamas-operative-to-tour-top-secret-nctc-the-nctc-has-kifah-mustapha-on-the-highest-watch-list-we-have/

FALLOUT: ‘Plugs had to be pulled on our system’ to clear Hamas operative to tour Top-Secret NCTC, ‘The NCTC has Kifah Mustapha on the highest watch list we have’

Posted by Patrick S. Poole Sep 30th 2010 at 7:31 am

The fallout continues in response to my Big Peace article filed on Monday concerning a known Hamas operative and unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terrorism finance trial in U.S. history who was given a VIP tour of the top-secret National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) and the FBI training center at Quantico as part of a six-week FBI Citizen Academy arranged by the FBI Chicago Field Office.

Now a Homeland Security official (requesting anonymity for fear of retaliation by superiors) has contacted Big Peace saying that “the plugs had to be pulled on our system” in order to allow Kifah Mustapha to enter the NCTC and that “the NCTC has Kifah Mustapha on the highest watch list we have. There’s no way from a systems point-of-view that this could be an accidental oversight, unless they didn’t bother checking at all as they are required to do.”

The DHS official added, “It’s as if we haven’t learned anything from twenty years of reaching out to the wrong people in the Muslim community.”

My report on Monday was prompted by a WLS ABC7-Chicago story over the weekend by news anchor Ben Bradley describing his participation in the FBI’s Citizen Academy with Kifah Mustapha. As I noted then, curiously absent from Bradley’s story was any mention of his Hamas travel partner’s terror-tied background. Even more curious, ABC7 had aired an investigative report back in March about Mustapha, along with several subsequent reports about his de-certification by the Illinois State Police as a Muslim chaplain after failing a background check. Mustapha is currently suing the State Police claiming discrimination with the help of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), identified by FBI Special Agent Lara Burns during the 2008 Holy Land Foundation trial as a Hamas front group.

What makes Bradley’s silence about Kifah Mustapha’s activities in support of Hamas all the more odd is that one of his own ABC7 colleagues, Chuck Goudie, published an editorial three weeks before Bradley’s story aired contrasting the Illinois State Police’s de-certification of Mustapha and the FBI’s open embrace of the Hamas operative.

Mustapha’s terrorist support activities are laid out in court documents filed by federal prosecutors in the Holy Land Foundation case:

- Kifah Mustapha was personally named unindicted co-conspirator (#31) in the case, identifying him as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee that federal prosecutors say was formed to raise money for Hamas and was “committed to the globalization of Islam and violent jihad.”

- Holy Land Foundation records confiscated by the FBI indicate that he was a longtime employee of the group and was paid more than $154,000 between 1996 and 2000 when the group’s financial support for Hamas was at its peak.

- FBI Agent Lara Burns testified during the trial that Mustapha was a member of the notorious Al-Sakhra Band sponsored by the Holy Land Foundation and the Islamic Association for Palestine (another Hamas front group that was the parent group to CAIR) that regularly featured songs about murdering Jews and glorifying Hamas. The leader of the singing group, Mufid Abdelqader, was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

- In a deposition in a civil case filed against the Holy Land Foundation and other Islamic groups by the parents of a Chicago teenager murdered by Hamas at a bus stop in Israel (the groups were found liable in a $156 million judgment), Mustapha admitted that he was the registered agent for the Holy Land Foundation’s Illinois office. His Chicago-area office was specifically named by the U.S. Treasury when the group was listed as a specially designated global terrorist group in December 2001.

- The Bridgeview Foundation, the mosque where Mustapha is presently an imam, was identified by the Chicago Tribune in 2004 as a national hot-spot for Hamas fundraising and terrorist support.

Click here to read the full article.

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ACT for America is an issues advocacy organization dedicated to effectively organizing and mobilizing the most powerful grassroots citizen action network in America, a grassroots network committed to informed and coordinated civic action that will lead to public policies that promote America’s national security and the defense of American democratic values against the assault of radical Islam. We are only as strong as our supporters, and your volunteer and financial support is essential to our success. Thank you for helping us make America safer and more secure.

John R. Houk

International Burn a Qur'an Day: Fan the Embers!

Islam Exposed alerts those who consider Islam an evil theopolitical cult whose political tenets demanding global conquest and harm to those who reject Mohammedanism and Mohammed. The alert has to do with the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is promoting a U.N. Resolution condemning any international harm to the Quran even it is a legitimate protest condemning the cruel nature the designs against non-Muslims (kafir).

JRH 9/30/10

NAMBLA Exploits Facebook

John R. Houk
© September 29, 2010

FOX News performed simple searches on Facebook to explore use of pedophilia on the popular Internet community. They discovered some disturbing details relating to homosexual pedophilic predatory activity which included adult strategy to utilize Facebook to promote society acceptance of male homosexual sex with minor boys. Some of the boys’ ages that I read were as young as 4 and 5.

FOX News discovered an organized group of male homosexuals who associate themselves with the deviant pervert group known as North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA). NAMBLA used to be a member of homosexual an umbrella organization as one of the original homosexual members. Apparently NAMBLA is even to perverted for a majority of homosexual organizations for they have long since been expelled.

FOX News ran an update at the end of their article that was a response from the national organization of NAMBLA:

On Tuesday, Sept. 29, following the publication of this article, NAMBLA spokesman Arnold Schoen replied to a request for comment that was emailed to him six days earlier. Schoen wrote: "If you really investigated, you would learn that actually we have never set up any pages on Facebook. And we certainly haven't ever used facebook to connect with our members, to find or exchange photos, to "hone predatory behavior:, or to "identify, target and reel in child victims. This is a wild fantasy boogeyman FoxNews is holding up for their fans."

Hmm … As if NAMBLA is able to extricate itself from the perverted actions of their members that do not actually work for the NAMBLA national organization. This is a load of ungodly deviant perversion that should be investigated and prosecuted to the full of extent of the law. Or is it possible that moral relativity inundating America from the MSM, Hollywood and Television, Leftists and Secular Humanists have made protecting children from sexual predators a minor legal offense?

JRH 9/29/10 (Hat Tip: Solid Snake)

Am I too Rough on Arabs? PT 1

John R. Houk
© September 28, 2010

A person calling himself John posted a comment I must say with great politeness. Now I emphasize “great politeness” because he begins his comment in agreement with my stand as a supporter of Israel yet ends with a polite vilification on my stance concerning Islam. Read the comment to find out how “absurd” I am then I will defend my stance.

JRH 9/28/10
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Sent by: John
Sent: Sep 25, 2010 at 2:15 PM

Comment: John, I much appreciate your hard stance against the creation of the Palestinian state. I do know there are lots of problems for Israel if they allow it to be created. I am actually sympathetic to the Right Wing position in this matter.

Your absurd positions about all things Arab, have almost talked me out of it, though. You could make the argument that there is no such thing as a Palestinian, and I may embrace that. You could argue that Yasser Arafat established a plan to make the concept of a Palestinian people come into existence and that they are the inhabitants of the occupied territories, and I would even consider that a valid point, though not one that necessarily denies the current inhabitants of that land the right to self-determination.

You could make the argument that Israel only occupies the disputed land because the nations that surround it tried on multiple occasions to annihilate Israel from those strategic locations and that the non Jewish neighbors of Israel will need that land on the next go around, and I could even sympathize with that.

Instead you pretty consistently argue that Arabs are evil because their text contains atrocities of thought in almost Biblical proportions. If you believe the Bible, then your Christian God is one of the world’s great villains and nothing Allah or his followers could do or say would ever overshadow your own God’s foibles.

However, if you realize that Bibles are compilations of writings produced by men, and that they have an assortment of perspectives and views and that they can be guides used for good or evil depending on how good or evil the user is, then you may not reject an entire people just because you learn that their God’s reputation is as corrupt as that of your own God. I would discuss the issue more, but I have to go read about God's commanding that every man woman and child be slain because while He was mad at someone, like you, he fully grasped the wisdom of guilt by association. J

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My Answer

Let’s start with, “Your absurd positions about all things Arab, have almost talked me out of it, though.”

It is easy to presume that I have an anti-Arab position. After all my most common reference relating to the terrorists and terrorist supporting people of Judea and Samaria (named the West Bank after Jordanian conquest and annexation 1948-49) as well as the terrorists and terrorist supporting inhabitants of the Gaza Strip IS “Arabs who call themselves Palestinians”. I can see the easy mistake that I am anti-Arab.

The reality is that I am anti-Islam. Although most Muslims are not Arabs, most Arabs are Muslims. The majority of the population of the Middle East and North Africa were Christians prior to Islamic conquest in the mid-600’s through mid-700’s AD. The Christian Arabs had mixed feelings about Islamic conquest initially. The Eastern Orthodox Arab Christians were exterminated or converted to Islam rather than live a life of Islamic oppression. There Arab Christians that did not follow Orthodox Christianity at the time of Islamic conquest. These Arab Christians initially welcomed Islamic conquest because the Orthodox Christians persecuted them as heretics. This is similar to how Sunni Muslims (90%) persecute Shia Muslims (10%) and vice versa. The Orthodox considered these various alternative Christians as heretics because of minor differences in theology which are not part of this discussion. Nonetheless, the so-called heretic Christians agreed on the major issues of all Christianity; viz. that Christ died on the Cross, was buried in a tomb, arose from that tomb alive in the Resurrection of the First Born from the dead, walked with the original Apostles (minus Judas Iscariot) and many other believing Disciples for roughly 40 days and then ascended bodily to the realm of Heaven with the full Divine attributes that Jesus gave up to become incarnated as a man to Save humanity from its fallen nature acquired after Adam’s betrayal of God toward Satan. (All of which are vehemently denied in Islam)

These surviving Arab and Egyptian Christians today would be called Assyrian Christians, Chaldean Christians, Maronite Christians, Coptic-Ethiopian Christians, Cooperating Syrian Community Churches, Armenian Christians, of course there is a residue of Eastern Orthodox Church which bravely maintains a Patriarchate in conquered Constantinople renamed Istanbul by Turkish Muslims and undoubtedly some Christians sects which I missed.

Christendom in the Middle East and North Africa was the majority of the population for centuries even after Islamic conquest. Islamic Supremacism as taught by the Quran and the Hadith gave options of survival for People of the Book, i.e. Jews and Christians. The options derived from theopolitical Islam runs roughly like this: Convert to Islam, live as a humiliated and oppressed person having to pay a tax (jizya) under the most degrading fashion conceived for so-called “protection” from other Muslims who otherwise will kill them or failing the submission conversion or dhimmitude – execution.

This explains my attitude toward Islam/Mohammedanism; ergo not to a race of people who have adopted wickedness of Islam as a religious faith.

John the commenter said this about Arabs who call themselves Palestinians: “…Palestinian people come into existence and that they are the inhabitants of the occupied territories, and I would even consider that a valid point, though not one that necessarily denies the current inhabitants of that land the right to self-determination.”

If Judea and Samaria was ever occupied territory in the 20th Century an occupation under the British leadership guiding the Transjordanian Arab Legion to occupy Judea and Samaria. After Transjordan occupied Judea and Samaria they unilaterally annexed the land and named it the West Bank with the logic of Transjordan being the East Bank. Transjordan’s King then renamed his Hashemite Kingdom Jordan consisting of the British built Transjordan and the occupied West Bank.

In 1967 Arab belligerence to Israel’s existence was built and Jordan was one of the nations and the Palestine Liberation Organization’s intent to once again obliterate Israel. Israel decimated Arab secular yet rule of law based on Islam nations in six days. The result of Israel’s victory was acquiring Gaza and Sinai Peninsula – Egypt, Golan Heights – Syria and reacquisition of ALL of Jerusalem (including the Jewish Quarter of the Old City desecrated in 1948 by rabid Muslims) as well as Judea and Samaria termed the West Bank by one-time occupier Jordan.

Gaza and Sinai were actually occupied land for they had long been under Egyptian sovereignty before the establishment of League of Nations Palestine Mandate to be managed by the British. After peace and Egyptian recognition of Israel as a sovereign nation the Sinai was returned. Ironically the Egyptian government wanted nothing to do with the Arabs that call themselves Palestinians in the Gaza Strip which was formerly under Egyptian sovereignty prior to 1967.

The Golan Heights are considered just as much an occupied territory as Judea and Samaria are by Arab nations and the West. Yet the Golan Heights were a part of the original League of Nations Palestine Mandate that was to be guaranteed to a Jewish Homeland by then Syrian ruler King Feisal in 1918.

Like the Balfour Declaration, the Mandate recognized the "historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine," called upon the mandatory power to "secure establishment of the Jewish National Home," with "an appropriate Jewish agency" to be set up for advice and cooperation to that end. The World Zionist Organization, which was specifically recognized as the appropriate vehicle, formally established the Jewish Agency in 1929. Jewish immigration was to be facilitated, while ensuring that the "rights and position of other sections of the population are not prejudiced." English, Arabic, and Hebrew were all to be official languages. (Palestine Facts)

The beginnings of British Empire treachery emerges circa 1921 when the Brits began to realize (i.e. WWII hero Winston Churchill) that Jew-hatred was being instilled into Arab Muslims preeminently by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Muhammed Amin al-Husseini and the emerging Muslim Brotherhood. A combination Arab tribal jealousy, elite ruling Arabs vying for a piece of the Ottoman Empire’s territory being carved up by the British and French has made today’s Middle Eastern map. The Middle East nation building Coupled with Islamic Supremacism led to a change of heart toward the existence of a Jewish Homeland in Dar al-Islam. British National Interests outweighed British sympathy for establishing a Jewish Homeland in their ancestral homeland.

In March 1921, Winston Churchill, then British colonial secretary, convened a high-level conference in Cairo to consider Middle East policy. As a result of these deliberations, Britain subdivided the Palestine Mandate along the Jordan River-Gulf of Aqaba line. The eastern portion--called Transjordan--was to have a separate Arab administration operating under the general supervision of the commissioner for Palestine, with Abdullah appointed as emir. At a follow-up meeting in Jerusalem with Churchill, High Commissioner Herbert Samuel, and Lawrence, Abdullah agreed to abandon his Syrian project in return for the emirate and a substantial British subsidy.

A British government memorandum in September 1922 ("The Churchill White Paper"), approved by the League of Nations Council, specifically excluded Jewish settlement from the Transjordan area of the Palestine Mandate. The whole process was aimed at satisfying wartime pledges made to the Arabs and at carrying out British responsibilities under the Mandate. Unfortunately for the Zionists and counter to the whole expressed purpose of the Mandate in the first place, by this action more than three-quarters of the territory of the British Mandate was taken away from the potential Jewish Homeland without any corresponding action favoring the Palestinian Jews. The squeeky Arab wheel was greased with concessions at the sole expense of the Jewish population. (Ibid. – Palestine Facts)

John the commenter when you refer to “…not one that necessarily denies the current inhabitants of that land the right to self-determination.” You are obviously thinking in Western terms. Every single nation in the Asian Middle East prior to the end of WWI were Arabs under the domination of Muslim Ottoman Turks that lost to the British and the French. After Britain, France with the help of America won WWI; the winners made an attempt to merge Anatolian Greeks with European Greece. That idea didn’t go over too well Ottoman Turkish military officers. Hence Muslim Mustafa Kemal became secularist Kemal Ataturk re-banding the Turkish military together handing invading Greece an unexpected yet huge defeat. This led to a mutual dispossessing of Turkish Muslims in Greece and Christian Greeks in Turkey. Of which the Greeks received the harsher treatment as many were expelled on penalty of death from land lived on before the Ottomans even existed. Turkish Muslims did not have a pleasant time of expulsion from Greece, but Turkish Muslims were a bit more willing to move back to a nation named for their ethnic roots; i.e. Turkey.

It is in this time period in the waning days of WWI that Armenian Christians were rounded up and forced on a march toward eastern edges of Turkey. Note Turks do not consider themselves Arab and do not consider themselves Turks yet the commonality is Islam. Muslim Turks did their best to end Armenians in Turkey who had become quite involved in public life. Remember Armenians were Christians and a combination of Islamic Supremacism and Turkish nationalism required an influential minority to be divested from Turkey. In Armenians case this meant genocide in a forced march that saw stragglers killed, the hungry starved to death, the women raped ending in about 1.5 million deaths out a rough 2 million Anatolia Armenians.

I can tell I have more to answer about the evil of Islam in defense of my stand, so let’s call this Part One.

Solid Snake: Anti-Homosexual Activism Must Exceed Homosexual Activism

John R. Houk
© September 27, 2010

Solid Snake is frustrated with the lack of active action by pro-family groups and Congressional members on both the State and Federal level represent New York State (NYC).

As you read Solid Snake’s frustration let me clear up a few abbreviations:

AFTH – Americans for Truth about Homosexuality managed by Peter LaBarbera. Labarbera is a target of venom by homosexual activists such as the homosexual blogger - Joe. My. God. – who is most often quoted by Solid Snake in making points via email.

FRC – Family Research Council led by Tony Perkins who also I am happy to say is no friend of the homosexual agenda or the Left.

Liberty Counsel – This organization is led by Matthew Staver.

The “Pastor from Atlanta” referred to by Solid Snake is a big dog among Evangelicals. This is Pastor Eddie Long who has correctly preached from his pulpit that homosexuality is a sin. Pastor Long’s scandal is the accusation from four male former members of his 23,000 strong mega-Church who claim they were coerced into homosexual sex with their Pastor. I listened to a sound bite last night from FOX News in which Pastor Long denied the allegations from his accusers. I’ll paraphrase what I heard Pastor Long say (mostly because I don’t want to Google for a source): “I may not be a perfect man but I did not do those things the Mainstream Media is saying I did.” Note I did say it was a paraphrase but I believe I wrote the gist of his denial.

As a Christian and an American I am standing with Pastor Long because his innocent until proven otherwise and lying is as Biblically heinous as homosexuality. On the other hand I can understand why the accusation is rocking Conservative Biblical Christianity in America. Not too many years ago another Pastor stood accused of paying for homosexual sex from his masseuse. After Ted Haggard was accused by the masseuse Haggard denied the accusation. Haggard also was a Pastor of a mega-Church which is located in Colorado Springs, CO. It was even worse that Ted Haggard was also a leader in a huge Evangelical association. AND Haggard – AGAIN CORRECTLY – took a strong stand against homosexuality. I know what Christians who want to believe in Pastor Eddie Long are going through merely because Haggard vehemently denied acts of homosexual sex. BUT the homosexual was true and Haggard lied.

[SlantRight.com Editor: I did some editing on the Solid Snake email. I pray I did not skew any of his thoughts.]

JRH 9/27/10
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Gay Adoption Now Legal NYS

Sent by: Solid Snake
Sent: Sep 22, 2010 at 10:42 PM

That's what I been trying to tell people no one listens. Either these "pro family" groups lost their balls to fight or became cowards over night due to the onslaught of homosexual activism and homosexual fanatics increasing. AFTH is starting to drown and FRC due to what is going on. Also Liberty Counsel needs to fight more.

Stop with the press releases. The senators for NYS (not sure about 1) have been bought by the homosexual lobby. This is even the case pertaining to congressmen/women too. The congressmen for my District’s chief lapdog/contributor runs a "center" that is a haven for pedophiles and those who like them young and has been investigated with the investigations stalled as pending.

What makes the pro family groups look bad are sick perverts like the Pastor from Atlanta. Gays are looking for any excuse to do all sorts of harm.

Also FRC got a s**t load of $$: Why ask for more $$? Look at what is being put out in gay publications it’s horrific. Obama has been seen with soldiers saluting with a gay flag in background. They even renamed Europe to their vision too.

It’s bad john. I have a document it’s 25mb, but it has enough information to sink a lot of the homosexual lobby friendly Senators and Congress people on DADT. How I got it, you don't wanna know.

http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2010/09/europe-according-to-gay-men.html

http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2010/09/new-york-times-to-president-obama-dont.html

http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2010/09/frctony-perkins-gloats-over-dadt-vote.html

JMG got called a liar:

http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2010/09/my-interviews-with-fox-cnn.html

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/09/22/georgia.pastor.abuse/index.html?hpt=Sbin
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Solid Snake: Anti-Homosexual Activism Must Exceed Homosexual Activism
John R. Houk
© September 27, 2010
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Gay Adoption Now Legal NYS
Solid Snake.

Muslim Brotherhood vs. Al Qaeda but still Same Goal

John R. Houk
© September 26, 2010

The Hudson Institute sent an email of past and current articles written for its Center on Islam, Democracy and the Future of the Muslim World. As I was surfing through the Center on Islam site an article posted nearly a year ago caught my eye. The article is entitled, “The Brotherhood vs. Al-Qaeda: A Moment Of Truth?”

The author Jean-Pierre Filiu writes about conflict that is between two large Wahhabi/Salafi groups in Islam. Part of the conflict is related to dissatisfaction with the Muslim Brotherhood’s current tendency to infiltrate sovereign governments (Muslim and kafir) to act as a Trojan Horse to establish the Salafi Islamic vision of a Caliphate on a global scale. It is not that the Muslim Brotherhood is opposed to Islamic terrorism; the MB strategic emphasis is political infiltration to speed up the Islamic theopolitical process of Islam dominating the planet.

Some big dogs in MB intellectual writings became unhappy with the emphasis of using Western rules of politics to spread Islamic domination. Notably Ayman al-Zawahiri and Abdallah Azzam became disaffected with the MB political strategy. The al-Zawahiri and Azzam MB types thus went to a place to employ what they felt should be the preeminent means of Jihad thought to dominate the world. They went to Afghanistan to engage in battle with occupying Communist USSR. Communism is atheistic.

Just as an aside I am amazed how much Left Wingers support and nearly ally themselves with Salafi-Muslims. Marxist Lefties are anti-religion and Islam is a religious supremacist movement with a history of executing irreligious people especially if the irreligious reject and refuse to submit Islam. God forbid that Islam conquers the world but if Islam did so the Communists and atheists will be among the first to lose their heads.

So back to al-Zawahiri and Azzam: Disgruntled MB members went off to Afghanistan to hook up with the locals to battle occupying Soviets. The most popular of those locals emerged as the Taliban. After the Taliban and other Afghan Islamic ethnic groups and paramilitary groups successfully utilized a CIA conduit through Pakistan defeated the Soviets the Taliban went about building ethno-tribal alliances. The biggest challengers to the Taliban were assassinated: so much for Muslims not killing Muslims in the religion of peace. MB foreign Mujahedeen had tasted the victory of Islam over the infidel (kafir). Although many returned to their home Islamic nations these were dissatisfied with the way Muslim despots operated their nations in seeming collusion with kafir governments. The irony of this anger against the West is that the Communist-Soviets would not have been ejected from Afghanistan without American Intelligence and military aid (the CIA probably the most notable but also probably not the sole American Intelligence agency).

At any rate one foreign Mujahedeen leader was a billionaire from the wealth Saudi bin Laden family – Osama (Usama) bin Laden. Bin Laden hooked up with Abdallah Azzam and eventually Ayman al-Zawahiri and founded al Qaeda. I believe initially Azzam was the al Qaeda top dog. I also believe Azzam lost his life probably by assassination with Osama bin Laden becoming to dog and ex-MB intellectual al-Zawahiri becoming the bin Laden lieutenant at al Qaeda. Currently al-Zawahiri may even be a co-equal with Osama at the al Qaeda network of independent international Islamic terrorist cells.

Al Qaeda’s philosophy for Islamic global domination is closer akin to the hope that every Mo-Muslim will rise to overthrow violently (perhaps ala Shia Iranian Revolution led by Khomeini) Muslim leaders viewed as corrupters of Islam by Wahhabi-Salafi al Qaeda.

If I am reading the report written by Jean-Pierre Filiu for the Hudson Institute correctly, both the Muslim Brotherhood and al Qaeda have the same goal of viciously establishing a global Caliphate according to the principles placed forth by Islam’s founder Mohammed. Both the MB and the AQ believe in infiltration and terrorist violence. The MB/AQ difference is that the MB highlights political infiltration first followed by violence as the infiltration becomes stronger while the AQ whole heartedly supports violence by raising the Muslim rabble (similar to the Marxist-Leninist principles of proletarian violence) to cast off Muslim leaders cooperating with the kafir. Part of the AQ difference from the MB is the willingness to murder kafir (that would be us non-Muslims) striking fear and submission as the Caliphate empire supposedly emerges.

JRH 9/26/10

Hand-Held Weapon Against A Tank

I am not certain how accurate this message is for it appears to me to be chain email. It is often the case that chain email even if it starts out as legit may be twisted as it moves down the chain. Regardless, the story is a fascinating look into security issues of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).

JRH 9/25/10 (Hat Tip: Stephen Hofer)
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Hand-Held Weapon Against A Tank

What you are about to watch is an actual event. An Israeli Commander had this to say, “Our forces filmed this in actual time. What you are about to see is a fully armored Syrian tank being hit by an Israeli, laser-guided, steel-penetrating, phosphorous-filled "hand held" rocket.”


“The rocket is small, very portable and is a tightly controlled weapon, each one is accounted for when they are checked out and back in. There must be no fewer than 2 soldiers present to verify the use, one must be a senior officer with a minimum of 10 years military service.”


“This tank was headed for one of Israel's settlements, there were four more tanks one mile to the rear of this tank. (They turned around before getting to this area.)”


“You can hear the tank’s ammunition going off after the initial strike. No tank member survived this attack.”

The Israeli Commander concluded by saying, “this event did not make the news, it is an everyday event for our forces and we do not "embed" news sources with our armed forces like the Americans do. This is for our survival, not for "news" entertainment!”

The Left Must Fear O’Donnell as it Fears Palin

John R. Houk
© September 25, 2010

Christine O’Donnell came from obscurity as a GOP candidate to squeak a primary win over the Republican establishment favorite Mike Castle. Castle did not match up to the Conservatism that America is displaying nationwide ergo was painted as a RINO. The Republican establishment supported Castle because polls indicated that a Castle GOP would smash Dem candidate Chris Coons in November 2, 2010 General Election. Undoubtedly because of the polls the Republican establishment did not relish the win of O’Donnell in the primary.

Why did O’Donnell come from obscurity to defeat Republican favorite Castle? O’Donnell received the one-two punch endorsement of Sarah Palin and the Tea Party Express. The Left has done its best to portray the Tea Party Movement and the Tea Party Express in particular as a racist movement of White Americans. If you don’t listen to the propaganda of the Left and the MSM you would realize the Tea Party Movement stands for low taxes, less government intrusion and Constitutional Original Intent. All of which is the opposite stand of the socialistically emerging Democratic Party.

The Dems have gotten the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to denounce the Tea Party Movement as Racist in the hope of casting a net around Afro-Americans to stand solid with the Dems – the Party of Wealth Redistribution (think Marxism), intrusive government and the dangerous concept of the Living Constitution.

Most likely exploiting Republican establishment disfavor the Leftist MSM has gone on a witch hunt of Christine O’Donnell’s past. The Republican disfavor of the unelectable fear factor dealt with O’Donnell’s financial history of debt and IRS problems. The MSM has painted a dead beat picture of O’Donnell. The reality is O’Donnell’s debt problems arise from a losing campaign ran against then Senator Joe Biden who won on an incumbent status in a liberal State. I wonder if there are any other Americans who gambled on a Middle America deal that paid the price for the Democratic Party causing a house of cards of financial institutions to fall because of their refusal to prevent bad loans from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

It is obvious the Dems fear an O’Donnell miracle in the general election coming in November because the Dem muck racking machine (Sarah Palin knows this machine well) is digging deeper into Christine O’Donnell’s past. I say “miracle” because as of September 22 Coons held a huge poll lead of 55% to O’Donnell’s 39%. Most American Liberals do not appreciate being associated with Marxist-Communism realizing that this extreme ideology is a failure as demonstrated by the collapse genocidal regime known as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). I am guessing the deeper muck racking by the Dems is to offset the obvious about the Dem nominee for the Delaware Senate; i.e. Coons’ connection to Marxism is more obvious than President Barack Hussein Obama would dare to admit.

Coons is probably an example of why President Barack Hussein Obama has gone to great and expensive legal lengths to hide his school record history – particular BHO’s collegiate records. Below are excerpts from the Politico when conventional wisdom thought Mike Castle would be the shoe-in GOP nominee in Delaware:

An article Democrat Chris Coons wrote for his college newspaper may not go over so well in corporation-friendly Delaware, where he already faces an uphill battle for Vice President Joe Biden’s old Senate seat.

The title? “Chris Coons: The Making of a Bearded Marxist.”

In the article, Coons, then 21 years old and about to graduate from Amherst College, chronicled his transformation from a sheltered, conservative-minded college student who had worked for former GOP Delaware Sen. William Roth and had campaigned for Ronald Reagan in 1980 into a cynical young adult who was distrustful of American power and willing to question the American notion of free enterprise. (Emphasis mine)

Jeffrey Lord has accomplish a magnificent service by gleaning relevant quotes from the college article entitle, “Chris Coons: The Making of a Bearded Marxist.”

"The point that others ignore is that I was ready to change. Experiences at Amherst my first two years made me skeptical and uncomfortable with Republicanism…"

"Kenya provided a needed catalyst; …I studied under a bright and eloquent Marxist professor at the University of Nairobi…"

"Some of the 'Leftists' that I met were terrifyingly persuasive, although I never admitted that."

"…several professors challenged the basic assumptions about America and world relations with which I had grown up…and undermined the accepted value of progress and the cultural superiority of the West."

"I came to suspect…that the ideal of America as 'a beacon of freedom and justice, providing hope for the world' was not exactly based on reality."

"What do other nations think of us? Can private enterprise and democracy solve the problems of developing nations? Is Marxism an evil ideology, leading millions into totalitarian slavery? These were some of the questions in the back of my mind…"

"I realize that Kenya and America are very different, but experiences like this warned me that my own favorite beliefs in the miracles of free enterprise and the boundless opportunities to be had in America might be largely untrue."

Lord’s article is a response to Dem propagandists making it sound as if something written by a 21 year old college student is a laughable comparison between the past and the present because a mature individual would not have Marxist-Communist notions. Yet the MSM and the Dem muck racking machine does not laugh off the youthful thoughts of Christine O’Donnell.

The first muck racking disseminator of character assassination against O’Donnell was the Today Show. Matt Lauer found muck (or probably NBC dirt seekers) about O’Donnell’s flirtation with witchcraft. Dear God in heaven! Coons’ embracement of Marxism occurred at age 21 which is usually a launch pad of views as a college graduate. O’Donnell’s witchcraft occurred as a teenager in High School. How many of you have done something in High School that you regret or are ashamed of today? I know I have and I am certainly not going to address my embarrassments of my teenage days. Or let’s look at teenage life at another angle. How many of you did something you remember fondly yet in the present you would not be caught dead doing? Either way teenage experiences are something most people move on from to the next level of life.

Now O’Donnell had a teenage flirtation with ungodly witchcraft and moved on. With that in mind you have to realize that Witch or Coven or New Agers who are involved politically are usually not Republican constituents. What Political Party do these alternative unchristian believers gravitate toward? Well duh! That would be the Democratic Party. Yet the MSM media brings up teenage stupidity as a vilification of the people who probably vote for Dem candidates presuming an acceptance of an alternative lifestyle rather than being ridiculed.

Sarah Palin is a person who has overcome MSM victimization to become one of the most popular Republicans for fundraisers and endorsements. Palin’s advice to O’Donnell:

"C[hristine] O'Donnell strategy: time's limited;use it 2 connect w/local voters whom you'll be serving vs appeasing nat'l media seeking ur destruction," (The Hill quoting Palin’s Tweet)

Palin also advised O’Donnell to do FOX News which she has agreed to do.

The MSM’s agenda is obviously an attempt to destroy Christine O’Donnell’s character. Palin the experienced one, dealt with MSM vilification and has publicly asked where were those tough questions for a relatively unknown Left Wing Senator from Chicago, Illinois who became the President of the United States of America?

Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin alleges that the media has a blatant double standard, shining intense scrutiny on GOP Senate nominee Christine O'Donnell while turning a blind eye to then-candidate Barack Obama's personal history in the 2008 campaign.


During an interview with Fox News host Greta Van Susteren Wednesday night, Palin said: "Funny . . . That we are learning more about Christine O'Donnell and her college years, her teenage years, her financial dealings than anybody ever even bothered to ask about Barack Hussein Obama as a candidate and now as our president."

…

Obama has come under some criticism during his campaign and after for failing to release documents and background material on his life that has been de rigeur for most candidates.


Obama has yet to release college transcripts and files from his undergraduate work at Occidental College and Columbia University, and later at Harvard Law School. His college dissertation at Columbia has disappeared. Many of his official papers during his time as an Illinois state representative have also disappeared. He has never released his full medical records. (Newsmax.com 9-23-10)

Can Christine O’Donnell overcome a 55% (Coons) to her 39% favorability in Delaware? Conventional wisdom says no. The Obama Agenda and those that support that agenda as Coons does hopefully find the boot. I pray Delaware voters change Obama’s change. Let’s pray Delaware voters vote for a candidate that is for less taxes, less government intrusion and the Constitution to be worked with as originally intended by the Founding Fathers.

JRH 9/25/10 (Hat Tip: The Conservative Monster)

Democratic Party of Hawaii Refused To Certify Obama

Here is some Birther ammo.

JRH 9/24/10

A Pledge to America: The 2010 Republican Agenda

In the 1990’s the GOP under Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich brought forth the Contract with America which led to Christian Right voters being the focal point of establishing a Republican majority in both Houses of Congress during the Clinton Administration years.

In the face of President Barack Hussein Obama’s agenda to change transform America into a socialist collective utopia with all the weak moral values that go along with such thinking, I am praying this new GOP effort of a Pledge to America is a resurgence of American Conservatism to reverse the curse of Leftist dilution of the U.S. Constitution and Moral Relativity in America.

JRH 9/24/10 (Hat Tip: Standard Newswire)
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A Pledge to America: The 2010 Republican Agenda

By GOP.gov
2010

Pledge to America Preamble



America is more than a country.


America is an idea – an idea that free people can govern themselves, that government’s powers are derived from the consent of the governed, that each of us is endowed by their Creator with the unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. America is the belief that any man or woman can – given economic, political, and religious liberty – advance themselves, their families, and the common good.


America is an inspiration to those who yearn to be free and have the ability and the dignity to determine their own destiny.


Whenever the agenda of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to institute a new governing agenda and set a different course.


These first principles were proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence, enshrined in the Constitution, and have endured through hard sacrifice and commitment by generations of Americans.


In a self-governing society, the only bulwark against the power of the state is the consent of the governed, and regarding the policies of the current government, the governed do not consent.


An unchecked executive, a compliant legislature, and an overreaching judiciary have combined to thwart the will of the people and overturn their votes and their values, striking down longstanding laws and institutions and scorning the deepest beliefs of the American people.


An arrogant and out-of-touch government of self-appointed elites makes decisions, issues mandates, and enacts laws without accepting or requesting the input of the many.


Rising joblessness, crushing debt, and a polarizing political environment are fraying the bonds among our people and blurring our sense of national purpose.


Like free peoples of the past, our citizens refuse to accommodate a government that believes it can replace the will of the people with its own. The American people are speaking out, demanding that we realign our country’s compass with its founding principles and apply those principles to solve our common problems for the common good.


The need for urgent action to repair our economy and reclaim our government for the people cannot be overstated.


With this document, we pledge to dedicate ourselves to the task of reconnecting our highest aspirations to the permanent truths of our founding by keeping faith with the values our nation was founded on, the principles we stand for, and the priorities of our people. This is our Pledge to America.


We pledge to honor the Constitution as constructed by its framers and honor the original intent of those precepts that have been consistently ignored – particularly the Tenth Amendment, which grants that all 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.


We pledge to advance policies that promote greater liberty, wider opportunity, a robust defense, and national economic prosperity.


We pledge to honor families, traditional marriage, life, and the private and faith-based organizations that form the core of our American values.


We pledge to make government more transparent in its actions, careful in its stewardship, and honest in its dealings.


We pledge to uphold the purpose and promise of a better America, knowing that to whom much is given, much is expected and that the blessings of our liberty buoy the hopes of mankind.


We make this pledge bearing true faith and allegiance to the people we represent, and we invite fellow citizens and patriots to join us in forming a new governing agenda for America.
_____________________________
About GOP.gov

CFTR Mourning in America HD

JRH 9/23/10 (Hat Tip: CJ's AC2C blog)

1683 AD: Building bridges with a return to the Ikhtiyar - Part I

Have you ever been around a Muslim dedicated or proud of their faith? One of the first things a Muslim will tell a Christian is that the Quran is the perfect word of Allah (Muslim for God). As evidence for their claim about the Quran is it is not based on thousands of ancient manuscripts re-copied over hundreds and thousands of years as the Bible is.

Below is a very lengthy yet very important post demonstrating how the Quran actually came into existence. Actually the Quran education moment has a different goal by the author. The Ground Zero Mosque Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf has claimed his planned Cordoba House near Ground Zero of an Islamic terrorist attack on American soil is being built as a bridge to all faiths and a Islam or in particularly between non-Muslim (kafir) Americans and Islam.

The 1683 AD blog demonstrates a true way to build bridges between kafir Americans and Islam relating to the construction of the Quran. This is a very interesting read and very educational.

JRH 9/23/10

Rauf is not a Bridge Builder

John R. Houk
© September 22, 2010

Brigitte Gabriel of ACT for America wrote an article (SEE BELOW) with a spot light on the Cordoba Initiative’s Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and his taqiyya (Islamic principle of deception) claim of being a moderate Muslim building a bridge of peace between all religions.

Also mentioned in this ACT for America email is Muslim transformist Dr. Zuhdi Jasser of AIFD which also demands introspection on Imam Rauf. I make a distinction of transformist rather than reformist as Jasser is most often labeled for one reason. A reform movement in a religion is a call to return to the purer faith of its religious formation. In Islam’s case this would be the theopolitical cult formed by Mohammed wrapped in religion for zeal to brutally conquer and form an empire of lasting duration which included rabid intolerance to any person or group (race or religion) that defied joining the cult.

Jasser may consider himself a reformer but in reality he is a person seeking the tenets of Islam that a majority of Muslims embrace as peaceful and a drawing near to a merciful Allah. The merciful Allah is the one described by Mohammed in his Mecca preaching days prior to the polytheist Arabs growing weary of Mohammed’s one god declared as the only god. Those peaceful preaching days ended with a Meccan expulsion of Mohammed. Jasser stands strong against the real reformers of Islam such as the Wahhabi/Salafi purists demanding a return to a triumphalist Islam ruled by a global Caliphate.

JRH 9/22/10
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Ground Zero Mosque changed the debate

Sent by: ACT for America
Sent: 9/21/2010 1:05 PM

How the Ground Zero Mosque controversy has changed the debate

Petition now over 112,000 names.

On September 16th Human Events published a column by Brigitte Gabriel entitled “Waking Up to Radical Islam” (see below, highlights added).


Interestingly, just six days earlier, Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, a reformist Muslim for whom we have a great deal of respect, penned a column for The Wall Street Journal, entitled “Questions for Imam Rauf from an American Muslim.”


In his column he wrote:

In your book, "What's Right With Islam," you cite the Brotherhood's radical longtime spiritual leader Imam Yusuf Qaradawi as a "moderate." Reformist American Muslims are not afraid to name Mr. Qaradawi and his ilk as radical. We Muslims should first separate mosque and state before lecturing Americans about church and state.

We applaud Dr. Jasser for his courageous stand against sharia law and his call for the separation of mosque and state, and we know there are other Muslim reformists in America who agree with him. So why do so many in our government and the media insist on shining their spotlight on Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated organizations like CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations), ISNA (Islamic Society of North America), and MAS (the Muslim American Society)??
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http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=39006

Waking Up to Radical Islam

By Brigitte Gabriel (more by this author)
Posted 09/16/2010 ET
HumanEvents.com

In spite of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf’s recent New York Times op-ed written to calm American concerns about the Ground Zero mosque, as the bright light of public scrutiny shines on this proposed mosque, Americans are discovering elements of radical Islam previously unknown to them.


The controversy has led countless Americans, puzzled and disturbed by the motivation and insensitivity of Imam Rauf and his backers, to begin evaluating the threat of radical Islam beyond the isolated context of terrorism.


Islam’s history has shown, for example, there is powerful symbolism in choosing where to construct mosques. Built on sites of military victories, mosques have traditionally symbolized the triumph and supremacy of Islam over all other religions and people: Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem was built on top of Solomon’s Temple; the Umayyad mosque in Damascus is over the church of St. John the Baptist; more than 2,000 mosques are on the footprints of Hindu Temples in India.


While America does not have a religious center per se, in the eyes of radical Islam our “religion” is capitalism and the destruction of the World Trade Center was like the sack of Constantinople.


Does Ground Zero mosque Imam Rauf view his proposed mosque through this lens? Honestly, we can’t know for sure.


But even if he doesn’t, there is no doubt that many in the Muslim world will regard the construction of a mosque at Ground Zero as a tribute to Islamic victory over “infidel” America. Islamist leaders worldwide will employ the symbolism of a mosque at Ground Zero as a recruiting tool to jihad, swelling their ranks and escalating the threat against America.


This debate is forcing the American people to take a long- overdue look at the harsh reality of a political ideology which is in its very nature antithetical to the fundamental values of liberty and justice as practiced in America and Western societies.


People are asking the kinds of questions I had to confront decades ago: What exactly is “sharia law?” Why is there such an increase in homegrown jihadists today than ten or even five years ago? Who are the “moderate” Muslims, and why aren’t they speaking out more aggressively against the “radicals?”


Rauf and his supporters certainly did not anticipate the degree and intensity of the blowback they are getting. On the contrary, he quietly greased the skids for this project, meeting behind the scenes with various elected officials and opinion leaders to get their blessing.


Unfortunately, those he met with failed to do the due diligence that would have exposed his real agenda. They accepted at face value his soothing platitudes of tolerance and interfaith dialogue, platitudes for which he has shown contempt in writings and statements in the Arabic world.


Imam Rauf repeats these platitudes in his lengthy New York Times op-ed, clearly hoping that Americans will believe him. But thanks to probing investigations done by investigative reporters, bloggers and watchdog organizations, a robust debate has surrounded the proposed mosque.


More Americans now know that Rauf, as recently as March, said in Arabic that he opposes interfaith dialogue. They know he is a vocal supporter of sharia law, that he says governments which do not employ sharia law are “unjust” and that he has refused to label Hamas a terrorist organization. They know he has refused to sign the “Freedom Pledge,” issued by Former Muslims United, which pledges to oppose retaliation and punishment toward Muslims who leave Islam. The more Americans learn, the more concerned they become.


As a Lebanese immigrant I am as proud to be an American as at any time since I arrived in this great nation. Grassroots America is rising up in opposition to this symbol of Islamist victory, ignoring the hectoring and name-calling of our politically-correct “elites.”


Undoubtedly there are different reasons for why 70% of Americans oppose the building of the mosque. But whether the motivation is concern for the 9/11 victims or concern about the advance of sharia law that Imam Rauf advocates, the American people are saying “enough is enough.”


That is the only language Islamists understand.


Terrorists are only one manifestation of radical Islam. As Americans look even closer they will come to realize that the same ideology that produces a terrorist also produces a seemingly moderate Muslim who is dedicated to the advancement and imposition of sharia law. They will learn that the Islamist in a suit and tie, who wants to replace the Constitution with sharia law, differs from the terrorist only in the means to the end, not the end itself.
_______________________
Rauf is not a Bridge Builder
John R. Houk
© September 22, 2010
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Ground Zero Mosque changed the debate
Donate to ACT for America
_______________________
Waking Up to Radical Islam

Brigitte Gabriel is an international terrorism analyst and a two-time New York Times best-selling author of Because They Hate and They Must Be Stopped. She is the president of ACT for America.org, the largest national security grassroots movement in the U.S.