Chuck Laramie didn't do his homework

I'm not going to do a blog post or waste my time articulating things everytime I get a guy like this blabbering his brainwashed talking points I've heard before... but I saw this bouncing around the blogosphere and thought I should spend a few minutes dealing with this:

Muslim Rage Boy...
<Sarcasm> totally RANDOM image...
I swear </Sarcasm>

Chuck Laramie:

Perhaps if the following men, Chief Joseph, Sitting Bull, Tecumseh, Cochise, Red Cloud, were alive they might hold a series of hearings on Christian Radicalism and the danger it presented to their Indian Nation. But they can't and neither can their descendents due to their complete lack of a real voice in their native country.

European immigrants, Christians, came to this land and looked upon those here as heathens, barbarians, who needed to be exterminated. As one American Colonel said, “Nits make lice, kill them all.” Not very Christian, eh Mr. King.

America in the 1890's embraced Anglo-Saxionism. This was the idea that English-speaking nations had superior character, ideas, religion, and systems of government and were destined to dominate the planet. This led the United States to adopt a policy of imperialism that would lead to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Asian people in Hawaii, Philippines and China. Not very Christian, eh Mr. King.

I'm Jewish and I don't even get his point.  I don't remember Jesus saying thou shall kill the natives.  

I could take this theme back to the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition but I think Mr. King understands what I mean.

So Chuck remarks at the Spanish Inquisition... an example of where my own ancestors were burned at the stake, but what is left out of the textbooks today is how and why Christian Europe became so hostile.  Before there was a Christian Inquisition there was a Muslim one.  The so called Al Andalus was not the Islamic utopia our media is making it out to be.  Here is an excerpt underlying my point.

The idea that Muslims, Christians, and Jews "lived and shared together" in medieval Cordoba could perhaps be dismissed as a rhetorical flight of fancy, but the idea that Christianity and the Inquisition ended the brilliance of Cordoba is a deliberate lie.

According to The Cambridge Companion to Maimonides, "the fundamentalist Almohad movement," which "fought to restore the pristine faith of Islam, based on the Quran and the Sunna, and to enforce the precepts of the sacred law" (sound familiar?), conquered Cordoba in 1148 and drove out the ten-year-old Moses Maimonides and his family.  They hid from the Almohads in Andalusia for ten years, then emigrated to Morocco, where Maimonides wrote his Epistle on Forced Conversion to console his Jewish brethren forced to choose between conversion to Islam and death.  Later he moved to Cairo, where he achieved safety by acting as a physician to the Muslim rulers.  Obviously, the great works of Moses Maimonides were not written in Cordoba, and Christian exclusivism and the Inquisition had nothing to do with his departure.

There is the case of a Christian nation that only 69 years ago put its own citizens into concentration camps in California. There is the case of a Christian nation that had to fight a bitter Civil War because it allowed its Christian citizens to own other human beings. Not very Christian like.

well actually... those Christians bought those slaves from Muslims.  not justifying the practice, but slavery was not something that was prevalent to Europe before the greater contact of the two cultures.

as for the Japanese.  I admit America made some mistakes, but... wow,,, I wouldn't compare us to the cruel sword of Mohammad for it.

via blog.oregonlive.com image via thenoseonyourface.com

btw... not saying I spent much time on this, but I'm not sure it is worth it.

Absurd Lies about Cordoba Spain - Islamic Inquisition

Jonathan David Carson

Readers of the American Thinker have no doubt heard numerous instances of the following disinformation about Cordoba, this version coming from Whitney S. Bowman in the Austin American-Statesman:

"The name 'Cordoba House' is significant.  It is named after the famed medieval Spanish city of Cordoba where philosophers, mystics, artisans and poets--Muslim, Christian and Jewish--lived and shared together.

"Its libraries were vast, and the translations of Arabic works into Latin changed Europe and Christianity forever.  Among the resident luminaries were Maimonides, a noted Jewish intellectual, the poet Ibn Hazm, and Averroes, the Muslim philosopher and mystic.  A Saxon nun of the time called Cordoba 'the brilliant ornament of the world.'  With the coming of the Inquisition and Christian exclusivism, the brilliance of Cordoba faded, but its significance endures as a vibrant, inter-religious community."

The idea that Muslims, Christians, and Jews "lived and shared together" in medieval Cordoba could perhaps be dismissed as a rhetorical flight of fancy, but the idea that Christianity and the Inquisition ended the brilliance of Cordoba is a deliberate lie.

According to The Cambridge Companion to Maimonides, "the fundamentalist Almohad movement," which "fought to restore the pristine faith of Islam, based on the Quran and the Sunna, and to enforce the precepts of the sacred law" (sound familiar?), conquered Cordoba in 1148 and drove out the ten-year-old Moses Maimonides and his family.  They hid from the Almohads in Andalusia for ten years, then emigrated to Morocco, where Maimonides wrote his Epistle on Forced Conversion to console his Jewish brethren forced to choose between conversion to Islam and death.  Later he moved to Cairo, where he achieved safety by acting as a physician to the Muslim rulers.  Obviously, the great works of Moses Maimonides were not written in Cordoba, and Christian exclusivism and the Inquisition had nothing to do with his departure.

Though born in Cordoba and not a Jew, Averroes also suffered Almohad oppression, and "his teachings [were] condemned and his philosophical works torched as dangerous to religious faith," according to the Cambridge Companion.  

For the record, Averroes died in 1198, Maimonides died in 1204, and Cordoba was conquered by Christians in 1236.  As for the translations, more hokum  has been said on that subject than just about any other.
Update. Andrew Bostom adds:

More on Cordoban "Ecumenism"

Reinhart Dozy  (1820-1883), the great Orientalist scholar and Islamophile, wrote a four volume magnum opus (published in 1861 and translated into English by Francis Griffin Stokes in 1913), Histoire des Musselmans d'Espagne (A History of the Muslims in Spain). Here is Dozy's historical account of the mid-8^th century "conversion" of a Cordovan cathedral to a mosque:

All the churches in that city [Cordova] had been destroyed except the cathedral, dedicated to Saint Vincent, but the possession of this fane [church or temple] had been guaranteed by treaty. For several years the treaty was observed; but when the population of Cordova was increased by the arrival of Syrian Arabs [i.e., Muslims], the mosques did not provide sufficient accommodation for the newcomers, and the Syrians considered it would be well for them to adopt the plan which had been carried out at Damascus, Emesa [Homs], and other towns in their own country, of appropriating half of the cathedral and using it as a mosque. The [Muslim] Government having approved of the scheme, the Christians were compelled to hand over half of the edifice. This was clearly an act of spoliation, as well as an infraction of the treaty. Some years later, Abd-er Rahman I requested the Christians to sell him the other half. This they firmly refused to do, pointing out that if they did so they would not possess a single place of worship. Abd-er Rahman, however, insisted, and a bargain was struck by which the Christians ceded their cathedral....

Indeed by the end of the eighth century, the brutal Muslim jihad conquest of North Africa and of Andalusia had imposed rigorous Maliki jurisprudence as the predominant school of Muslim law. Thus, as Evariste Lévi-Provençal (1894-1956)-the greatest modern scholar of Muslim Spain whose Histoire de l'Espagne Musulmane remains a defining work-observed three quarters of a century ago:

The Muslim Andalusian state thus appears from its earliest origins as the defender and champion of a jealous orthodoxy, more and more ossified in a blind respect for a rigid doctrine, suspecting and condemning in advance the least effort of rational speculation.

For example, the contemporary scholar J.M. Safran discusses an early codification of the rules of the marketplace (where Muslims and non-Muslims would be most likely to interact), written by al-Kinani (d. 901), a student of the Cordovan jurist Ibn Habib (d. 853), "...known as the scholar of Spain par excellence," who was also one of the most ardent proponents of Maliki doctrine in Muslim Spain:

...the problem arises of "the Jew or Christian who is discovered trying to blend with the Muslims by not wearing the riqā [cloth patch, which might be required to have an emblem of an ape for a Jew, or a pig for a Christian] or zunnār [belt]." Kinani's insistence that Jews and Christians wear the distinguishing piece of cloth or belt required of them is an instance of a legally defined sartorial differentiation being reconfirmed...His insistence may have had as much to do with concerns for ritual purity and food prohibitions as for the visible representation of social and political hierarchy, and it reinforced limits of intercommunal relations

Moroever Ibn Hazm was not merely a Muslim "poet," and hardly a paragon of ecumenism. He was a viciously bigoted Antisemitic Muslim theologian, whose inflammatory writings helped incite the massive pogrom against the Jews of Granada which killed 4000, and destroyed the entire community in 1066. And Averroes, despite his "philosophical studies," was also a traditionally bigoted Maliki jurist who rendered strong anti-infidel Sharia- rulings and endorsed classical jihadism for the very same Almohads who eventually turned upon him. 

Finally, what Maimonides escaped in the 12^th century-disguised as a Muslim-was nothing less than a full-blown Muslim Inquisition under the Almohads. The jihad depredations of the Almohads (1130-1232) wreaked enormous destruction on both the Jewish and Christian populations in Spain and North Africa. This devastation-massacre, captivity, and forced conversion-was described by the Jewish chronicler Abraham Ibn Daud, and the poet Abraham Ibn Ezra. Suspicious of the sincerity of the Jewish converts to Islam, Muslim "inquisitors", i.e., antedating their Christian Spanish counterparts by three centuries, removed the children from such families, placing them in the care of Muslim educators. Ibn Aqnin (d. 1220), a renowned philosopher and commentator, who was born in Barcelona in 1150, also fled the Almohad persecutions with his family, escaping, like Maimonides, to Fez. Living there as a crypto-Jew, he met Maimonides and recorded his own poignant writings about the sufferings of the Jews under Almohad rule. Ibn Aqnin wrote during the reign of Abu Yusuf al-Mansur (r. 1184-1199), four decades after the onset of the Almohad persecutions in 1140. Thus the Jews forcibly converted to Islam were already third generation Muslims. Despite this, al-Mansur continued to impose restrictions upon them, which Ibn Aqnin chronicles.

via americanthinker.com

...a part of history they don't teach in schools in the United States or anywhere

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Japan asks U.S. for help cooling nuclear reactors

By Ayesha Rascoe and Phil Stewart

The No.3 nuclear reactor of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is seen burning after a blast following an earthquake and tsunami in this handout satellite image taken March 14, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Digital Globe/Handout

WASHINGTON

(Reuters) - The United States is ramping up assistance to help Japan avert a major nuclear meltdown, U.S. officials said on Monday, as Washington wrestled with the risks of radiation exposure to aid workers.
The Japanese government has asked for more equipment to cool down three reactors damaged by last week's massive earthquake and tsunami, which triggered the worst nuclear crisis since the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine in 1986.

The Fukushima complex, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, is trying to avoid a major radiation leak. Explosions at two reactors on Saturday and Monday sent a huge plume of smoke billowing above the plant.

"We continue to provide assistance where we can," Gregory Jaczko, head of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said at a White House press briefing.

"In particular, they have asked for additional types of equipment that will help provide water and other resources to ensure that the reactors continue to be cool."

The commission has already sent two experts to Japan, and Jaczko said it plans to send out another team of experts soon.

RADIATION EXPOSURE

The nuclear crisis has posed some risk for workers attempting to battle the crisis. The Pentagon was trying to take precautions while moving ahead with relief efforts.

It was forced to reposition eight U.S. warships, including the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, after they got caught 115 miles downwind of the Fukushima nuclear complex.

Seventeen Americans on helicopter missions were exposed to the equivalent of a month's worth of normal radiation, even though they were 60 miles away from the nuclear plant.

"The immediate action was to get out of the area," said Commander Jeff Davis, a spokesman for the Seventh Fleet.

Asked about what steps the military was taking to avoid any more exposure, Davis said: "We're keeping a very close eye on which way the wind is moving."

He said the radiation risk would not stop rescue efforts.

"It's something we have to take into account -- it complicates things. But it's absolutely something we can mitigate," Davis said.

The ships in the area were the USS Ronald Reagan carrier strike group, which includes the cruiser USS Chancellorsville, the destroyer USS Preble and the combat support ship USNS Bridge.

via intermexfreemarket.blogspot.com

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Keith Ellison’s Taqiyya: When He Cries, He Lies

Weeping and Other Hysterics
Have Muslim Apologists Nothing More to Offer?

by Raymond Ibrahim
Hudson New York
March 14, 2011
http://www.meforum.org/2851/weeping-and-other-hysterics-have-muslim

  From Congressman Keith Ellison’s emotional breakdown to Congresswoman Jackie Speier’s accusations of “racism,” last week’s hearings on Muslim radicalization have made it clear that those who oppose the hearings have little of substance to offer. Still, the tactics used by such apologists—namely, appeals to emotionalism and accusations of racism—are influential enough that they need to be addressed and discredited once and for all.
For starters, though it would have been unheard of generations ago and seen as a sign of instability, public crying is the latest rage for politicians. A 2007 Associated Press report puts it well: “Tears, once kryptonite to serious presidential candidates, today are more often seen as a useful part of the political tool kit”—and are thus indicative of an increasingly therapeutic society, one more interested in a show of catharsis than facts.
Yet, tears aside, if we wish to be objective for a moment, Ellison’s testimony—culminating with his choking up and leaving the hearing—contributes nothing to the topic of Muslim radicalization in America. Instead, it raises more questions about Ellison—a former Nation of Islam leader, mouthpiece for the Muslim Brotherhood front-group CAIR, and critic of the U.S. Constitution.
Indeed, arguing that “suit-and-tie” Islamists have penetrated Western societies and are manipulating the legal system to their advantage—including by imposing aspects of Islamic law, winning special privileges for themselves, and, of course, shutting down criticism of Islam—Daniel Pipes has singled out Ellison as representing a far greater threat to Western civilization than Osama bin Laden.
Did Ellison feign an emotional breakdown during his opening remarks to leave the hearing and evade follow-up questions from Congressman Peter King and others—concrete questions about Muslim radicalization that he preferred not to respond to—or were his tears sincere? Either way, it is not clear which is worse: another obfuscating politician, or a politician whose emotions so dominate him that he cannot carry out his responsibilities.
While we are on the topic of strategic-weeping, it is relevant to note that authoritative Muslim scholars, such as Ibn Hajar, recommend deceiving infidels with crocodile tears: “Revealing one thing while secretly planning another is the essence of deception; moreover, the hadith incites [Muslims] to take great caution in war, while [publicly] lamenting and mourning in order to dupe the infidels” (The Al Qaeda Reader, p.142). This is not to conclude that Ellison is taking lessons from Hajar, but that even the most rabid jihadists—not just American politicians—are aware of the power of tears as a ruse.
The other tactic that frequently arises and is in dire need of being laid to rest—permanently—is this business of trying to stifle any talk on Islam and Muslims by labeling it “racist.” One would have thought it was obvious, but apparently it needs stressing: race and religion have absolutely nothing to do with one another. Race is inherent, represented by physical characteristics; religion is learned, impacting the mind, regardless of race. Thus most major religions—especially Christianity and Islam—have adherents from all races and ethnicities.
Despite these obvious facts, uncritical thinkers like Congresswoman Jackie Speier—or simply garden-variety manipulators—constantly cry “racism” when Islam and Muslims come under scrutiny. This approach is ubiquitous: discussing the Fort Hood shootings, a former American soldier lamented that “When a white guy shoots up a post office, they call that going postal. But when a Muslim [namely, Nidal Hasan] does it, they call it jihad.” Notice the confusion; as if a “white guy” and a “Muslim” represent different races. (What if the person is a “white Muslim,” as in the instance of Hasan?)
Of course, if a person of any color goes on a random shooting spree, it would be racist to pin it on his race. But if a person of any color goes on a shooting spree—while waving the Koran, screaming Allahu Akbar, or otherwise rationalizing his actions in Islamic terms, as did Nidal Hasan—then we are talking about a shooting spree motivated by a learned ideology or worldview that has nothing to do with the shooter’s race.
And this is the whole point: tears and moral outrage aside, while it is important to recognize that not all Muslims are jihadists, it is equally important to acknowledge that all jihadists are Muslims—hence the need to delimit the hearings to the Muslim community. You will not find jihadists ensconced among neo-Nazis or other “radicals.” Moreover, as Peter King put it:
There is no equivalency of threat between al-Qaeda and neo-Nazis, environmental extremists or other isolated madmen. Only al-Qaeda and its Islamist affiliates in this country are part of an international threat to our nation. Indeed, by the Justice Department’s own record, not one terror-related case in the last two years involved neo-Nazis, environmental extremists, militias or anti-war groups.
Based on these initial hearings, it is clear that the apologists have little to offer. As Jennifer Rubin writes at the Washington Post, “The Democrats’ unhinged rhetoric and wild accusations did more to undermine their opposition to the hearings than anything King could possibly have said.” Yet crying tears or “racism!” is emblematic of a greater problem: politicians trying to appeal to the people’s emotions, not their reason—an approach that has historically had horrific consequences.
Raymond Ibrahim is associate director of the Middle East Forum.
Related Topics:  Muslims in the United States  |  Raymond Ibrahim

This text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an integral whole with complete information provided about its author, date, place of publication, and original URL.

via centurean2.wordpress.com

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“Call me mr Crocodile…!”

Ellison’s teary eyed performance should impress no one: this guy is a nasty piece of work.

Andrew G. Bostom (source)
Matthew Shaffer of NRO (as noted here by Ethel Fenig) exposed Keith Ellison’s   mendacious taqiyya(Koran-sanctioned Islamic dissimulation) theater during the Congressman’s testimony at Thursday’s Homeland Security Hearings on American Muslim radicalization.
The next day, during a 3/11/11 interview with Bill Maher (on “Real Time With Bill Maher”), responding to Maher’s complaint that, “[Islam] comes from a hate-filled holy book, the Koran, which is taken very literally by its people,”Ellison invoked a deceitfully redacted extract of Koran 5:32, and the ostensible Koranic paean to “tolerance,” verse 2:256.
Ellison’s disingenuous response was predictable.

• Sultan Knish is also onto it, here: An Islamist’s Crocodile Tears

Following the murderous acts of jihad terrorism committed on September 11, 2001, Ibn Warraq highlighted the tragic irony of many apologists quoting selectively from Koran 5:32, “whoso slays a soul …shall be as if he had slain mankind altogether; and whoso gives life to a soul, shall be as if he has given life to mankind altogether”, attempting to demonstrate that the Koran disapproved of violence and killing. Here is the entire verse (5:32), quoted in full context, with the intimately related verse, Koran 5:33:
(5:32) Therefore We prescribed for the Children of Israel that whoso slays a soul not to retaliate for a soul slain, nor for corruption done in the land, shall be as if he had slain mankind altogether; and whoso gives life to a soul, shall be as if he has given life to mankind altogether. Our Messengers have already come to them with the clear signs; then many of them thereafter commit excesses in the earth. (5:33) This is the recompense of those who fight against God and His Messenger, and hasten about the earth, to do corruption there: they shall be slaughtered, or crucified, or their hands and feet shall alternately be struck off; or they shall be banished from the land. That is a degradation for them in this world; and in the world to come awaits them a mighty chastisement

[For direct comparison see, Mishna, Sanhedrin, IV, 5, “Thus was created a single man, to teach us that every person who loses a single soul, it shall be written about him as if he has lost the entire world, and every person who sustains a single soul, it shall be written, about him as if he has sustained the entire world”]
As Warraq noted, with regard to Koran 5:32/33, ¹
The supposedly noble sentiments are in fact a warning to Jews. [² see these commentaries as well] “Behave, or else” is the message. Far from abjuring violence, these verses aggressively point out that anyone opposing the Prophet will be killed, crucified, mutilated, and banished

Regarding the other pacific sounding verse Congressman Ellison cited, 2:256, it must be contextualized by Muhammad’s bellicose evolution within the Koran itself. But how, exactly? Abrogation is critical to understanding this evolution. Ali ibn Abi Talib—revered by Shiite Muslims and Islam’s 4^th “Rightly Guided” Caliph—is reported to have told a pious Muslim companion, Abdul Rahman
“[C]an you differentiate between abrogating and abrogated verses” Abdul Rahman said, “no.” Thereupon Ali said “Thou art damned and causeth others to be damned.”
The Koran’s “verses of peace,” as cited by Ellison, and many other Muslim and non-Muslim apologists, most notably verse 2:256, “There is no compulsion in religion,” were all abrogated by the so-called verses of the sword. These abrogating verses of the sword recommend beheading or otherwise murdering and mutilating non-Muslims, and Muslim apostates. According to classical Muslim Koranic commentators verse 9:5 (perhaps the most infamous verse of the sword), “Slay the idolators wherever you find them, and take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush…”, for example, cancels 124 verses that promote patience and toleration. And this doctrine of abrogation, necessitated by the many contradictions which abound in the Koran, originates as putatively taught by Muhammad, himself, at verse 2:106: “Whatever communications We abrogate or cause to be forgotten, We bring one better than it or like it. Do you not know that Allah has power over all things?”. This verse, in combination with verses* 16:101, 22:52, and 87:6, was elaborated into a formal system of abrogation (naskh in Arabic) by the greatest classical Muslim Koranic scholars and jurists, which entailed (p.72),
…the suppression of a ruling without the suppression of the wording. That is to say, the earlier ruling is still to be found in the Koran, and is still to this day recited in worship, but it no longer has any legal force.
The sacralized Islamic sources indicate that as the Muslim prophet Muhammad accrued political and military power, he evolved from a proselytizer and persuader, to a warrior, and dictatorial legislator.  (i.e., a prototype jihadist; see for example, renowned contemporary mainstream Islamic cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi’s, “The Prophet Muhammad as a Jihad Model”). Thus the sword and other similar Koranic verses—as per the linkage between Muhammad’s biography and the Koranic narrative—capture the Muslim prophet at his most dogmatic, belligerent, and intolerant. Muslims are enjoined to fight and murder nonbelievers—woe unto those who shirk these campaigns, but those who are killed fighting for the one true religion, i.e., Islam, will be rewarded amply in the afterlife.**
Thus it is reasonable to conclude that Keith Ellison’s deceitful pronouncements at Thursday’s Homeland SecurityHearings, this past Thursday, and one day later on “Real Time With Bill Maher,” are consistent with the Koranic doctrine of taqiyya, Islamic religious dissimulation. Al-Tabari (d. 923), author of perhaps the earliest and most important authoritative Koranic commentary, explains Koranic verse 3:28, which sanctions taqiyya, as follows (translation by Raymond Ibrahim):
If you [Muslims] are under their [non-Muslims'] authority, fearing for yourselves, behave loyally to them with your tongue while harboring inner animosity for them … [know that] God has forbidden believers from being friendly or on intimate terms with the infidels rather than other believers-except when infidels are above them [in authority]. Should that be the case, let them act friendly towards them while preserving their religion.

Notes
*Additional Koranic verses sanctioning abrogation:
16: 101: “And when We change (one) communication for (another) communication, and Allah knows best what He reveals, they say: You are only a forger. Nay, most of them do not know.”; 22:52: “And We did not send before you any messenger or prophet, but when he desired, the Shaitan made a suggestion respecting his desire; but Allah annuls that which the Shaitan casts, then does Allah establish His communications, and Allah is Knowing, Wise”;
87:6: “By degrees shall We teach thee to declare (the Message), so thou shalt not forget.”
**Additional Koranic verses sanctioning jihad, and jihad martyrdom:
47:4: “Now when ye meet in battle those who disbelieve, then it is smiting of the necks until, when ye have routed them, then making fast of bonds.”
9:29: “Fight those who do not believe in Allah, nor in the latter day, nor do they prohibit what Allah and His Messenger have prohibited, nor follow the religion of truth, out of those who have been given the Book, until they pay the tax in acknowledgment of superiority and they are in a state of subjection.”
4:76: “Those who believe fight in the way of Allah, and those who disbelieve fight in the way of the Shaitan. Fight therefore against the friends of the Shaitan; surely the strategy of the Shaitan is weak.”
8:12: “When your Lord revealed to the angels: I am with you, therefore make firm those who believe. I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them.”
8:38-39: “Say to the Unbelievers, if (now) they desist (from Unbelief), their past would be forgiven them; but if they persist, the punishment of those before them is already (a matter of warning for them). And fight them on until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in Allah altogether and everywhere; but if they cease, verily Allah doth see all that they do.”
9:39: “If you do not go forth, He will chastise you with a painful chastisement and bring in your place a people other than you, and you will do Him no harm; and Allah has power over all things.”
4:74: “Therefore let those fight in the way of Allah, who sell this world’s life for the hereafter; and whoever fights in the way of Allah, then be he slain or be he victorious, We shall grant him a mighty reward.”
9:111: “Surely Allah has bought of the believers their persons and their property for this, that they shall have the garden; they fight in Allah’s way, so they slay and are slain; a promise which is binding on Him in the Taurat and the Injeel and the Quran; and who is more faithful to his covenant than Allah? Rejoice therefore in the pledge which you have made; and that is the mighty achievement.”
^1. Ibn Warraq. Leaving Islam. Apostates Speak Out. Amherst, New York, 2003, p. 401.
^2. The classical Qur’anic commentary of Ibn Kathir, and the 20^th century commentary of Mawdudi confirm and validate the anti-Jewish attitudes expressed in Qur’an 5:32/33. From Ibn Kathir (Tafsir Ibn Kathir, Riyadh, Vol. 3, 2000, p.160), entitled, “Warning Those Who Commit Mischief ”:
This Ayah chastises and criticizes those who commit the prohibitions, after knowing that they are prohibited from indulging in them. [Like] [T]he Jews of Al-Madinah, such as Banu Qurayza, An-Nadir, and Qaynuqa..[Jewish tribes ultimately attacked, expropriated, expelled, and even massacred by Muhammad]
From Mawdudi (Towards Understanding the Qur’an. Vol. 2, pp. 155-56), who includes a contextual reference to Qur’an 5:30/31 as well:
God honored some of the illiterate people of Arabia and disregarded the ancient People of the Book because the former were pious while the latter were not. But rather than reflect upon the causes of their rejection by God, and do something to overcome the failings which led to that rejection, the Israelites were seized by the same fit of arrogance and folly which had once seized the criminal son of Adam [verses 5:30/31], and resolved to kill those whose good deeds had been accepted by God. It was obvious that such acts would contribute nothing towards their acceptance by God. They would rather earn them an even greater degree of God’s disapproval. Since the same qualities which had been displayed by the wrongdoing son of Adam were manifest in the Children of Israel, God strongly urged them not to kill human beings and couched his command in forceful terms.

The “land” (in verse 5:33) signifies either the country or territory wherein the responsibility of establishing law and order has been undertaken by an Islamic state. The expression “to wage war [fight] against Allah and His Messenger” denotes war against the righteous order established by the Islamic state.

via sheikyermami.com

third explosion at Japan's nuclear plant

How To Avoid Talking Politic

From the BBC:

Technicians are battling to stabilise a third reactor at a quake-stricken Japanese nuclear plant that has been rocked by a second blast in three days.

Sea water is being pumped into reactor 2 at the Fukushima Daiichi plant after its fuel rods were fully exposed twice.

International nuclear watchdogs said there was no sign of a meltdown but one minister said a melting of rods was "highly likely" to be happening.

via ibloga.blogspot.com

via ibloga.blogspot.com

The second hydrogen explosion in three days rocked a stricken Japanese nuclear plant Monday, sending a massive cloud of smoke into the air and injuring 11 workers. Hours later, the U.S. said it had shifted its offshore forces away from the plant after detecting low levels of radiation.

The aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan was about 100 miles offshore when it detected the radiation, which U.S. officials said was about the same as one month's normal exposure to natural background radiation in the environment.
It was not clear if the leak happened during Monday's explosion. That blast was felt 25 miles away, but the plant's operator said radiation levels at the reactor were still within legal limits.
The explosion at the plant's Unit 3, which authorities have been trying to cool with sea water after a system failure in the wake of Friday's massive earthquake and tsunami, triggered an order for hundreds of people to stay indoors, said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano. The two disasters left at least 10,000 people dead.
Operators knew the sea water flooding would cause a pressure buildup in the reactor containment vessel -- and potentially lead to an explosion -- but felt they had no choice if they wanted to avoid a complete meltdown. In the end, the hydrogen in the released steam mixed with oxygen in the atmosphere and set off the blast.
The inner containment shell surrounding the Unit 3 reactor was intact, Edano said, allaying some fears of the risk to the environment and public. But the outer building around the reactor appeared to have been devastated, with only a skeletal frame remaining.
Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the plant, said radiation levels at Unit 3 were well under the levels where a nuclear operator must file a report to the government.
A similar explosion occurred Saturday at the plant's Unit 1, injuring four workers, causing mass evacuations and destroying much of the outer building.
Shortly after Monday's explosion, Tokyo Electric warned it had lost the ability to cool another reactor, the plant's Unit 2. Takako Kitajima, a company official, said plant workers were preparing to inject sea water into the unit to cool the reactor, a move that could lead to an explosion there as well.
More...

SOMA, Japan (AP) via eye-on-the-world.blogspot.com
image via coiledpleasures.blogspot.com

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Obama Indifferent: Palestinian Terrorists Murder Family in Israel – Including 3 Month-Old Infant

The Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades
is part of Fatah
  which is run by
  Palestinian Authority
President Abbas.
In other words
it was an official act
of the Palestinian Authority.

---

The Obama administration’s criticism of Israel is based on its acceptance of the Palestinian Authority demand that Israel surrender all of the land restored to the Jewish state in the Six Day War in 1967. The political lines before the war were later referred to as the “Auschwitz borders" by then-Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations, Abba Eban.
The Israeli response of “they murder and we build” was tempered with a statement that “measured construction” will be limited to the major Jewish population centers of Maaleh Adumin, Ariel, Kiryat Sefer and Gush Etzion.
Nevertheless, U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the Obama administration was “deeply concerned" over the new construction for Jews. He repeated U.S. President Barack Obama’s declaration that the Jewish communities in the area are “illegitimate” and added that the new building plans "run counter to efforts to resume direct negotiations'' between Israelis and the Palestinian Authority.
The PA also denounced the new building plan.
Prime Minister Netanyahu imposed an unprecedented 10-month freeze on building new homes for Jews in Judea and Samaria in September 2009 to satisfy PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s condition for resuming negotiations for the establishment of the PA as an independent country. However, Abbas then rejected the freeze as not being extensive enough. After the freeze ended, the government allowed the continuation of previously approved homes.
A de-facto freeze continues on new homes in most of Judea and Samaria that have not yet been approved, due to Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s refusal to sign necessary documents. He said he would agree to the 500 new units that a government ministerial committee approved Saturday night, 24 hours after the Itamar massacre.

via israelnationalnews.com

When the current violent  confrontation broke out (September 2000), Fatah operatives in the PA-administered territories who supported the PA, and most of whom worked for the Palestinian Security Services, began taking an active part in terrorist activities against Israel. Initially they confined themselves to shooting attacks and planting side charges to blow up soldiers and Israeli civilians in the West  Bank and the Gaza Strip.  They claimed responsibility for the attacks using the name Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, which has become the became the generic name for all Fatah field operatives.  Today, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades consists of an unknown number of small cells of Fatah-affiliated terrorists that aims to drive the Israeli military and settlers from the West Bank, Gaza  Strip, and Jerusalem and to establish a Palestinian state.  Al-Aqsa has carried out shootings and suicide operations against Israeli civilians and military personnel and has killed Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel. At least five U.S. citizens — four of them dual U.S.-Israeli citizens — were killed in al-Aqsa’s attacks. In January 2002, al-Aqsa claimed responsibility for the first suicide bombing carried out by a female. via jewishvirtuallibrary.org

Photos of the murder of the Fogel family in the town of Itamar, north of Jerusalem, on March 11, 2011 by Arab terrorists.
WARNING: THESE PHOTOS ARE EXTREMELY GRAPHIC AND NOT INTENDED FOR CHILDREN.
These photos were released by the family. They have given full permission for their use in order to report on the horrific reality of murdering children and babies in their sleep, "simply because they are Jewish."

via israelnationalnews.com

Eleven-year-old Jewish son, Yoav

Three-year-old Jewish boy

Father and 3-month-old infant, Hadas

Three year old, Elad

Carl in Jerusalem’s Israel Matzav has been a first-stop blog on news and opinion from Israel and the Middle East generally. Today, following the truly horrific terrorist murder of the five members of the Fogel family in the Samarian town of Itamar (including the unimaginably savage stabbing of a three-month old baby), Carl posted this video. It’s hard to watch, but it’s a must. As human beings, we have a responsibility to stare into pure evil– if only to steel ourselves to fight it with all the energy we have. Don’t watch the video with children or the weak of heart.
According to Israel Matzav, Israeli radio reported that this video has been taken down and ‘flagged’ by pro-Palestinian internet activists, apparently to hide the absolute savagery of their brothers-in-arms. Meanwhile, in Gaza, Hamas has heralded the attack and– like after 9/11– they’re passing out candy. Please make sure as many people as possible see this; as the video makes clear in the end, these are the “peace partners” Israel is to make concessions to.

From Israel National News:

Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency told Iranians that the attackers “managed to kill all the five Zionists who were in the house…. The Palestinian combatant has returned home safely after conducting his mission successfully.”
“The operation was a natural response to the crimes of the Zionist regime against the Palestinian people.”

via bigpeace.com

YouTube Censors Fogel family from Itamar

The government released the photos on Saturday night. Within hours, the social activism website My Israel posted a short video of the photographs on YouTube along with the names and ages of the victims.

Within two hours YouTube removed the video.

Obviously YouTube managers are not interested in being held responsible for someone noticing that genocidal Jew hatred defines Palestinian society - and the Arab world as a whole. But they really have no reason to be concerned. Even if they had allowed the video to be posted for more than an hour, it wouldn't have made a difference.

via carolineglick.com

This is from YNet:

Israel is demanding an apology from CNN over its coverage of Saturday's terrorist attack in Itamar claiming it was "tendentious and deceptive." Government Press Office director Oren Helman sent a letter to CNN's Bureau Chief Kevin Flower saying he was astonished at the network's coverage of the ruthless attack. A CNN website report avoided describing the event as a terror attack, noting that the Israel Defense Forces consider it an act of terrorism. "Only you decided to use the term terrorist attack in quotation marks, as if this were not necessarily the case," Helman wrote. "There is a limit to the extent of objectivity regarding such a horrific deed." . . .

But al-Beeb's report is just as bad.

The BBC also referred to the terrorist as an intruder in its report. "The family - including three children - were stabbed to death by an intruder who broke into their home, Israeli media reported," the BBC reported Saturday. Readers might deduce the family members died in a failed burglary attempt.

This is not the first time that Israel has had a run-in with CNN. In fact, Fox News got in here during the Oslo War, because CNN's coverage was so biased that the government wanted to provide Israelis with an alternative (they almost threw CNN out altogether, but relented and decided to just let Fox in).

via israelmatzav.blogspot.com

CNN... sigh.  A statement released by the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades took responsibility for the killings, describing the slaughter of the Fogel family as a "natural response" to "Israeli crimes."

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What Do A Bagel and A Pair of Tefillin Have In Common?

image via motorcycles-bikes.onsugar.com

First, we had a series of alarms on airplanes when observant Jews put on their teffilen:
This month:

Pilots on an Alaska Airlines flight from Mexico City to Los Angeles locked down the cockpit and alerted authorities Sunday when a flight crew grew alarmed at the behavior of three men who turned out to be conducting an elaborate orthodox Jewish prayer ritual, officials said.
The men, all Mexican nationals, began the ritual that involves tying leather straps and small wooden boxes to the body, and the crew of Flight 241 alerted the cockpit, airline spokeswoman Bobbie Egan said.

January

A Jewish teenager trying to pray on a New York-to-Kentucky flight caused a scare Thursday when he pulled out a set of small boxes containing holy scrolls, leading the captain to divert the flight to Philadelphia, where the commuter plane was greeted by police, bomb-sniffing dogs and federal agents.  The 17-year-old on US Airways Express Flight 3079 was using tefillin, a set of small boxes containing biblical passages that are attached to leather straps, Philadelphia police Lt. Frank Vanore said.
The teen explained the ritual after being questioned by crew members of the flight, which had left LaGuardia Airport around 7:30 a.m. headed for Louisville and was operated by Chautauqua Airlines, authorities said.
Officials with the airline, however, said crew members "did not receive a clear response" when they talked with the teen, according to a statement issued by Republic Airways, which owns Chautauqua.

And on a ferry in New Zealand in December last.
There's even a film in the works.
But now, we go from religion to culinary considerations:

Florida Professor Arrested for Having a "Suspicious" Bagel on a Plane
Passengers claimed man had suspicious package in the overhead compartment
A Florida professor was arrested and removed from a plane Monday after his fellow passengers alerted crew members they thought he had a suspicious package in the overhead compartment.  That "suspicious package" turned out to be keys, a bagel with cream cheese and a hat.
...Milatovic, who is a mathematics and statistics professor at the University of North Florida, was minding his business when other passengers turned into super sleuths.  Passengers reported hearing strange noises coming from a plastic bag. State police said later that the bag contained a set of keys, a bagel with cream cheese, some other small food items, a hat and a wallet.

And you thought a pat-down was your only flight discomfiture.
^

via myrightword.blogspot.com

image

via theportuguesewaterblog.blogspot.com

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Gay Marriage Bill Dies in Deep Blue Maryland

The Democratic leadership in Maryland's House of Delegates announced Friday night that it didn't have the votes to pass a gay marriage bill. The Associated Press reports:

The speaker of Maryland's House vowed that Democrats would try again next year to pass legislation legalizing gay marriage, but the intense lobbying by faith groups against the measure in recent weeks shows that it won't be easy, even in a state known for its liberal politics.
A loose coalition of Democratic legislators failed to cobble together enough votes to overcome opposition from Republicans and religious groups, including the Catholic church and many black congregations, to make Maryland the sixth state to legalize gay marriage.
Lawmakers had planned to vote on the bill in the House, but it was withdrawn instead Friday and effectively killed for the year.

This line is as bizarre as it is priceless: "A loose coalition of Democratic legislators failed to cobble together enough votes to overcome opposition from Republicans and religious groups." It makes it seem as though the fight was a partisan battle that simply pitted Democrats who favored gay marriage against Republicans who opposed it.
In reality, the only reason the bill died is because at least one-third of the Democratic caucus in a deep blue state opposed it. That's right: there are 43 Republicans in the Maryland House of Delegates and 98 Democrats. (That's an interesting little fact not included in the AP's report.)

via weeklystandard.com image via gaycityusa.com

Reuters handles public relations for Palestinians

A statement released by the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades took responsibility for the killings, describing the slaughter of the Fogel family as a "natural response" to "Israeli crimes." The Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades is part of Fatah which is run by Palestinian Authority President Abbas. In other words it was an official act of the Palestinian Authority.

In an appalling example of bias and selective reporting known in propaganda studies as card stacking, Reuters correspondent Dan Williams rushes in to provide PR for Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas as he feigns horror at the slaughter of a Jewish family over the weekend:

(Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday the killing of a Jewish settler couple and three of their children was "inhuman," telling Israel he was determined to help catch those responsible.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had complained that Abbas's administration insufficiently condemned the attack and even encouraged such bloodshed through "incitement" in official Palestinian forums.
"This was inhuman and immoral. We deplore this incident, without a doubt. It is an abomination," Abbas told Israel Radio.
"I can't imagine a four-month-old child murdered," he said, speaking in Arabic. "Children, of all things ... Any person who has a sense of humanity would be pained and driven to tears by such sights."

At the same time Abbas was crying crocodile tears for the children who had their throats cut, his political party was officially celebrating the murder of 37 Israelis, including 13 children, with the naming of a town square after the Palestinian terrorist who led the attack.
Two years ago, Abbas personally congratulated the family of Palestinian Samir Kuntar for his release in a prisoner exchange with Israel.  Kuntar murdered three Israelis including a father and his 4-year-old daughter whose skull Kuntar had crushed with the butt of a gun.
While Williams is quick to parrot Abbas' purported sympathy for murdered children, the Reuters correspondent is oddly silent on Abbas' long record of sympathy for Palestinian child murderers.

via r-mew.blogspot.com
image via nppa.org

...and this is just Reuters. What do you thing is going on at CNN and MSNBC... or for that matter NPR?

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Jewish Refugees From Jerusalem's Old City, 1936

As a result of Arab violence during 1936-1939, the Jewish population within the walls of Jerusalem's Old City, in the Muslim and Jewish Quarters, significantly decreased as the Jews were forced to leave their homes, here being escorted out through Jaffa Gate.

via myrightword.blogspot.com

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Crown Prince of Bahrain expected to invite Saudi support following anti-government demonstrations in capital

The United States condemned the violence. "We urge the government of Bahrain to pursue a peaceful and meaningful dialogue with the opposition rather than resorting to the use of force," said White House spokesman Jay Carney.  via google.com

Saudi forces are preparing to intervene in neighboring Bahrain, after a day of clashes between police and protesters who mounted the most serious challenge to the island's royal family since demonstrations began a month ago.

The Crown Prince of Bahrain is expected to formally invite security forces from Saudi Arabia into his country today, as part of a request for support from other members of the six-member Gulf Co-operation Council.

Thousands of demonstrators on Sunday cut off Bahrain's financial centre and drove back police trying to eject them from the capital's central square, while protesters also clashed with government supporters on the campus of the main university.

The crown prince, Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa, said in a televised statement that Bahrain had "witnessed tragic events" during a month of unprecedented political unrest.
Warning that "the right to security and safety is above all else", he added: "Any legitimate claims must not be made at the expanse of security and stability."
The crown prince has also promised that national dialogue would look at increasing the power of Bahrain's parliament, and that any deal could be put to nationwide referendum.
However, some protesters have pressed their demands further to call for the toppling of the Sunni dynasty.  images via travel-images.ws via librabunda.blogspot.com

Amid the revolt Bahrain also faces a potential sectarian conflict between the ruling minority of Sunnis Muslims and a majority of Shia Muslims, around 70% of the kingdom's 525,000 residents.

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