Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

BRIGETTE GABRIEL INTERVIEWED BY N.Y. TIMES OVER NEW BOOK: "THEY MUST BE STOPPED: WHY WE MUST DEFEAT RADICAL ISLAM..."

Brigette Gabriel just penned a new book, They Must be Stopped: Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How to Do it.   The N.Y. Times interview is here.  Lebanese-born, her earlier book was titled Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America. 

AN INTRODUCTION TO RADICAL ISLAMIC TERRORISM IN INDIA

Front Page Magazine published an extensive interview with  Moorthy Muthuswamy, author of the forthcoming Defeating Political Islam: The New Cold War.

PERSECUTION AND MURDER OF IRAQI CHRISTIANS BY MUSLIMS

John F. Cullinan penned an important article today. It begins:

A church of martyrs on the cusp of annihilation. That’s the grim reality that Iraq’s beleaguered and vanishing Christian community faces. And it’s no secret, especially after two pillars of establishment journalism — the New York Times and CBS's 60 Minutes— produced truly shocking accounts of savage persecution right before the Fourth of July.

The June 26 Times piece is one of the most thorough treatments yet of the ubiquitous practice of “protection money” (jizya) being extorted from Iraq’s surviving Christians on pain of death, exile, or forced conversion to Islam. And the June 29 60 Minutes segment recounts in chilling detail how "iraqi Christians are being hunted, murdered, and forced to flee--persecuted on a biblical scale."

Later in the article he writes:

DANIEL PIPES WRITES ON THE ALLIANCE BETWEEN WESTERN LEFTISTS AND ISLAMIST RADICALS

Daniel Pipes explains the history and contemporary threat of this unlikely alliance, and concludes:

The burgeoning alliance of Western leftists and Islamists ranks as one of today's most disturbing political developments, one that impedes the West's efforts to protect itself. When Stalin and Hitler made their infamous pact in 1939, the Red-Brown alliance posed a mortal danger to the West and, indeed, to civilization itself. Less dramatically but no less certainly, the coalition today poses the same threat. As seven decades ago, this one must be exposed, rejected, resisted, and defeated.

HOW SERIOUS IS THE THREAT OF "HIGH ALTITUDE ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSE" (EMP)?

Reading this article makes me wonder what good is money in the bank or the stock market if electrical transmissions can be totally knocked out by EMP.  All necessary supplies for life would likewise be made inaccessible.  Little is being done to protect us from such a catastrophe.

DANGEROUS CONSEQUENCES OF U.S. FIRMS' "SHARIA COMPLIANT FINANCE"

Frank J. Gaffney Jr. explains.

ANDY McCARTHY ON C-SPAN BOOK TV THIS WEEKEND

I receive e-mail notices from C-Span's Book TV regarding who will be appearing each weekend.  I see that Andrew McCarthy is scheduled to be interviewed this weekend.  His book, Willful Blindness has been highly recommended.  McCarthy is an expert on the war on terror. My guess is that if Supreme Court justices would read his book, they would be more informed of the dangers we face.  Here's the blurb from "Book TV":

Saturday 10 PM, Sunday 6 PM and 9 PM, Monday 12 AM ET

Andrew McCarthy, the lead prosecutor against Sheik Omar Abdel Rahmen and the other men responsible for the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993, recounts the case in Willful Blindness: A Memoir of the Jihad. Mr. McCarthy presents his thoughts on the trial and the current state of the war on terror. The author discusses his book with Hugh Hewitt, host of the nationally syndicated radio program, "The Hugh Hewitt Show," and executive editor of Townhall.com.

TRRORIST THREATS? REALLY? WHAT THREATS?

Andy McCarthy writes:

The Washington Post today, in its lead story, reports that an international smuggling ring that sold bomb-related parts to terrorist-sponsoring regimes also managed to acquire blueprints for an advanced nuclear weapon.

I argued in April that nuclear terrorism had become a real possibility and that we should be taking this threat seriously. But we are not. Instead, five justices of the Supreme Court have now given Constitutional protections to unlawful enemy combatants. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi continues to hobble foreign intelligence gathering. The ACLU, MoveOn.org and similar groups oppose waging a serious war – not just in Iraq but anywhere. Their goal instead is to teach Americans the lesson they believe should have been learned from Vietnam: that American power is a malevolent force. What Andy McCarthy calls Willful Blindness has reached epidemic proportions.

A SYSTEMATIC REFUSAL TO TAKE OUR ENEMIES SERIOUSLY

Michael Ledeen has penned an article that we may come back and read a few years hence and say, "He was right.  When our enemies announced their plans, we refused to believe they were serious."

Shockingly, it seems we have learned nothing from the last century.

THOMAS SOWELL: THE U.S. DRIFTING DOWN THE RIVER TO NIAGARA FALLS

Thomas Sowell is seriously depressed, or at  least feeling mighty glum about the outlook for the United States, given the intelligentsia's vacation from reality.  (For what it's worth, I agree with his assessment and my feelings mirror his.)

The terrorists have given us as clear a picture of what they are all about as Adolf Hitler and the Nazis did during the 1930s — and our “leaders” and intelligentsia have ignored the warning signs as resolutely as the “leaders” and intelligentsia of the 1930s downplayed the dangers of Hitler.

We are much like people drifting down the Niagara River, oblivious to the waterfalls up ahead. Once we go over those falls, we cannot come back up again.

Sowell sees the horrors of being confronted with both Iran and terrorists equipped with nuclear devices and then,

All the things we are preoccupied with today, from the price of gasoline to health care to global warming, will suddenly no longer matter.

He considers both presidential candidates painfully inadequate, but between the two, there can be only one choice: McCain. 

At a time like this, we do not have the luxury of waiting for our ideal candidate . . . Senator John McCain has been criticized in this column many times. But, when all is said and done, Senator McCain has not spent decades aiding and abetting people who hate America.

On the contrary, he has paid a huge price for resisting our enemies, even when they held him prisoner and tortured him. The choice between him and Barack Obama should be a no-brainer.   [more . . .]

THE URGE TO CONQUER - ALIVE IN ISLAM

Clifford D. May provides a useful history lesson.

There’s an anniversary this week we might do well to recall. On May 29, 1453 — just 555 short years ago — troops led by Mehmed II broke through the walls of the ancient Christian capital of Constantinople. . .

“We are in the process of an historical war between the World of Arrogance and the Islamic world,” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has declared, “and this war has been going on for hundreds of years.”

“We are not fighting so that you will offer us something,” said Hussein Massawi, a former leader of Hezbollah. “We are fighting to eliminate you.”

“Rome will become an advanced post for the Islamic conquests, which will spread though Europe in its entirety, and then will turn to the two Americas, even Eastern Europe,” Yunis al-Astal, a Muslim cleric and Hamas parliamentarian has pledged. “Very soon, Allah willing, Rome will be conquered, just like Constantinople was, as was prophesized by our prophet Muhammad.”

Mehmed the Conqueror would understand, though his defenders would say he was never quite as radical as are the Islamic warriors of the contemporary era.

Review of "Who Speaks for Islam? What A Billion Muslims Really Think"

Who Speaks for Islam? is written by John L. Esposito, founding director of Georgetown University's Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, and Dalia Mogahed, executive director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies.

The book is propaganda and the books (statistics) have been cooked.  Read Robert Satloff's review in the Weekly Standard.  It is "must reading" lest the trusting public be taken in because of Gallup's name and reputation.

LIBERALISM AS AN "IDEOLOGY OF SUICIDE"

A conference, "Free Speech in an Age of Jihad," was held last week in New York City. "Sponsored jointly by The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and The New Criterion, the day-long conference brought together more than a dozen prominent commentators—and an audience of about 200—to discuss the ways in which “soft jihad” is undermining freedom of expression in the West."

Roger Kimball said,

"The unhappy truth is that the threat to civilization in the West comes not only from our enemies but also from within."

Kimball reported on Mark Steyn's speech as follows (the underlining is my own):

Mark’s talk ranged widely, but its central message, he noted, was summed up by the historian Arnold Toynbee: Most civilizations, Toynbee wrote, die from suicide not murder. We in the West preen ourselves on our high standard of living, our freedoms, our pleasures. But what beliefs, what backbone, underwrite those material triumphs? Radical Islam is a fanatical, often a murderous, faith. The welfare-state liberalism of the West is less a faith than a perpetual grievance.

In The Road to Serfdom, Friedrich Hayek, hearkening back to Tocqueville’s analysis of “democratic despotism,” noted that “the most important change which extensive

THE LEFT AND "FITNA" - JAMIE GLAZOV INTERVIEWS EX-MUSLIM ABUL KASEM

The interview can be found here.  (I have blogged previously on Geert Wilders' movie "Fitna" here.)

First, tell us what you think of the new film.

Kasem: I think Fitna is done very cleverly. It lays the full blame of Islamic atrocities to the fount of Islam, the Koran. Anyone viewing this short movie will have no doubt that the Islamist terrorism is the result of the Koran in action. Geert Wilders has demonstrated very precisely what has plagued the world for many years and why the Jihadists are doing what they are doing.

FP: Analyze for us the format that Wilders uses.

Kasem: Wilders uses only five verses of the Koran to demonstrate the potential danger of Islam to a civilised world. These verses are (note the comments by eminent Koran scholars):

8:60 The Muslims should muster all their power and might, including steeds of war (tanks, planes, missiles…) to strike terror in the hearts of the unbelievers (by killing them—ibn Abbas).

47:4 When the believers meet the unbelievers they should smite at unbelievers’ necks (when you fight against them, cut them down totally with your swords—ibn Kathir).

8:39 Fight until there are no more unbelievers (non-Muslims) and tumult (this verse overrides all other verses on fighting the infidels, including the Jews and the Christians); if they accept Islam then leave them alone.

4:56 Unbelievers will be cast in fire, their skins roasted often, skins changed often for more roasting (the skin will be roasted seventy thousand time every day; the new skin will be as white as paper—ibn Kathir).

4:89 Seize and slay the renegades (i.e., apostates of Islam) wherever you find them. (Maududi 4/118: This is the verdict on those hypocritical confessors of faith who belong to a belligerent, non-Muslim nation and actually participate in acts of hostility against the Islamic state).

It is clear Greet Wilders did not present anything original. He merely re-stated the contents of the Koran, forcefully depicting, with true pictures, those verses in action. (more)

ISLAMOBULLIES FORCE SHUTDOWN OF GEERT WILDERS' FILM - "FITNA"

Update 3/31/08 - LiveLeak has restored the film "Fitna."  Michelle Malkin comments .

Update 3/29/08 - The film is available here at Google video and here .  Michelle Malkin offers a news update and more video locations.  Wikipedia has a good overview of the film and the controversy.    A European website offering on-going coverage is Gates of Vienna, see e.g. here and additional posts.

**
Mark Steyn posts the update:

Geert Wilders' film is a hit - over 1.5 million views in English, over 2.5 million in Dutch last time I checked - but it's nevertheless been yanked by LiveLeak, with the following statement:

Following threats to our staff of a very serious nature, and some ill informed reports from certain corners of the British media that could directly lead to the harm of some of our staff, Liveleak.com has been left with no other choice but to remove Fitna from our servers. This is a sad day for freedom of speech on the net but we have to place the safety and well being of our staff above all else.

Indeed. The Internet will keep Fitna alive in odd corners hither and yon, but only to those who actively seek it out. In the wider world, it goes without saying that such a film is unacceptable, and that this time round the pre-emptive rage (as Diana West

GEERT WILDER'S FILM ON ISLAM IS FINALLY OUT

Update 3/28/08  - Geert Wilders' film yanked  due to Islamobullies.

**
-The film was greatly feared by European governments and elsewhere because of its anti-Islamist thrust. Douglas Murray has important things to say  (HT: the Corner):

Well Geert Wilders' film 'Fitna' is finally out, as of last night, and so far there is no need to retire to the bunker.  At the time of writing there's been a bit of rioting in Karachi but Holland itself is still standing if - thanks to its government - slightly cowed

The film itself. . .  click here for the full 15min version - is well worth seeing.  It isn't for the faint-hearted: footage includes some of the most barbaric acts committed by the jihadists. But there's no burning of the Koran or ripping up of the Koran, or any of the other allegedly 'shocking' things which the Dutch government and others revealingly predicted would be in the film.  The film simply shows what the Koran says and then shows footage of certain Muslims carrying out those words to the letter.  To this extent, anything which people find shocking in the film should be put at the doors of Mohammed and certain of his followers, not Wilders.

Quick Takes

** Stanley Kurtz writes on Dr.James Cone, a leading advocate of Black Liberation theology, and the mentor of Obama's pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

** Victor Davis Hanson takes a look at Rev. Jeremiah Wright's successor, Rev. Moss who "likens the media storm over Jeremiah Wright's racist and anti-American remarks to a lynching and crucifixion."

Rev. Moss’s interviews and sermons concerning Wright suggest that he is in complete agreement with his former pastor’s views, and will continue to promulgate them, albeit perhaps with less profanity and slander.

** Turkish ruling party cracks down on a free press 

** Andrew G. Bostom on our inability to stand tall for human rights

** Stephen Brown writes on Dutch MP Geert Wilders (filmaker) - "The Islamists' Nemesis"   Update 3/28/08 - Here's the link to the Geert Wilders movie

WE CAN'T TRUST MSM REPORTING ON THE ALLEGED NON-LINK BETWEEN AL QAEDA AND SADDAM HUSSEIN

I find it disconcerting that truthfulness in reporting no longer can be assumed.  In fact, we must now treat news organs the way Russians had to treat "Pravda," i.e. as instruments of propaganda. Consider Andy McCarthy's revelation over at "The Corner:"

As several of us have noted countless times, there are influential elements of the Intelligence Community who are unmovably vested in the absence of a meaningful relationship between Saddam Hussein's regime and radical Islam.  By some calculated leaks to friends in the mainstream media, they've once again managed to put an Orwellian spin on an important study, claiming the new Pentagon report on Iraq's terror shows, as the New York Times and ABC put it, "no link" between Saddam and al Qaeda.  They are trying to write the narrative before anyone can read what the report actually says.

What it says is breathtaking.  Today's required reading should be Steve Hayes's post over at the Weekly Standard's blog and Eli Lake's article in the New York Sun. There is simply no doubt that there were serious ties between Saddam's Iraq and al Qaeda elements — most especially, Egyptian Islamic Jihad (run by al Qaeda's No. 2, Ayman Zawahiri, who merged formally EIJ into al Qaeda in 1998).

ALGERIAN JOURNALIST MOHAMMED SIFAOUI INFILTRATED AN AL QUAEDA CELL

Sifaoui considers Islamism to be fascism, recognizes the existence of moderate Islam, and predicts Iran will attack Israel as soon as it can.  The fascinating, and chilling, interview can be found here.  Sifaoui is the author of Mes freres assassins: Comment j'ai infiltre une cellule d'Al-Qaida.

TWO DOWN SYNDROME WOMEN USED IN TODAY'S BAGHDAD SUICIDE BOMBINGS

Morally sick.  Story here.    (HT: Drudge)

CONTRASTING SECULAR AND RELIGIOUS TERRORISM

This article by Jonathan Fine published in Middle East Quarterly, offers substantive analysis of terrorism and the various writings that supply the ideological underpinnings for various terrorist groups.  Author Fine takes issue with those who suggest that overthrowing an occupying force is a more motivating force than religion.  On terrorist texts, both secular and Islamic, note the following:

MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD: BROTHERHOOD OF HATE

Check this entry posted by Discover the Networks to become familiar with the history and goals of the Muslim Brotherhood.  Excerpt:

Islamist Subversion in the Pentagon? The Case the Firing of Major Stephen Coughlin

This is really disturbing.  Our military brass apparently don't know the first thing about  radical Islam.  And then the one man who could help them, gets fired!  Courtesy of Jihad Watch , LTC Joseph C. Myers, Army Advisor to the Air Command and Staff College, has spoken out about the firing of Stephen Coughlin (my emphases follow): 

MAJ (USAR) Stephen Coughlin is to my knowledge the only Islamic Law scholar on the Joint Staff...

I have long argued and wondered why our military from senior leaders down to tactical level are so unread and unstudied on Islam, jihad in Islam, even the topic of terrorism. I have often contrasted this unconscionable wartime state of affairs, with

Hugh Hewitt interviews George Weigle, Author of "Faith, Reason, and the War Against Jihadism"

I regard anything that George Weigle writes as worthy of ultra-serious reflection.  He has written a new book, Faith, Reason and the War Against Jihadism.  Hugh Hewitt offers a transcript of his interview with him yesterday. As Hewitt says in introducing him, Weigle is the distinguished senior fellow of Washington’s Ethics and Public Policy Center. He’s a Catholic theologian, one of America’s foremost commentators on issues of religion in public life, as well as the biographer of both John Paul II and Benedict XVI.

Read on: (my underlining)

Benazir Bhutto: Killed by the Real Pakistan

Andrew C. McCarthy exhibits clear thinking on Pakistan, even if it be sad and unsettling to accept.  Some excerpts:

A recent CNN poll showed that 46 percent of Pakistanis approve of Osama bin Laden. . . .

McCarthy contrasts the Pakistan of our fantasy with the real Pakistan.

The real Pakistan is a breeding ground of Islamic holy war where, for about half the population, the only thing more intolerable than Western democracy is the prospect of a faux democracy led by a woman . . . .

The real Pakistan is a place where the intelligence services are salted with Islamic fundamentalists: jihadist sympathizers. . .

The real Pakistan is a place where the military, ineffective and half-hearted though it is in combating Islamic terror, is the

Stanley Kurtz Discusses the Tribalism of Waziristan in Northwest Pakistan and Its Significance

This is a major article and marks advance in our understanding.  Kurtz draws on, and evaluates, the work of American University professor Akbar S. Ahmed.

What Percentage of Muslims Approve of Terror?

Robert Spencer reviews the results of various polls.  I can't imagine any reader finding them anything but disturbing and alarming. 

In January 2007, columnist Michael Freund summed up some disquieting recent survey results: 25% of Muslims in Britain approved of the July 7, 2005 jihad terror bombings in London; 30% said they would rather live under Sharia than in a Western pluralistic society. 44% of Muslims in Nigeria thought suicide attacks were “often” or “sometimes” justified, with only 28% rejecting them in all cases. Roughly 14% of Muslims in France, Britain and Spain approved of suicide attacks against civilian targets, and only 45% of Muslims in Egypt considered terror never justified.

And in an Al-Jazeera survey on September 11, 2006, 49.9% of the respondents avowed that they

Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week on College Campuses - A Report

Update 10/29/07 - Dennis Prager at Univ. of Cal at Santa Barbara  reports a triumph  -  Phyllis Chesler reports that her evening at Columbia University with Ibn Warraq and Christina Hoff-Sommers was likewise a "refreshing triumph."  (Note: Warraq has just published a new book, Defending the West: A Critique of Edward Said's Orientalism)  - Here is a report from the University of Pennsylvania, and here is a report from George Washington University.  David Horowitz offers a summary overview of the week saying,

The week of October 22-26 witnessed the largest, most successful campus demonstrations by students not associated with the anti-American left in the history of campus protests. 114 college and university campuses participated in “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, which highlighted the threat from the Islamic jihad, and the oppression of Muslim women. It featured speakers such as former Senator Rick Santorum, Ann Coulter, Robert Spencer, Nonie Darwish, Wafa Sultan, Michael Medved, Dennis Prager and Daniel Pipes . . .

In response, anti-American leftists and organizations supporting the Islamic jihad organized a national campaign of vitriol and hate that was almost unprecedented. This campaign revealed the lengths to which the anti-American left will go to prevent the public from discussing the nature of the holy war that has been declared on them. It was characterized by a political McCarthyism whose levels of character assassination and slander had not been seen since the early days of the Cold War. Speakers for the events and students organizing them were attacked as religious bigots and anti-Muslim “racists” and “fascists.”

Our speakers showed admirable courage in their willingness to endure the slander and attacks they knew that challenging the left would entail. But it was our students who braved the fiercest attacks from members of their campus communities. I can’t say enough how proud I am of the students I met this week on the campuses I visited, and the many others who worked with us to make this week a success. Without their willingness to stand up and be counted, there would have been no Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week.

Osama's Errors You Won't Read About in the MSM

Cliff May notes the new reality taking place in Iraq and underreported  (if at all) in the U.S.

Abdel Bari Atwan is the editor of the London-based al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper. I’ve debated him on TV and radio shows a number of times. Let’s just say we don’t often see eye to eye.

But we do today. He is now acknowledging that Americans have been winning “the trust of certain tribal leaders” in Iraq and that “for the Iraqis the enemy has become al-Qaeda and not the occupying [American] forces.”

In his most recent audio tape, Osama bin Laden implies the same thing. Atwan calls that tape "possibly the most important message" in al-Qaeda's history. "It is the first time that bin Laden recognizes the error committed by  

David Horowitz Updates Plans for "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week" on University Campuses Oct. 22-26

Update 10/21/07 - The Hillary-Soros Team fights "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week". In another report the Washington Times quotes Horowitz: "The left has only one strategy when dealing with its opponents, and that's to smear them," Mr. Horowitz, 68, says in a telephone interview. "They learned from Stalin."

Update 10/16/07 - Horowitz discusses the resistance brewing on the Columbia University campus. Among the many points he makes is this one:

... the very term “Islamo-Fascism” was coined by moderate Muslims who were being slaughtered in Algeria during the 1990s. A group now calling itself “Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb” killed between 150,000 and 200,000 “unclean” Muslims during that decade.   ( more. . )

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Horowitz explains:

As it now stands, we will have events at over 100 schools. At over 30 of them, there will be major speeches by figures such as former Sen. Rick Santorum, Ann Coulter, Daniel Pipes and Robert Spencer. At more than twenty, students will show an uncut version of "The Path to 9/11" the ABC mini-series the Clintons censored. At another dozen there will be an unheard of event: sit-ins in Women's Studies Departments to protest their silence over the oppression of women in Islam. Most importantly, IFAW week is getting major coverage in the press. The campus papers of many schools are publishing multiple articles discussing "Islamo-Fascism" which was the goal of our protest to begin with. Moreover, the buzz is becoming louder every day.

As we foresaw, when we adopted the name "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week," the Left has reacted and guaranteed our success. The goal of the left is to suppress mention of the term Islamo-Fascism because for the left America is the enemy. Since the left is at war with America, it cannot afford to have the evils of Islamo-Fascism discussed. [my emphases]   more . . .

- Previous post - Keith Olbermann and Left-Wing Activists Attack DavidHorowitz and "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week"

Keith Olbermann and Left-Wing Activists Attack David Horowitz and "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week"

Update 10/15/07 - David Horowitz reports the latest news.

Update 10/10/07 - Attempts to muzzle the Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week

Update 10/2/07 0 - Horowitz answers Matthew Yglesias's objections here.

**
David Horowitz, in his own words:

Last Friday, on his MSNBC television show, Olbermann named me “The Worst Person in the World.” “The Worst Person” is a regular feature of Countdown, for which Olbermann is the host, and the same program featured an attack on a previous “worst person,” Fox anchor Bill O’Reilly. Olbermann called O’Reilly “unhinged,” while slandering him as a racist despite the lack of any evidence that would justify such a defamatory claim.

It was a performance familiar from the witch-hunting left. What act of mine, you might wonder, qualified me for such a distinction? . . .  What I did to deserve this distinction was organize a nation-wide campus effort called “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week,” which will be held on over 100 campuses on October 22-26. This is shaping up as the largest conservative student protest ever and has the anti-American left in a frenzy. Its purpose is to alert the academic world to the dangers America faces from Islamic terrorists such as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for example, the recent guest of Columbia University, whose president called him a “petty tyrant” when in fact he is a global menace. An even more damning sin of mine, it seems, was to make a theme of the Week’s events “the oppression of women in Islam.”

Read the article to find out how the Left is organizing against Horowitz and "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week."  Horowitz describes the Left's position this way:

In other words: America has not been attacked by Islamo-fascists, nor are there such fascists. All talk of “Islamo-fascism” is a form of religious hatred, a means of justifying America’s racist wars of aggression against Arabs and Muslims. This is the message of leftwing flak-catchers for America’s enemies, Keith Olbermann among them.

In response, he says:

The scurrilous slander campaign that has been launched against Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week casts an illuminating spotlight on the war at home. The left in America has taken its stand. Just as progressives ran interference for the Soviet empire during the Cold War, progressives are today running interference for the Islamo-Fascists.

Getting Straight on What Motivates al Qaeda. Hint: It's Not Anything Specific the West Has Done

So what is it?  It's Islamist theology.  Note this post from Carol Iannone:

Writing in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Raymond Ibrahim, editor of the Al Qaeda Reader, tells how, in a position at the Library of Congress that gave him access to much literature in Arabic, he discovered that al Qaeda is not inspired by anger at Israel, Western imperialism, American foreign policy, and so forth, as the Left would have it, but by ...Islamic theology!   According to one ex-jihadi:

The main reason why radicals have managed to increase their following is because most Muslim institutions in Britain just don't want to talk about theology. They refuse to broach the difficult and often complex truth that Islam can be interpreted as condoning violence against the unbeliever — and instead repeat the mantra that Islam is peace and hope that all of this debate will go away.

Ibrahim notes that denunciations of the West appear only in al Qaeda propaganda aimed at the West.  The exhortations to Muslims are about the war against the infidel and bringing all the earth to Allah.   As bin Laden has written:

Allah Almighty's Word to his Prophet recounts in summation the true relationship: "O Prophet! Wage war against the infidels and hypocrites and be ruthless. Their abode is hell — an evil fate!" Such, then, is the basis and foundation of the relationship between the infidel and the Muslim.  Battle, animosity, and hatred — directed from the Muslim to the infidel — is the foundation of our religion. And we consider this a justice and kindness to them.

How the Korean Hostages Were Treated by the Taliban

I blogged extensively and almost daily concerning the Korean hostages held captive for so long by the Taliban in Afghanistan.  See, for example, here and here.

A few weeks after their release I should have posted a report of how they were treated by their Taliban captors.  The BBC issued such a report:

S Koreans told 'convert or die'

A group of South Koreans held hostage by Taleban militants in Afghanistan have said they were beaten and ordered at gunpoint to convert to Islam. 

At a news conference in Seoul, the former captives also said they were made to work "like slaves" during their six-week ordeal.

Twenty-one members of the group were freed last month following an agreement between South Korea and the captors.

Two of the hostages - all Christian aid workers - had already been killed.

Beaten and kicked

The former hostages said they feared for their lives at times when their captors turned violent.

"We were beaten with a tree branch or kicked around. Some kidnappers threatened us with death at

Christiane Amanpour's CNN Series "God's Warriors" Evaluated

What should we make of Christiane Amanpour's six-hour CNN production on Jews, Muslims and Christians titled "God's Warriors"?   

Camera (The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America) has evaluated all three programs. The first is titled God's Jewish Warriors: CNN's Abomination; the second, "God's Muslim Warriors: CNN's Double Standard"; and the third, Amanpour Slurs Christians. 

Phyllis Chesler also weighs in with her own biting analysis.

Transcripts of the three programs can be found at the following links: God's Jewish Warriors; God's Muslim Warriors; and God's Christian Warriors.

Anti-Islamist Rally Banned in Brussels

From Vasko Kohlmayer's report:

An eagerly awaited public rally was to take place in Brussels - the capital of the European Union - on September 11 of this year.  Called 'Against Islamisation of Europe,' its intent was to protest the spreading of Islamic sharia law across the European continent and honor by a minute of silence the victims of the 9/11 terror attacks. 

The fact that the rally has been banned is a serious and significant development and reading the article will indicate why.  Kolmayer concludes his report:

It is hard to believe that

Andrew Bostom Reviews Robert Spencer's "Religion of Peace?: Why Christianity Is and Islam Isn't" Arab-Muslim Cultural Achievements a Myth

Update 8/25/07 - At Pajamas Media, Robert Spencer has responded to Derb's review of Religion of Peace? Why Christianity Is and Islam Isn't.   Spencer offers an important rebuttal which shouldn't be missed.  (HT: The Corner)

**
It's amazing that a book like this had to be written, but such is the state of contemporary ignorance that politically correctness, blind as it is to obvious matters-of-fact, has to be answered with restatements of the truth.  According to Andrew Bostom,  Robert Spencer's Religion of Peace?: Why Christianity Is and Islam Isn't provides such a required restatement and consequently has become essential reading.

Andrew Bostom's  review offers a useful overview of the book.  Short of reading the book itself, I think it would be a good idea to at least read Bostom's review.  Much of what he wrote I expected the book to cover.  But the review lists a lot of things that surprised me.   For example, I hadn't previously questioned the widely accepted (and praised) distinctive historical Arab-Muslim cultural achievements, but Bostom does and writes:

Moreover, even notions about supposed Islamic contributions to pre-modern science and philosophy -- fostered by the triumphalism of the jihad conquests -- are purely mythical. Despite taking credit for the invention of algebra, the Arabs did no more than copy the

Interview with Gregory Davis, author of "Religion of Peace? Islam's War Against the World"

Gregory Davis is also the producer of the feature documentary Islam: What the West Needs to Know -- which has just been released on DVD.  (The above link, incidentally, features a discussion between Walid Shoebat, author of Why I Left Jihad. The Root of Terrorism and the Return of Radical Islam. Serge Trifkovic, author of Defeating Jihad, and Robert Spencer, author of Islam Unveiled, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades), The Truth About Muhammad, and Religion of Peace? Why Christianity Is and Islam Isn't).

The following excerpt comes from a FrontPageMagazine.com interview with Gregory Davis.  Jamie Glazov conducted the interview.

FP: Gregory Davis, welcome to Frontpage Interview.

Davis: Thank you for having me.

FP: So tell us a bit about this documentary.

Davis: The documentary originally came out in 2006 but is now in wider release on DVD. There have been several documentaries done on the subject of terrorism, but none so far that examine the sources of Islamic violence within Islam itself. For the most part, there has been a great effort to keep violence done in the name of Islam and Islam itself separate. In contrast, our movie examines the doctrines and history of Islam with the aim of discovering the roots of Islamic violence and intolerance. We focus on the canonical Islamic texts -- the Koran, hadiths ("reports" of Muhammad's life), and the Sira (or Life of the Prophet Muhammad) -- and how Islam has operated through history. We then move on to the role Islam is currently playing in conflicts around the globe -- from Nigeria, to Sudan, Kosovo, Chechnya, Kashmir, Thailand, etc. -- as well as international terrorism, and what the future is likely to hold.

FP: Why do you think there is so much that the West actually doesn’t know about Islam? Why the impulse to

Continuing Coverage of the Afghan Taliban's Holding 19 Korean Hostages

Update 8/31/07 - I have put news of the Korean hostages at the top of my blog for many weeks now.  I am so glad they have all been released and will soon be reunited with their families and loved ones.  According to news reports the former hostages left Kabul today, Friday, on a chartered UN plane to fly back to Korea.

What the long-term fallout of the ordeal will be remains to be seen.  News reports suggest a large sum of money changed hands to secure the hostages release, though that remains to be confirmed.  The release came at the cost of stopping all Korean humanitarian involvement in Afghanistan, a result the KoreaWorld Missions Association criticized.

"Korean churches cannot help expressing deep concerns over the agreement reached between the government and the Taliban to halt missionary activities in Afghanistan," the organistaion [sic] said in a statement.

More:

German politicians also criticised South Korea's handling of the crisis.

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said Berlin would stand firm in its refusal to negotiate over a German engineer captured by the Taliban more than six weeks ago.

A Taliban spokesman said kidnappings by the Taliban would likely continue.

Afghanistan Taliban Threatens to Execute 23 South Korean Aid Workers (With Updates)

Note: I am keeping this story at the top of my blog to follow breaking developments.  Scroll down for updates.  Posts on other subjects follow this story.   Update:   A new post  with updates began August 8th.  Click here.

7/24/07
When have I last seen a picture of brighter, happier, more fulfilled-looking young people than those pictured here?  The problem: the lives of these Christian young people may be snuffed out in a matter of hours.  They are all hostages of the AfghanTaliban.

Michelle Malkin has a full report.

Malkin notes that "As of 8:30am, there is nothing on the front page of the Human Rights Watch website about the plight of the South Korean Christian volunteers." 

Update 7/25/07 -Michelle Malkin updates here.   As of 10:30 AM, one young man [42 year-old Pastor Bae Hyung-kyu, pictured left) has been shot, and eight have reportedly been freed.  [Later reports have questioned that.}   Korean Evangelical Churches Under Cyber-Attack.

Update 7/27/07 - As of 8:00 AM The fate of the 22 hostage (4 men, 18 women) remains unclear.  The TimesOnLine reports: 

The misery of the hostages was brought to the world’s attention last night when one of the captives, identified by her relatives in Seoul as Yim Hyun-Joo, a 32-year-old nurse, made an emotional appeal for their release.

“Please help us,” she said, weeping, on the American television channel CBS. “We are in a very difficult time. . . all of us are sick and in very bad condition.”

Bae Hyung Kyu, who was leading the mission to provide medical care to poverty stricken Afghans, was the founder of the Saemmul Presbyterian Church. Known as “Mr Smile” by his parishioners, Mr Bae was shot ten times in the head and chest on his 42nd birthday on Wednesday.

Churches across South Korea were filled with thousands of mourners praying for Mr Bae and the remaining 22 missionaries yesterday.

Update 7/28/07 -  Michelle Malkin updates here.  Negotiations continue.  Korea has sent a presidential envoy to Afghanistan.  Memorial services were held in Korea for slain pastor Bae Hyung-kyu who leaves behind a wife and 9-year-old daughter.  Click through for details.

Update 7/30/07 - 1:30 PM  A second-male hostage has reportedly been killed.  The Korean government is trying to confirm the murder.  Michelle Malkin says the world yawns.   Agreed.  Where is the worldwide outrage??  Is it because the hostages are Korean that the West yawns?

Update 2:45pm.   Michelle Malkin updates:   From Yonhap reports, “The Taliban, claiming Monday to have executed another male South Korean hostage, threatened it will continue to kill more of them and more frequently.

Should negotiations fail, the  Taliban will reportedly start to kill female hostages after the men.  Here is a photo of Shim Sung-min, 29, the second hostage reportedly killed.  The weapon used was reportedly an AK-47.

Update 7/31/07 - Eugene E. Cho, born in Korea, now living in the U.S. , is blogging the story and includes additional photos.  Of the second murder victim, Sung Min, he writes:  "He used to work for an IT company but resigned two months ago to prepare for his Masters’ education [agriculture].  One of his passions was volunteering with the disabled community and other aspects of social work."  -   djchuang.com notes that Korean papers Chosun Ilbo and The Hankyoreh have English editions with up-to-date news.

Update 8/1/07  10:00 AM  -CNN (video) via Reuters reports a rescue operation is now underway.  10:15 AM - Reuters withdraws the Afghan rescue report.

Michelle Malkin offers an outstanding column today titled: "The Martyrs No One Cares About." 
Here are the pictures of the remaining S. Korean hostages (reproduced from Michelle Malkin's blog).  Click any picture and all will appear much larger.

11:00 PM - Douglas Groothuis writes: As Bernard Lewis has pointed out, in Christianity, a martyr is one who is killed on account of one's profession of faith and one's refusal to recant under pressure. In Islam (represented by the Taliban) a martyr is typically one who dies in a jihad. The difference reveals a titanic split in the two worldviews.

Pastor Hyung-kyu was in Afghanistan to serve Christ by serving others. What he did, he did in the name of the God of the Bible. For that, he was executed. He joins the legion of martyrs, those who did not love their lives unto death, but who will receive the crown of life from the King of Kings.

The International Herald Tribune reports "So. Korea, U.S. rule out military operation to free the hostages."

(Updates continue on the next page.)

Quick Takes on Things Muslim

Walid Phares explains the latest Muslim tactic to Prevent the West from Understanding Jihadism.

Robert Spencer writes on The Persistence of Muslim Slavery.

Muslim Physicians Serve as Leaders of Murderous Jihad Terror Organizations

Dr. Andrew G. Bostom surveys the phenomenon, and in doing so borrows a list from investigative journalist Debbie Schlussel.

• Dr. Ayman Al-Zawahiri--Al-Qaeda mastermind and number two man, reportedly a surgeon and/or psychiatrist;
• Dr. Mohammad Rabi Al-Zawahiri--Ayman's father and a Muslim Brotherhood enthusiast, pharmacologist and professor at Ain Shams Medical School;
• Dr. "Abu Hafiza"--Al-Qaeda master planner who was the brains and commander of the Moroccan cell that

The West Ignores the Viciousness of the Enemy

** UPDATE:   See Andy McCarthy's admonishment at the end of this post.
----
After describing atrocities (incredibly bloodcurdling, see below), Victor Davis Hanson (the classicist and all-round-knowledge machine) is astonished at the West's yawn.

What is striking about all this savagery—whether with the filmed beheadings of Westerners in Iraq to the recent flaming Johnny Storm human torch at Glasgow, screaming epithets as he sought to engulf bystanders and ignite his canisters — is the absolute silence of the West, either distracted by Paris and i-Phones or suffering from Bush Derangement Syndrome and obsessed with Guantanamo.

It is hard to recall an enemy so savage and yet one so largely ignored by rich affluent and distracted elites as the radical jihadists, as we have to evoke everything from mythology to comic books to find analogies to their extra-human viciousness. 

The MSM Refuses to Alter Its Narrative that the West is the Cause of Jihadist Terror

Hugh Hewitt nails it again.  The MSM (Main Stream Media) retains its storyline of blaming the West for jihadist actions in the face of all manner of contrary evidence.  An excerpt:

Melanie Phillips writes today that "We are losing." (HT: K-Lo.) If Phillips is correct, one of the primary reasons is that MSM refuses --simply refuses-- to convey to the public the nature of the enemy, and hangs on to narratives that blame us for the rise of the jihadists while turning a blind eye to the jihadists' own explanations.  Visit Laura Mansfield's always chilling site and scroll down.

Journalist Cal Thomas Stands Up to CAIR and Muslim Terrorists

Click here to see Cal Thomas defend his statements on a BreitbartTV interview.  See the same website for related links.

Realism Required On Iraq and Radical Islam

Andy McCarthy over at the Corner sums up the situation depressingly well:

Unlike the foreign policy establishment, however, I have spent many years dealing with real live jihadists.  Fact:  They really do think they can and will win.  They don't need a lot of hope to carry on -- people willing to kill themselves in order to kill you are already pretty motivated.  But they derive great hope from what they (rightly) see as our surrenders and our ambivalence -- compared to their own great certainty and confidence. 

I am not a fan of how the war has been directed, and I believe expending our time and effort on the democracy project rather than on defeating our enemies in Iraq and elsewhere will go down as one of history's great blunders.  But with all that said, I note with the heartache of one who has seen it all too many times before:  We will rue the day we leave Iraq without routing radical Islam.  What we have not killed, we have made stronger.

Flushing Out Islamic Double-Speak in Europe

Fred Siegel in a City Journal article, "Hope for Old Europe," brings us up to date on Europe's slow awakening to the Muslim threat, fogged over until now by clever Muslim extremists' employment of Western freedoms and accommodated by liberal obtuseness and blindness.  It's a useful read.  A few excerpts:

Sarkozy’s road [Nicolas Sarkozy, newly elected French President] to the Elysee Palace was paved not only by the mini-Intifada in the Paris banlieues, but also by a memorable public exchange about Islam. An intellectually confident Sarkozy, then the interior minister, debated suave, articulate Tariq Ramadan, the grandson and heir of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood. With 6 million viewers watching, Sarkozy asked Ramadan, famed as an Islamic version of a Euro-Communist, if he agreed with his brother Hani Ramadan—who had argued, in line with Muslim law, that adulterous women should be stoned to death. Pressed to agree or disagree of free speech

Victims of Radical Islam and Political Correctness

Political Correctness is deadly when used to provide cover for Islamic murderers.   It doesn't help when the press keeps referring to Islam as "a religion of peace."   The fact is, as Chuck Colson notes :

Around the world, Christians are suffering and even dying, because they are Christians. They know also that the victimizers more often than not are Islamist militants.

This past April seven Christians were murdered on the southern Philippine island of Jolo.

The seven, who were working road construction, were kidnapped by the group Abu Sayyaf, an al Qaeda affiliate.

The group demanded more than $100,000 in ransom from the Christian community. When it wasn’t immediately paid, the seven, two of whom were teenagers working to help support their impoverished families, were beheaded. Abu Sayyaf then ordered civilians to take two of the severed heads to a military camp and left the other five at yet another camp.

Christians are being attacked right and left around the world primarily by radical Muslims.  But political correctness  requires "the outright denial of Islam's attitudes and actions towards what it calls  'infidels.'"   (See my earlier post).

Eliza Griswold, a Nieman Fellow at Harvard, has investigated Christian martyrdom in Nigeria, Sudan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Yemen, and Iraq.  Most recently she has written an article, "The Believers,” which appears in the latest issue of the New Republic.  In it, she compares and contrasts the Christian and Islamic use of the word “martyr.”   "For Muslims, 'martyr' indicates 'a willingness to kill.'  For Christians, it means a 'willingness to die' -- a big difference."

The persecution of Christians (and those who do the persecuting and murdering) remains an underreported story of our time.  For accounts of recent tragedies, see the links at the end of Colson's  article.    A good source for keeping tabs on persecution of Christians worldwide is Compass Direct News.

The Collapse of Europe, The Rise of Islam, and the Consequences for the United States

The above title served as the title of an international conference held last weekend at Pepperdine University.  It featured a number of luminaries including  Hugh Hewitt who gave the closing plenary address.  On a blog post he cites the books and articles he mentioned in his address. 

TimeOutLondn’s latest issue: “Is London’s Future Islamic?”  I also cited an article and two speeches on the future of Europe by Pope Benedict XVI: 

A January 2006 article in First Things, “Europe and Its Discontents”

the speech at Regenburg, and a speech to bishops on the eve of the 50^th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome.

I also recommended “American Exceptionalism” by James Q Wilson in the October 2, 2006 issue of The American Spectator, “Soft Europe,” by Leon de Winter from the March 7, 2006 OpinionJournal, and the websites of Daniel Pipes and Claire Berlinski.

I recommended two books,  The Looming Tower and America Alone, as well as articles like Lawrence Wright’s “The Master Plan,”

The 1990 United States Supreme Court decision I cited is Employment Division v. Smith.

Finally, the site on Islam v. Islamists, the film being censored by PBS, is FreeTheFilm.com.

The organizations I recommended funding are The Alliance Defense Fund, The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, and the Center for Security Policy.

Turkey: Will it Go Islamist? Plus: Three Christians Martyred in April

Earlier this month Amir Taheri published an important article titled Turkey's Creeping Coup D'Etat. It offers unusually insightful analysis of the Islamist political maneuvering going on in Turkey. 

While on the subject of Turkey, I'd like to provide links to accounts of the recent vicious attack and martyrdom of three Christians in Turkey.  The Voice of the Martyrs has an extensive report here (also reported here). It is tremendously moving and I urge you to click through to read it.  It begins this way:

On April 18, five Muslims entered a Christian publishing company and killed three believers in the southeastern province of Malatya. Two of the victims were Turkish converts from Islam and the third man was a German citizen who had lived in Turkey for 10 years. News reports said four of the attackers admitted that the killings were motivated by both “nationalist and religious feelings.”

The article is composed primarily of a letter from a Turkish Church that details what happened and explains the situation that confronts believers in Turkey today.  I found the following particularly moving:

In an act that hit front pages in the largest newspapers in Turkey, Susanne Geske [wife of the martyred German man] in a television interview expressed her forgiveness. She did not want revenge, she told reporters. “Oh God, forgive them for they know not what they do,” she said, wholeheartedly agreeing with the words of Christ on Calvary (Luke 23:34).

In a country where blood-for-blood revenge is as normal as breathing, many many reports have come to the attention of the church of how this comment of Susanne Geske has changed lives. One columnist wrote of her comment, “She said in one sentence what 1000 missionaries in 1000 years could never do.”

A church pastor said in urging prayer for the Church in Turkey:  “Don’t pray against persecution, pray for perseverence."  A torture report of one of the martyrs is available here (but I don't necessarily advise reading it.) 

The Associated Press tells the story of the slain German missionary and his surviving family here. To my mind, modern heroes.

Robert Spencer on the Definition of "Jihad"

As usual, Robert Spencer offers insight into Muslim theology largely ignored or glossed over by others. Spencer always uses Islamic sacred texts to deconstruct the propaganda and wishful thinking of those less well informed.  Click here for his article.  The unfortunate fact is that Jihadists and Islamists have Muslim scripture largely on their side.  For example, on the interpretation of "jihad" as internal, spiritual struggle Spencer writes:

The hadith in which Muhammad makes a distinction between “greater jihad” of spiritual struggle and the “lesser jihad” of warfare doesn't appear in any of the hadith collections that Muslims consider most reliable. Jihad understood as warfare against unbelievers in order to establish the hegemony of Islamic law has much greater support in Islamic scripture, tradition, and historical practice -- and leading jihad theorists including Hasan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Abdullah Azzam, Osama bin Laden’s friend and intellectual mentor and co-founder with him of Al-Qaeda, challenge the authenticity of the saying in their writings.

Spencer writes also:

The theology of offensive and defensive jihad is far older than the "extremists," and is in fact rooted in the Qur'an (2:193 and 9:29 and for offensive jihad) and Muhammad's statements, notably the one in which he directs his followers to offer non-Muslims conversion, subjugation, or war. Then there are the schools of Islamic jurisprudence, which all teach the necessity for offensive jihad in order to subjugate unbelievers under the rule of Sharia.

But I have written of this before.  Consult this same article for Spencer's interaction with and critique of Mary Habeck, a professor at Johns Hopkins, and author of a book about the jihadists entitled Knowing the Enemy.