The Pope and Islam

Pope Benedict XVI's outreach tour of the Middle East this week failed to placate critics still smarting from his riot-inciting comments in a 2006 speech at Germany's Regensburg University. The pontiff at that time quoted 15th-century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Paleologus who said: "Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

The pope said he regrets any hurt feelings, but some Muslims want more contrition. Sheik Yusef Abu Hussein, mufti of Karak in Jordan, said, "We wanted him to clearly apologize. What the pope said about the prophet Muhammad is untrue. Islam did not spread through the power of sword. It's a religion of tolerance and faith." A recent post on a jihadist Web site took a somewhat different tone, denouncing "this cursed Pope" and calling on its readers to "strive to kill him, strive to slaughter him." That Muslim poster must have missed the sermon on tolerance and faith.

Paleologus, the Byzantine emperor, was something of an authority on Muslim military power. He spent much of his reign defending his hard-pressed realm from the predatory Ottoman Empire. Before ascending to the throne, he spent a year in the court of Sultan Bayezid I as an honorary hostage and was forced to accompany the Ottoman army that conquered Philadelphia, the last Christian bastion in Anatolia. The city was renamed Alasehir, the city of Allah.

Those who object to the idea that Islam was spread by the sword are not at war with Pope Benedict but with history. What are now called Muslim lands used to be Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian lands. Force was the key element in the rapid expansion of the caliphate in the century between the death of Muhammad in 632 and the Muslim defeat at the hands of the Franks in the Battle of Tours in 732 in what is now southern France. The rules of engagement were laid down in the Hadith Sahih Muslim 19:4294, which instructs Muslims to offer any unbelievers they encounter three choices: to convert, pay tribute or be forcibly subjugated.

The martial underpinnings of Muslim expansion conveniently are summarized in the flag of Saudi Arabia, which features the Shahada, the first pillar of Islam, underlined by a sword. According to the Web site of the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the sword was added in 1906, "symbolizing the military successes of Islam" as well as those of founding King Ibn Saud.

Muslims who object stridently to the implication they are not peace-loving would have a stronger claim if Islam's most ardent proponents did not resort instantly to violence over perceived slights. The Muslim world's supposed universal culture of tolerance also is open to question. Muslims in the West enjoy freedoms that frequently are denied in the Middle East, such as repairing their ancient houses of worship or publicly discussing their faith. Islam is the only major religion in which it is settled religious law that those who convert to another religion face the death penalty.

The pope is brave to stand by his faith. Mutual respect can only come when both sides face reality and embrace history, warts and all. It is plainly farcical to assert that Islam was never spread by the sword, just as it would be historically inaccurate to say Christians and Jews never raised the sword. If apologies are in order, we are still waiting for any apology from the Muslim world for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

WRITTEN as an editorial in the Washington Times on May 13th, 2009

Islamism Series: Goodbye, America

"Imagine a world without the U.S. or Israel, it can happen." That is a publicly pronounced statement by Iranian President and radical islamic idealog Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that I read to my Racial Islam students every week. But is anyone taking him seriously? How could the United States, the acknowledged "most powerful nation in the history of the planet earth" cease to exist? Could a relatively small nation like Iran make something like this happen? I mean, the United States defeated the British against all odds, survived a devastating Civil War, and led the world in overcoming both the Fascism of Hitler's Nazi Germany and the Socialism of the Soviet Union, a pair of legitimate world military powers. Well, it might be pretty difficult for Iran, at least acting on it's own, to make America completely disappear as a nation. However, to think that we are invulnerable from a devastating attack from them would be to act with naivete, and that is something that we must not allow to happen. Because not only can Iran cause widespread devastation and seriously cripple, if not destroy, the United States as a superpower, but they are actively engaged in efforts to make that happen. Throughout history, even single mighty empire that has ever come along has fallen. Does Egypt still exist? Sure. Does Rome still exist? Of course. Is Britain still a strong peopled nation? Most definitely. But the fact of the matter is that not one of these is the major force in the world today, and at one time in history each one was the dominant power in the world. For the United States to fail to learn this lesson of history is for the United States to doom itself to repeat the process, and to one day either cease to exist or find itself a secondary nation. America faces many dangers in this process, including losing it's own unique national identity from within by continually sacrificing our traditions, laws, and language on the mantle of multi-culturalism. But the specific threat the Iranians can and are planning is nuclear. Ahmadinejad is doing everything in his power to obtain nuclear power. Of course it's for peaceful energy purposes if you ask him. This is the same guy that has said publicly that "Israel must be wiped off the map", "it will one day vanish", and "it is a tree that will be eliminated by one storm." What exactly do you think he is talking about here, and when he speaks of a world without the U.S.? The plan that Iran hopes to enact involves what is known as an 'EMP' attack on the United States. Iran would continue to develop their nuclear program to the point where they can construct a couple of nuclear bombs. They are already testing missile technology that would allow them to reach the continental United States from a sea-going vessel. Their plan would be to fire one of those missiles with an attached nuke at our country. Not at a city like New York, trying to blowup infrastructure. No, all that would do is make us angry and lead to their self-destruction. While some of these crazed islamists will give up their lives for the cause, the entire leadership is not suicidal. What they will do instead is launch this nuke so that it explodes in the atmosphere above our country, instantly creating what is known as an 'EMP' effect. In a report released earlier this year by a commission appointed by Congress after the 9/11 attacks to study just such a scenario, the following results were released: "If even a crude nuclear weapon were detonated anywhere between 40 kilometers to 400 kilometers above the earth, in a split-second it would generate an electro-magnetic pulse [EMP] that would cripple military and civilian communications, power, transportation, water, food, and other infrastructure." It wouldn't cause many immediate deaths or damage many buildings, but it would cause electric, gas, lighting, and water systems to fail. Committee spokesperson Dr. William Graham says that the result would be that the United States “would quickly revert to an early 19th century type of country, except that we would have 10 times as many people with ten times fewer resources. Most of the things we depend upon would be gone, and we would literally be depending on our own assets and those we could reach by walking to them.” Basically with the launch of one strategically placed weapon, the Iranians would eliminate the United States as a superpower. They would then turn their remaining arsenal on Israel, eliminating this much smaller nation from existence. Iran could do this openly as a nation, or they could farm the dirty work out to a terrorist organization and try to claim that they had no knowledge of the plot. Make no mistake about the intentions of the current Iranian regime, or the intentions of radical islamists the world over. They want the world under Islamic rule and law, and they will do whatever it takes to overcome those standing in the way of making it happen. The U.S. government and military, and all of us as citizens, need to be aware of and understand exactly what we are up against if we are going to preserve our great nation and it's strength in world affairs. If we refuse to meet this challenge, it will be goodbye America. At least to the America that we all know and love.

Islamism Series: The Olympics

This is the continuation of my regular feature
'Islamism Series'. At the bottom of this entry, you can click on the label of that name to read the prior entries.

The 2008 Beijing Olympics began yesterday with the Opening Ceremony, and will continue on through August 24th. For the next two and a half weeks, the athletic dramas of this Olympiad will play out under it's theme "One World, One Dream". But as we have learned in previous installments of the 'Islamism Series', the radical Islamofascists have their own vision of 'One world, one dream' that runs counter to that on display this month in China. The radical Islamists want the world united as one Caliphate under the banner of Islam, run by the Caliph, with everyone either believing in or subjecting themselves to the rule of the Islamists. To this end, every major event held around the world becomes a tempting target for them to flex their muscles, to show that they can and will influence world events by inserting their violent vision into the proceedings if allowed. Particularly since 9/11, every major public event has properly seen a dramatic increase in the scope and cost of the security surrounding those events. From the Super Bowl to political conventions, and everything in between, security is stepped up, and convenience and personal liberties are sacrificed thanks to the terrorists of Islamofascism. Already there have been threats and plots against these Olympics. In an attack that the Washington Post described as being done only by the "ethnic Uighur minority", these terrorists killed 16 police officers and injured dozens of others this week by driving a dump truck into a group of officers who were out for a training jog, then tossing grenades into the police compound. This 'ethnic minority' is Islamic, by the way. The mass media has once again buried this fact from your knowledge under their banner of political correctness. The Uighur militant Islamic group known as the Turkistan Islamic Party released a video coinciding with the Olympics Opening Ceremony in which they showed a burning Olympic logo, an image of one of the Olympic venues exploding, and which included a warning to all Muslims to stay away from Olympic and Beijing-area venues. Among the warnings were calls for Muslims to avoid taking public transportation, and pleas for Muslim peoples to not allow their athletes to attend the games. According to a report by the Bloomberg news organization, China has deployed a 100,000-person strong anti-terror unit for the Olympics, and equipment that includes fighter jets, helicopters, naval vessels, and even anti-aircraft launchers at the main Olympic stadium. Back in January, Chinese officials uncovered a plot to attack the Olympics and confiscated "guns, homemade bombs, training materials and extremist religious ideological materials" during a raid that resulted in the death of two terrorists and arrest of a dozen and a half more. The Chinese government is Communist, and politically repressive, so the show that they are putting on this month with the Olympiad largely masks a host of human-rights problems that should make opponents of America's detainee policy at Guantanamo Bay cringe. But all that the Radical Islamists want is to replace one repressive regime with another, simply changing the ideology from Communism to Islamofascism. So while you are watching the basketball, soccer, track & field, swimming, diving, volleyball, baseball, gymnastics, boxing and other incredible displays of athleticism, and while your chest swells with pride over emerging American Olympic heroes and other human interest stories that emerge, there is another side. Behind the scenes, hundreds of thousands of Chinese and others are working long and hard in an attempt to secure these Olympics from terrorist attacks that have been and are being plotted. Let's wish them the best in that effort against the radical, terrorist Islamists.

Islamism Series: Return of the Caliphate

This is the continuation of my regular feature 'Islamism Series'. At the bottom of this entry, you can click on the label of that name to read the prior entries.

So what exactly do they want, these radical Islamists, these terrorists? Why don't they just live their lives, and let us live ours? Why can't they just leave us alone? Those are just a few of the many natural, normal questions that the typical, uneducated American usually asks themselves about the radical Islamists. Why are the terrorists blowing up themselves and others, cutting people's heads off, and hating Israel, the United States, and western culture so much? The answer lies in understanding one simple concept: the Caliphate. Radical Islamists want to overthrow and eliminate western governments and culture, and reinstall the rule of the Caliph over first the traditional Muslim lands of the Middle East, and eventually the entire world. So what is this 'Caliphate', and what is a 'Caliph'? Let's take a quick trip back in history, to the late 7th century. Muhammad is the key personality in Islamic history, but we will save a more full treatment of him for another day. For now, let's just preface things with the fact that he was inspired to, founded, and spread the Muslim faith during his lifetime. In 632 A.D., at the age of 62, Muhammad died, and control of the Muslim world was debated and fought over. One group, who became known as the Sunni's, believed that Muhammad's successor should come in the way that tradition dictated at that time: through election, appointment, or consensus. Another group, who became known as the Shiite's, believed that the successors should come from Muhammad's family. He had a family member by the name of Ali, and Shiite supporters felt that Ali should be the successor, and then his descendants down through time. The Sunni's were by far the larger, more powerful group, and their idea of succession through election/appointment took control of the largest portion of the Muslim world under an appointed leader known as a 'Caliph'. The word finds its origins in the old Arabic words halifa (successor) and halafa, meaning 'to succeed'. The Muslim lands ruled over by the Caliph became known as a Caliphate, and this ruling authority spread the rule and control of the Muslims to dominate much of the known world including the entire Middle East, westward into Europe, and eastward into India. Then around the year 1300 A.D., the Ottoman Turks first came to power, and the Ottoman Empire spread the rule of the Caliphate further into the east and west. This rule of the Caliphate would basically remain continuous in one form or another for almost 1,300 years until World War I. For one of the few times, the Muslim world got involved in an outside dispute at that point, joining the war effort on the side of the Germans, the Axis power, ultimately the losing side. In the aftermath of World War I, secular (non-religious) government came to power in the Middle East, and the new leader of Turkey, Kemal Ataturk, abolished the Caliphate. For the first time in 13 centuries there was no central religious leadership in the Muslim world, and religious control fell to the local Imams and clerics in each country, where it remains today. So what do the radicals want? Ultimately what they want is the return of the Caliph to power over the Muslim world, and the expansion of control of the Caliphate to again occur throughout the Middle East, the hemisphere, and ultimately the entire world. That is their ultimate goal. Major obstacles to this goal include the presence and influence in the Middle East of the non-Islamic government and society in places like Israel, the financial and cultural influence of the west as led by the United States, and ideas and concepts like democracy and capitalism, which are wholly anti-Islamic in their view. Bottom line is, they demand that you and I, our government and societies sure, but we as individuals also, do one of three things. First, we can do what they really want: convert to Islam and be a good Muslim. If we don't want to do that, we can pay a tax to the Muslims, which they call the Jizya, and submit ourselves under their rule and 'protection' as second-class citizens. Failing conversion or submission, we can fight. That's it, there is no 'live and let live'. There is no 'you do your thing, I do my thing, and let's leave each other alone'. There is no peace treaty or deal to be cut. They want your conversion, submission, or physical destruction. Period. So now you know what the radical Islamists want: the return of the Caliphate, which includes your conversion or submission. Is that what you want? If not, you have only one choice, the same choice that faced our forefathers who fought the similar ideology of Nazism in World War II: fight them until their influence is completely destroyed. If we 'bring home the troops' from Iraq and Afghanistan, only one side will have quit the war, because they will continue it, that much is guaranteed. So we can have the fortitude to stay and fight them until their influence is eliminated, or we can continue to deal with their terrorism, attacks, destruction, and hatred throughout the world. Your choice.

Islamism Series: Honor Killings

Let's get the Islamofascist rants out of the way with right off the bat. Yes, America is a society where murder has become epidemic in some communities, and domestic homicides are nothing at all peculiar to only the Muslim community. That much is obvious simply by watching a few weeks of the 'Nancy Grace' program on CNN's Headline News network, were the latest murder of an attractive woman by a husband or boyfriend is the topic of discussion at least 50% of the time. People kill people for many reasons, and some kill people that they do now, or at least used to love. What the topic of this post discusses is the particular problem of Islamic 'honor killing', which is indeed peculiar to that community. The newsworthiness to the American public is that the phenomenon is new here, is growing, and is taking the lives of American citizens. Tomorrow night, Saturday July 25th, at 8pm, Fox News reporter Megyn Kelly will host a special titled "Murder in the Family: Honor Killing in America" in which she will discuss the problem of fathers killing daughters, brothers killing sisters, husbands killing wives, all in order to restore their families' 'honor'. Kelly is an outstanding reporter and host, and this program should prove as eye-opening as it's title implies. Last night (Weds July 24th) on The O'Reilly Factor, Kelly previewed the special by discussing with host Bill O'Reilly the particular case of a father killing his two teenage daughters in Texas, simply because the man felt that the two girls were becoming too 'westernized'. Amina and Sara Said (pictured) were shot by their father (an audio exists of the 911 call made by the girls during the shooting) last year, and their Egyptian Muslim father is now a fugitive from Texas justice. The man had come to the States and married a Texas woman, so the two girls were American citizens. The 17-year old Sara had recently begun seeing an American boy, and had told friends that if her father found out he would "kill her." Little did the friends know just how serious she was. In Chicago, Subhash Chander killed his pregnant daughter, son-in-law, and 3-year old grandson because he disapproved of his daughter marrying a man from a lower caste, as was discussed by Michelle Malkin in her oustanding blog. In Georgia, Chauhdry Rashid strangled his 25-year old daughter to death after she threatened to divorce her husband. Radical Islamists believe that Islamic law, or Shariah, should be the primary source of law and cultural identity within a state, and they believe that every state should be governed by this law and follow the teachings of the Koran and the Sunnah. If they gain control of the world, including America, which is their stated goal, then every woman will lose her civil rights. The Islamists claim that these types of killings are perfectly within their rights as established by their society and culture. Unfortunately for these particular men highlighted, they committed their crimes here in America. Here in America we simply call it 'murder', and that it is of family members is considered particularly heinous. These men should face the full force of the American judicial system, and be incarcerated for life when found guilty. They should certainly not be deported to some country that may sympathetically release them based on that society's culture. No matter how you slice it, no religion or culture that specifically authorizes murder of family members can be considered as legitimate. Period. The title to this blog entry will link you to hear the phone call from the Said girls to 911 on the night that their father murdered them. Listen, and then be sure to watch or record the Fox News special at 8pm on Saturday night and begin to get more educated on this particular type of domestic homicide, coming soon to your town.

Islamism Series: Introduction

This is the first part in what will be an ongoing series of postings relating to the serious problems posed to American society, and indeed to free peoples all around the world, by what I am going to term 'Islamism', and what has been given other names such as 'Islamofascism' and as taught this year in Pennsylvania MPO (municipal police officer) classes as 'Radical Islam'. At the bottom of each posting is a series of 'labels', and you click on the one named 'Islamism Series' in order to view all postings that come in this continuing series.

Since the beginning of 2008, I have been teaching a class at the Advanced Training Unit of the Philadelphia (PA) Police Department titled "Radical Islam", and it has been an eye-opening educational experience. Between the lessons learned in the teaching of this class, as well as a course that I took a few years back at CCP on the topic of terrorism with its text "Terrorism and Homeland Security" by Jonathan R. White, and my own personal reading done since 9/11 of books such as "American Jihad" by Steven Emerson, "The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Middle East" by Martin Sieff, and "Holy War on the Homefront" by Harvey Kushner (all of which I highly recommend), the fact that Islamism is perhaps the overall biggest threat to American society in today's world has been driven home to me. Just as eye-opening has been what I perceive to be an incredible lack of recognition of this fact by the American public, lulled back to sleep by the American media's political agenda, in the wake of the historically outrageous and devastating attacks that occured just seven short years ago. Islamism is defined as a set of idealogies that holds Islam, the Muslim faith, is not only a religion but also should be considered as a political system. Islamists would say that to call it a political system is to trivialize it, that the truth is that Islam should be a "complete way of life." However you want to slice it, and by whatever words you want to associate it, Islamists believe that Islamic law (Sharia) must be the primary source of law and cultural identity within a state. Islamists believe that there can indeed by peace on earth: when Islam dominates and controls the world, and anyone who refuses to accept Islam is either subjugated under it or is killed. There is a naive belief of some that we should either ignore this threat to the world, or that we should try to negotiate with it. Those who feel this way take the position of Democratic presidential candidate Barrack Obama, that we need to "bring home the troops" and "end the war" in the Middle East. The fact is, this war was declared on us, not by us, and it was declared on us by an enemy who will not stop fighting until they control the world. If we come home, only one side has stopped fighting in the war, which will continue without us, and we will ultimately reap the tragic consequences of our failure to stomach this true battle of civilizations. Perhaps the first lesson that the American public needs to learn is this: Islamism only allows for what they term the 'Three Choices'. First, they invite you to Islam, to join or convert. If you do so, they will have no problem with you. However, fail to convert, the second choice given to you is to pay a tax, what they term the 'Jizya', and you need to do so "with willing submission". This means that you as an individual and a society will pay some type of financial and material tax to the Muslim world in order to continue practicing your faith under their "protection", but you will be subjugated under their ultimate control as a 2nd-class citizen of the Muslim world. If you do not wish to either convert or pay the tax, then your third option is to fight. Period, end of story. There is not fourth option. There is no "live and let live", no "you go your way, I'll go mine." Islamism leaves no option to individuals or to nations other than to join, be subjugated, or be destroyed. Choose not to believe this? Then you are simply ignorant. That is not meant as a slander against you, it is meant that you simply are not educated enough on the subject of Islamism to have a valid opinion. My advice would be, rather than simply choosing to not believe based on nothing other than some pie-in-the-sky wishful thinking, that you should begin to read and educate yourself on this topic. Following these Islamism Series postings will be one good way. I will point out many different facets of Islamism along the way, relating to terms that you have heard but perhaps do not fully understand, such as Jihad and Abrogation. I will discuss specific groups such as Hamas and al Qaeda and Hezbollah. I will discuss individuals such as Muhammad, Osama bin Laden, Sayyid Qutb, Ayatollah Khomeini, Hassan Nasrallah, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad among others. Also, I will discuss specific attacks against the United States and the West, including the 9/11 attacks, the London and Madrid subway bombings, the Beslan school takeover, and others. There will be idealogy, religion, politics, history, and much more along the way, with at least one posting coming in this "Islamism Series" each week. Again, if you miss an excerpt, click below on the "Islamism Series" label to find all the postings. Most importantly, through this series, the books recommended earlier, and any other source you wish to use, get yourself educated. Just a small look into it will awaken you to just how big a problem we face.

Islamic Terrorists Aren't Poor & Ignorant

Nearly everyone on earth is aware that Islamofascism is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, problems facing today's world. Here in America, the iconic Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York were bombed in 1993 before finally being collapsed in the attacks of 9/11. What some are not aware of is that the United States continues to be attacked, more than a dozen and a half attempts (at least) since that infamous date in 2001. Included among these were Jose Padilla's plans in 2002 to set off a 'dirty bomb', Dhiren Barot's plan to attack the New York Stock Exchange in 2004, Kevin James and the plot to attack the National Guard facilities in Los Angeles in 2005, Narsearl Batiste & crew and their 2006 plot to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago, the mammoth plot in summer of '06 to simultaneously blow up numerous airliners flying from Britain to the U.S. using liquid explosives. Right here in our own backyard, we had the May 2007 plot to attack the soldiers at Fort Dix, New Jersey. Who are these terrorists, and what do they want? Contrary to theories pushed by certain sociologists and liberal thinkers, terrorists are not poor, stupid, and ignorant. According to an article titled "What Makes a Terrorist?" published in the November/December 2007 issue of 'The American' magazine, the highly-respected Pew Research Center conducted a Global Attitudes Project public opinion survey during February 2004 in Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan, and Turkey in an attempt to answer just that question. Their findings show that those who both support and engage in terrorism activities are more highly educated and much better off financially than most in the region. A similar study by the Rand Corporation found that almost 60% of suicide bombers among the Palestinians on the West Bank and in Gaza had more than a high school education. Nasra Hassan, a U.N. relief worker in the region conducted interviews with hundreds of militants, and stated "none of them were uneducated, desperately poor, simple-minded, or depressed." The article states what is a simple fact: people who are willing to sacrifice themselves for a cause have diverse motivations. Some motivated by nationalism, some by religious fanaticism, some by historic grievances, etc. Facts seem to pretty clearly support that the majority of terrorists have education and means. They know exactly what they are doing and why they are doing it, and they do it willingly and happily. What Islamofascist proponents want is to reestablish the worldwide Caliphate and unite the world under Islam and their own political leadership. To this end, they want to strike down western civilization, which is led by the United States and Great Britain, and which is highlighted in what they see as their own region of the Middle East by the nation of Israel. Defeat the U.S., Britain, and Israel by either or a combination of physical destruction or political weakening of power, and the Islamic Caliphate can more easily take control. That is what they want, and they won't cut any deals to 'live and let live'. If we "bring home the troops" that will only stop one side from fighting. The Islamic terrorists are not poor and ignorant. Far from it, they are coming for us, they will keep coming unless we utterly defeat them and their ideology. And in doing so, they are well aware of what they are doing, what price they will have to pay, and how long it may take to accomplish.