Monsters and Children

How dumb bigots and political correctness have hijacked our national conversation about radical violent extremism. (By which I mean: talking to Muslims about al Qaeda.)

BY J.M. BERGER | DECEMBER 9, 2011

The president of the United States may be the most powerful man in the world, but even an executive order cannot defy the immutable law of physics governing the relationship between having one's cake and eating it, too.

The administration's new 23-page strategy for countering violent extremism, released yesterday, seeks to preempt terrorist radicalization without specifically targeting Muslims, a "color blind" approach, so to speak. Let's look at some of the specific proposals, and see how they might work.

1) U.S. Attorneys will be tasked with outreach and engagement to communities at risk of radicalization. So to combat white supremacist recruitment and ideology, the U.S. Attorney in Texas, for instance, might hold roundtables with leaders of the local white community. Keep in mind that white people, of course, are the target audience for radical racist recruiters.

2) The Justice Department will produce brochures that explain steps white people can take if they feel they have been discriminated against.

3) White people will be engaged on issues other than white supremacist ideology, so that they don't feel that the government only sees them a national security threat.

4) Federal training programs will be scrutinized to make sure that the government is not including anti-white material in training programs for law enforcement officers.

5) The Department of Homeland Security, in conjunction with the FBI and the National Counterterrorism Center, will develop case studies on preoperational indicators, i.e., what are the behaviors of white people that might indicate they are about to commit an act of racist violence.

6) The government will seek to counter racist propaganda by stressing the inclusiveness of American values and our commitment to seeing white people obtain equal access to American democracy, freedoms, and opportunities.

7) The government will support efforts to communicate to the American public that not all white people are extremists and seek to discourage those who would cast suspicion on the entire white community.

I could go on, but you get the point. This is not a one-size-fits-all strategy no matter how much the president wishes it could be. At its heart, the document is condescending to Muslims, who are expected to be grateful for its tactful omissions, while simultaneously implying that homegrown terrorism stems in some quantifiable way from legitimate Muslim grievances rather than the intrusion of an alien ideology. Meanwhile, the power centers in American politics, both left and right, have grown increasingly counterproductive in their attitudes toward Muslim Americans.

Mario Tama/Getty Images

 

J.M. Berger is editor of Intelwire.com and author of Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam.

SHAUNMADDY

8:03 AM ET

December 10, 2011

Islam rox.

They are the real Islamic people. They have no fear of death. They want peace.
JERUSALEM (JTA) -- More than a dozen graves at the Mount of Olives cemetery in Jerusalem were vandalized, the latest in a series of attacks on one of Judaism's oldest cemeteries.

On June 14, some 14 graves were damaged by Arab youths wielding sledgehammers, according to private security guards stationed at the iconic cemetery located in eastern Jerusalem. At least five of the damaged gravesites are those of Americans buried in the cemetery, according to Rabbi Moshe Bezalel Buzokovsky of the Chevra Kadisha.

The recent damage is in addition to vandalism sustained at the cemetery last month on Nakba Day, or Catastrophe Day, when Arabs mark the declaration of the state of Israel. During riots, Palestinians hurled large rocks and boulders toward the graves, chipping and breaking at least 15. Arab youths also vandalized or destroyed nearly 40 newly installed surveillance cameras in the cemetery, according to the International Committee for the Preservation of Har HaZeitim. Har HaZeitim is the Hebrew name for the Mount of Olives.

At the same time, local Arabs began illegally expanding a mosque to within 15 feet of the grave of Menachem Begin, according to the committee.

In the last year, efforts of the committee have resulted in the restoration of 2,000 of an estimated 40,000 graves that were destroyed prior to 1967 under Jordanian rule, an increased private security presence as well as the installation of 50 surveillance cameras and fluorescent lighting.

There are an estimated 150,000 graves on the Mount, where Jews have been buried since biblical times. Notable individuals buried there include the prophets Zechariah, Malachi and Hagai; famous modern rabbis such as Aryeh Kaplan and Ahron Soloveichik; Henrietta Szold, founder of Hadassah; Hazzan Yossele Rosenblatt; and British Parliament member Robert Maxwell.
JERUSALEM (JTA) -- More than a dozen graves at the Mount of Olives cemetery in Jerusalem were vandalized, the latest in a series of attacks on one of Judaism's oldest cemeteries.

On June 14, some 14 graves were damaged by Arab youths wielding sledgehammers, according to private security guards stationed at the iconic cemetery located in eastern Jerusalem. At least five of the damaged gravesites are those of Americans buried in the cemetery, according to Rabbi Moshe Bezalel Buzokovsky of the Chevra Kadisha.

The recent damage is in addition to vandalism sustained at the cemetery last month on Nakba Day, or Catastrophe Day, when Arabs mark the declaration of the state of Israel. During riots, Palestinians hurled large rocks and boulders toward the graves, chipping and breaking at least 15. Arab youths also vandalized or destroyed nearly 40 newly installed surveillance cameras in the cemetery, according to the International Committee for the Preservation of Har HaZeitim. Har HaZeitim is the Hebrew name for the Mount of Olives.

At the same time, local Arabs began illegally expanding a mosque to within 15 feet of the grave of Menachem Begin, according to the committee.

In the last year, efforts of the committee have resulted in the restoration of 2,000 of an estimated 40,000 graves that were destroyed prior to 1967 under Jordanian rule, an increased private security presence as well as the installation of 50 surveillance cameras and fluorescent lighting.

There are an estimated 150,000 graves on the Mount, where Jews have been buried since biblical times. Notable individuals buried there include the prophets Zechariah, Malachi and Hagai; famous modern rabbis such as Aryeh Kaplan and Ahron Soloveichik; Henrietta Szold, founder of Hadassah; Hazzan Yossele Rosenblatt; and British Parliament member Robert Maxwell.

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- More than a dozen graves at the Mount of Olives cemetery in Jerusalem were vandalized, the latest in a series of attacks on one of Judaism's oldest cemeteries.

On June 14, some 14 graves were damaged by Arab youths wielding sledgehammers, according to private security guards stationed at the iconic cemetery located in eastern Jerusalem. At least five of the damaged gravesites are those of Americans buried in the cemetery, according to Rabbi Moshe Bezalel Buzokovsky of the Chevra Kadisha.

The recent damage is in addition to vandalism sustained at the cemetery last month on Nakba Day, or Catastrophe Day, when Arabs mark the declaration of the state of Israel. During riots, Palestinians hurled large rocks and boulders toward the graves, chipping and breaking at least 15. Arab youths also vandalized or destroyed nearly 40 newly installed surveillance cameras in the cemetery, according to the International Committee for the Preservation of Har HaZeitim. Har HaZeitim is the Hebrew name for the Mount of Olives.

At the same time, local Arabs began illegally expanding a mosque to within 15 feet of the grave of Menachem Begin, according to the committee.

In the last year, efforts of the committee have resulted in the restoration of 2,000 of an estimated 40,000 graves that were destroyed prior to 1967 under Jordanian rule, an increased private security presence as well as the installation of 50 surveillance cameras and fluorescent lighting.

There are an estimated 150,000 graves on the Mount, where Jews have been buried since biblical times. Notable individuals buried there include the prophets Zechariah, Malachi and Hagai; famous modern rabbis such as Aryeh Kaplan and Ahron Soloveichik; Henrietta Szold, founder of Hadassah; Hazzan Yossele Rosenblatt; and British Parliament member Robert Maxwell.

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- More than a dozen graves at the Mount of Olives cemetery in Jerusalem were vandalized, the latest in a series of attacks on one of Judaism's oldest cemeteries.

On June 14, some 14 graves were damaged by Arab youths wielding sledgehammers, according to private security guards stationed at the iconic cemetery located in eastern Jerusalem. At least five of the damaged gravesites are those of Americans buried in the cemetery, according to Rabbi Moshe Bezalel Buzokovsky of the Chevra Kadisha.

The recent damage is in addition to vandalism sustained at the cemetery last month on Nakba Day, or Catastrophe Day, when Arabs mark the declaration of the state of Israel. During riots, Palestinians hurled large rocks and boulders toward the graves, chipping and breaking at least 15. Arab youths also vandalized or destroyed nearly 40 newly installed surveillance cameras in the cemetery, according to the International Committee for the Preservation of Har HaZeitim. Har HaZeitim is the Hebrew name for the Mount of Olives.

At the same time, local Arabs began illegally expanding a mosque to within 15 feet of the grave of Menachem Begin, according to the committee.

In the last year, efforts of the committee have resulted in the restoration of 2,000 of an estimated 40,000 graves that were destroyed prior to 1967 under Jordanian rule, an increased private security presence as well as the installation of 50 surveillance cameras and fluorescent lighting.

There are an estimated 150,000 graves on the Mount, where Jews have been buried since biblical times. Notable individuals buried there include the prophets Zechariah, Malachi and Hagai; famous modern rabbis such as Aryeh Kaplan and Ahron Soloveichik; Henrietta Szold, founder of Hadassah; Hazzan Yossele Rosenblatt; and British Parliament member Robert Maxwell.

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- More than a dozen graves at the Mount of Olives cemetery in Jerusalem were vandalized, the latest in a series of attacks on one of Judaism's oldest cemeteries.

On June 14, some 14 graves were damaged by Arab youths wielding sledgehammers, according to private security guards stationed at the iconic cemetery located in eastern Jerusalem. At least five of the damaged gravesites are those of Americans buried in the cemetery, according to Rabbi Moshe Bezalel Buzokovsky of the Chevra Kadisha.

The recent damage is in addition to vandalism sustained at the cemetery last month on Nakba Day, or Catastrophe Day, when Arabs mark the declaration of the state of Israel. During riots, Palestinians hurled large rocks and boulders toward the graves, chipping and breaking at least 15. Arab youths also vandalized or destroyed nearly 40 newly installed surveillance cameras in the cemetery, according to the International Committee for the Preservation of Har HaZeitim. Har HaZeitim is the Hebrew name for the Mount of Olives.

At the same time, local Arabs began illegally expanding a mosque to within 15 feet of the grave of Menachem Begin, according to the committee.

In the last year, efforts of the committee have resulted in the restoration of 2,000 of an estimated 40,000 graves that were destroyed prior to 1967 under Jordanian rule, an increased private security presence as well as the installation of 50 surveillance cameras and fluorescent lighting.

There are an estimated 150,000 graves on the Mount, where Jews have been buried since biblical times. Notable individuals buried there include the prophets Zechariah, Malachi and Hagai; famous modern rabbis such as Aryeh Kaplan and Ahron Soloveichik; Henrietta Szold, founder of Hadassah; Hazzan Yossele Rosenblatt; and British Parliament member Robert Maxwell.

Thanks

Travel agency

 

AKW

12:04 PM ET

December 10, 2011

WAKE UP!

"I am speaking to those who, though not stupid or evil, are wallowing in prudence and doubt. And to them I say: "Wake up, people. Wake up!!" — you don't understand or don't want to understand that a reverse–Crusade is in progress.
You don't understand or don't want to understand that if we don't oppose them, if we don't defend ourselves, if we don't fight, the Jihad will win. And it will destroy the world that for better or worse we've managed to build, to change, to improve, to render a little more intelligent, that is to say, less bigoted—or even not bigoted at all. And with that it will destroy our culture, our art, our science, our morals, our values, our pleasures."
---Oriana Fallaci, (1929 – 2006) Italian journalist, author, and political interviewer, to her editor after the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks

“Ever since the religion of Islam appeared in the world, the espousers of it…have been as wolves and tigers to all other nations, rending and tearing all that fell into their merciless paws, and grinding them with their iron teeth; that numberless cities are raised from the foundation, and only their name remaining; that many countries, which were once as the garden of God, are now a desolate wilderness; and that so many once numerous and powerful nations are vanished from the earth! Such was, and is at this day, the rage, the fury, the revenge, of these destroyers of human kind.”
----John Wesley (1703-1791) England, Methodist leader and renown theologian

”[Islam] is essentially an obstructive, intolerant system. It has consecrated despotism; it has consecrated polygamy; it has consecrated slavery. It has declared war against every other creed; it has claimed to be at least dominant in every land. When it ceases to have an enemy to contend against, it sinks into sluggish stupidity and into a barbarism far viler. It must have an enemy; if cut off from conflict with the infidel, it finds its substitute in sectarian hatred of brother Moslems…”
----Edward Augustus Freeman (1823-1892) British historian, Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford, non-resident professor at Cornell University.

"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."
---- Manuel II Palaiologos, (1350 – 1425) Byzantine Emperor

"The true Islamic concept of peace goes something like this: "Peace comes through submission to Muhammad and his concept of Allah" (i.e. Islam). As such the Islamic concept of peace, meaning making the whole world Muslim, is actually a mandate for war. It was inevitable and unavoidable that the conflict would eventually reach our borders, and so it has.
----Vernon Richards, (19 July, 1915 – 10 December 2001) Italian anarchist, editor, author

“In the seventh century of the Christian era, a wandering Arab of the lineage of Hagar [i.e., Muhammad], the Egyptian, combining the powers of transcendent genius, with the preternatural energy of a fanatic, and the fraudulent spirit of an impostor, proclaimed himself as a messenger from Heaven, and spread desolation and delusion over an extensive portion of the earth. Adopting from the sublime conception of the Mosaic law, the doctrine of one omnipotent God; he connected indissolubly with it, the audacious falsehood, that he was himself his prophet and apostle. Adopting from the new Revelation of Jesus, the faith and hope of immortal life, and of future retribution, he humbled it to the dust by adapting all the rewards and sanctions of his religion to the gratification of the sexual passion. He poisoned the sources of human felicity at the fountain, by degrading the condition of the female sex, and the allowance of polygamy; and he declared undistinguishing and exterminating war, as a part of his religion, against all the rest of mankind. THE ESSENCE OF HIS DOCTRINE WAS VIOLENCE AND LUST: TO EXALT THE BRUTAL OVER THE SPIRITUAL PART OF HUMAN NATURE (Adams's capital letters)… Between these two religions, thus contrasted in their characters, a war of twelve hundred years has already raged. The war is yet flagrant… While the merciless and dissolute dogmas of the false prophet shall furnish motives to human action, there can never be peace upon earth, and goodwill towards men."
---John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) Sixth President of the United States

“How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia [rabies] in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. ...The fact that in Mohammedan law [sharia] every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities—but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world.”
---Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British Prime Minister

“Today [1950], the hatred of the Moslem countries against the West is becoming hatred against Christianity itself. Although the statesmen have not yet taken it into account, there is still grave danger that the temporal power of Islam may return and, with it, the menace that it may shake off a West which has ceased to be Christian, and affirm itself as a great anti-Christian world power.”
---Fulton J. Sheen (1895-1979) Renowned Catholic Bishop

“Qur’an… an accursed book… So long as there is this book there will be no peace in the world.”
---William Gladstone (1809-1898) Prime Minister of Great Britain 1868 – 1894

world, which will shake off the domination of Europeans — still nominally Christian — and reappear as the prime enemy of our civilization? The future always comes as a surprise, but political wisdom consists in attempting at least some partial judgment of what that surprise may be. And for my part I cannot but believe that a main unexpected thing of the future is the return of Islam.”
---Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953) French Author/Historian and political activist

“The Greeks who triumphed at Marathon and Salamis did a work without which the world would have been deprived of the social value of Plato and Aristotle, of Aeschylus, Herodotus, and Thucydides. The civilization of Europe, America, and Australia exists today at all only because of the victories of civilized man over the enemies of civilization, because the victories stretching through the centuries from the days of Miltiades and Themistocles to those of Charles Martel in the eighth century and those of John Sobieski in the seventeenth century.”
“During the thousand years that included the careers of the Frankish soldier and the Polish king, the Christians of Asia and Africa proved unable to wage successful war with the Moslem conquerors; and in consequence Christianity practically vanished from the two continents; and today nobody can find in them any "social values" whatever, in the sense in which we use the words, so far as the sphere of Mohammedan influence. There are such "social values" today in Europe, America, and Australia only because during those thousand years the Christians of Europe possessed the warlike power to do what the Christians of Asia and Africa had failed to do - that is, to beat back the Moslem invader.”
---Teddy Roosevelt (1858 -1919) Twenty-sixth President of the United States

"I am afraid that God has sent these men to lay waste the world".
----Patriarch Cyrus of Alexandria, while negotiating the surrender of Alexandria to the Muslims, 640 AD

"These impious people boast of having got the better of the Romans by their love of God. They live by the bow, the sword and debauchery, finding pleasure in taking slaves, devoting themselves to murder, pillage, spoil,and not only do they commit these crimes, but even — what an aberration — they believe that God approves of them. This is what I think of them [Muslims], now that I know precisely about their way of life."
----Gregory Palamas of Thessalonica, 1354

"I studied the Kuran a great deal ... I came away from that study with the conviction that by and large there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as that of Muhammed. As far as I can see, it is the principal cause of the decadence so visible today in the Muslim world, and, though less absurd than the polytheism of old, its social and political tendencies are in my opinion infinitely more to be feared, and I therefore regard it as a form of decadence rather than a form of progress."
----Alexis de Tocqueville, (1805-1859) French political thinker and historian, known for authoring "Democracy in America"

"The precept of the Koran is perpetual war against all who deny that Mahomet is the prophet of God. The vanquished may purchase their lives, by the payment of tribute; the victorious may be appeased by a false and delusive promise of peace; and the faithful follower of the prophet, may submit to the imperious necessities of defeat: but the command to propagate the Moslem creed by the sword is always obligatory, when it can be made effective. The commands of the prophet may be performed alike, by fraud, or by force".
----John Quincy Adams, 1829

“Islam was not a torch, as has been claimed, but an extinguisher. Conceived in a barbarous brain for the use of a barbarous people, it was - and it remains - incapable of adapting itself to civilization. Wherever it has dominated, it has broken the impulse towards progress and checked the evolution of society.
----Andre Servier, 1922--- Algerian historian who wrote "Islam and the Psychology of the Musulman" translated by A.S. Moss-Blundell, 1924.

“The religion of Islam above all others was founded upon the sword … Moreover it provides incentives to slaughter, and in three continents has produced fighting breeds of men – filled with a wild and merciless fanaticism”.
----Winston Churchill, 1899

"There is in Islam a paradox which is perhaps a permanent menace. The great creed born in the desert creates a kind of ecstasy of the very emptiness of its own land, and even, one may say, out of the emptiness of its own theology. . . A void is made in the heart of Islam which has to be filled up again and again by a mere repetition of the revolution that founded it. There are no sacraments; the only thing that can happen is a sort of apocalypse, as unique as the end of the world; so the apocalypse can only be repeated and the world end again and again. There are no priests; and yet this equality can only breed a multitude of lawless prophets almost as numerous as priests. The very dogma that there is only one Mahomet produces an endless procession of Mahomets"
----G.K. Chesterton, (29 May 1874 – 14 June 1936) British historian and author

"Unlike Christianity, which preached a peace that it never achieved, Islam unashamedly came with a sword."
----Steven Runciman, (1903-2000) English historian who wrote "The History of the Crusades" 1951-1954

"ISLAM HAS A TOTAL ORGANIZATION OF LIFE THAT IS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT FROM OURS; it embraces simply everything. There is a very marked subordination of woman to man; there is a very tightly knit criminal law, indeed, a law regulating all areas of life, that is opposed to our modern ideas about society. ONE HAS TO HAVE A CLEAR UNDERSTANDING THAT IT IS NOT SIMPLY A DENOMINATION THAT CAN BE INCLUDED IN THE FREE REALM OF A PLURALISTIC SOCIETY."
----Pope Benedict XVI

"Islam, more than any other religion human beings have devised, has all the makings of a thoroughgoing cult of death. As a matter of doctrine, the Muslim conception of tolerance is one in which non-Muslims have been politically and economically subdued, converted, or put to sword. The penalty for apostasy is death. We would do well to linger over this fact for a moment, because it is the black pearl of intolerance that no liberal exegesis will ever fully digest. There are other ideologies with which to expunge the last vapors of reasonableness from a society's discourse, but Islam is undoubtedly one of the best we've got. The truth that we must finally confront is that Islam contains specific notions of martyrdom and jihad that fully explain the character of Muslim violence."
----Sam Harris, September 20, 2006, Liberal American author, philosopher and neuroscientist

"Islam deserves criticism on account of the logical consequences of its dogma, namely, that the murder of fellow human beings is to be rewarded with sensual pleasure in a hedonistic 'Paradise'- a concept born in the fantasies of an Arab rebel some fourteen centuries ago. The religion of Mohammed is a dangerous system when the teachings and example of the 'prophet' are believed and followed."
----Richard Dawkins

"...But care is taken not to say how Islam expanded, how countries 'passed into [Muslim] hands.'...Regarding this expansion, little is said about jihad. And yet it all happened through war!...the jihad is an institution...that is to say it is a part of the normal functioning of the Muslim world...The conquered populations change status (they become dhimmis), and the shari'a tends to be put into effect integrally, overthrowing the former law of the country. The conquered territories do not simply change 'owners.'"
----Jacques Ellul (1912 – 1994) French philosopher, law professor, sociologist and theologian

"...my correspondence with liberals has convinced me that liberalism has grown dangerously out of touch with the realities of our world — specifically with what devout Muslims actually believe about the West, about paradise and about the ultimate ascendance of their faith.
"On questions of national security, I am now as wary of my fellow liberals as I am of the religious demagogues on the Christian right. This may seem like frank acquiescence to the charge that "liberals are soft on terrorism." It is, and they are.
"A cult of death is forming in the Muslim world — for reasons that are perfectly explicable in terms of the Islamic doctrines of martyrdom and jihad. The truth is that we are not fighting a "war on terror." We are fighting a pestilential theology and a longing for paradise.
"It is time we admitted that we are not at war with “terrorism”; we are at war with precisely the vision of life that is prescribed to all Muslims in the Koran. This is not to say that we are at war with all Muslims, but we are absolutely at war with millions more than have any direct affiliation with Al Qaeda, We are at war with those who believe that death in defense of the faith is the highest possible good, that cartoonists should be killed for caricaturing the prophet and that any Muslim who loses his faith should be butchered for apostasy... Unfortunately, this religious extremism is not a fringe phenomenon.
"Every person living in a western democracy should read the Koran and discover the relentlessness with which non-Muslims are vilified in its pages. The idea that Islam is a “peaceful religion hijacked by extremists” is a dangerous fantasy—and it is now a particularly dangerous fantasy for moderate Muslims to indulge.
"Given the degree to which religious ideas are still sheltered from criticism in every society, it is actually possible for a person to have the economic and intellectual resources to build a nuclear bomb — and to believe that he will get 72 virgins in paradise. And yet, despite abundant evidence to the contrary, liberals continue to imagine that Muslim terrorism springs from economic despair, lack of education and American militarism...Sawing the heads off of civilian contractors, humanitarian workers, and journalists is not “resistance” to oppression. It is the work of men who left their hearts in the 7th century.
"I don't know how many more engineers and architects need to blow themselves up, fly planes into buildings or saw the heads off of journalists before this fantasy will dissipate. The truth is that there is every reason to believe that a terrifying number of the world's Muslims now view all political and moral questions in terms of their affiliation with Islam. This leads them to rally to the cause of other Muslims no matter how sociopathic their behavior. This is solidarity born of religious delusion, and it must end—or a genuine clash of civilizations will be unavoidable. This benighted religious solidarity may be the greatest problem facing civilization and yet it is regularly misconstrued, ignored or obfuscated by liberals.
"To say that this does not bode well for liberalism is an understatement: It does not bode well for the future of civilization."
----Sam Harris, September 20, 2006, liberal American author, neuroscientist

"Our life here is truly hellish. Fortunately, my soldiers are very brave and tougher than the enemy. What is more, their private beliefs make it easier to carry out orders which send them to their death. They see only two supernatural outcomes: victory for the faith or martyrdom. Do you know what the second means? It is to go straight to heaven. There, the houris, God's most beautiful women, will meet them and will satisfy their desires for all eternity. What great happiness! This is Islam, an absurd theology of an immoral Bedouin, a rotting corpse which poisons our lives."
----Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, 1881–1938, revolutionary statesman, writer, and the first President and founder of modern Turkey.

"The Islamic conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history. It is a discouraging tale, for its evident moral is that civilization is a precious good, whose delicate complex of order and freedom, culture and peace, can at any moment be overthrown by barbarians invading from without or multiplying within."
---- Will Durant, 1885 – 1981, American writer, historian, and philosopher. He is best known for "The Story of Civilization"

"Over a billion people believe in Allah without truly knowing what Allah supposedly stands for or what he really demands of them. And the minority that do understand continue to be Moslems because they have redefined their morality and ethics to fit within the teachings of Islam, which are floridly lacking in morality. They therefore redefine what is good and evil in order to fit their lives into what is preached by Islam, instead of examining Islam to see if it fits within the good life. Backwards thinking, imposed by a backward religion."
---- Bertrand Russell (British philosopher, historian, logician, mathematician, and pacifist)

"The object of jihad is to bring the whole world under Islamic law. In an Islamic state, there is in principle no law other than the shar'ia, the Holy Law of Islam. The idea that any group of persons, any kind of activities, or any part of human life is in any sense outside the scope of religious law and jurisdiction is alien to Muslim thought."
---- Bernard Lewis, British-American Historian born May 31, 1916, academic expert on Islam and its interaction with the West

"The most successful lecherous man who used religion for his personal gain is Prophet Mohammed. Islam is a cult with its complete irrational belief in Allah created by Muhammed who was a liar, thief, murderer and rapist till his last breath."
---- Dr. Khushwant Singh, born 2 February 1915, prominent Indian novelist and journalist, professor, former lawyer and parliamentarian

"All religions are exclusive, but Islam is quite notably so, and immediately it developed into a state which seemed to be all of a piece with the religion. The Koran is its spiritual and secular book of law. Its statutes embrace all areas of life…and remain set and rigid; the very narrow Muslim mind imposes this nature on many nationalities and thus remolds them for all time (a profound, extensive spiritual bondage!) This is the power of Islam in itself... The very reason and excuse for existence, the holy war, and the possible world conquest, do not brook any other form. The strongest proof of real, extremely despotic power in Islam is the fact that it has been able to invalidate, in such large measure, the entire history (customs, religion, previous way of looking at things, earlier imagination) of the peoples converted to it. It accomplished this only by instilling into them a new religious arrogance which was stronger than everything and induced them to be ashamed of their past."
----Jacob Burckhardt, aka Carl Jacob Christoph Burckhardt (1818 – 1897), Swiss theologian, scholar and prominent historiographer of art and cultural history

"In the case of the Mohammedan world, religion has seemingly affected every detail of life with its prescriptions and requirements…[N]o other religion, as it conquered new territory, has so completely and quickly wiped out even the culture of the conquered people and imposed upon their total life new ways and customs, often a new language, as has the Mohammedan religion...Islam can truly be described as totalitarian. By a million roots, penetrating every phase of life, all of them with religious significance, it is able to maintain its hold upon the life of the Moslem peoples."
----Dr. Charles R. Watson (1871 - 1948) born and raised in Egypt, the founder and first President of the American University in Cairo.

"Its [Islam's] governments are not governments. It makes life barren and empty. It encourages a savage pride and cruelty. It makes men tyrants or slaves, women puppets, religion the submission to an infinite despotism."
----James Freeman Clarke, American abolitionist, theologian, author of “Ten Great Religions—An Essay in Comparative Theology”, 1871

"There is no such thing as Islamophobia. Bigotry and racism exist, of course—and they are evils that all well-intentioned people must oppose. And prejudice against Muslims or Arabs, purely because of the accident of their birth, is despicable. But like all religions, Islam is a system of ideas and practices. And it is not a form of bigotry or racism to observe that the specific tenets of the faith pose a special threat to civil society. Nor is it a sign of intolerance to notice when people are simply not being honest about what they and their co-religionists believe... It is not at all clear how we should proceed in our dialogue with the Muslim world. But deluding ourselves with euphemisms and pandering to the religious sensitivities of Muslims is not the answer. There is much about Islamic culture that should appall us. The treatment of women in Muslim communities throughout the world is unconscionable. All civilized nations must unite in condemnation of a theology that now threatens to destabilize much of the earth. Muslim moderates, wherever they are, must be given every tool necessary to win a war of ideas with their coreligionists. Otherwise, we will have to win some very terrible wars in the future."
----Sam Harris, September 20, 2006, liberal American author, neuroscientist

 

AKW

12:21 PM ET

December 10, 2011

Hear it from their own mouths!!

“Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Qu’ran should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on earth.”
----Omar Ahmed CAIR (Council for American Islamic Relations) Founding Chairman
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"It is the nature of Islam to dominate, not to be dominated; to impose its law on all nations and to extend its power to the entire planet."
----Hassan al Banna, (1906 – 1949) teacher and imam, best known for founding the Muslim Brotherhood
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“The Ikhwan (Muslims Brothers) must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions.”
---- by Mohamed Akram, May 19, 1991, Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Muslim Brotherhood in North America
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“Islam makes it incumbent on all adult males, provided they are not disabled and incapacitated, to prepare themselves for the conquest of [other] countries so that the writ of Islam is obeyed in every country in the world. But those who study Islamic Holy War will understand why Islam wants to conquer the whole world. Those who know nothing of Islam pretend that Islam counsels against war. Those [who say this] are witless. Islam says, kill all the unbelievers just as they would kill you all! ...Whatever good there is, exists thanks to the sword, and in the shadow of the sword! People cannot be made obedient, except with the sword! The sword is the key to Paradise, which can be opened only for Holy Warriors! ...Does all that mean that Islam is a religion that prevents men from waging war? I spit upon those foolish souls who make such a claim.”
----Ayatollah Khomeini (1902-1989) Iran’s Supreme Leader from 1979 to 1989—the highest ranking political and religious authority of the nation.
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“These descriptions are very ugly. It is offensive and an insult to our religion. There is no moderate or immoderate Islam. Islam is Islam, and that’s it.”
---- Speaking at Kanal D TV’s Arena program, August 21, 2007, Turkey's PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan commented on the term “moderate Islam”
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"Yes, 'imperialism,' ... The deliberate and determined expansion of militant Islam and its attempt to triumph not only in the Islamic world but in Europe and North America. Pure ideology. Muslim terrorists kill and slaughter not because of what they experience but because of what they believe."
----Dr. Tawfik Hamid (aka Tarek Abdelhamid), Islamic thinker and reformer, and one time Islamic extremist from Egypt
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"I write against the religion because if women want to live like human beings, they will have to live outside the religion and Islamic law."
----Taslima Nasrin, Bangladeshi medical doctor, ex-Muslim, feminist and author
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"Who told me that the act of Jihad, the act of killing non-Muslims was good? Well, if you read the Koran, you will find that in a certain sura God says that he has bought the lives of the Muslims in return for the rewards of Paradise. They kill non-Muslims and get killed in this war-effort and the reward for these Muslims is paradise & paradise is a huge garden inhabited by the most beautiful virgins, who live in palaces and there are countless pretty pearl-like boys to serve them as well."
----Mohammad Anwar Shaikh (1928 - 2006) Punjabi-born Pakistani author, born into an Islamic Sunni family of Kashmiri ancestry in Gujrat, Punjab
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"Just like Nazism started with Hitler's vision, the Islamic vision is a caliphate; a society ruled by Sharia law, in which women who have sex before marriage are stoned to death, homosexuals are beaten, and apostates like me are killed. Sharia law is as inimical to liberal democracy as Nazism. It is not a fringe group of radical Muslims who've hijacked Islam and that the majority of Muslims are moderate. Violence is inherent in Islam; it's a destructive, nihilistic cult of death. It legitimates murder."
---- Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Ex-Muslim Feminist, Writer, and Politician)
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“One day, millions of [Muslim] men will leave the Southern Hemisphere to go to the Northern Hemisphere. And they will not go there as friends. Because they will go there to conquer it. And they will conquer it with their sons. The wombs of our women will give us victory.”
–--- Houari (Mohamed) Boumedienne, President of Algeria, 1965 – 1978, in a 1974 speech at the UN
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"There can be two types of agreement with non-Muslims: 1) Mutual compromise and peace agreements can be made with countries that have no power which could threaten the grandeur and domination of Muslims. This will be enforced as long as they do not become a threat to the Muslims again. 2) If Muslims do not possess the capability of “Jihad with power,” agreement may be made till the power is attained. ...the purpose of Jihad is not just to get the right of missionary activities in any country, but it aims at breaking the grandeur of unbelievers and to establish that of Muslims. As a result no one will dare to show any evil designs against Muslims on one side, and on the other side, people subdued from the grandeur of Islam will have an open mind to think over the blessings of Islam. Factually, this aims at "safeguarding Islam." It is for this reason that the scholars who have called Jihad “A Protection” must look at it in the above context. But the basic element of this “protection” is to break the grandeur of unbelievers and establish the authority of Islam."
----Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani, Islamic scholar from Pakistan, expert in the fields of Islamic Jurisprudence, economics and hadith, judge on the Federal Shariat Court of Pakistan and the Shari'a Appellate Bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, one of the most influential Islamic authors outside the Middle East
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"We demand an Islamic nation, living a true Islamic life in politics, society, economics, education, culture and every other sphere of life. Islamic law does not restrict itself to the cutting of hands or flogging criminals. To neglect prayer is also a criminal act, and to eat in public during Ramadan is a criminal act and so is the refraining from giving alms, taking interest, drinking, selling or transporting wine, opening public entertainment places and accepting taxes from these places, broadcasting (secular) songs on the radio and showing cheap exotic movies on the television, letting women dress indecently, and print heretic ideas in books and newspapers…We shall not be deceived any more. The Muslim people have a clear goal and will not settle for less than complete victory."
---- December, 1976 article from the Muslim Brotherhood publication Al-Dawa on their timeless vision of Islamic democracy and freedom
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"In the West we are free to think what we want, to read what we want, to practice our religion, to live the lives of our choosing. The notion of human rights, and freedom were, I believe, there at the dawn of Western civilization, as ideals at least, and further developed during the Enlightenment…It was the West that took steps to abolish slavery; the calls for the abolition of slavery did not resonate even in black Africa, where the rival African tribes took black prisoners in the West. By contrast, stoning to death someone for adultery is a clear violation of the human rights of the individuals concerned; punishments. Laws concerning inheritance, and the rights of women prescribed by the Sharia, Islamic law, also flagrantly violate the rights of individuals. Under Islamic law, women are not free to marry men whom they wish, homosexuals are killed, apostates are to be executed. The Koran is not a rights-respecting documenting. We are free, in the West, to choose; we have real choice to pursue our desires; we are free to set the goals and contents of our own lives; the West is made up of individuals who are free to decide what meaning to give to their lives. In short, the glory of the West is that life is an open book, while under Islam, life is a closed book. Everything has been decided for you: God [Allah] and the Holy Law set limits on the possible agenda of your life. In many non-Western countries, especially Islamic ones, we are not free to read what we want; in Saudi Arabia, Muslims are not free to convert to Christianity and Christians are not free to practice their faith—all clear violations of Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights… A [Western] culture that gave the world the spiritual creations of the classical music of Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, and Schubert; the paintings of Michelangelo and Raphael, and Da Vinci and Rembrandt, does not need lessons from societies whose idea of spirituality is a heaven peopled with female virgins for the use of men, whose idea of heaven resembles a cosmic brothel."
----Ibn Warraq, pen name of Pakistani author and historiographer, founder of the Institute for the Secularisation of Islamic Society (ISIS)
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"What ought we to do for the realization of the ideal Islam sets forth before us? Granted that Islam is the best system to be found on this earth and that as our historical, geographical as well as international position shows, Islam is our only means to regain honor, leadership and social justice in this world, the question is whither lies the way that leads to the realization of Islamic ideology in a world hostile to it and in the presence of the dictatorial rulers in some Muslim lands who fight against it even more furiously than its enemies from abroad do? ... Our stand and position today as Muslims is not in the least different from that taken up by the early Muslims... It was faith that made one of these early Muslims stand up saying: "Is it not true that nothing intervenes between me and paradise but that I should go and kill this man (i.e. the unbeliever fighting against Muslims) or get killed by him?" And then saying this he would advance towards the battlefield as light-heartedly as if he were going to embrace his bride. Or he would jump into the field saying to his adversaries: "Do you await for us but one of the two most excellent things: victory or martyrdom?" That then is the way to realize our objectives as this has always been the only course...There is, of course, no escaping from death, from sacrifices and tribulations. Why should we then flinch back from laying down our lives for Islam, for glory and truth? When there are half a million men... ready to lay down their lives for Islam the results will surely be different. There shall not remain even a single insolent dictator and tyrant on this earth, there will be no Christian or heathen imperialism to strut abroad then. Doesn't that show how we can achieve our goal? There is the way... It is heartening to note that despite all hurdles and ruthless opposition, Islamic forces are gathering strength day by day. On balance, the revival of Islam seems but inevitable. In the world today, it is destined to play as glorious a role as it played in the first days of its history."
----Muhammad Qutb, (1919–present) Islamist author, scholar and teacher, brother of Egyptian Islamist thinker Sayyid Qutb. Osama bin Laden recommends to Muslims the book "Concepts that Should be Corrected by Sheikh Muhammad Qutb," in a 2004 videotape, and bin Laden attended Muhammad Qutb's lectures at King Abdel-Aziz University.
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"Slavery is a part of Islam. Slavery is part of jihad, and jihad will remain as long there is Islam."
----Sheik Saleh Al-Fawzan, 2003, member of the Senior Council of Clerics, Saudi Arabia’s highest religious body, a member of the Council of Religious Edicts and Research, the Imam of Prince Mitaeb Mosque in Riyadh, and a professor at Imam Mohamed Bin Saud Islamic University, the main Wahhabi center of learning in the country
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“Islam does not prohibit slavery but retains it for two reasons. The first reason is war (whether it is a civil war or a foreign war in which the captive is either killed or enslaved) provided that the war is not between Muslims against each other – it is not acceptable to enslave the violators, or the offenders, if they are Muslims. Only non-Muslim captives may be enslaved or killed. The second reason is the sexual propagation of slaves which would generate more slaves for their owner.”
---Dr. ‘Abdul-Latif Mushtahari, Director of Homiletics and Guidance at Al-Azhar University, Cairo, author of "You Ask and Islam Answers"
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"The term jihad is derived from the the verb jahada which means "exerted"; its juridical-theological meaning is exertion of one's power in Allah's path, that is, the spread of belief in Allah and in making His word supreme over this world. The individual's recompense would be the achievement of salvation, since the jihad is Allah's direct way to paradise...The jihad, in the broad sense of exertion, does not necessarily mean war or fighting, since exertion in Allah's path may be achieved by peaceful as well as violent means. The jihad may be regarded as a form of religious propaganda that can be carried on by persuasion or by the sword."
----Majid Khadduri (1909-2007) Islamic scholar, law professor, author, internationally recognized as a leading authority on modern Islamic history and politics of the Middle East, founder of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies Middle East Studies program
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"The great prophet of Islam in one hand carried the Koran and in the other a sword; the sword for crushing the traitors and the Koran for guidance. For those who could be guided, the Koran was their means of guidance, while as for those who could not be guided and were plotters, the sword descended on their heads. ... Islam is a religion of blood for the infidels but a religion of guidance for other people."
----Ayatollah Khomeini (1902-1989) Iran’s Supreme Leader from 1979 to 1989—the highest ranking political and religious authority of the nation.
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"The Western distinction between just and unjust wars linked to specific grounds for war is unknown in Islam. Any war against unbelievers, whatever its immediate ground, is morally justified. Only in this sense can one distinguish just and unjust wars in Islamic tradition. When Muslims wage war for the dissemination of Islam, it is a just war (futuhat, literally "opening," in the sense of opening the world, through the use of force, to the call to Islam); when non-Muslims attack Muslims, it is an unjust war ('idwan)."
----Bassam Tibi (b. 1944), Muslim German political scientist of Syrian origin who has taught at Göttingen, Harvard, and Cornell University.
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"The theory that our religion is a peaceful and loving religion is a wrong theory...The Holy War as it is known in Islam is basically an offensive war, and it is the duty of all Muslims of every age, when the needed military power is available, because our prophet Muhammad said that he is ordered by Allah to fight all people until they say ‘No God but Allah,’ and he is his messenger... It is meaningless to talk about the Holy War as only defensive, otherwise, what did the prophet mean when he said, "from now on even if they don’t invade you, you must invade them."
----Dr. M. Sa’id Ramadan Al-Buti (b. 1929), head of the Beliefs and Religions Department in The Faculty of the Islamic Law, Damascus University, and a member of the High Council of Oxford Academy in England, author of 'Jihad: How to Understand and Practice It'
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"In reality Islam is a revolutionary ideology and programme which seeks to alter the social order of the whole world and rebuild it in conformity with its own tenets and ideals. 'Muslim' is the title of that International Revolutionary Party organized by Islam to carry into effect its revolutionary programme. And 'Jihad' refers to that revolutionary struggle and utmost exertion which the Islamic Party brings into play to achieve this objective... Islam wishes to destroy all States and Governments anywhere on the face of the earth which are opposed to the ideology and programme of Islam regardless of the country or the Nation which rules it... It must be evident to you from this discussion that the objective of Islamic 'Jihad' is to eliminate the rule of an un-Islamic system and establish in its stead an Islamic system of State rule. Islam does not intend to confine this revolution to a single State or a few countries; the aim of Islam is to bring about a universal revolution."
---- Syed Abul A'ala Maududi (1903 – 1979) Sunni Pakistani journalist, theologian, Muslim revivalist leader and political philosopher, major 20th century Islamist thinker, prominent political figure in Pakistan and the founder of Jamaat-e-Islami, the Islamic revivalist party
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"If we searched the entire world for a person more cowardly, despicable, weak and feeble in psyche, mind, ideology and religion, we would not find anyone like the Jew. Notice, I do not say the Israeli... If they (Jews) all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide... We reaffirm the slogan of the struggle against the Great Satan (USA) and call, like last year: 'Death to America. To the murderers of the prophets, the grandsons of apes and pigs,' we say: 'Death to Israel'"
----Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary General of Hezbollah
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“The whole of Europe will become Islamic. Like the army of the sultan we will conquer Rome.”
--? Former Turkish Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, June 2002
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"Today, Rome is the capital of the Catholics, or the Crusader capital, which has declared its hostility to Islam, and has planted the brothers of apes and pigs in Palestine in order to prevent the reawakening of Islam. This capital of theirs will be an advanced post for the Islamic conquests, which will spread through Europe in its entirety, and then will turn to the two Americas, and even Eastern Europe."
--? Yunis Al-Astal, Hamas MP and cleric
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"We will control the land of the Vatican; we will control Rome and introduce Islam in it."
---? Sheikh Muhammad bin Abd al-Rahman al-’Arifi, imam of the mosque of the Saudi government’s King Fahd Defence Academy

 

MONGO46538

5:10 PM ET

December 10, 2011

Excellent research

Man these people are nuts

This one says it best....

"Just like Nazism started with Hitler's vision, the Islamic vision is a caliphate; a society ruled by Sharia law, in which women who have sex before marriage are stoned to death, homosexuals are beaten, and apostates like me are killed. Sharia law is as inimical to liberal democracy as Nazism. It is not a fringe group of radical Muslims who've hijacked Islam and that the majority of Muslims are moderate. Violence is inherent in Islam; it's a destructive, nihilistic cult of death. It legitimates murder."
---- Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Ex-Muslim Feminist, Writer, and Politician)
.

 

PEREUBU2000

1:52 PM ET

December 10, 2011

I was thinking about

I was thinking about subscribing to FP, but seeing how it is a clearinghouse, primarily it would seem, for right wing bigotry, I'll pass. Add this article to the centuries-long list of anti-Islamic polemics. If the author would care to look at Amerian society, he would see that most of the allegedly satirical points he makes about "white" culture in the US - that he posits that there is a single white culture in the US makes it obvious enough that he uses the concept to service his shrill rheotric - are real problems. Yes, there are white suprematists and hate-oriented groups who recruit people, who attack in the US more often than Islamicist terrorists. For all the anti-West Islamicist quotes users post here, you can find the same from Westerners on Islam, mostl eminating from the mouths of Christian clerics and right-wing politicians.

 

MONGO46538

5:06 PM ET

December 10, 2011

Really?....

"The administration's new 23-page strategy for countering violent extremism"

Is this for real?
Are the 7 bullet point paraphrase or verbatim?
Because it in and of itself, it is extremely racial in it's construction.

I better read it again ...

 

GFETMH

8:26 AM ET

December 11, 2011

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JOHN MILTON XIV

1:25 AM ET

December 12, 2011

Mattias Gardell essay: "Terror in the Norwegian Woods"

A good recent discussion on the rise of the European far-right and their "neo-anti-semitism" ( "Islamophobia") can be found at :

http://overland.org.au/previous-issues/issue-205/feature-mattias-gardell/

and

http://overland.org.au/2011/12/on-breivik-and-europes-far-right/

 

CAROLINDA

9:58 AM ET

December 12, 2011

What makes you think that

Yea what makes you think that Israel has not vandalised Muslim cemeteries on the Haraam ash Shareef area....good work ! massagistas

 

PULLER58

10:24 AM ET

December 12, 2011

They can't handle the truth

Even a casual scan of the American Muslim scene shows that far from being able to "handle" a discussion on radical Islam, they are simply likely to follow the examples of their bretheren across the pond and scream bloody murder.

 

MARTY24

11:56 AM ET

December 14, 2011

Real Problem

The real problem with the Obama Administration's approach to Islam and politically-based terror is that it gives a pass to radicalization efforts within Muslim-American communities.

The question that needs to be asked is why don't we hear about efforts from non-Islamists to counter the growing infuence of the radicals? If they are afraid, then Obama's approach dashes any hope they have that the American justice system will protect them. If they endorse the radicalization, then how can we really say they are not also Islamist? It is not exactly encouraging that most Muslim organizations in this country get substantial funding from elsewhere and thus reflect the points of view of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Wahhabis or the Iranian regime. Nor is it reassuring that these groups insist that reference to where they get their support is "Islamophobic."

American Muslims have to clarify for the rest of us: Which is it,
Fear of the radicals or support for their agenda? If it is fear, they should welcome efforts to target Islamist activity, because this is the only way the justice system can protect them. If they favor the Islamist cause, then those who have been warning the rest of us about the Muslim presence in this country have been on the money.

So, Muslims on this blog: Which is it?