Liberal High School Textbook Claims Indians Spoke Arabic

It looks like the Islamist are trying to rewrite history again.

Liberal High School Textbook Claims Indians Spoke Arabic: “
The explorer Christopher Columbus followed Muslim explorers to the New World and Indians spoke Arabic according to a liberal school textbook published by the Middle East Policy Council.
David Yeagley at FrontPage Magazine wrote about this twisted history back in 2004:

A liberal advocacy group in Washington recently committed intellectual genocide on American Indians. Authors of the group presumed to fabricate Indian history, as if real Indian history doesn’t matter. Authors simply created an Indian story to suit the purposes of the advocacy group, and published it in a school text manual as fact.

Sounds incredible, but the Middle East Policy Council published a 540-page book called Arab World Studies Notebook, a teacher’s guide for presenting Arab culture to young American students. The text, published five years ago, has a two-page chapter entitled, ‘Early Muslim Exploration Worldwide: Evidence of Muslims In the New World Before Columbus.’

The text says Arab Muslim explorers were here in America before Columbus, and married Algonquin Indians. These early marriages produced descendents who, by the 17th century, became Algonquin chiefs, like ‘Abdul-Rahim and Abdallah Ibn Malik.’ The Washington Times notes there is no evidence to validate the story.

The story is simply designed to give the Arabs a home in America, to make them part of the foundation of American civilization. The story was an attempt to make Arabs ‘indigenous.’

The author and editor of Arab World Studies Notebook is Audrey Park Shabbas, the Teacher Workshop Leader of MEPC’s impressive educational program for grades 7-12. Shabbas, a Muslim convert and zealot, is a career advocate of Arabic culture. Executive Director of Arab World And Islamic Resources since 1995, she tirelessly champions the Arab Muslim ’cause’ in America.

That’s not all.
According to this textbook, Arab influence was very strong in the Caribbean Islands:

A group of seafarers sailed into the sea of Darkness and Fog [the Atlantic Ocean] from Lisbon in order to discover what was in it and the extent of its limit. They were a party of eight and they took a boat which was loaded with supplies to last them for months.. . They finally reached an is?land that had people and cultivation but they were captured and chained for three days. On the fourth day a translator came speaking the Arabic language! He translated for the King and asked them about their mission. They in?formed him about themselves, then they were returned to their confinement. When the westerly wind began to blow, they were put in a canoe, blindfolded and bourght to land after three days’ sailing. They were left on the shore with their hands tied behind their backs. The next day, another tribe appeared, freeing them and informing them that between their lands was a journey of two months.’

This astonishing historical report not only clearly describes contact between Muslim seamen and the indigenous people of the Caribbean islands, but it confirms the fact that the contact between the two worlds had been so involved that the native people had Arabic speakers among them.

Ed Laskey wrote more on this history lessen at American Thinker.

Hat Tip BG“

(Via avideditor’s shared items in Google Reader.)</

Islam: What the West Needs to Know VIDEO

This is a great movie. I highly recommend it. I think it is better than Fitna. What do you think? If you like it you should buy it. 
Update: Islam is not a religion nor is it a cult. It is a complete system. Fitna the movie (BTW What the west needs to know is better)

Update: There is no islamophobia there is just Islamorealism a speach by Robert Spenser 

Vodpod videos no longer available. from video.google.com posted with vodpod

Condi Actively Campaigning For VP Spot?

NOOOOO!  I really hope McCain uses his brains and rejects her campaign to be VP. She would the worst VP for Israel. She totally buys into the Paliwood lies and mistakenly compares there problems with the 60’s civil writes movement. Anyone active in the McCain campaign please pass on the message that McCain will lose major support if he has her a running mate. I will never cast a vote with her on the ticket.

Condi Actively Campaigning For VP Spot?: ”

ABCNews’ Mary Bruce Reports: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is actively courting the vice presidential nomination, Republican strategist Dan Senor said.

‘Condi Rice has been actively, actually in recent weeks, campaigning for this,’ Senor said this morning on ‘This Week with George Stephanopoulos.’

According to Senor, Rice has been cozying up to the Republican elite.

‘There’s this ritual in Washington: The Americans for Tax Reform, which is headed by Grover Norquist, he holds a weekly meeting of conservative leaders — about 100, 150 people, sort of inside, chattering, class types,’ Senor said. ‘They all typically get briefings from political conservative leaders. Ten days ago, they had an interesting visit — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice — the first time a secretary of state has visited the Wednesday meeting.’

Senor explained that Rice’s history in public office would make her a prime candidate, especially in light of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain’s emphasis on experience throughout his campaign.

‘What the McCain campaign has to consider is whether or not they want to pick a total outsider, a fresh face, someone a lot younger than him, a governor who people aren’t that familiar with,’ Senor said. ‘The challenge they’re realizing is that they’ll have to have to spend 30 to 45 days, which they won’t have at that point, educating the American public about who this person is.

‘The other category is someone who people instantly say, the second they see that announcement, ‘I get it, that person could be president tomorrow,’’ Senor added. ‘Condi Rice is an option.’

(ABC)

 

Olmert: Time for a change in personnel

Olmert is a traitor to the Jewish people and the state of Israel. I think he should step down now. Anyone that is not stepping out of his coalition is spitting on the Torah and has blood on their hands, Shas I am looking at you. It is just sick what Olmert is doing to the State of Israel. Some people blame Rice but I blame Olmert. After hearing this story yesterday I find that Rice is just a pawn and Olmert is the true problem for Israel. He said someone asked Bush something like: Do you think the American President that causes policies to devide Jeruslem will be blessed or cursed? Bush said cursed and he is doing all he can to make sure Olmert doesn’t do that. I hope the Jerusalem post story bellow is wrong and Olmert loses his coalition or loses his ability to be the PM this week.

Politics: Time for a change in personnel: “Gil Hoffman
THE JERUSALEM POST
The Knesset’s winter session marched in like a lion and out like a lamb.

It began in October, amid speculation about whether Prime Minister Ehud Olmert would survive the impending release of the 629-page Winograd Report. It ended Wednesday, with a 117-second Olmert speech in which he thumbed his nose at the people who six months earlier were sure that they would oust him.

Now Olmert has six weeks free of any annoying no-confidence votes, sordid speeches and pesky parliamentary perfidy. But he is not free of politics. This week proved that even when US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice comes to town to talk peace, and Syrian President Bashar Assad drafts reserves to hint at war, the lead headlines in the Hebrew press and the general public discourse will still focus on whether there will be war or peace in internal Israeli politics.

Current and former defense ministers Ehud Barak and Amir Peretz dueled in Labor. Shlomo Benizri became the seventh MK convicted in Shas. Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter unleashed a fierce attack on the government’s diplomatic policies in Kadima. And everyone speculated about how long Olmert would be able to hold onto power in the face of last Friday’s Dahaf Institute poll, which found that 59 percent of Israelis considered him a failure, and which ranked him tied with Barak for last in the ratings of Israel’s best prime ministers.

The latest spin that emerged this week was that Olmert would initiate an election as early as next month, when US President George W. Bush comes to town to celebrate Israel’s 60th birthday. Rice reportedly told an Israeli leader on Sunday that she wanted the Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams to reach a deal by then on a declaration of principles that Bush could announce during his visit.

Politicians speculated this week that Olmert could take that declaration and immediately initiate an election as soon as possible; during the campaign, he would use the deal as his diplomatic platform to try to win another four years in power.

Senior politicians in all three of the largest parties spoke this week about a ‘May surprise’ as a realistic scenario. The thinking behind such a move would be for Olmert to try to catch his rivals in Likud and Labor when they are down.

The only problems with this thinking are that it makes no political sense for an unpopular prime minister like Olmert to unnecessarily risk ending his political career; that no planning has been done by Olmert or his associates behind the scenes to prepare for such a move; and that Israel never holds elections in the summer.

The following are five more likely scenarios about when the next election will be held, their probability, and what circumstances could bring make them a reality:

• November 2008

Likud faction chairman Gideon Sa’ar has been pushing for months to hold the next general election on November 4, which coincidentally is the date of the American election, and not coincidentally is when Israelis will go to the polls to elect their mayors.

Combining the elections would save the country lots of money and could potentially strengthen the larger parties by encouraging a higher turnout. But it could also create headaches, because the party funding for the two kinds of races is handled differently, and because 17-year-olds are allowed to vote for mayors.

This scenario could come about if Barak decides he needs to initiate an election soon to save his credibility, or if Shas decides to repent by toppling the government over negotiations on Jerusalem that its leaders should know full-well are in fact taking place.

Probability: Low

• February/March 2009

Barak told his associates this week that he does not see himself taking any steps to leave the coalition until after the municipal elections, because government funds give the party an advantage. Shas also needs more time to finagle more funds for its pet causes and ensure that mentor Rabbi Ovadia Yosef’s son becomes chief rabbi of Jerusalem.

November 4 is of course not only the date when people will go to the polls in Detroit, Dimona, Deganya and Denver. It is also D-day for the talks with the Palestinians that were initiated in Annapolis.

Olmert will do everything possible to reach a final-status agreement with the Palestinians by that deadline, to ensure his legacy and to give a parting gift to his close friend, US President George W. Bush.

He could then initiate an election 90 days later to run on that deal and try to win support from the entire center-left of the political map.

Probability: Very High

• May 2009

Same scenario as the last one, except that this time, Shas leaves the government when the Annapolis plan is unveiled, and Olmert manages to hang on for a while with a minority coalition, thanks to votes from Meretz and Arab MKs.

Holding on for another couple of months would allow the state budget to pass, and would accomplish an important goal for Olmert: He would last longer as prime minister than his rival, opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu.

Olmert has already passed Barak and Moshe Sharet in longevity. If he passes Netanyahu, he could try to make the case that he was not among Israel’s worst prime ministers.

Probability: Medium

• Fall 2009

No one in Israeli politics is seriously talking about
this possibility, in part because they cannot think so far in advance, and because they doubt that any government could last so long without an upheaval.

But this is the Middle East, where instability is a fact of life. Wars break out that have the power of persuading even Israelis to put politics aside for a while. This could delay an election that looked like it would have been in the spring to the fall.

Probability: Low

• November 2010

This is the actual date set by law for the next election. Olmert says all the time that this is when the next election will be held.

But it is doubtful that even Olmert believes that. Election dates in Israel haven’t been a sign of when an election will be held for decades.

It would take a miracle for Olmert, who hit a nadir of three percent in the polls after the Second Lebanon War, to finish out his term. And though miracles may happen in Jerusalem, they won’t for Olmert.

Probability: Extremely Low”

(Via avideditor’s shared items in Google Reader.)</

The US is getting Ready to Bomb Iran to stop it from getting a NUKE

I hope this data is right. If it is it looks like the US is going to take the important long over due step in disabling the nuclear program of Iran. The world can not live with a nuclear Iran because the culture of the current government in Iran is a culture of death, which will not be afraid of mutually insured destruction like the USSR. So everyone pray that we will bomb Iran before it is too later. I think it will be this week.

Exclusive: Iran, Syria, Lebanon on military alert over US Gulf movements and Israel’s home defense drill:
According to British media, the US is set to attack Iranian military facilities. DEBKAfile’s military sources add that the USS Abraham Lincoln Strike Force is heading for the Persian Gulf.
War tensions in the Middle East have shot up – not only over the signals flashing between Syria, Lebanon, and Israel, but also on the US-Iranian front in Iraq in the wake of rising in violence around the Basra conflagration.
Tuesday, April 8, US Iraq commander, Gen. David Petraeus and ambassador to Baghdad, Ryan Crocker, will stress in their report to Congress that Iran is waging war on America in Iraq, say sources in Washington, London and Baghdad.
This emerged strongly last week, when US intelligence learned that Iran had intervened directly in the Iraqi government’s crackdown on renegade militias in Basra and southern Iraq, by directing and provisioning those militias through the Revolutionary Guards’ al Qods Brigades.
Official sources in London predict that Iran’s intervention against the American effort to stabilize Iraq may well prompt a US attack on the military installations in Iran which are orchestrating the interference.
Gen. Petraeus is on record as accusing Iran of being the source of the daily rocket bombardment of Baghdad’s Green Zone, seat of government and US diplomatic and military headquarters.
DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Moscow has dropped its two nickels into the rising war alarm. In the last two weeks, Russian military and intelligence officials have been leaking claims of intensified American military movements around Iranian shores.
Iran is certain to come up in Presidents George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin’s farewell talks in the Black Sea resort of Sochi Sunday, along with other controversial business, such as Moscow’s objections to NATO’s eastern expansion and US missile shield in East Europe.
Saturday, US defense secretary Robert Gates turned up in Oman, the site of big American air bases, for talks with Sultan Qaboos. He then flew straight back to Washington. While Gates insisted to correspondents aboard his plane that the US is committed to a diplomatic solution for Iran’s covert nuclear program, the surpise visit struck sparks in the already fraught regional atmosphere, particularly as it followed on the heels of US Vice President Dick Cheney’s talks in Oman two weeks ago.
DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources sum up how Tehran and Damascus read these events and the picture they have built up of Washington’s intentions as combined with Israel’s military steps:
1. US is preparing to attack the Iranian military installations linked to subversion in Iraq. The operation will widen out into strikes on the Islamic Republic’s suspect nuclear sites.
2. Israel will use the chance for a concurrent attack on Syria.
3. Israel will attack Hizballah’s strongholds in Lebanon.
4. A broad, coordinated US-Israeli offensive will be mounted against Iran, Syria and Hizballah.
Iran and Syria view Israel’s four-day home defense exercise against missile attack, conventional or non-conventional, beginning Sunday, as setting the stage for these attacks.
Both believe Washington and Jerusalem are in close military step. Neither is reassured by soothing statements from prime minister Ehud Olmert and defense minister Barak that Israel does not seek violent confrontation – especially when the US administration is withholding all comment. Hence the high state of preparedness ordered by the jittery governments in Tehran, Damascus and Beirut.

UC Irvine: Hotbed of Islamic Anti-Semitism

Another great post by the Infidel Blogger Alliance

UC Irvine: Hotbed of Islamic Anti-Semitism: “Muslim anti-Semitism is so bad a UCI that the US Senate Judiciary Commitee has demanded that the Dept. of Education Investigate the problem.

But, that doesn’t stop the Orange County Register from denying there is anti-Semitism at UCI:

The following is a sample of what a Jewish or pro-Israel student could potentially experience during daily campus life at UC Irvine and the Muslim Student Union’s quarterly anti-Jewish, anti-American, and anti-West programs:
1. The desecration of Israeli flags with swastikas and blood stains.
2. Intimidation and abuse while practicing student journalism and protest during Muslim Student Union events. This has included the use of photo capture of the faces of Jewish or pro-Israeli students for the use of future intimidation; pushing, shoving, and shouting in the faces of Jewish or pro-Israeli students; and assault with hurtful objects such as rocks by Muslim Student Union Members.
3. Muslim speakers who express their desire for Israel to be wiped off the map.
4. Muslim speakers who express their hatred towards Jews involved in politics.
5. Muslim speakers who blame Jews on undesirable social conditions.
6. Muslim speakers who tell Jews to get out of their ghettos.
7. Muslim speakers who boast that Jews are afraid to get on buses in Israel out of fear of the ‘freedom fighters’ who strap bombs to their bodies.
8. Muslim speakers who assert that ‘Jews are the new Nazis.’
9. Depictions of Jews with hooked noses in exhibits.
10. Plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty meant to demonize Jews.
11. The intimidation of Jewish and pro-Israeli speakers by members of the Muslim Student Union.
12. Programs hosted by the Muslim Student Union titled: ‘Holocaust in the Holyland,’ ‘Genocide in Gaza,’ and ‘Israel: The 4th Reich.’
13. Posters on campus suggesting that Israeli soldiers target Arab children to shoot on sight.

Here’s video of the vile Jew-hatred which exists openly on the campus at UCI:

Barak Obama – The Messiah COMIC

Barak Obama – The Messiah: “

H/T: Grouchy Old Cripple”

HT Infidel Bloggers Alliance:

REZKO—Its Getting Closer to OBAMA

UPDATE: BARAK OBAMA LINKED TO A TERRORIST GROUP

More stories on Obama on my blog. 

REZKO—Its Getting Closer to OBAMA: “
The Democratic Party in Illinois takes the right to vote very seriously,everyone is expected to vote whether they are alive or dead, in fact during the 1960 Presidential election some wards had 100%+ of the voters show up and cast a ballot.

Chicago is the epicenter of the corruption in Illinois. Little by little that corruption is being exposed in the trial of Tony Rezko, the guy who helped Barack Obama buy his back yard, and as that corruption is unveiled it is inching closer to tangling the Senator in its web:

First Wright, Now Rezko
This time, a speech may not be enough for Obama. By Stephen Spruiell Chicago, Illinois — After the Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s now-notorious sermons gained a significant amount of national media attention, Illinois Senator Barack Obama felt compelled to explain his relationship with Wright in a major speech on race relations in America. Now that the governor of Illinois has been implicated in the schemes of Obama’s friend Tony Rezko, it might be time for Obama to explain his relationship with Rezko in a major speech on the endemic political corruption that afflicts his home state of Illinois. Rezko’s trial has lifted the veil on Illinois’s infernally corrupt political establishment, and a government witness named Stuart Levine has taken the part of a meth-snorting, double-dealing Virgil, guiding the public through it. Levine is a broken man, testifying for the government in order to avoid spending the rest of his life in prison. Over seven days of direct examination, he has described an astonishingly broad network of fraud, extortion, and bribery, culminating in Wednesday’s revelation that Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich allegedly knew about at least one such scheme. Levine used his positions on various state boards to steal as much money as he could from people with business before those boards. One of those people was a Hollywood producer and financier named Tom Rosenberg. Rosenberg was a principal at a firm called Capri Capital. Capri managed over a billion dollars for the Illinois Teachers Retirement System, of which Levine was a trustee. Through a variety of corrupt means, including allowing TRS executive director Jon Bauman to write his own (glowing) evaluations, Levine wielded a disproportionate amount of influence over TRS investment decisions. Levine used this influence to steer TRS contracts to whomever would pay him and his associates the biggest ‘finder’s fees.’ Levine decided that Rosenberg was getting far too much TRS business and paying far too little in the form of kickbacks to him and his cronies — an arrangement that Levine saw an opportunity to amend when Capri sought a new contract from TRS in early 2004. According to his testimony, Levine and an associate named Bill Cellini (both Republicans) conspired with two of Governor Blagojevich’s top fundraisers and advisers — Tony Rezko and a roofing contractor named Chris Kelly (both Democrats) — to offer Rosenberg a choice: Either pay a $2 million bribe or raise $1.5 million for Blagojevich’s re-election campaign. Rosenberg was to be made to understand that all of his business with TRS was at stake. Levine testified that Allison Davis, a lawyer friend of Rosenberg’s, was the go-between. Davis allegedly approached Rezko on behalf of Rosenberg to ask about Capri’s business with TRS, and he told Rezko that Rosenberg would be willing to do some fundraising for Blagojevich if that would speed things along. Rezko told Davis that Rosenberg should ‘call Stuart Levine.’ When Rosenberg realized he was the target of such a massive shakedown, he was furious. In a recorded phone call between Cellini and Levine that prosecutors played for the jury, Cellini quoted Rosenberg’s reaction: ‘ ‘If [Tony Rezko and Chris Kelly are] going to do this to me and think they’re going to blackmail me, I’m going to take them down.’ ’ Rosenberg’s threat convinced the alleged conspirators to back off, and — in the biggest bombshell to emerge during the trial so far — Levine testified that Rezko told him that Governor Blagojevich had been informed of the situation. Prosecutors also played a recorded conversation between Cellini and Levine that appeared to confirm Levine’s testimony. In it, they discussed how ‘the big guy’ had implied that Rosenberg should not get any further business from the state. Blagojevich’s office issued a statement last night essentially accusing Levine of ‘not telling the truth’ — an accusation that is by no means baseless. Levine has major credibility problems. For one thing, he is testifying as part of a plea deal. For another, he testified on Monday that his drug of choice from the late ‘80s until his arrest in 2004 was a cocktail of crystal meth and the animal tranquilizer ketamine, known on the street as ‘Special K.’ But much of his testimony is nonetheless backed up by phone conversations that were recorded without his knowledge, in which he was speaking freely and had little incentive to lie. If Levine’s testimony regarding Blagojevich is true, then such nakedly corrupt behavior at such a high level is bound to attract greater scrutiny from the national media to the problem of corruption in the state of Illinois. To illustrate the gravity of the issue, three of the last seven governors elected in the state of Illinois have ended up in jail. If Blagojevich is indicted, tried and convicted, that will make four out of seven. Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica, a Republican who is running for Cook County state’s attorney, calls an indictment of Governor Blagojevich ‘inevitable.’ ‘What we have,’ Peraica says, ‘is a level of corruption that is integrated both vertically and horizontally across all layers of government: city, municipal, county, and state.’ To him, the Rezko case illustrates that corruption in Illinois is a bipartisan problem. ‘We have a corrupt political combine, where the members of the two parties… have come together, not pursuant to a public interest, but to pursue their own financial interests, which they have done with great zeal and ingenuity.’ This corruption, should it become an issue in the campaign, could cause problems for Obama when people start to wonder how he could have made it through ‘the combine’ without getting involved in the overlapping networks of patronage and influence. Peraica, for one, argues that he didn’t. ‘Senator Barack Obama is an integral part and a product of this corrupt system,’ Peraica says. ‘Senator Obama has endorsed Todd Stroger for Cook County board president, Mayor [Richard M.] Daley for mayor of Chicago, Dorothy Tillman for re-election as an alderman, and other epitomes of bad government throughout his career in order to promote himself politically, at the expense of, I would argue, principles and morals and good government.’ Obama’s relationship with Allison Davis — the alleged go-between in Rezko’s scheme to shake down Tom Rosenberg — could pose another problem for him. Obama worked for Davis at the law firm of Davis Miner Barnhill. Later, when Obama sat on the board of a charity called the Woods Fund, he voted to invest $1 million in a partnership operated by Davis, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Levine’s testimony in the Rezko trial puts Davis in the middle of an attempted quid pro quo, making him yet another associate Obama might be pressured to disown. And the trial could stretch well into May, at which point a Rezko conviction could lead to even more headaches for the candidate. If Rezko is looking at a long prison sentence and decides to start talking, who knows what he might say? All the more reason that Obama might be tempted to try to address this metastasizing problem with a single bold gesture. Obama made a big speech about race to distract from his ties to one unsavory Chicago character, but distancing himself from an entire network of them might prove to be a tougher task. After all, Obama was able to claim the middle ground in his defense of Wright, denouncing Wright’s most radical views while excusing his run-of-the-mill resentments as being a not-atypical part of the black experience.
But America will have a harder time swallowing excuses for corruption as being a run-of-the-mill aspect of the Illinois political experience — particularly not from a candidate that has promised a new kind of politics. To succeed, Obama would have to denounce the behavior of some of his closest allies and demonstrate a candor about his own experience in state government that’s been missing from his campaign thus far. In the Rezko trial, Obama might have finally encountered a problem that a speech alone won’t solve.

(Via YID With LID.)</

Ma’an News-Hatred Funded by Denmark and the Netherlands

Ma’an News-Hatred Funded by Denmark and the Netherlands: “
Its one thing for a news organization to be biased in its coverage, it worse when they are just snakes. Ma’an news, a Palestinian News agency, has a major case of Eddie Haskell Syndrome. For those of you who were born after the Beatles broke up, Eddie Haskell was a character on the TV show Leave it to Beaver. Eddie’s two trademarks are his sugary politeness to adults and his sharp-tongued meanness to everybody else. Eddie would be in the middle of calling his buddies names an if their mother would enter the room he would stop on a dime and utter something like ‘Good Morning Mrs. Cleaver, MY, what a pretty dress you have on’

The Ma’an news has two version one in English (which I read) and the other in Arabic. The English one reports with a bias, but actually breaks some interesting stories which have been posted on this blog. The Arabic version spews hatred and does its best to incite Palestinians against Israel, Jews and the Western World. And the sick part of it all—its funded by Denmark and the Netherlands. As Hamlet said, ‘Things Be Rotten in the State of Denmark’ The report below is from Palestinian Media Watch

 

 

 

Netherlands and Denmark fund terror glorification, hate language of Palestinian news agency By Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook

 

A Palestinian news agency that receives financial support from the governments of The Netherlands and Denmark glorifies terrorists, releases news stories using hate language and is a highly politicized, hate-promoting news organization. Paradoxically, Ma’an News claims to be ‘objective, accurate, balanced’ and to ‘increase Palestinian media credibility,’ according to its web site.

1- Ma’an Honoring Terrorists and Murderers as Shahids

Ma’an has glorified the recent Palestinian murderer of eight Israeli yeshiva students, the Dimona suicide terrorist, the killers of the two Israeli hikers and the terrorists who attacked a boys’ high school with the very highest Islamic status attainable, elevating them to the status of ‘Shahids’ or ‘Martyrs for Allah.’ According to the accepted Palestinian interpretation of Islam, there is no higher status that a Muslim can achieve today than that of Shahid. In defining terrorist murderers as ‘Shahids,’ Ma’an is by definition sending its readers a straightforward message of honor for the killers, and approval for the many murders. Negative or dishonorable actions could not elevate an individual to Shahid status. (See below for full sources.)

In its English versions of these reports, Ma’an did not honor the terrorists as ‘Shahids’ or use the similar English term ‘Martyrs.’Note, for example, the difference in Ma’an reporting on the murder of the two hikers:

 

Ma’an Arabic News	Ma’an English News
‘Two of the operatives died as Shahids.’ [Dec. 28, 2007]	‘Two Israelis, two Palestinians killed by gunfire near Hebron.’

 

The explanation for this and all other discrepancies between Ma’an’s English and Arabic reporting is that this politically-charged Arabic terminology, together with the examples of Ma’an’s use of hate-language (below), would readily expose Ma’an’s lack of professionalism and messages of approval of terror if repeated in English. In addition, it must be assumed that the governments of The Netherlands and Denmark would be outraged to know they are funding terror glorification and hate journalism.

2 – Suicide Bombers: Ma’an uses term of higher honor: Shahada-Seekers

With regard to suicide terrorists Ma’an goes even further. According to Islam, someone who intentionally seeks Shahada – death for Allah – is greater than someone who achieves Shahada while not actively hoping to die. The Arabic term Istishhadi – Shahada- Seeker- is used by terror organizations to define and add a higher status of honor specifically to suicide terrorists .

Ma’an has followed this lead in its Arabic reporting of the Dimona suicide bombing that killed one Israeli woman and critically injured her husband. Note the apolitical report by Ma’an in English, where the suicide bomber is reported to be just that, ‘a bomber,’ followed by the Arabic Ma’an reports that use the term of highest honor, ‘Shahada-Seekers.’

 

 

Ma’an Arabic News	Ma’an English News
‘Ma’an – Senior military figure [Abu Al-Walid] of the Al-Aqsa Brigades in Gaza, rejected the suspicion that Israel aroused regarding the identity of the two Shahada-Seekers, who carried out the Dimona action… Pictures of the two Shahada-Seekers etc …’ [February 5, 2008]	‘Al-Aqsa Brigades dispel doubts about identity of second Dimona bomber… Speaking to Ma’an on Tuesday, Abu Al-Walid reiterated that the bombers were Luay Al-Ghawani and Mousa Arafat … Israeli security officials had expressed doubt about the validity of the image of the second bomber.’

Note also that under similar pictures of the mothers of the bombers, Ma’an uses the objective caption in English: ‘Mother of suspected bomber,’ and the honor caption in Arabic: ‘Mothers of the Shahada-Seekers‘.

Ma’an Arabic caption	Ma’an English caption
‘Mothers of Shahada-Seekers‘	‘Mother of suspected bomber‘

3- Ma’an denies Israel’s right to exist- all Israel is ‘Occupation’

Ma’an uses very politicized hate language to routinely reject Israel’s right to exist, and even to deny Israel’s existence. For example, when reporting on Israeli Arab doctors who visited Gaza, Ma’an defined them in Arabic as ‘Palestinian doctors from inside ‘Occupied Palestine’,’ Ma’an’s term for Israel. In this case, Ma’an’s English language report on this story followed similar hate language:

‘Palestinian doctors from 1948 territories [another Ma’an euphemism for Israel] visit Gaza… A delegation of doctors from Palestinian territories occupied since 1948, from outside of the Green Line, visited the Gaza Strip.’ [February 29, 2008]

In this article to deny Israel’s legitimacy on its land, Ma’an went out of its way to use a particularly awkward hate expression. Instead of using the simple, accurate and apolitical wording, ‘doctors from Israel,’ Ma’an used 13 cumbersome, politically-charged hate words to describe the doctors’ origins:

 

Ma’an political language	Accurate apolitical language
‘doctors from Palestinian territories occupied since 1948, from outside of the Green Line’	‘doctors from Israel’

 

It is also important to note that later in the same article, Ma’an used the term ‘Israel’ as follows: ‘…crippling siege led by Israel.’ The difference is striking. When referring to the land or location – Ma’an called Israel ‘Occupied Palestine.’ In referring to the government of Israel or criticizing Israeli policy Ma’an used ‘Israel.’ (See other examples below.)

Finally, since Israel’s very existence is presented by Ma’an as an ‘Occupation,’ the Israeli army in Arabic is referred to with hate language identical to that used by the terrorist organizations: ‘the occupation forces.’ Here, as in some of the cases above, Ma’an avoids the hate language in English. One example is a Ma’an report after Israel arrested three suspected terrorists.]

 

Ma’an Arabic News	Ma’an English News
‘Occupation forces arrest …’ [March 25, 2008]	‘Israeli forces raid …’

 

See below a list of examples where Ma’an glorifies terrorists and uses hate language.

PMW comment:

Last year PMW documented that Ma’an used this politicized hate language after the suicide terror attack in the Israeli city of Eilat. [See PMW Bulletin]

In Arabic, Ma’an had reported that Eilat was ‘in the south of occupied Palestine,’ the mother of the terrorist was said to be from the ‘occupied city of Jaffa’, though Jaffa is part of Tel Aviv, and Ma’an had honored the suicide bomber as a Shahid.

We find it surprising and unfortunate that the governments of The Netherlands and Denmark continue to fund this hate journalism without demanding a change. Hate incitement, including denial of Israel’s existence and glorifying terror, is universally accepted as a paramount cause of continued Palestinian terror. These governments, together with governments who have blindly funded Palestinian schoolbooks, bear direct moral responsibility for the continued hatred that is being ingrained into future Palestinian generations, and bear a moral responsibility for the terror and its victims.

The following are additional examples of Ma’an using hate language and honoring terrorists.

Ma’an grants Shahid status to all terrorists in recent terror attacks. The following are in addition to examples above.

1. Jerusalem Yeshiva terror attack – 8 students killed:

Ma’an Arabic News:

‘8 dead and two Shahids in the Jerusalem Operation. The operatives were from [village of] Jabal Mukbar…’ [Ma’an, Arabic news, March 6, 2008]

2. Terror attack in High School in Kfar Ezion:

Ma’an Arabic News:

‘Ma’an discloses the identity of the two Shahids from the Ezion operation.’ [Ma’an, Arabic news, January 24 , 2008]

3. Two hikers ambushed and murdered as they strolled on nature walk

Ma’an Arabic News:

‘Two of the operatives died as Shahids, two more were injured and two Israeli soldiers were killed.’ [Ma’an, Arabic news, December 28, 2007]

Ma’an English News:

‘Two Israelis, two Palestinians killed by gunfire near Hebron.’

[Ma’an, English news, December 28, 2007]

4. Suicide Terror attack in Dimona- one woman killed:

Ma’an Arabic News:

‘Ma’an – Senior military figure [Abu Al-Walid] of the Al-Aqsa Brigades in Gaza, rejected the suspicion that Israel aroused regarding the identity of the two Shahada-Seekers, who carried out the Dimona action… Pictures of the two Shahada-Seekers etc …’

Ma’an English News:

‘Speaking to Ma’an on Tuesday, Abu Al-Walid reiterated that the bombers were Luay Al-Ghawani and Mousa Arafat’ [ English news, February 5, 2008]

Ma’an news releases promote the hate message that Israel has no right to exist, calling Israel ‘Occupied Palestine’ or ‘territories occupied after 1948,’ Israel’s government the ‘Occupation Authority’ and its soldiers the ‘Occupation forces.’ Note also when Israel is mentioned it is often put within quotation marks- a common linguistic method to express non-recognition.

1.’The Occupation authorities [editor: replaces ‘Israeli authorities’] have been enforcing severe restrictions since the morning hours on the entrance of residents to the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, and even on the entrance into the city of Jerusalem within the borders of the occupation municipality [editor: replaces ‘Jerusalem’]. They have prevented hundreds of the residents of Jerusalem and the Palestinian territories occupied since 1948, [editor: replaces ‘Israel’] who hold blue ‘Israeli’ identity cards from…’

[Ma’an, Arabic news, February 29, 2008]

2.’He said that 72 prisoners have died as Shahids during the al-Aqsa intifada, 58 of them from the West Bank, one from the territories occupied since 1948 [editor: replaces ‘Israel’] and 13 from the Gaza Strip…’ [Ma’an, Arabic news, February 29, 2008]

3.’In a research paper he published on the issue of the number of prisoners of Palestine which has been occupied since 1948 (The ‘inside’ prisoners) [editor: replaces ‘Israeli prisoners’], he emphasized that this number is an important number in the equation of the historical and cultural struggle against the Israeli occupier…’ [Ma’an, Arabic news, March 15, 2008]

Note in this previous example that instead of just writing the single word ‘Israel,’ Ma’an used a very long term: Palestine which has been occupied since 1948. However, Ma’an itself felt the need to further explain its own cumbersome usage by adding in parentheses, (‘inside’ prisoners) meaning ‘Israeli Arab prisoners.’ It shows again that Ma’an is willing to burden its readers with linguistic contortions, rather than use simple and accurate language which would indicate recognition of Israel. In this case the language it avoided writing was ‘Arab prisoners from Israel.’

4. ‘Dr. al-Asta did not compare the outlook… to one who lives in the racist Ghetto in Occupied Palestine…’ [Ma’an, Arabic news, February 24, 2008]

5. ‘A delegation of doctors from Palestinian territories occupied since 1948… visited the Gaza Strip.’ [Ma’an, Arabic news, March 17, 2008]

6. Discrepancies between English and Arabic reports:

Ma’an Arabic Report:

‘The occupation forces’ detained 3 residents in Bethlehem and al-Duha’. [Ma’an, Arabic news, March 25, 2008]

Ma’an English Report:

‘Israeli forces raid Bethlehem and seize 3 Palestinians’

[Ma’an, English news, March 25, 2008]

Ma’an Arabic Report:

‘The Israeli occupation army seized the town of Kafin afternoon today, Wednesday…’ [Ma’an, Arabic news, March 26, 2008]

Ma’an EnglishReport:

‘Israeli forces stormed the town of Kafin in the West Bank Wednesday…’ [Ma’an, English news, March 26, 2008

(Via YID With LID.)</

CARNIVAL OF THE INSANITIES

Here is a great source of links and stories enjoy.

CARNIVAL OF THE INSANITIES: “ Time for the weekly insanity update, where the insane, the bizarre, the ridiculous, and the completely absurd are highlighted for all to see! This has been a week of rare idiocy (as always!). So, if you want to remain sane, the best thing is to poke some fun at the more egregious absurdities.

Send all entries for next week’s carnival to Dr. Sanity by 8 pm ET on Saturday for Sunday’s Carnival. Only one post entry weekly per blogger, please. And you might read this before submitting an entry
**NOTE: I am now getting many more submissions than I can possibly include in the weekly Carnival. Please don’t be offended if your submission is not used (oh, okay, be as offended as you like) as it only means that for a variety of reasons I wasn’t able to fit it into the ‘flow’ as I put together each Carnival.

REMEMBER, THERE ARE SO MANY INSANITIES AND SO LITTLE TIME!!!

1. Finally! The anwer(s) to one of the most important philosophical questions ever asked.

2. Zawahiri (he’s #2) announces #1’s death (if you listen closely)…Who you gonna believe–#2 or #3?

3. The bad guys come out to die. A triumphant surrender? Remind us again who’s losing? Media scorekeeping leaves something to be desired. Don’t mess with the Special Forces.

4. Magical thinking, perhaps? Now, what part of Geert Wilder’s movie ‘Fitna’ is Islamophobic? And are all these people Islamophobic? Or do they just prefer iSlam’s competitor?

5. Year of the Fonzie. Another business is feeling the pinch!

6. Pinched to death! What? Me worry?

7. Even Kim Jong Il would blanch. Another leftist myth bites the dust. Alternative locations for Gitmo.

8. Today your weed, tomorrow the world! Or maybe just the cement factory. Next it will be the toilet paper manufacturers…. Does science hold the answer? But it’s not his fault! It’s in the genes.

9. Just in case you think you’ve heard every sort of excuse for speeding… Just in case you’ve heard every sort of excuse for ‘misspeaking’.

10. Don’t mess with her narrative (She’s #3, after all!).

11. Flashback. Words matter. Exxxxcelent.

12. Bummer! Another screw-up! Maybe they need some help on how to blog?

13. Absolut arrogance? Absolute tirade. Absolute idiocy.

14. Just blowing smoke. An apparent willingness to change his tune on the fly like a shapeshifter and he never got out of the gutter.

15. Worse and worser…dumb and dumber. A rejuvinated visage but the same old metrosexual brain.

16. Filing is taxing..something both Democrats and Republicans can agree on!

17. If you want to avoid turbulence, you’ll have to stay home. Case in point.

18. Losing the Wiki wars…

19. Here’s NOT lookin’ at you, kid.

20. Super Pii Pii brothers…

21. A nice pizza change! Raising the bar by lowering the seat ?

22. Men are from California and women are from New Jersey! Men stand up straight and women lean… They even look in the mirror in opposite ways!

23. Can you dance The Bear?

***************************************
Carnival of the Insanities can also be found at The Truth Laid Bear’s ÜberCarnival and at the BlogCarnival.

If you would like to Join the insanity, and add the Carnival of the Insanities button to your sidebar (clicking on it will always take you to the latest update of the Carnival), click on ‘Word of Blog’ below the button to obtain the html code:

Heard the Word of Blog?

“

(Via Dr. Sanity.)</

Your federal government at work … for Palestinians

I find this deeply disturbing. I hope people can change this. Write to your representatives and make a difference. Have our government stop giving terrorist money to kill jews. This is like the US building Gas chambers for Hitler during WW2.

Your federal government at work … for Palestinians: ”

‘Consistent with current foreign policy,

certain transactions otherwise prohibited …

are being authorized …’

04/12/2006

The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has determined that Hamas, a terrorist entity whose property and interests in property are blocked under three separate OFAC-administered economic sanctions programs, has a property interest in the transactions of the Palestinian Authority. Accordingly, pursuant to the Global Terrorism Sanctions Regulations, 31 C.F.R. Part 594, the Terrorism Sanctions Regulations, 31 C.F.R. Part 595, and the Foreign Terrorist Organizations Sanctions Regulations, 31 C.F.R. Part 597, U.S. persons are prohibited from engaging in transactions with the Palestinian Authority unless authorized, and may not transfer, pay, withdraw, export or otherwise deal in any assets in which the Palestinian Authority has an interest unless authorized. Consistent with current foreign policy, certain transactions otherwise prohibited pursuant to the Regulations are being authorized by general license to facilitate limited transactions by U.S. persons with the Palestinian Authority. General licenses or statements of licensing policy will be issued as appropriate to authorize additional transactions with the Palestinian Authority or to indicate limited circumstances under which other transactions may be considered for favorable licensing treatment on a case-by-case basis. Information on complying with specific aspects of these general licenses, including a list relevant to compliance with General License No. 4(b), is available on OFAC’s website.

And lest you think ‘certain [otherwise prohibited] transactions’ are merely being ‘authorized,’ think again. They’re being encouraged, promoted and assisted… all over our federal
dot-GOV. Here’s just one thread, in addition to that Treasury Department loophole.

Yes, you can do business in the West Bank and Gaza! Dozens of American firms have established agencies and distributorships, and Palestinian consumers have a strong preference for a wide variety of U.S. goods and services.

Many American companies have reoriented their marketing efforts to acknowledge the Palestinian market as culturally, economically, and commercially distinct from the Israeli market.

The U.S. Commercial Service in Jerusalem strongly encourages American exporters wishing to market their goods in the West Bank & Gaza to use local Palestinian agents and distributors….

We can help you find well qualified Palestinian agents and distributors for your products.

…. The U.S. Commercial Service in Jerusalem offers invaluable assistance to U.S. companies seeking to export products and services to the West Bank and Gaza and expand their business in the market. We have developed excellent contacts with private sector representatives, and are able to provide U.S. companies with necessary introductions, market reports and guidance to facilitate doing business in the West Bank and Gaza.

So … In addition to directly funding the Palestinian Authority [$150 million already released + $405 million more in the US.gov pipeline] our government is in the business of promoting doing business … with the Palestinians. There are tons of U.S. government programs; I’m just starting to scratch the surface.

The Department of Commerce will not only help U.S. companies do business in the terror-tories, it’s also out there soliciting Palestinians to do business with us! Consider for example this Reverse Gold Key program at the United States of America Department of Commerce website. Federal employees (need I mention that they are paid with your tax dollars?) will bend over backwards and hold your hand … if you are Palestinian.

Just READ THIS. You’ll flip (I did).

Looking for a U.S. partner?

If you are a Palestinian importer or agent looking for a U.S. manufacturer, or a Palestinian manufacturer with an innovative technology looking for a U.S. partner for joint R and D or product development,
we offer you the Gold Key USA.

Gold Key USA is the domestic version of the Gold Key Matching Service. It is designed to match Palestinian companies traveling to the U.S. with pre-screened, pre-qualified U.S. exporters or U.S. partners located in a specific area.

The fee for the service varies by location.

U.S. Commercial Service Trade Specialists at our Export Assistance Centers (EAC’s) will provide you with:

• three to five appointments with pre-screened U.S. companies;
• a market briefing;
• office space for the day of scheduled appointments;
• domestic use of fax, telephone and internet;
• assistance arranging hotel accommodations;
• interpretation and transportation services for an additional fee;
• immediately contacting you or our office upon receipt of the preliminary assessment form to ensure that he/she has complete understanding of the types of suppliers the Gold Key USA client wants to meet;
• accompanying the Gold Key USA client on scheduled appointments if requested.

The market briefing is a consultation by a trade specialist about the industry market conditions in the USEAC coverage area for the product or service you are seeking to purchase.

The delivery time for this service is approximately five weeks from receipt of payment.

The most effective Gold Key USA results require your substantial involvement and follow-up. We strongly suggest that you work closely with the Commercial Specialist at the U.S. Commercial Service in Jerusalem and the Trade Specialist in the USEAC to clearly outline the type of international partner that you believe will be most useful to your company and establish an effective strategy for continuing communication with potential international partners.

If you are interested in this service, please go to our ‘Meet our Staff’ section to send a message to one of our specialists.

Just more thing before I go back to doing my taxes (don’t let the irony escape you). See the top link here, on the left, where it says ‘New!’ in red?

Palestine Investment Conference
PIC-Palestine May 21-23, 2008

The Palestine Investment Conference, PIC-Palestine, May 21-23, 2008, aims to highlight investment opportunities in the Palestinian economy. It is a platform to share innovative business designs, forge genuine partnerships between investors in and outside Palestine, and encourage the already strong relationship between Palestine’s public and private sectors. The conference seeks the active support of entrepreneurs from the Arab world, the region, and the international community. It also aims to tap into the rich and varied experience of participants. The PIC-Palestine, May 21-23, 2008 message is simple: ‘You can do business in Palestine.’ High-ranking members of the public and private sector from the West Bank/Gaza, Middle East, United States and elsewhere will participate in this conference to help encourage growth of a private –sector led Palestinian economy.

More information about PIC-Palestine-2008 is available at http://www.pic-palestine.ps1.

Click on it … go ahead.

partner / sponsor:

 

Dear Investors: 

The Palestine Investment Conference promises to be a historic event….

That’s pretty ‘historic,’ alright — holding a conference in a country that doesn’t even exist.

With my money. And yours.

Just thought you’d wanna know.

 

 

”

(Via avideditor’s shared items in Google Reader.)</

Fitna the Movie (New Version 4-4-2008)

I think it is pathetic the cartoonist made them change the cartoon. But I guess life goes on.

This is the new version of Fitna(04/04/08). It has removed the cartoon made famous by Kurt Westergaard and replaced it with an original work by Scarlet Pimpernel, as well he has replaced the picture of Salah Edin with the real Mohammed Bouyeri.

I think Islam: What the west needs to know is a better movie. I just got my new computer and I am still setting up my video editing tools so I can edit my version of Fitna. Hopefully it will be done by next week. To watch the original version click here.

Vodpod videos no longer available. from www.liveleak.com posted with vodpod

Hillary, call your office: Indian Islamic authorities declare health insurance un-Islamic

WOW some radical Islamist are crazy

Hillary, call your office: Indian Islamic authorities declare health insurance un-Islamic: ”

Could this turn Hillary into an anti-jihadist?

‘Health Insuarance illegal: Islamic body,’ from the Economic Times (thanks to Twostellas):

NEW DELHI: Comparing the benefits of health insurance policy to gambling, key Islamic organisations have termed the policies as ‘illegal’ and directed Muslims to keep away from them.

At a seminar to deliberate whether insuring health was permissible under Islamic law Shariat, the Islamic Fiqh Academy (India) decided that availing such policies was illegal.

Representatives from around 300 Madrasas, including Darul Uloom Deoband, Jamiat Islami participated in the three-day meet, where they reached a conclusion that seeking insurance cover was only another form of gambling.

Health insurance schemes have turned a noble service in to a business activity, hence under Islam it is not permitted, they said.

The Academy, however said, if a person had insured himself under some legal constraints, then it was matter that could be thought over.

It also said that in such a situation, the patient should the spend the left-over amount of the claim he receives from the company on some form [of] service to Allah….

”

(Via avideditor’s shared items in Google Reader.)</

The new chilling video of B. Hussein Obama and his mentors

To read other post on Obama Click here. 

The new chilling video of B. Hussein Obama and his mentors: ”

Some of the stuff we are already familiar with and some new and but no less chilling: 

Makes those who support Obama look like America haters and/or zombies.

”

Pakistanis Protest Fitna

All of this over a movie? Wow they are insecure about there beliefs.

A Few Disgruntled Pakistanis Protest Fitna: “Only around 25,000 made it to the rally today…

More than 25,000 people rallied in the largest protest in Pakistan so far against an allegedly anti-Quran film made by a Dutch lawmaker, urging their government to expel the Netherlands ambassador. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)”

Evangelist Hagee pledges $6 million to Israel

I wish more christians in the US acted like Hegee. The jihadis will destroy Europe and then America if Israel falls.

Evangelist Hagee pledges $6 million to Israel: “Rally held by group founded by controversial American Christian leader backs Israeli sovereignty over entire unified capital while donating millions to public causes. ‘Turning part or all of Jerusalem over to the Palestinians would be tantamount to turning it over to the Taliban,’ Hagee says”

American Evangelist John Hagee on Sunday announced donations of $6 million to a number of Israeli causes and declared that Israel must remain in control of all of Jerusalem.

Hagee, who has been in the news lately for his endorsement of US Presidential candidate John McCain and his criticism of the Catholic Church, brought hundreds of backers on a solidarity trip to Israel.

Hagee’s group, Christians United for Israel, held a colorful rally at Jerusalem’s convention center. The mostly American audience waved Israeli flags and cheered as Hagee joined keynote speaker Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of Israel’s hardline opposition Likud party, to insist Jerusalem remain united and under Jewish control.

”Turning part or all of Jerusalem over to the Palestinians would be tantamount to turning it over to the Taliban,” Hagee said. Palestinians claim the eastern part of the city, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, as the capital of their future state.

Among the 16 causes Hagee supported with the contributions he announced were divided the Magen David Adom emergency service and a conference center in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Ariel.
The fate of Jewish settlements like Ariel is one of the issues at the heart of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Support of evangelicals for Israel’s maintaining control of all of the West Bank endears them to Israeli hardliners but troubles more dovish activists.

”If they’re giving money to mainstream causes it’s hard to object,” said political analyst Yossi Alpher, who edits an Israeli-Arab online newsletter.

But he added, ”When they give money to extreme right-wing causes and when they direct their political support there, they are damaging the peace process.”

Hagee’s statements about Catholicism caused McCain to distance himself last month. The San Antonio pastor suggested that Catholic anti-Semitism shaped German Nazi ruler Adolf Hitler, among other comments.

Hussein’s Church Founded On “The Destruction Of The White Enemy”

UPDATE: OBAMA LINKED TO TERRORIST

Hussein’s Church Founded On “The Destruction Of The White Enemy”: ”

Illinois Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Barack Obama speaks during a services at Trinity United Church of Christ Sunday, Oct. 31, 2004, in Chicago

He always knew, he has long been a ‘passing for not’, racist.

The church where Sen. Barack Obama has worshipped for two decades publicly declares that its ministry is founded on a 1960s book that espouses ‘the destruction of the white enemy.’

Trinity United Church of Christ’s Web site says its teachings are based on the black liberation theology of James H. Cone and his 1969 book ‘Black Theology and Black Power.’

‘What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love,’ Mr. Cone wrote in the book.

Mr. Cone, a professor at the Union Theological Seminary in New York, added that ‘black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy.’

Mr. Obama’s campaign, which for weeks has weathered criticism about inflammatory racial language by the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. at Trinity, said the candidate ‘vehemently disagrees’ with those tenets.

‘It’s absurd to suggest that he or anyone should be held responsible for every quote in every book read by a member of their church,’ said Obama spokesman Reid Cherlin.

‘Barack Obama is not a theologian, and what he learned in church is to love Jesus Christ and work on behalf of his fellow man, regardless of race, class or circumstance. This is a faulty and disingenuous approach to a church, and a flawed way to judge a candidate,’ he said.

Mr. Obama has been a member of Trinity, on Chicago’s South Side, since finding religion there 20 years ago under Mr. Wright’s mentorship. Mr. Wright married the Obamas and baptized their children, and a sermon of his inspired Mr. Obama to title his book ‘The Audacity of Hope.’

There is no evidence to date in any of Mr. Obama’s public comments or speeches that he espouses the radical features of the black liberation theology practiced at his church.

Critics say Trinity’s message verges on separatist philosophy and at the very least advocates exclusively for blacks.

‘The liberation theology and the black-values system to which his membership ascribe is a clear commitment to the social and spiritual enhancement of only the black race,’ the Rev. Corey J. Hodges, who is black, wrote last year in the Salt Lake Tribune. ‘Even more troubling is Wright’s use of the pulpit to perpetuate racial division.’

For years, Mr. Wright delivered sermons and endorsed articles in the church bulletin that called the United States and Israel racist regimes.

The bulletin’s ‘pastor’s page’ included essays that said Israel and South Africa ‘worked on an ethnic bomb that kills blacks and Arabs,’ compared Israel to Nazi Germany and quoted leaders of the terrorist group Hamas calling Israel a ‘deformed modern apartheid state.’

In a bulletin last year, Mr. Wright lashed out at the news media for scrutinizing the church, blaming ‘racist United States of America’ and ‘white arrogance’ for distracting the country from more important issues, such as the Iraq war and Hurricane Katrina victims.

The church declined to comment for this article, but the Rev. Otis Moss III, the church’s junior pastor, who took over for Mr. Wright, wrote in the bulletin in October that media conglomerates ‘operate with contempt and disdain for the black community, women, and people of the African Diaspora.’

Conrad Worrill, a leader of the Chicago-based National Black United Front, said attention directed at Trinity United demonstrates that racist attitudes persist in the United States.

‘Even if [Mr. Obama] did support some of the tenets of some of the ideas embedded in that theology, I still don’t think it has anything to do with his vision and his candidacy,’ said Mr. Worrill, whose organization promotes black political and cultural education and activism.

‘I think most black people would agree that what Jeremiah Wright said is the truth. … What we see playing out on the public stage is how black people still see America and the world and how white people cannot see the truth. It has nothing to do with Barack Obama.’

Mr. Wright, who recently retired as the church’s pastor after 36 years, defended Trinity’s religious views in ‘talking points’ posted on the church’s Web site (www.tucc.org).

‘To have a church whose theological perspective starts from the vantage point of Black liberation theology being its center, is not to say that African or African-American people are superior to anyone else,’ he said.

Mr. Cone recently told Forbes magazine that he doesn’t know how much Mr. Obama knows about black-liberation theology.

‘I’ve read both of Barack Obama’s books, and I heard the speech [on race]. I don’t see anything in the books or in the speech that contradicts black liberation theology. If he had it explained to him, I think he would [understand it],’ he said.

Mr. Cone calls his own teachings a fusion of teachings of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King.

In a debate last month with his rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, Mr. Obama rejected the church’s decision last year to honor Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who is known for anti-Semitic remarks.

The senator also disavowed some of Mr. Wright’s racist sermons after they were publicized in video clips on television and the Internet and on talk radio.

But in a March 18 speech on race, Mr. Obama said he could not sever ties with the pastor. He said Mr. Wright is like family and that the pastor’s outlook is scarred by civil rights struggles of the 1960s.

Mr. Obama said he was unaware until last month that his longtime spiritual mentor and friend used incendiary racist rhetoric in his sermons, such as denouncing the ‘U.S. of KKKA’ and proclaiming, ‘God damn America.’

Mr. Obama said rants against whites were never part of the Sunday services he attended.

‘I don’t purchase all the DVDs [of Mr. Wright’s sermons], and I didn’t read all the church bulletins,’ Mr. Obama said Friday on ABC’s ‘The View.’ ‘It’s not to excuse it.’

Mr. Obama said his mixed-race heritage — his mother was white and his father black — gives him a unique vantage point from which to help bridge the nation’s racial divides.

‘The church itself, though, is a wonderful, welcoming church. And if you guys went there on a Sunday, you would feel right at home,’ he told the panelists on TV’s ‘The View,’ most of them white. ‘You would see people talking about Jesus, and mercy, and sin, and family … and forgiveness.’

‘That doesn’t excuse what [Mr. Wright] said, but I do think it’s important just to put it in context.’

The Rev. Jane Fisler Hoffman, a member of Trinity who serves as a pastor in Southern California, said the Chicago church does not follow a radical doctrine, despite the angry words of Mr. Cone’s treatise.

‘It may have had some influence on what unfolded, but [Trinity] is a wonderful church, not a separatist church,’ said Mrs. Hoffman, who is white. ‘Anyone who tries to paint the church as hateful would be missing the mark.’

”

(Via avideditor’s shared items in Google Reader.)</

NIE Clarifies: Iran Almost Certainly Making Bomb

CAN WE BOMB IRAN NOW?

NIE Clarifies: Iran Almost Certainly Making Bomb: ”

W-Times:

The contested U.S. intelligence conclusion that Iran stopped work on its nuclear weapons program in 2003 is now being downplayed by the same officials who wrote the much-publicized report in November.

‘Why would the Iranians be willing to pay the international tariff they appear to be willing to pay for what they are doing now if they did not have, at a minimum, at a minimum, they did not have a desire to keep the option open to develop a nuclear weapon and perhaps even more so that they have already decided to do that?’ CIA Director Michael V. Hayden said Sunday.

The four-star Air Force general said it was ‘hard for me to explain’ the intelligence community’s conclusion that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and probably had not restarted it as of the middle of last year.

And his boss, Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell, said the report was so quickly declassified and poorly focused that it confused people.

‘If I had it to do over again, I would be very specific in how I described what was canceled and what continued,’ Mr. McConnell told a Senate panel of his community’s National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran.

Most news coverage of the assessment focused on the first sentence in its summary of key judgments: ‘We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program.’

But, the officials now say that sentence referred only to work on a nuclear warhead.

Mr. McConnell and Mr. Hayden now are emphasizing that Iran continues work on the enrichment of uranium, which could be used to make a weapon, and on ballistic missiles, which could be used to deliver a nuclear warhead. The publicly released NIE described Iran’s highly public enrichment efforts but did not mention the missile program, which already gives Iran the capacity to strike targets in Europe.

‘The other aspects of the Iranian nuclear effort, beyond the weaponization, the development of fissile material, the development of delivery systems, all continue apace,’ Mr. Hayden said this week.

Last month, Mr. Hayden agreed with Mr. McConnell’s characterization.

Mr. Hayden told editors and reporters of The Washington Times on March 11 that at the time the NIE was released in December he insisted there are three key elements of a nuclear weapons program: fissile material, weaponization and delivery systems.

‘What came out in a lot of coverage was ‘Iran stops nuclear program,’ ’ Mr. Hayden said. ‘The only thing we claimed had been halted in ‘03 was the weaponization. The development of fissile material, and the development of delivery systems continued. And one can make the case the development of delivery systems make no sense with just conventional warheads on top of them.’

The declassified NIE key judgments, however, made no mention of delivery systems and focused extensively on the halted program.

Steven Aftergood, an intelligence expert at the Federation of American Scientists, said the shift in tone from the intelligence chieftains has created some uncertainty about Iran’s program.

‘There have been mixed signals coming from senior intelligence officials regarding Iran,’ Mr. Aftergood said. ‘But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It helps to remind us that intelligence officials are not omniscient, that they can be mistaken, and that sometimes they change their minds.

‘Those are realities that are worth keeping in mind. For my part, I would rather have mixed signals and a vigorous discussion than a blank wall of secrecy.’

Perhaps no single intelligence document has come under as much criticism since the CIA and other agencies issued the 2002 NIE that said Iraq still maintained an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction — when it did not.

Conservative national security analysts roundly condemn the Iran NIE. Among the criticisms: The CIA knows little about the inner workings of Tehran’s hard-line Islamic government and does not know for sure that Iran has or has not resumed work on a warhead.

Critics also say the NIE delivered a public relations victory to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, while embarrassing President Bush and eliminating his most powerful option — air strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Since the NIE’s declassification, intelligence officials, while not abandoning it, have complained that the news media oversimplified its findings by writing that Iran ended its nuclear weapons research, which it has not.

In public comments, Mr. McConnell emphasizes that a closer reading reveals the NIE said Iran stopped work on only one project — designing the nuclear bomb itself.

He told the Senate Armed Services Committee in February, ‘I think the press mischaracterized’ the NIE, which reversed an earlier finding.

Mr. McConnell heads the committee of 16 intelligence agencies, including the CIA, which wrote and approved the NIE. He not only blamed the press, but he also criticized himself.

‘If I had had the foresight to know I was going to be forced to do unclassified key judgments, because of the circumstances, I would have caused the key judgments to be very clear about what was stopped and what continued,’ he told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. ‘I’ll take responsibility. That’s an error in judgment on my part. I wasn’t clairvoyant or smart.’

Mr. McConnell then added more complexity to the debate, saying Iran could have restarted work on a nuclear warhead without U.S. intelligence agencies being aware of it.

‘If Iran’s nuclear weapons design program … has already been reactivated or will be reactivated, it will be a closely guarded state secret,’ he testified.

Mr. Hayden said on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ on Sunday that ‘it’s a very difficult judgment. It’s a complex judgment, too, and it’s one that, unfortunately, tends to get oversimplified in public discourse.’

Asked about Mr. Hayden’s NIE explanation, a senior intelligence official said, ‘Weaponizing a device is just one aspect of developing a nuclear weapon. The hard part is producing the highly enriched uranium, and that continues apace, as does the testing of delivery systems.’

James Phillips, a Heritage Foundation expert on the Middle East who has criticized the NIE, said Mr. McConnell and Mr. Hayden are ‘backpedaling.’

‘They realize how misleading its conclusions were, especially when taken out of context,’ Mr. Phillips said. ‘There is a growing consensus that the NIE accorded too much weight to the reported halt in weaponization research, which is relatively easy to accomplish, and too little weight to Iran’s acceleration of its uranium enrichment effort, which is a much more difficult hurdle that must be overcome to build a nuclear weapon. Also, the NIE failed to account for Iran’s missile program, which makes little sense.’

Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations’ nuclear counterproliferation arm, reported last month that Iran has refused to stop enriching uranium, as demanded by a U.N. resolution.

IAEA officials met in January with Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The agency said he stated, ‘the country’s nuclear program had always been exclusively for peaceful purposes and that there had never been a nuclear weapons development program.’

The new NIE rebuts that statement, saying Iran was working on nuclear warhead designs until 2003, when it secretly stopped because of international pressure.

”

(Via avideditor’s shared items in Google Reader.)</

WaPo/Newsweek Promoting CAIR Again

Charles at LGF exposes more liberal press promoting CAIR

WaPo/Newsweek Promoting CAIR Again: ”

Promoted at the Washington Post/Newsweek ‘On Faith’ site (a propaganda outlet for numerous Islamic radicals, including the spiritual leader of Hizballah), a meeting at Georgetown University: Islam and American Politics: Deepening the Dialogue.

Featuring Nihad Awad, head of the radical Islamic front group CAIR, listed as unindicted conspirators in the ongoing Holy Land Foundation terrorism trial.

Also featuring Muslim Congressman Keith Ellison, who says in a video clip, ‘While the Founding Fathers got race all wrong and got gender all wrong, they got religion right.’

Islamic issues will play a more and more prominent role in US politics and the 2008 presidential election, according to experts participating in a Capitol Hill roundtable convened by the World Economic Forum and Georgetown University Thursday.

The roundtable, chaired by Georgetown President John J. DeGioia and moderated by On Faith’s Sally Quinn, featured Keith Ellison (D-Minn), the first Muslim member of Congress. It marked the US launch of Islam and the West: Annual Report on the State of Dialogue, a collaboration between the World Economic Forum and Georgetown University.

With the 2008 US presidential election campaign in full swing, Muslim voters and issues are having a greater impact than at any other point in US history. The fact that Barack Obama had a Muslim grandfather – and his middle name is ‘Hussein’ – has surfaced as a campaign issue. And John McCain repeatedly calls ‘the struggle against radical Islamic extremism’ the ‘transcendent challenge of the 21st century.’

A diverse Muslim community is a growing force in US society and politics. On average, Muslims have higher educational and income levels than their fellow citizens. Nevertheless, Islam remains poorly understood and is a source of broad anxiety. More than six years after September 11th, 2001, most Americans profess a general ignorance of Islam and often associate it with terrorism.

Participants at the roundtable discussion included Akbar Ahmed, Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University, Nihad Awad, Executive Director, Council on American-Islamic Relations, Zahid Bukhari, Director of the American Muslim Studies Program, Georgetown University, Sherif El-Diwany, Middle East Director, World Economic Forum, John Esposito, University Professor, Georgetown University, Ari Gordon, Assistant Director for Interreligious Affairs, American Jewish Committee, Jane McAuliffe, Dean of Georgetown College, Georgetown University, Dalia Mogahed, Senior Analyst and Executive Director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, Jane Ramsey, Executive Director, Jewish Council for Urban Affairs, Rev. Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners ministries and magazine; and, Zainab Al-Suwaij, co-founder and Executive Director of the American Islamic Congress.

It’s more than a little ironic for them to chide ‘ignorant’ Americans for ‘associating Islam with terrorism,’ when they have an unindicted co-conspirator in a terrorism trial sitting on their panel.

 

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(Via Little Green Footballs.)</

‘In All Its Forms’ more Islamic double talk

Charles exposes jihadi double talk at LGF

‘In All Its Forms’: ”

Islamic scholars in India organized a large meeting to ‘denounce terrorism:’ Clerics denounce terrorism at Hyderabad meet.

The first clue that something isn’t right with this story is the phrase ‘in all its forms.’

Hyderabad, April 6 (IANS) A massive public meeting organised by Islamic madrassas here has condemned terrorism in all its forms and urged Muslims to develop good relations with other communities.

Uh oh. Whenever an Islamic apologist uses that phrase in connection with terrorism, you need to pay attention to what they say next.

Organised by the coordination committee of madrassas of Andhra Pradesh, the meeting, which continued till late in the night, said Islam or Muslims had nothing to do with terrorism and blamed government policies for terrorism.

While pointing out that Islam unequivocally condemned terrorism by describing the murder of innocents as the killing of entire humanity, a resolution passed at the event said the ‘repression on innocent people and injustice’ promoted terror.

See what I mean?

 

”

(Via Little Green Footballs.)</