Several months ago, I gave an editorial on PJTV in opposition to our government’s apparent censorship and sanitization of the use of Islamic terminology in terrorism cases. Incredible though it seemed, the 600 or so references to such terms as Jihad, radical Islam, Hamas and Hezbollah in the original 9/11 Report had been reduced to zero in the government’s 2009 Counter-Terrorism Lexicon, a 2009 FBI document and the recent Ft. Hood report.
At that time, I called upon Senators Lieberman and Collins, who had been doing some praiseworthy work in the area on their Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee, to investigate this disturbing suppression, which many of us felt distorted reality and would lead to further violent acts.
I suggested four avenues for Lieberman and Collins to investigate:
- To what degree are government documents and reports (perhaps both public and classified documents) being sanitized regarding Islamic terminology?
- To what degree is there a program or practice of verbal censorship? What are government employees allowed to say in their internal meetings? And are there internal policies or what the media might call “style guides” that prevent Secretaries of Departments, their staff and even the White House Press Spokesperson from using specific Islamic terminology?
- Who are the people or organizations inside the government that are pushing for this censorship?
- What people or groups outside the U.S. government may have been advocating this censorship?
My initial editorial was primarily in response to the events at Ft. Hood, when the religious motivations of Major Nidal Hasan were obfuscated, although the major apparently delivered unnerving lectures on the Koran to his confused Bethesda medical colleagues and shouted “Allahu Akbar” while massacring his fellow soldiers. The near disaster at Times Square followed with the same Islamic connections of the would be bomber similarly obscured — the use of Islamic terminology still under internal government censorship.
Mr. Simon I understand what you are thinking, but do you REALLY think the Speaker will assign a house sub-committee to investigate…. herself? The Dems looking at themselves? Really? They have members of the CBC with evidence of their wrong doings and it has taken three years to “investigate” them.
And what would they find: Soros paid them to silence dissent. We already knew that. The looney left wants to silence America. We know that as well. That the progressives are in bed with Islam is also not news. That they want to sanitize Islam fits in with their MO on how to insidiously destroy America.
The whole lot of the Dems are crooks. (cue the crickets) Until we get the progressives out of the MSM, the left will continue to ruin America. And the Dems will continue to ruin Congress, the Senate and the White House.
ALL politicians are crooks, Blotto.
We are finding that out the hard way.
Carve a pumpkin with your least favorite politician this Halloween.
Empty heads? Yup.
Government censorship ? Hell, there is censorship right here at this forum as well.
Bill, Bull. MBY
Actually, I believe it’s only GOVERNMENT that is proscribed from censoring speech by the Constitution (although “government” is into speech censoring all over the place, calling it “hate speech,” for the most part, or “unacceptable political speech” if it can be somehow be reached by way of McCain-Feingold). Private places such as Pajamas Media may censor to their hearts’ content. That they do NOT is a sign of their appreciation of free speech principles and the value of the airing of competing ideas. (Note that the Puffington Host has no such policy, perhaps because logic is destructive to their viewpoint.)
Nancy has no such appreciation; I’m sure she’ll punch and squeeze the First Amendment as much and as often as she can (which in her gerrymandered district is quite a lot).
Blotto — The point is not to accept the treasonous criminality of the Obama Junta, but to make as much noise as Holy Hell until this poisonous issue boils over. Last I checked, we still have the right to speak out and make a stink despite the tyrannical efforts of Obama and Co. to squelch us. Better use that free speech — use it or lose it. Pointing out the obvious hideousness of the Leftist enemy in desultory fashion does nothing to move the issue forward — whereas adding your voice to the growing chorus in opposition to the radical tyrant Obama DOES have an effect. Call your congressman’s office — even if he/she is on the other side. Make your opinions known. If you just sit on your hands — nobody will worry about your vote.
Filthy Saudi money is all over this issue. That, and two million Muslims on our soil, joined in their Jihad by the Radical Left embodied in Obama should not be enough to topple this great nation. The corruption is huge — the treasons are many — but we have no choice but to fight back. We either do that now, or the next chapter will be far FAR worse.
That’s my two cents anyway.
August 28, there is the Glenn Beck rally at the Lincoln Memorial on the Mall
“Restoring Honor”…what a concept!!! However, our politicians do not seem to have honor or to honor Americans.
We cannot allow censorship princess Pelosi to have her way!!! This will be a chance to show that we really are awake out here in the black hole of America. We hear and know what Washington is trying to do to us.
I think we still have much to learn about freedom and what it is going to take to take our country back from the Obama’s of this world.
Thank you for your 2-cents, Mort. Please never let up. I’m so sick and frickin’ tired of defending TRUTH and it’s nice to have someone like you keepin’ it real.
Morton:
You have made, in very clear fashion, an enormously important statement.”Speak out America” Thank you! I shall no longer be satisfied with my roll as a member of a silent majority.
.
“Let’s ROLL”
Morton, I find it interesting the that assault from the Speaker neatly coincided with a spate of puff pieces on the ” middle east goodwill trip ” by Rauff that has been played nationwide on all networks. Intimidation works best on those that require Federal licensure.
Obamas new ” media czar ” will see to that.
Why have none in our leadership filed an ethics complaint against Speaker Pelosi for her naked intimidation of the American people… and her attempt at stifling their freedom of speech? Was this not a blatant and obvious violation of our Constitutional rights? Does not her position of power require a higher degree of diligence when it comes to soiling the First Amendment?
I, for one, am grateful whenever one of our leaders reveals themselves on important issues. Those who support the GZM do so at their own political peril. Those who express their outrage of it will reap their politically reward for doing so. But Ms. Pelosi went too far when she called for an investigation of those opposing the mosque. Is it not obvious to her that there is a groundswell of opposition from a grass roots level?
Government censors simply because it can.Government will always censor. The trick is to keep Government censorship to a minimum. This can be done by exposing it; ridiculing it; hardy souls defeating specific acts of censorship and by people maintaining wide spread and gut-level revulsion at said censorship. Showroom investigations may expose censorship (good) but make me uneasy because they can look like ideological witch-hunts (inquisitions). It is a knee-jerk response to all government abuse of it’s powers to cry “there must be a new investigation!” It’s like another knee-jerk response to a tragedy – “there must be a new law!”.
Having said all that, if an investigation into censorship by government was carried out by Bart Simpson; it might work.
I’m not sure there are 2 million Muslims in the U.S., but it doesn’t help anyone to claim or imply they are all jihadis. There is in fact a great tension between American Muslims who support the country and the bulk of their Saudi-financed imams, who preach hate: http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/244349/which-islam-will-prevail-america-andrew-c-mccarthy.
You have an enlightened and informed opinion. Cheers.
I’ve got a serious problem with those Muslims using American Passports and/or those claiming to be Americans while resident here who appear so passive in this fight against Islamic subversion inside our America, this subversion practiced by their co-religionists. All of us Westerners should brush up on the terms “Taqiyya” and “Kitman”. We Westerners are not used to thinking this way, alas.
Where are those “moderate” Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan and the African countries who ought to be visibly aiding us in this fight against Islamic totalitarianism?… have they all been so intimidated by their “brothers” as to be rendered speechless, useless?
There’s too many instances of these “stand-asiders” who’re willing to hold our coats…silent observers of our casualties and aid money funneled into offshore personal accounts.
They’re either self-censoring or too acquiescent. Beware also the mutterings and stirrings amongst those silently waiting and forming the words “McCarthy” and “witchhunt”. Strange that Pelosi used the word “investigate”.
I’d like to see this alleged “great tension” among these Muslims manifested in America’s favor as visible, vocal, and concrete efforts and results.
This current political correctness is a malignancy.
I don’t know why Muslims living in America – aside from those in the US military – seem to be quiet. There have certainly been at least some Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq that opposed the Taliban and Al Qaida since some of them are fighting those enemies via participation in the Afghani or Iraqi armies and police, as well as working as interpreters for US Forces. However, they may be a little quieter than they once were owing to Julian Assange of WikiLeaks and his willingness (eagerness?) to hang then out to dry via his “revelations”.
I am with Charlie on this one. It is all well and good and politically correct to speak of a “great tension.” But if there really were such tension, we would hear from those who are tense. And no, I cannot cry for those (muslims) who may be afriad to speak up. They should not bring this great tension to our shores until they resolve it elsewhere. If this sounds harsh, so be it, but I simply do not want to lose everything. Unless, of course, the great tense “they” does not really even exist.
I would be more sympathetic if those who were afraid to speak up would quietly find a way to quit their religion. That they continue to go to their mosque and pay their tithe sends the wrong message…. if they are so tense.
The Americans who know Taqyyi best are the politicians who use it to cover up the dirty truths about Islam
You’re correct, we can’t call all of them terrorists, but it would seem that all are accomplices: when has there ever been even one instance that a Muslim came forth AS AN American, and denounced his local Imam for acts against the U.S.
And yet we are fully aware that it goes on daily – so where are the ‘moderates’?
Amen. It is this deafening silence that gives the lie to the “lots of moderates out there” line.
I admit that I am one of those narrow minded people who, at this point in time, believe “moderate” and “muslim” do not go in the same sentence.
It all goes to the “religion” they follow.
How can anyone be moderate and honor this “religion”? A moderate what?…killer of non believers etc? They dishonor themselves
Perhaps I will have a change of heart and grow..but not right now.
Americans need to either speak up or get a pair of jackboots and start practicing that little lockstep thing..
Exactly.
These people use religion as a totalitarian way to subjugate the masses.
“And remember, no matter where you go, there you are.”
You are exactly right! “Moderate” Islam is a mythical creation of the Left. Are they asking that Islam only “moderately” murder, rape, torture, behead the infidels?
To have a “moderate” Islam they are asking that Muslims repudiate the teachings of the “perfect” human, and create an entirely new “religion” which follows the teachings of political correctness as advocated by the American and European left. Considering that Islam allows for no such diversity in its ranks, I wonder if they realize how ludicrous that must appear through the eyes of Islamists.
What these people are really asking is that the rank and file Muslims fight the fight to save Western Civilization; the fight that we in the West don’t have the courage to fight for ourselves. A very sad commentary and a very dismal vision for the future of Civilization.
I believe it, Victor.
I recently met this teenage girl at the gym. She is Muslim: she barely wears the covering, but her mother does. She listens to American music; she reads trashy novels; she wears nothing different from other girls her age – only the covering she cares not much about wearing. She told me about her father’s total disgust at the antics of the Saudis, the “Virtue Police” and the total distrust of that kingdom towards the people.
Her father is applying for U.S. citizenship.
If we accept the commonly cited figure of 10-15% of Muslims worldwide that support jihad, that still works out to 200,000 to 300,000 jihadis in the US. Even if that 10-15% number is accurate worldwide, however, I doubt it’s that high in the US for no other reason that most immigrants come here to get away from the Old World and their way of doing things. Most Muslims that come here are probably cheesed off at the mess that’s been made of Lower Wazootistan or wherever, and the last thing they want is ot import that corruption and idiocy.
But there can be no doubt we have both home grown and imported jihadis among us. How many, and where are they? I hope against all evidence that DHS is on the case, but despair when I see the government leap through these linguistic hoops to obfuscate or deny the nature of our enemy. If we’re afraid to even identify who we fight, how the hell can we fight them? I think we’re flailing around one handed while covering our eyes with the other hand.
Censorship yes, but as always with altruistic goals.
Our Dear Leaders cannot say what is universally known, that is we ARE at war with Islam. Islam is at war with us.
But to declare that would mean condemning an entire religion as “bad”, and what then of all the adherents of it who are here?
Mass deportations? Heck, we cant even deport the OPENLY CRIMINAL illegal immigrants, never mind the (currenlty) law abiding shawl and turban crowd that (has yet) to throw a bomb, break a window, or otherwise disturb the peace.
Our Dear Leaders have sanitized the language in the hope that we will avoid an ugly “civil” war of accusation and reprisal, whilst they and other well meaning fools attempt to transform Islam from a murderous cult to a
benign club of cultural/dietary “middle-eastern-ness”
They want to change truth (that mainstrean Islam condones violence and lying about violence) to fit the narrative that regular Muslims are nice.
Problem is, the “nice” Muslims are actually, well, rather Christian-like in their behavior.
So can we make them all into “unwitting Christians” without them realizing?
The current administration thinks so.
Hurray for Mr Simon. Let’s talk back as much as we can.
These people are long overdue for some pointed questions. They are what the Founding Fathers wanted to avoid and put a stop to.
Victor Erimita,
I am somewhat confused. How can American muslims support America, yet attend the Friday mosque chants of kill the apes and pigs? Where’s the support?
We need multicultural reeducation camps, clearly the public schools are getting everyone. Repeat after me:
“Obama is not a Muslim.”
“The crusades were Bushes fault.”
Please report to the TV room it is time for 15 minutes of CNBC.
The issue is not exactly “free speech-vs-censorship”: it is the quasi-criminalization of certain language and opinions under the umbrella of “bias acts.” Private activist groups have been given unprecedented — and unacknowledged, and unexamined — power within our legal system to dictate what will and will not be deemed “bias.” This is an intentionally vague term for intentionally vague powers.
Thus the Ft. Hood shooter is not a bias criminal but Americans in general are when the AG takes to the bully pulpit, as it were, to warn against our reaction to those crimes. We have activist groups getting Justice Department dollars to encourage people to report — including anonymously — incidents of “bullying” and hate to the government, where authorities will then investigate them, or merely publish them as fact under the bizarre and unprecedented guidelines of the HCSA. None of this is debated publicly, because that would be “hate” too. Little wonder that the politicians bandy about accusations of bias in order to shut down legitimate debate. They do it because such ideas — and agendas — have elsewhere been given the weight of law.
ANIMAL FARM.
Once people were forced to use the expression, ” the N word ” , because they were pale skinned all was lost.
Am I the only one who sees the connection?
No, you are not. In fact, let’s get together, buy property in the center of Rangel’s district, and establish a History of the Confederacy museum, complete with a large Confederate battle flag hanging over the door. Oh, you don’t think that will fly? Even though we have every constitutional and legal right to do so? Neither do I.
Fifty thousand black men, sir, fought for Dixie.
I suppose you are right, though, that they weren’t in Rangel’s district.
Remember folks, we have a right to free speech not because the 1st Amendment says so but merely because we exist…
Where ever she speaks, the Speaker should be greeted by the men in the audience rising, grabbing their crotch, and shouting out: Investigate this!
LOL! Glad I’m not the only one who thought that.
Oh Lord… now I am laughing.
“Yeah, I gotcher funding right here!”
“Gin THIS up!”
Collins and Lieberman are naval gazers. To expect anything rational to come from them is to expect the rodeo clown to win a beauty contest.
Cencorship seems alien to the American experience. The last time I heard a charge of cencorship brought against the US media (government?) was in a chain email with scary, second coming type some two years ago. I can’t vouch for the truth so caveat emptor. If it is true, it merits public awareness. Here it is in ordinary type:
Thought you might be interested in this forgotten bit of information………
It was 1987! At a lecture the other day they were playing an old news video of Lt.Col. Oliver North testifying at the Iran-Contra hearings during the Reagan Administration.
There was Ollie in front of God and country getting the third degree, but what he said was stunning!
He was being drilled by a senator; ‘Did you not recently spend close to $60,000 for a home security system?’
Ollie replied, ‘Yes, I did, Sir.’
The senator continued, trying to get a laugh out of the audience, ‘Isn’t that just a little excessive?’
‘No, sir,’ continued Ollie.
‘No? And why not?’ the senator asked.
‘Because the lives of my family and I were threatened, sir.’
‘Threatened? By whom?’ the senator questioned.
‘By a terrorist, sir’ Ollie answered.
‘Terrorist? What terrorist could possibly scare you that much?’
‘His name is Osama bin Laden, sir’ Ollie replied.
At this point the senator tried to repeat the name, but couldn’t pronounce it, which most people back then probably couldn’t. A couple of people laughed at the attempt. Then the senator continued. Why are you so afraid of this man?’ the senator asked.
‘Because, sir, he is the most evil person alive that I know of’, Ollie answered.
‘And what do you recommend we do about him?’ asked the senator.
‘Well, sir, if it was up to me, I would recommend that an assassin team be formed to eliminate him and his men from the face of the earth.’
The senator disagreed with this approach, and that was all that was shown of the clip.
By the way, that senator was Al Gore!
Also:
Terrorist pilot Mohammad Atta blew up a bus in Israel in 1986. The Israelis captured, tried and imprisoned him. As part of the Oslo agreement with the Palestinians in 1993, Israel had to agree to release so-called ‘political prisoners.’
However, the Israelis
would not release any with blood on their hands, The American President at the time, Bill Clinton, and his Secretary of State, Warren Christopher, ‘insisted’ that all prisoners be released.
Thus Mohammad Atta was freed and eventually thanked the US by flying an airplane into Tower One of the World Trade Center . This was reported by many of the American TV networks at the time that the terrorists were first identified.
It was censored in the US from all later reports.
If you agree that the American public should be made aware of this fact, pass this on.
Do Not Break – it is 5 years strong
This is why I always say I love YOU….
This has not been broken since 9/11/01, please keep it going…
This has been kept alive and moving since 9/11. In memory of all those who perished this morning; th e passengers and the pilots on the United Air and AA flights, the workers in the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and all the innocent bystanders. Our prayers go out to the friends and families of the deceased.
Send this to at least 10 people to show your support
PLEASE DON’T BREAK IT!!!!!!
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG.
Version: 7.5.524 / Virus Database: 270.6.7/1629 – Release Date: 8/23/2008 13:16
David Levavi, and fellow readers,
If you go to http://www.factcheck.org/2009/04/warned-about-bin-laden/, a website of the Annenberg Center for Public Policy, you will see that the Secretary of the Senate and Oliver North have both publicly denied that the interrogation of which you write ever took place. And Gore was not on the committee.
Your second piece of “information” about Mohammad Atta being released from a life prison sentence by the Israelis is also incorrect, as you can read here: http://jpost.headup.com/topic/Mohamed_Atta
Atta was born in 1968 and studied in German in the 1990s, having lived with his family in Egypt before moving to Germany. Your email may have contained no viruses, but it did contain two checkable misstatements of fact. It really muddies the waters to post erroneous reports, especially ones that can be shown to be erroneous by not particularly strenuous digging.
Point taken. Thank you for responding. Disinformation or misinformation was not the intent.
And thanks for the introduction to FactCheck.org.
The other night a local news channel had a piece about the “rising threat of domestic terrorism.” Oh great, I thought, some silly piece about “right-wing terrorism.”
How wrong I was. The “domestic terror” they were reporting on was home-grown Islamic terror. Or so their reasoning went. The thing is though, how “domestic” was it — based on the facts and incidents they were catloging — when it was largely about recent-immigrant terrorism with largely foreign funding and influences? How different is that from the 9/11 highjackers? We don’t even have a proper narrative of what constitutes “domestic” anymore.
The idea of “reforming” Islam has merit. However, one should point out that until Christianity underwent reform in the period between 1530 and 1730 a lot of blood was spilled to “defend the faith”. Crusades, inquisitions, pogroms, and so forth were common between about 1050 and 1730 with pogroms against Jews continuing until today. So let’s not spend too much time focusing on Islamic “reform.”
Tom Holland made a very interesting point in his “Forge of Christendom.” According to him, the problem with Islam today is not that they haven’t had a Reformation, but that they haven’t had a Canossa. According to Holland, Pope Gregory was a true revolutionary who had no idea of what he set in motion. By insisting upon the Church’s perogatives in appointing Bishops, he established the principle that there is a divide between the religious and secular worlds.
There is no such concept in Islam. Like Marxism, it is a one size fits all solution to every social, cultural, scientific, and religious issue. A secular Islamic state is an abomination.
Roger – Somehow politicians, and leftists in particular, think that if you don’t call something by its proper name, it doesn’t exist, or if do you call something by another name it is really the thing you call it (as in calling leftists, liberals, when they are anything but, except with other people’s money). But as they say, folks, denial is not only river in Egypt. Islamic terrorism exists irrespective of what we call it or don’t call it, and Americans know it even if our airhead intellectual elites do not. And BTW, while we’re talking about calling things by a name that does not suit them, remember that thing called Islam. Some call it a religion. It most definitely is not. It is an aggressive totalitarian ideology. Remember, at one time, all of North Africa and the mid-East were Christian. Now, they’re not, and how do you think they got the way they are today? It wasn’t through voluntary conversions.
I am a moderate by temperament. I don’t do well with extremists left or right. Many of the posts here strike me as hysterical and hyperbolic. Extreme. I detest the Muslim fundamentalists, but doesn’t every religion have them? We are fighting wars in Muslim countries. What, and who, are we fighting for? Aren’t we trying to win the hearts and minds of the Muslims in these countries? All these lives, all this treasure? If these Muslims are to be our allies, I don’t see how this universal condemnation of their religion will help our cause. Yes, it feels good to rant and rage. But they read the news. Aren’t any of them decent people? This mindless bullying is counterproductive to our mission in these countries. You can’t win this kind of war just with weapons.
I don’t propose that i know anything about being a Muslim. But i’m willing to bet that their allegiances change like the wind in order to save their own skins–like most people. They will take chocolate from a U.S. soldier in the morning, then report the soldiers whereabouts in the evening for fear of their own torture or death. They have learned these values as survival skills. The lie is not disrespected among them. Deception is their calling card and they are damn good at it. Not many of us in America have ever been tested in this way. I wonder how many of us would survive one week in Afghanistan, speaking our minds. None. But get ready, friends. This form of tyranny is coming to our shores. It’s ambassadors are Pelosi and Obama, and if their lips are moving, they’re lying. The black man is not my enemy. The muslim is not my enemy (yet). My enemy is the traitorous left in America. I will fight them at the polls, and and I will serve with focus and energy to vote them from office this fall and in 2012.
I don’t propose that i know anything about being a Muslim. But i’m willing to bet that their allegiances change like the wind in order to save their own skins–like most people. They will take chocolate from a U.S. soldier in the morning, then report the soldiers position in the evening for fear of their own torture or death. They have learned these values as survival skills. The lie is not disrespected among them. Deception is their calling card and they are damn good at it. Not many in America have ever been tested in this way. I wonder how many of us would survive one week in Afghanistan, speaking our minds. None. But get ready, friends. This form of tyranny is coming to our shores. It’s ambassadors are Pelosi and Obama, and if their lips are moving, they’re lying. The black man is not my enemy. The muslim is not my enemy (yet). My enemy is the traitorous LEFT in America. I will fight them at the polls, and and I will serve with focus and energy to vote them from office this fall and in 2012.
Moderato (like e.e. cummings, too moderate and modest to use capital letters?) can be as “moderate” as he or she likes. Unfortunately, when 3,000 people are killed in one morning on American soil, and a member of the U.S. Army who happens to be a Muslim opens fire on his fellow members of the U.S. Army, not to mention the earlier attacks on the World Trade Center, the American Embassy in Nairobi and the U.S.S. Cole, Khobar Towers, to name but a fraction of the Islamist attacks on our country and our fellow citizens, this tends to get regular people with regular emotions excited, and not in a good way. People are not “ranting or raging” because “it feels good,” Moderato. They are angry because these are unconscionable acts. And good luck waiting for countries under Islamist leadership to “be our allies.”
As Michelle Malkin wrote in 2006, “How can we fight, let alone win, the ‘Long War’ when we live in a short attention-span culture marinated in p.c. denial about Islamic jihad? ”
You appear to believe that “moderation” is, ipso facto, a good thing. Maybe in food and alcohol intake (unless you want to get really drunk) but when discussing the shocking self-censorship of the present American government and the un-American threats of the Speaker of the House, an actual citizen with actual blood in his or her veins might just get a tad passionate. Try it some time. It is part of being human rather than being calmly robotic. Wake up and smell the danger and call it by its real name.
You miss one thing. Live and let live is not part of the Muslim creed. It is about conquering. I recently had dinner with a famous Muslim scholar. He eagerly explained to me that there is no such thing as “win-win” in Muslim culture. You are either “the &%cker or the %$cker” (his words.) There is no in between. Rolling over and making nice will only encourage them. You may think this is insensitive. But unfortunately, sometimes the truth is insensitive.
Ask Neville Chamberlain, that.
Not only are you painting with a broad brush, but you are using a particularly repulsive shade of Moral Equivalence Gray. Claiming we can’t win with weapons alone is tantamount to informing FDR and Churchill that we can’t defeat the Aixs with weapons alone.
That’s the place to start, and it’s going to be a major tool for a long time. We couldn’t reconstruct Germany and Japan untuil we defeated them, could we?
Moderation is not the appropriate approach to every issue. Would you condone a “moderate” amount of slavery? Perhaps a “moderate” amount of torture of prison inmates? Okay, then how about a “moderate” amount of the AIDS virus in your next blood transfusion?
Islam is incompatible with American norms. More, it regards itself as at war with the entire non-Islamic world. Would you like to fight a “moderate” war with Islam, which rejects as illegitimate any nation whose government doesn’t enforce sharia law? Or would you prefer to grind the enemy into the sands from which it sprang?
Think it over.
Jeebuz frick. Someone put a wick in her head already.
11. David Levavi
I remember this interview on tv back then. Do you have a reference
to it, so I can convince those doubting that it ever happened, since
they won’t take my word?
Oliver North is so far above that lowely al gore – too bad we didn’t
have North in congress.
Does anyone know who is running against nanci?
Goldi, here are two websites that make it very clear that David Levavi’s information is misinformation, ie, incorrect: yes, North testified before Congress but he never said what Levavi said he said. Nor was Mohammed Atta ever in prison in Israel for blowing up a bus in 1986:
If you go to http://www.factcheck.org/2009/04/warned-about-bin-laden/, a website of the Annenberg Center for Public Policy, you will see that the Secretary of the Senate and Oliver North have both publicly denied that the interrogation of which you write ever took place. And Gore was not on the committee.
Your second piece of “information” about Mohammad Atta being released from a life prison sentence by the Israelis is also incorrect, as you can read here: http://jpost.headup.com/topic/Mohamed_Atta
Atta was born in 1968 and studied in Germany in the 1990s, having lived with his family in Egypt before moving to Germany. Your email may have contained no viruses, but it did contain two checkable misstatements of fact. It really muddies the waters to post erroneous reports, especially ones that can be shown to be erroneous by not particularly strenuous digging.
At least in America, you still have free speech.
In Europe expressing the belief that Islam is an evil and murderous religion could get you jailed under the hate speech laws. The Chairman of the Danish Free Press Society Lars Hedegaard is currently being prosecuted under Penal Code S.266b. Under that provision anyone who publicly disseminates a threatening, insulting or degrading message against a group on account of race, color, faith or sexual inclination is punishable by fine or no more than two years imprisonment.
The state is not required to prove that was said was false, nor is true an absolute defense to conviction. Such a crime is a textbook example of the censorship the First Amendment was intended to forbid.
Similar laws might well come to the US:
That which cannot be named cannot be opposed.
Islam is the enemy to all of humanity.
There can be no ‘grace’ with ISLAM.
Lopping off heads and asking questions later is NOT the way of JESUS.
I’m namin’ it, blamin’ it, shamin’ it and tamin’ it. ISLAM is the ENEMY.
Get used to it, blind peeps.
I’m going to print up a t-shirt that says as much.
Deal wiffit.
Exactly. Just because this Administration wants to speak drivel doesn’t mean that we and our fellow citizens must also speak drivel. The party in power that has an enemy with a name it dare not speak will go the way of the Woos-in-Chief: out the door and over the cliff. Lemmings all.
Fish rot from the head…
An organization does what it’s leader wants.
Nancy remains me of Ahmed the Terrorist shouting “Silence! or I’ll kill you”
Of course, this may be tried as a symbolic gesture. It’s a very good idea, even knowing it will fail. Try a petition, demanding that the Administration revoke the absurd banning of terms that Islamists use themselves.
Then enlist likely politicians, obviously on the Republican side, to demand that Pelosi require the Admin to take linguistic action.
When she fails to, point it out.
Better yet, write a book. You’re a writer, Roger. It would make an excellent book – Thought Control in the Service of Defusing the War with Islam.
PS, I agree with spinoneone’s point. And as somebody who has experienced plenty of ‘unChristian’ anti-Jewish attitudes, words, spikes and stones in my life, I’d appreciate it if the C conservatives here would focus on the nature of the Jihad, and stop emphasizing what pure souls they are. Nobody is a pure soul, save about ten to twenty humans on the planet. And even they struggle.
To poster #11 David Levavi .
I would ask that you research the info contained in your post a bit deeper.
From what I see it is inaccurate.
http://www.google.com/search?q=Terrorist+pilot+Mohammad+Atta+blew+up+a+bus+in+Israel+in+1986&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
We can win with the facts as they really are, there is no need to fabricate or pass around fabricated info.
jmo
Yes. Let’s roll.
It’s ON, baby girl.
Obama and all of his handlers are communists. In November we will speak out. In December they will pass as many communist supported laws as they can. In January, we will find that our Republican saviors don’t have the guts to rescind any of the communist legislation. By February, they will try to cut the budget and the communists will fire a few firemen and teachers and our Republican saviors will run and try to hide from the bad press. In March, the communist president will start vetoing every bill. And, by summer, we will accuse our Republican saviors of being heartless controlled by big business. In 2012 we will re-elect the communists. Government will just keep growing.
Our Country has been infiltrated by Commie scum, no doubt.
But, remember, a lot of peeps on PJM are former Lefties.
Don’t give up all hope.
Sharia, Part One: Muslim Women
Sharia law, or simply Sharia or, in Arabic, شريعة Šarīʿa, is a complex set of rules for Muslims transmitted by Allah. However, any comparisons to the Christian Bible would be tantamount to comparing our Bible to eternal truths within “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.”
According to Wikipedia, “Muslims believe all Sharia is derived from two primary sources, the divine revelations set forth in the Qur’an, and the sayings and example set by the Islamic Prophet Muhammad. . . [and subject to] the consensus of the religious scholars” and Islamic jurists who interpret Sharia.
“The imam [the position held by the Ground Zero monster-mosque-builder Feisel Abdul Rauf] has varying responsibilities depending on the interpretation of Sharia . . . leader of communal prayers, . . . scholar, religious leader or political leader. Sharia deals with many topics addressed by secular law, including crime, politics and economics, as well as personal matters such as sexuality, hygiene, diet, prayer, and fasting.”
In a nutshell, Sharia represents the words Muslims live by, necessarily updated to reflect the passage of fourteen hundred years since the holy Prophet Muhammad passed to his reward no doubt stll in the loving arms of his child bride Aisha, whom he took to his holy marital bed when she was all of eight years old and who was just one of his 13 wives and concubines.
Despite all the updating and interpretation over fourteen centuries, things really haven’t changed an awful lot for Muslims, and even less so for Muslim women.
Nonie Darwash was one of those (Egyptian) Muslim women.
Now considered an Islamic apostate . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1860)
Great and informative post.
((THANK YOU))
We need to keep hammering these TRUTHS home.
It’s high time we stop trying to sugar coat EVIL.
So….. Mohammed was a pederast? (No! Say my Muslim friends! He didn’t even have sex with her until she was 13!) The mind boggles.
I, you, we are living in the decade of the high water mark of the progressive / liberal philosophy, theology and sociological mechanisms.
This has been, and always was a house of cards. One of many reasons it (progressivism) grew so tall (in this new century) was the almost complete failure of two systems inherently crucial to a thriving free enterprise system.
A factually based educational system, which above all else challenges its participants to ask questions and challenge dogma from any quarter, and a free, inquisitive, self policing media which presents and represents objectivity journalism, with all its facets; disinterestedness, factuality, fairness, & non partisanship and acknowledges its subjective reporting as commentary or analysis from a columnist or pundit. But! above all else regards its credibility as crucial to the professions survival
The Progressive – high watermark has been reached. The citizens, a vast and growing majority are now fully engaged. It is fashionable in some quarters to believe these folks will simmer down in a moth or two or in a year or two. That is another sign of just how far out of touch the political class has allowed itself to become.
However it is we, friends who are ultimately responsible for this situation. We must pay attention and not linger or hold on to our current anger. the republic is in need of fixing. Two areas seem to be in critical need of a fix ASAP. Reducing the size and scope of government especially the various departments, and reduction of taxes.
To the polls ye sons of liberty, to the polls.
The creation of the Internet is very similar to the creation of the printing Press; for the first time in History information was widely available to the average individual without it being controlled or filtered.
The social revolution the Printing press initiated is being copied by the Internet as well, although timelines will be shorter. Free speech and the balance of rights are not anyones to give or rescind, they are earned upon individual existing, nothing else is required.
The only issue is people continue to divide along political lines, when it is a Economic battle being waged, and always has been. This division allows continued nonsense with the American Economy, Security and welfare.
As long as US voters allow themselves to be divided and distracted, Banking and financiers will enjoy continued massive loans given to the USA, and the US taxpayer placed as collateral to pay them huge amounts of Interest each year.
Follow the Money, ignore the sounds bites.
“The creation of the Internet is very similar to the creation of the printing Press;” Exactly. Johannes Gutenberg was the real founder of the Protestant Reformation and the Scientific Revolution. Before the printing press, only the universal church had the wealth needed to support men whose only task was sitting in rooms painstakingly copying documents. They controlled the flow of information, and dissenters were easily isolated and killed, before their seditious ideas could reach the public at large. Cheap, instant communication is the most powerful weapon humanity possesses.
Another column focusing on the ways in which Pelosi and others have compromised American principles of democracy in handling this situation:
http://www.forbes.com/2010/08/23/ground-zero-mosque-democracy-opinions-columnists-abigail-esman.html
Here is what’s happening, boys and girls: In case it slipped your mind, there is an election coming up in November. In the last few months the Republican party has been in the process of imploding (and it’s been so much fun to watch, too!) As was I predicted over a year ago, the so-called “Tea Party” would end up being an albatross around their collective neck. Sure enough, the mindless extremism of these nitwits is starting to scare the hell out of that mysterious segment of the electorate who describe themselves as “moderate”. What to do? Find an issue – any issue – that will distract the people. After a desperate search that must have taken them weeks, they finally found that issue last week in – of all places – lower Manhattan.
THE MUSLIMS ARE COMING! THE MUSLIMS ARE COMING!
They grabbed this non-issue and ran with it. Then the corporate media (you shouldn’t be surprised) decided to play this story to death like Hotel California and Stairway To Heaven. And it worked like a charm. Very few of us are at present thinking about the utter mess that six years of Republican control of the executive and legislative branches of our government made of this country. Instead we’re wasting precious time thinking about a non-issue. Just for a moment let’s put our minds on the things that really matter:
The economy
War in Afghanistan
Massive unemployment
A multi-trillion dollar debt
The plunder of our national treasure by Wall Street
An environmental catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico….
….and what the hell are we talking about? A non-existent “mosque”.
http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com
Tom Degan
I have given this some thought. I think the emotion over the mosque issue is part of a larger political issue. It relates to the sense that the government in all its political correct purity is not protecting us. I mean in terms of not protecting us against military attack, as in the kumbaya attitude toward Iran getting the atom bomb. I also mean in cultural terms. The anger over the GZM stems in part, I believe, from the conclusion that the administration does not care if the sensitivity of mainstream, traditional Americans who work hard, get married before making babies pay their taxes, etc gets a big one up the derriere. So it is not only about the mosque per se. It also reflects pent-up anger against the whole progressive agenda. I would be interested in others’ viewpoints. Does this make sense?
well, you won’t get it until there’s blood spray on your face. those of us who do get it, know that the war in the middle east is here. and, islam has some strange bedfellows, considering how virulently they hate America, and how determined they are to dominate us.
They have certainly done it in the UK and all over europe, even canada.
Islam is not a religion, it is fascism. there is no moderate islam. there are moderate moslems, because they don’t follow the rules. We need these people to stand up. Now.
“Just for a moment let’s put our minds on the things that really matter:”
OK.
The economy – ruined by the policies of the Pelosi-Reid-Frank Congress.
War in Afghanistan – I think our service men would call this a “cluster****”.
Massive unemployment – Pumping up the public service unions with trillions of dollars really helped the rest of us didn’t it.
A multi-trillion dollar debt – How do you blame this on the Bush administration except by outright lying?
The plunder of our national treasure by Wall Street – What did they Plunder? They were bailed out by Obama. And the government allowed them to put us in that position by insisting on the utopian vision that everyone should have a house even if they could not afford one.
An environmental catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico…. Catastrophe? Really? Oil fuels our world and s*** happens – especially when you force the oil companies to drill at 5000 feet so you don’t have to look at the rig. The incompetent and ideologically driven response has done much more harm than the oil.
So relax Dems. You’re good for 2010.
I’m just curious. Has it ever in your life happened that sneering condescension has won you an argument? Or are you merely exhibiting your vast superiority?
If so, well played, sir. Ideas, intriguing, newsletter.
“Here is what’s happening, boys and girls:”
I looked at your website.
Saying that you don’t have a clue as to what’s happening is the understatement of the century.
There is no such thing as a Christian Bible, i am sorry. There is an Old testament written in Hebrew, a New testament written in Greek. When translated and combined much was lost, mistranslated and corrupted. The apocryphal books, The Nag Hammadi and dead sea scrolls are excellent resources to supplement and add to these teachings
There are dozens of interpretations of the standard Bible, available in any bookstore and on the internet. However the best way to read them is in their original language, Hebrew is an amazing language, as is Greek. it is time consuming, and difficult, but rewarding.
Tom Degan: You’ve got the lyrics down. Your tap dancing could use a little work.
Mr. Simon,
My problem with the mosque-near-ground-zero isn’t so much reflecting on the sentiments of the families who lost loved ones – or the feelings of anger all Americans have about the attacks on 9-11.
And it is understandable that these feelings can be aroused by simply hearing the word Islam.
My problem comes in when politicians and the Right-Wing Propaganda – form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position – Machine exploits (using in an unjust manner) a situation for other causes. Here those “other causes” would be to regain political power and influence for the Republican War Machine.
The Neocon Puppet Masters, Rutting for the Continual Middle East War Adventure (for Profit and Power) will use any crass and uncaring technique to get their way.
This is a shameless (and shameful) way to do it.
pot calling the kettle black
You are no different than the terrorists on 9/11. If I had one wish, it would be to substitute your life your one lost on 9/11; the world would be an infinitely better place – alas
No, you are absolutely correct. There is no way Americans of integrity could all form an opinion on this topic with their puppet masters directing it. Curse that right wing media! The only way anyone could disagree with a leftist would be if Rush Limbaugh were beaming hatethought into their tiny minds.
You need to point out the basic racism and intolerance of everyone opposed to this Victory Mosque. A couple more iterations ought to do it. Then a quick Kumbaya, and it’s as good as built.
“the Republican War Machine.”
Don’t be decieved by the fact that the “war machine” was created by the Democrats, and that virtually all of the 600,000 Americans who have been killed in wars over the last hundred years were killed in wars the following liberal Democrat morons bungled us into:
Wilson, FDR, Truman, JFK, LBJ.
It’s not the Republican War Machine, it’s the liberal Democrat war machine. They built it, and they’ve been (by far) it’s primary users.
“The Neocon Puppet Masters, Rutting for the Continual Middle East War Adventure (for Profit and Power) will use any crass and uncaring technique to get their way.”
Well, there are a couple of techniques they aren’t too keen on. One is carrying out massive bombing raids against civilian populations reslting in the deaths of millions of non-combatants (think Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima), and the other is forcing people to join the armed forces through military conscription (aka slavery).
Too bad you can’t say the same thing about liberals.
No wonder the Left thinks well of Rauf-ie.
He opens his mouth and a string of dissembling, nonsensical stuff flows out. (subliminal message, America Bad)
He’s one of their own
“It’s worth noting that, according to a recent poll, 61 percent of the country currently opposes the Ground Zero mosque”
The constitution protects the minority from the majority. 61 percent is irrelevant. Also, why do people call it the ground zero mosque, when it is a community center in the burlington coat factory. I consider that brain washing.
Astonishing that people continue to miss the basic facts, deliberately. I mean, everyone has a position and some subjectivity, but certain facts are facts – it’s part of the site, pieces of an engine fell into the building. That’s why it interests them. And they declared it a mosque, then retreated to a ‘community center with a mosque.’ And then there is the title of Rauf’s book, and his opinions, and his very clear associations, and his involvement in the flotilla. Let’s see, a Muslim of Kashmiri (?) origin has the ‘right’ to involve himself in an act of war against Israel’s sovereign right to enforce a blockade whose sole purpose is to eliminate Israel’s ability to defend civilians from rocket barrages and infiltrations using heavy weapons – to be imported after the blockade is broken.
Okay, so you support evil. I got it.
As you are referring to my constitution as evil I can only assume you are not American. The first amendment is beautiful and is what makes America America. I would consider a place with a swimming pool and other areas of gathering as community center. It would be unfortunate if we need to consider a coat factory holy site to remember the fallen victims. They should certainly not remembered by propagating unamerican values.
The polite reply to you Brian is to point out that the way the poll questions and numbers drop out, the majority support the right of the proponents to build the mosque. What the opponents express is their wish for the proponents to show some sensitivity and build it elsewhere. To present the issue as a constitutional one, is disingenuous.
The retort I think you actually deserve is that you are hawking a progressive lie as a strawman argument and to shove it. Plus taking ownership of ‘your’ constitution in such a haughty ‘well, MY sh!t don’t stink’ way to support distorting the basis for opposing the GZM is laughable on a site where people actually understand both that the opposition as nothing to do with the constitution, and the constitution itself – and realize that you don’t.
Yes, with posts like this, #10 “Where ever she speaks, the Speaker should be greeted by the men in the audience rising, grabbing their crotch, and shouting out: Investigate this” I can tell everyone here is a constitutional scholar. You are right that the majority of people believe the private person has a right to build what they life on their private land that fits the local ordinances. However, it is equally clear that that view is the minority on this site. People here seem to forget the constitution conveniently People here also have an obsession with a sharia law take over in this country. I respect people who think it is disgraceful to put the community center in the coat factory. However, I do have to wonder how their opinion has been shaped by the strange brain washing of fox and other conservative commentators, who like to use fear to motivate the republican base.
You picked two comments in this thread that are not representative of the discussion on this subject. A discussion that has run through many threads. There is no evidence that that is the majority view here.
And then you make another blanket indictment, this one based on a whimsy as far as I can tell, by saying ‘I do have to wonder how their opinion has been shaped by the strange brain washing of fox and other conservative commentators, who like to use fear to motivate the republican base.’
What exactly makes you think that you are free thinking and they are brainwashed? The statement says a lot more about your level of brainwashing than your republican targets given the information readily available to anyone looking with an open mind. Be that as it may, buy into the progressive spin if you wish.
But looking out there at what is going on without allowing anyone with an agenda to filter it, and discounting the fringes on both sides trying to leverage the controversy for their own reasons, it’s a dishonest statement to claim that the evidence says that fear motivates the opponents of the GZM. the motivation is outrage. Fox has nothing to do with that. And the polling shows as many self identified democrats as republicans opposing the GZM.
Think for yourself.
The fact that you call it the GZM instead of the cordoba house is an indicator of slant you have been brain washed into accepting. As it is neither within ground zero or a mosque.
@ Brian N: The top 2 floors of the 13 story structure will be a mosque. It will overlook the area where the twin towers once stood.
The coat factory currently standing was struck by the landing gear of one of the planes so it IS by definition Ground Zero. Have you developed your own method of defining ground zero? Is 2 floors of mosque NOT a mosque?
I would add to your list that Congress should investigate censorship in the military. I remember being astounded at an interview of a young female soldier at Ft. Hood who was present during the Hassan massacre. She said he was shouting something, allah akbar, yet she didn’t actually know what it meant or even get the wording right.
We are sending our kids to Afghanistan without telling them about radical jihad???
America is dying the death of a thousand liberal/progressive cuts. None so great as to be instantly fatal but taken together they will still kill us in the end.
Catalog them, discuss them, or ignore them, We are doomed if we don’t fight every single inconsequential scratch on our freedom.
Here is another charming fellow on video, a little bit less subtle than his ideological consort, Feisal Abdul Rauf.
He tells his audience that AQ and Hezbollah have nuclear scientists/biological weapons production capability, seemingly in the spirit of saying that all those slaughtering primitives aren’t slaughtering primitives.
Got Anthrax ?
How can you claim it’s censorship “of Islamic terminology among government workers”? They work for the government, and the employer sets the guidelines. Bush did it with the EPA and interfered with science. I would like to see her call for sanctions and perhaps impeachment of her colleagues who oppose the Cordoba Center. Members of the Senate took an oath to: “…support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same…”. Where is their faith in the Constitution?! How can they so blatantly trample on this oath they took without action to remind them of their position as supporter and defenders of the Constitution?! Let the people debate this, but: “Congress shall make no law”!
There is no relationship between the fact that the first amendment to the US Constitution precludes the United States (federal) Congress from making any law inhibiting the free exercise of religion and the fact that a very large, and growing, percentage of the American people find appalling the notion of erecting such a structure in lower Manhattan, in very close proximity to where close to 3000 Americans were slaughtered by adherents of Islam.
The fact that Imam Rauf claims to be pushing the project in the name of “interfaith dialogue” is essentially irrelevant, even given the fact that to his non-American audiences he has says he doesn’t believe in interfaith dialogue, a view consistent with the Islamic view that Islam is the only, single religion of the one true God. Given those parameters, what is there to talk about ?
At this point, it should be obvious to you that the backers and financiers of the Cordoba Initiative are hellbent against the idea of erecting this complex somewhere else in Manhattan.
The important question to them (which should also be obvious to you as a function of the history of Islam and the building of mosques to confirm “victories”) isn’t building a mosque/Islamic center per se but, rather, location, location, location.
“You are right that the majority of people believe the private person has a right to build what they life on their private land that fits the local ordinances.”
Typical lefty gobble-de-gook,
Translation to English: You have no right to build ANYTHING on your own property because local zoning or planning commissions have the power to stop you from doing so.
And, needless to say, they use that power all the time, without a peep of protest from lefties.
The right doesn’t exist either in law or in fact.
#16 FLATULATO: Do you know what “MODERATO” means in the Wahabbi Western Useful Idiot spotting manual? TARGET.