Muslim Heretics Conference

By: Sharief Ali, Managing Editor

If you subscribe to the Las Vegas Review-Journal then you may have received a free DVD with your Sunday paper on Sept. 14. The DVD, titled “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War with the West,” is by far the most blatant attempt by political conservatives to smear Islam as well as associate presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama with the religion.
Not only are the statements made in the DVD false and misleading, but they are made by individuals who lie in order to advocate a personal, hidden agenda. According to the documentary’s Web site, the film was made by the founder of Clarion Fund, Inc., a non-profit organization “dedicated to educating the public on national security threats.” There is no information, however, on where the money came from to distribute the film.
“Obsession” is a 2006 documentary that attempts to explain why radical Muslim terrorists seek to destroy the West, and how excerpts from the Muslim holy book, the Qur’an, justify killing and the use of terrorism against non-believers. Scenes of radical clerics shouting nonsense to crowds play over and over, images of children with weapons talking of killing the U.S. president resound. If looking for the worst of a group, then the film succeeds. It would be comparable to a documentary about the U.S. that only showed fundamentalist Christians and Ku Klux Klan gatherings.
However, if you know anything about politics, Islam, its culture, teachings and history, then you know that this documentary fails miserably in its erroneous goal to “educate” and is nothing more than a political tool used by right-wing political opportunists to sway voters away from Obama and toward Sen. John McCain.
At the time this video was made, it was unknown who would be running for president in 2008. However, the video fits perfectly into the conservative strategy of scaring voters away from Obama this November. According to the Huffington Post, why else would a group spend nearly $30 million circulating this distasteful piece of propaganda just a little more than a month before Nov. 4 to 70 newspapers in every single swing state? Do you think it’s because they’re running against a candidate whose middle name is Hussein?
Even the title “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War with the West” plays perfectly into the 2008 strategy of conservatives. The new tactic of the Republican Party is to basically re-label the war on terror the war on radical Islam.
Just two weeks ago at the Republican National Convention, former New York City Mayor and ex-presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani attacked Democrats for not using the term “radical Islam” at their convention in Denver. But if Giuliani remembers, the Bush administration didn’t use that term either, preferring to call its war the War on Terror.
From the outset of the documentary, the overarching theme is Islamic jihad against the U.S. and the West and how these Muslims are not at some foreign geographical location thousands of miles away, but right here at home (Just a slightly assumption).
One thing that must be understood is the concept of “jihad.” Like many other terms, jihad has been hijacked by extremists and opportunists everywhere, but the term does not mean “holy war,” even when it is used in that context by terrorists.
The term jihad refers to the internal human struggle against sin; the origin of this thought predates Islam and can be traced back to the works of Plato.
Still, even though the term is misused by terrorists and subsequently by journalists, the true meaning of it should not change, because if it does, it changes the entire complexion of the Qur’an. This means that the Muslim holy book takes on meaning given to it by terrorists who pervert its scripture, leading political pundits as well as many citizens of the West to view it as a religion of violence or terror, which could not be further from the truth.
When asked in the documentary what percentage of Muslims in the world adheres to a radical version of Islam, Egyptian panelist Nonie Darwish answered, “about 15 percent of Muslims.” This means that out of the 1.6 billion Muslims living in the world, 225 million adhere to a radical version of Islam, which justifies using terrorist tactics to kill innocent men, women and children. Of course, there was no empirical research or data to back that claim, but I guess 15 percent just sounded like a good number.
How ironic that in the introduction of the documentary it is stated in black and white, “not all Muslims are terrorists.” What they should’ve put is, “Not all Muslims are terrorists … just 15 percent of them, which is 225 million people.”
But one thing is made obvious by this claim – the DVD is meant to instill fear, anger and hatred against Muslims. The DVD claims that deception by Muslims runs so rampant that we here in the U.S. are going to miss out if something isn’t done about it.
One quote from the film that stood out was, “Muslims want to change the White House.” What does this mean? No Obama.
In researching popular sentiments toward the video, I came across an interesting story from the Huffington Post, where the publisher of a newspaper justified distributing the DVD and compared it to harmless household samples.
In response to this statement, an angry subscriber to the newspaper wrote in a letter, “A box of cereal? Toothpaste? Does a box of cereal or a tube of toothpaste encourage me to look with hatred and suspicion on my law-abiding neighbors who have a different religion than mine? Does cereal and toothpaste lead to pogroms, religious harassment, fear and intimidation?…This video is about hate, pure and simple, and shows the video only has one goal – to instill fear and hatred of neighbor against neighbor. If I receive this DVD in my newspaper, that day… will be the last day of my subscription. Please reconsider.”
And maybe so should we. For not only is this DVD full of distortions about one of the three sacred monotheistic religions followed by good people, but it is a threat to voters. It attempts to substitute lies for fact and hatred for tolerance. It poisons rather than enlightens.
It is important for Americans to think critically and know their facts – social, historical and theological, before making political decisions.
When we see DVDs such as this, it is important not to just accept what is being shown as truth, but to question everything and do the research ourselves.

The Rebel Yell: Article: Free DVD fosters anti-Muslim sentiment

CHARLESTON, S.C.—Dr. Qanta Ahmed’s journey into the heart of Islam began as a spur-of-the-moment decision to practice medicine in Saudi Arabia.
Despite misgivings about women—even doctors—being treated as invisible in the country, the 40-year-old assistant professor at the Medical University of South Carolina says she took a chance and stayed there for two years.
Reflecting on her experiences almost a decade later, she sees her memoir, “In the Land of Invisible Women,” as part of a needed “jihad of the pen” by articulate, moderate Muslims. Her hope is that a book written by a Muslim who grew up in the West can, in some small way, bridge the divide of understanding between the Middle East and Western culture.
“One of the central errors Westerners are constantly assaulted with is the use of this term jihad,” she says in an interview at her condominium overlooking Charleston’s peaceful Ashley River. “The central jihad for all of us is to constantly improve and be the best we can be and try to adhere to some very pure ideals.”

Hopes to dispel myth

She also hopes it might help dispel what she says is a misconception that Islam advocates violence.
“This is absolutely heinous and false,” she says. “Islam values life above anything. We are taught in the Quran that man’s right to life exceeds even God’s rights on man.”
Ahmed’s “In the Land of Invisible Women,” has just been published by Sourcebooks Inc.
“The book is important because in this country, in the sound-bite generation, stereotypes pretty much prevail,” said Sourcebooks Inc.’s Tony Viardo. “When Americans in general think of Muslims, really the radical Islam aspect of it comes to mind. Where we think this book is really important is that it humanizes Muslims and builds bridges between the two cultures.”
Ahmed, who is of Pakistani descent, was born in Britain and had advanced medical training in the United States.

Invisible citizens

In Saudi Arabia, she found a land with tremendous wealth, but one where women remain largely invisible, even highly trained female doctors working side-by-side with male colleagues. It is a land where women must, in public, be shrouded in an abbayah, a flowing robe; where women can’t drive and must have a male relative or guardian’s permission to travel.
She stayed in Saudi Arabia from 1999 through 2001, leaving in the months after the 2001 terror attacks. She writes of her anger in seeing highly trained physicians laughing and others buying cakes and celebrating the news of 9/11.
But she also found a connection she had never known to a religion she had practiced her entire life after going on the Hajj to the holiest sites of Islam.
There is much confusion about that religion, she says.
In modern Islam, she says, “you see so very few articulate moderate voices coming out. Where are the movies? Where is the music? Where is the poetry? Where are the books to counteract some of this [violent] ideology?”
A decade ago, Ahmed, a pulmonologist and sleep specialist, had to decide about her future when her visa to practice medicine in the United States expired. She told a recruiter she would go anywhere but Saudi Arabia.

Initial misgivings

But then came an offer to practice medicine in a modern hospital drawing patients from all of Saudi Arabia. She took it, despite initial misgivings about living in a land of strict religious rules where the death penalty is administered by decapitation.
” ‘What’s a year?’ ” I remembered thinking to myself, as I had signed the contract recklessly, flicking through pages ignoring bold capitals announcing the death penalty,” she writes. “In a thoughtless flourish I found myself now subject to the laws of Saudi Arabia, decapitation included.”
Ahmed says it was a paradox to live in a land with such rigid laws but one that was enthralling and spiritual.
She made the Hajj to Mecca, the journey every able-bodied Muslim who can afford it is obligated to make at least once.
Many make preparations months and even years in advance. Ahmed went almost by chance, deciding only a week before when a colleague convinced her that she might never get another chance.
Approaching the Ka’ba, she felt small among the tens of thousands of pilgrims.
“The next thing you notice is the diversity of race and physical features and age and nationalities and languages, and that’s when I immediately felt at home,” she says.
“If you don’t quite fit in with the culture or you don’t fit in quite with the family where you come from, you have a place you fit in spiritually.”

Doctor journeys into heart of Islam — chicagotribune.com

WEST: Creeping Islamization in Europe

Diana West
Sunday, September 21, 2008

OP-ED:

“Is Europe lost?” The answer to the second question is, “No, not yet.” And losing Europe, I would add, is by no means inevitable. But that doesn’t mean the continent isn’t currently hell-bent to accommodate the dictates of Islamic law, bit by increasingly larger bit. Such a course of accommodation, barring reversal, will only hasten Bernard Lewis’ famous prediction that Europe will be Islamic by century’s end.

And what do I mean by “accommodation”? Well, to take one tiny example, one snowflake in a blizzard of such examples, there are schools in Belgium that not only serve halal food to Muslim and non-Muslim alike (old news), but, according to a recent French magazine report, no longer teach authors deemed offensive to Muslims, including Voltaire and Diderot; the same is increasingly true of Darwin. (Don’t even ask about the Holocaust.) For a more substantial, indeed, keystone example of accommodation, we can look to England, where, it pains me to write, Sharia courts are now officially part of the British legal system. According to press reports this week, the British government has quietly, cravenly elevated five Sharia courts to the level of tribunal hearings, thus making their rulings legally binding.

It may be difficult to quantify the impact of a Voltaire vacuum on the continent, but we can instantly see the inequities of British Sharia (I can’t believe I’m writing that phrase). Among the first official verdicts were those upholding the Islamic belief in male supremacy. These included an inheritance decision in which male heirs received twice as much as female; and several cases of domestic violence in which husbands were acquitted and wives’ charges were dropped.

In a decidedly minuscule minority, I say we ignore the spread of Islamic law across Europe, from the schoolroom to the courtroom, at our peril, particularly given that in so doing, we also ignore the vital political parties that have arisen in reaction to this threat to Western civilization. Why at our peril? Because the same type of liberty-shrinking, Sharia-driven accommodation is happening here.

Of the parties dedicated to resisting Islamization that I examined in Europe last summer, the most promising range from the sizeable Vlaams Belang in Belgium to the tiny Sweden Democrats, and include the Lega Nord in Italy, the Party for Freedom of Geert Wilders in Holland, the Danish People’s Party, the Swiss People’s Party and the Austrian Freedom Party. Such parties are unknown here, or ignored. Worse, they are shunned. Why? I believe it’s because their respective political opponents the leftist media and governing establishments that are increasingly dependent on Islamic support, by the way have successfully slandered these parties as “extremists,” “racists,” “fascists” and “Nazis.” Is advocating freedom of speech “extreme” or “fascist”? Is opposing Islam’s law, which knows no race, “racist”? Is supporting Israel (which these parties do far more than other European parties) “Nazi”? The outrageously empty epithets of the Islamo-socialist left seem calculated to stop thought cold and trigger a massive rejection reflex. In this way, resistance becomes anathema, and Islamic law, unchecked, spreads across Europe.

Does that sound “Islamophobic”? You bet. How can anyone who values freedom of conscience, equality before the law and other such Western jewels not have a healthy fear of Islamic law, which values none of these things? Incredibly, this is an emotion that is supposed to be suppressed and, in Europe, on pain of prosecution. Indeed, because Filip Dewinter admitted to such “Islamophobia” in an interview, his party, the Vlaams Belang, has been taken to court in Belgium on charges of racism, and, if convicted, will be effectively shut down through defunding by the government.

That hasn’t stopped Dewinter, who, in accepting an award at a memorial event dedicated to Oriana Fallaci in Florence, last week, said: “Islamophobia is not merely a phenomenon of unparalleled fear, but it is the duty of every one who wants to safeguard Europe’s future. Europe means Rome, Greece, Enlightenment and Judeo-Christian roots. Europe is a continent of castles and cathedrals, not of mosques and minarets.” Of course, even as Dewinter admits to fearing the Islamization of Europe, he and his colleagues act with exceptional political and physical bravery in rallying voters against it. This coming weekend, he joins several other politicians on the Sharia-fighting right in Europe among them two other men I interviewed, Mario Borghezio of Lega Nord, which is part of Italy’s ruling coalition, and Heinz-Christian Strache of Austria’s Freedom Party, which is expected to become part of Austria’s ruling coalition after elections this month in Cologne, Germany. In that ancient cathedral city, where the city council recently approved the construction of a long-controversial mega-mosque, these men will address a rally against European Islamization. (Contrary to initial reports, Jean-Marie Le Pen will not be at the demonstration.) The Sharia-fighters expect 1,500 demonstrators. Police expect 40,000 counter-demonstrators.

These are frightening odds a metaphor, perhaps, for Europe’s chances of staving off Islamic law. Who lost Europe? If it does happen, we certainly won’t be able to say we weren’t warned.

Diana West is a syndicated columnist.

Washington Times - WEST: Creeping Islamization in Europe

By Frosty Wooldridge
September 22, 2008
NewsWithViews.com

With approximately 2.5 million Muslims in the United States, Americans find themselves gasping as to why their leaders imported such an antagonistic and anachronistic religious group into their country.

Islam’s prime directive found in the Koran orders followers to: “Seek out, find and kill all non-believers.”

A quick look at Muslims overtaking and destroying their host countries can be found in France, Holland, Belgium, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

In the past few weeks, parliamentary law in London sucked up to and now allows certain vestiges of Sharia Law to manifest in UK.

Unfortunately, Sharia Law dictates beheadings, female genital mutilation, stoning of women for adultery, honor killings, forced and arranged marriages, women cannot leave their house without a family male escort, separated swim times at pools for males and females and complete subjugation of women by men. A more chauvinistic religion cannot be found on the planet—yet, it’s growing like wildfire.

Understanding our dire situation, “Tancredo Proposes Anti-Sharia Measure in Wake of U.K. Certification of Islamic Courts. “Jihad Prevention Act” would deny U.S. visas to advocates of ‘Sharia’ law, expel Islamists already here.”

In a press release, “Amid disturbing revelations that the verdicts of Islamic Sharia courts are now legally binding in civil cases in the United Kingdom, U.S. Representative Tom Tancredo (R-Littleton) moved quickly today to introduce legislation designed to protect the United States from a similar fate.

“According to recent news reports, a new network of Sharia courts in a half-dozen major cities in the U.K. have been empowered under British law to adjudicate a wide variety of legal cases ranging from divorces and financial disputes to those involving domestic violence.”

“This is a case where truth is truly stranger than fiction,” said Tancredo. “Today the British people are learning a hard lesson about the consequences of massive, unrestricted immigration.”

“Sharia law, favored by Muslim extremists around the world, often calls for brutal punishment – such as the stoning of women who are accused of adultery or have children out of wedlock, cutting off the hands of petty thieves and lashings for the casual consumption of alcohol. Under Sharia law, a woman is often required to provide numerous witnesses to prove rape allegations against an assailant – a near impossible task.”

“When you have an immigration policy that allows for the importation of millions of radical Muslims, you are also importing their radical ideology – an ideology that is fundamentally hostile to the foundations of western democracy – such as gender equality, pluralism, and individual liberty,” said Tancredo. “The best way to safeguard America against the importation of the destructive effects of this poisonous ideology is to prevent its purveyors from coming here in the first place.”

Tancredo’s bill, dubbed the “Jihad Prevention Act,” would bar the entry of foreign nationals who advocate Sharia law. In addition, the legislation would make the advocacy of Sharia law by radical Muslims already in the United States a deportable offense.

“Tancredo pointed to the results of a recent poll conducted by the Centre for Social Cohesion as evidence that the U.S. should act to prevent the situation in Great Britain from replicating itself here in the United States. The poll found that some 40 percent of Muslim students in the United Kingdom support the introduction of Sharia law there, and 33 percent support the imposition of an Islamic Sharia-based government worldwide,” the release reported.

“We need to send a clear message that the only law we recognize here in America is the U.S. Constitution and the laws passed by our democratically elected representatives,” concluded Tancredo. “If you aren’t comfortable with that concept, you aren’t welcome in the United States.”

With the incredible Muslim violence now manifesting in Norway, Sweden, France and the UK, the United States must move save itself. Two weeks ago, Ann Curry at NBC presented a special report, “Honor Killings in America.” We now suffer honor killings in America by our Muslim immigrants. As reported on FOX News, 7/25/08 in Garret, Texas. A 911 call recorded a 12 year old girl, “My dad shot me, I am dying.” The father didn’t like the child wearing jeans and ‘sexy’ blouses. So, he shot her. In Clayton, Georgia, 7/10/08, a Pakistani father, Chaudry Rashid strangled his daughter for not accepting his choice of a husband. Never mind the man was 20 years older than the girl!

In Colorado, (my state) we passed a law to stop female genital mutilation because so many female Muslim children checked into our emergency wards with horrific vaginal infections from the brutal procedure. Muslims use glass or razor blades with no anesthetic or sterile room technique.

 

America doesn’t have a clue as to its future shock when 2.5 million Muslims become 10.5 million Muslims. They will use the U.S. Constitution to vote their Sharia Law into law within our country.

Over 35 years ago, a Frenchman, Jean Raspail, who understood the consequences of immigrating millions of third world people from the Middle East wrote a book: “Camp of the Saints”

 

A fleet of ships carried hundreds of thousands of refugees who left their country because they couldn’t change it. They sailed toward France. “You don’t know my people—the squalor, superstitions, the fatalistic sloth that they’ve wallowed in for generations. You don’t know what you’re in for if that fleet of brutes ever lands in your lap. Everything will change in this country of yours. They will swallow you up.”

As witnessed today, that “fleet of brutes” swallowed Great Britain this month and France will not survive its own immigration invasion much longer. Will we?

To take action:
www.numbersusa.com
www.fairus.org
www.proenglish.org
www.capsweb.org
www.vdare.com

Frosty Wooldridge — America Must Never Succumb to Islam’s Sharia Law

RP needs to address discrimination vs Muslims–US report

MANILA, Philippines—While the Muslim religion is respected in the Philippines, the national government has not done enough to free Muslims from poverty and political, cultural and economic discrimination, a report of the United States State Department shows.

These, the report says, contribute to the Mindanao war.

In the “International Religious Freedom Report 2008” released on September 18, the state department notes the concentration of Muslims in the poorest provinces and the government’s shortcomings in promoting economic development in Muslim areas.

The report also notes claims of Islamic leaders about economic discrimination.

According to the report, 93 percent of Filipinos are Christians, with Roman Catholics comprising 80 to 85 percent of the total population, while the Muslims comprise five to seven percent.

Most Muslims are members of various ethnic groups, commonly referred to as Moros. They reside principally in Mindanao and nearby islands.

Historically, Muslims have been alienated socially from the Christian majority, and some ethnic and cultural discrimination against Muslims has been recorded, the report said.

It said that young Muslim professionals reported employers’ stereotyping of Muslims as being less educated while others claimed they had difficulty renting rooms in boarding houses or being hired for retail work if they used their real names or wore distinctive Muslim dress. Many Muslims resorted to adopting Christian pseudonyms and wearing Western clothing to get employment.

Over the past 60 years, efforts by the dominant Christian population to resettle in traditionally Muslim areas such as Mindanao fostered resentment among many Muslim residents, the report further said.

Thus, many Muslims viewed Christian proselytizing as another form of resettlement, with the intention of depriving Muslims of their homeland and cultural identity, including their religion.

Despite the fighting in Mindanao between the military and the armed insurgent Muslim group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the report said that there was no change in the status of respect for religious freedom by the government.

“The government generally respected religious freedom in practice. The Philippine Constitution provides for freedom of religion, and other laws and policies contributed to the generally free practice of religion,” the report said.

The report also points to “converts of convenience,” Christian overseas Filipino workers who convert to Islam after having worked in prosperous Middle East countries because such conversion brought social and economic benefits abroad.

But even if they converted for “convenience,” the report acknowledges that many of the converts remained Muslim even upon their return to the country and were known collectively as “Balik Islam” (return to Islam).

By law, public schools must ensure that the religious rights of students are protected. Approximately 14 percent of the Mindanao student population attended Islamic schools (madrassahs). There are more than 2,000 Islamic schools, more than half of which are located in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

A total of 1,140 madrassahs seeking financial assistance from local and foreign donors were registered with the Office of Muslim Affairs, while 40 were registered with the Department of Education.

The US government discusses religious freedom with the Philippine government as part of its overall policy to promote human rights.

The US embassy in Manila, on the other hand, has been actively encouraging the peace process between the government and the MILF, and maintained active outreach with religious leaders and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to engage them in interfaith activities.

For 2007, 60 percent of the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) $69 million budget for the country went to programs in Mindanao, mostly in the ARMM.

Also, USAID programs were instrumental in supporting the peace process and helped foster an environment for greater religious tolerance. An example was a multiyear USAID program that helped 28,000 former members of the Moro National Liberation Front make the transition from fighting to productive farming.

Mindanao Peace Process

Violent protests by leftists forced the cancellation of a far-right rally against the influence of Islam in Europe and prompted the detention of 500 people, German authorities said Sunday.

The street battles came on the sidelines of a two-day congress organized by right-wing extremists on the purportedly growing dominance of Europe’s Muslim minority and the construction of one of Europe’s largest mosques here.

The clashes that ran into the night Saturday overshadowed a peaceful protest by tens of thousands of people against the “anti-Islamification” congress, police chief Klaus Steffenhagen told reporters.

Carrying banners reading “We are Cologne — Get rid of the Nazis!” protesters gathered outside the citys landmark cathedral to oppose the congress organized by the local far-right group Pro-Koeln (For Cologne).

Organizers said about 40,000 people turned out for the demonstration for peaceful coexistence between Muslims and non-Muslims in Europe, an event backed by the German government and authorities in this western city.

Meanwhile, around 150 bars in Cologne stopped selling Pro-Koeln members the local Koelsch beer with some taxi and bus drivers also refusing to transport delegates to the congress.

One hotel even cancelled bookings made by “undesirables”.

A leading figure in the Greens party, Volker Beck, welcomed the “victory of civil society against the far-right”.

Pro-Koeln had begun two days of seminars Friday during which about 300 participants from across Europe denounced a Muslim “immigrant invasion” on the continent.

Earlier Saturday, police banned an outdoor rally organized by far-right adherents in Cologne just as it was about to begin, following the clashes with a violent fringe of counter-protesters.

Steffenhagen said the left-wing extremists hurled Molotov cocktails, stones and fireworks and tore down security barricades.

“This was not a protest but was unbridled violence against our police force and those who wanted to demonstrate peacefully in Cologne,” he said.

Some 3,000 police officers were deployed and used truncheons and water hoses to fend off violent “anti-fascist” leftist activists.

Pro-Koeln has five elected local councilors and is chasing other official positions in the region.

Cologne, on the River Rhine, is famous for its Gothic twin-spired Roman Catholic cathedral — a UNESCO world heritage site that survived Allied air raids during World War Two.

500 detained in anti-Islam congress protest in Germany