It seems, though, that when an American military officer who is a practicing Muslim allegedly shoots forty of his fellow soldiers who are about to deploy to the two wars the United States is currently fighting in Muslim countries, some broader meaning might, over time, be discerned, especially if the officer did, in fact, yell “Allahu Akbar” while murdering his fellow soldiers, as some soldiers say he did. This is the second time this year American soldiers on American soil have been gunned down by a Muslim who was reportedly unhappy with America’s wars in the Middle East (the first took place in Arkansas, to modest levels of notice). And, of course, this would not be the first instance of an American Muslim soldier killing fellow soldiers over his disagreements with American foreign policy; in 2003, Army Sgt. Hasan Akbar killed two officers and wounded fourteen others when he rolled a grenade into a tent in a homicidal protest against American policy.

Here’s a simple test: If Nidal Malik Hasan had been a devout Christian with pronounced anti-abortion views, and had he attacked, say, a Planned Parenthood office, would his religion have been considered relevant as we tried to understand the motivation and meaning of the attack? Of course. Elite opinion makers do not, as a rule, try to protect Christians and Christian belief from investigation and criticism. Quite the opposite. It would be useful to apply the same standards of inquiry and criticism to all religions.

QUESTION: Why isn’t the same standard of inquiry and criticism given to Christians and Muslims?

“I do feel I’m not guilty,” Abdulhakim Muhammad told The Associated Press in a collect call from the Pulaski County jail. “I don’t think it was murder, because murder is when a person kills another person without justified reason.”

~~~

Muhammad told the AP he admitted to his actions to police and said he was retaliating against the U.S. military.

“Yes, I did tell the police upon my arrest that this was an act of retaliation, and not a reaction on the soldiers personally,” Muhammad said. He called it “a act, for the sake of God, for the sake of Allah, the Lord of all the world, and also a retaliation on U.S. military.”

In the interview, Muhammad also disputed his lawyer’s claim that he had been “radicalized” in a Yemeni prison and said fellow prisoners that some call terrorists were actually “very good Muslim brothers.”

He also said he didn’t specifically plan the shootings that morning.

“It’s been on my mind for awhile. It wasn’t nothing planned really. It was just the heat of the moment, you know,” said Muhammad, who was arrested on a highway shortly after the attack.

~~~

Muhammad, 23, said he wanted revenge for claims that American military personnel had desecrated copies of the Quran and killed or raped Muslims. “For this reason, no Muslim, male or female, sane or insane, little, big, small, old can accept or tolerate,” he said.

He said the U.S. military would never treat Christians and their Scriptures in the same manner.

No! Certainly not! The U.S. military would never seize and destroy Bibles!

“U.S. soldiers are killing innocent Muslim men and women. We believe that we have to strike back. We believe in eye for an eye. We don’t believe in turning the other cheek,” he said.

Asked whether he considered the shootings at the recruiting center an act of war, Muhammad said “I didn’t know the soldiers personally, but yes, it was an attack of retaliation. And I feel that other attacks, not by me or people I know, but definitely Muslims in this country and others elsewhere, are going to attack for doing those things they did,” especially desecrating the Quran.

Muhammad isn’t the brightest crayon in the box, is he? But then, what crayon in the jihad movement coloring book is?

But he’s got a point.

Here are photos to support Muhammad’s assertions, showing proof positive that “U.S. soldiers are killing innocent Muslim men and women.”:

Michael Totten:

The Iraqis of Anbar Province turned against Al Qaeda and sided with the Americans in large part because Al Qaeda proved to be far more vicious than advertised. But it’s also because sustained contact with the American military – even in an explosively violent combat zone –convinced these Iraqis that Americans are very different people from what they had been led to believe. They finally figured out that the Americans truly want to help and are not there to oppress them or steal from them. And the Americans slowly learned how Iraqi culture works and how to blend in rather than barge in.

“We hand out care packages from the U.S. to Iraqis now that the area has been cleared of terrorists,” one Marine told me. “When we tell them that some of these packages aren’t from the military or the government, that they were donated by average American citizens in places like Kansas, people choke up and sometimes even cry. They just can’t comprehend it. It is so different from the lies they were told about us and how we’re supposed to be evil.”

OMG! Check out the U.S. soldier shooting Iraqi police graduates….with a *gasp* camera:

Michael Yon:

I took that photo on May 2nd of 2005 up in Mosul. A suicide car bomber had lined up to do an attack on some of our soldiers, and they were in Stryker fighting vehicles. And Farah, and about twenty other kids, had run out to…when they would hear the Strykers, they would run out and waive, and the soldiers throw them candy and that sort of thing. And Farah’s mother later said that she ran out barefooted, you know, to waive and get candy or whatever, the suicide car bomber, who could have waited two or three blocks to attack our guys, or at least do it away from the kids, just ran right, drove right through the kids and exploded, detonated right there, killed one boy outright, burned him up. And then, you know, Farah…a woman, I don’t know if it was her mother, but a woman ran out with Farah, and came to the first American soldier she could fine. Walt Gaya, this is a pattern I’ve seen over and over, when Iraqis get hurt, they immediately go to American soldiers. And Walt was pushing out to a sniper position, but…and that’s really where he needed to go. But when he saw Farah injured, he grabbed her and took her back to the medics. The medics started working on her, and then Mark Bieger, he’s the major who’s in the photo that’s on the cover of the book, he picked up Farah, wrapped her in that blanket, and started to rush off to the hospital, grabbed up a few of the family members, and rushed to the hospital with Farah. But she, unfortunately, Farah died, so that’s how that photo was taken.

Here are stories of al Qaeda in Mesopotamia- Bledsoe’s fellow ideologues in the “jihad” movement- building mosques, hospitals, schools, infrastructure, protecting innocent Iraqis, and handing out candies, school supplies and soccer balls to Iraqi kids:

Link:

An Iraqi officer near Sinjar told me that recently a group of perhaps twenty “jihadists,” many of them foreign, descended on a Nineveh village. The Iraqi officer said the terrorists killed some adults and two babies. One baby they murdered was 15 days old.

Michael Yon:

I still find people in America, Nepal, Thailand, UAE and other countries who believe al Qaeda propaganda that they attack us because we support Israel or occupy Muslim holy land. This would not explain the decapitated Iraqi children I photographed when locals told me al Qaeda did it. This would not explain the Iraqi children al Qaeda has blown up, or the Afghans and Pakistanis killed by al Qaeda, or the Africans who are murdered by the same cult of serial killers. Did those decapitated children in the Iraqi village even know where America or Israel are? What about the Shia mosques they destroyed in Iraq? Were they occupying Saudi Arabia or supporting Israel?

A bleeding ground for takfiri terrorists:

Killers of children:

At first, he said, they would only target Shia, but over time the new al Qaeda directed attacks against Sunni, and then anyone who thought differently. The official reported that on a couple of occasions in Baqubah, al Qaeda invited to lunch families they wanted to convert to their way of thinking. In each instance, the family had a boy, he said, who was about 11 years old. As LT David Wallach interpreted the man’s words, I saw Wallach go blank and silent. He stopped interpreting for a moment. I asked Wallach, “What did he say?” Wallach said that at these luncheons, the families were sat down to eat. And then their boy was brought in with his mouth stuffed. The boy had been baked. Al Qaeda served the boy to his family.

Iraqis love their children.

Over here, the fact of al Qaeda murdering children is just that: it’s a fact. How they chose to commit the murders is a variable that changes from incident to incident. I’ve written often about how Iraqis, as a rule, love and greatly value their children . This makes the children especially vulnerable as targets for terrorists. That is a brutal fact.Al Qaeda drinks and uses drugs here. This is not propaganda. This is not even news, it’s a fact that I wrote about back in 2005.

Yes, it’s the American military strapping bombs to Iraqi women and children the disabled, and sending them off to blow up more innocent Muslims:

Baghdad, 1 Oct. (AKI) – Al-Qaeda has over the past two years used 24 children to carry out suicide bombings in Iraq, the director of military operations for the Interior Ministry, Abdelaziz Mohammed Jasim, told pan-Arab daily al-Sharq al-Awsat.

“Of the 24 children, five had a mental disability. From analysing the others’ remains, we established that they were homeless,” said Jasim.

American soldiers stationed in Iraq have reported that the insurgency has armed children as young as 11 to fight against them.

Al-Qaeda is targeting orphans, street children and mentally disabled children as suicide bomber recruits as well as women, according to the Iraqi Interior Ministry.

There have been at least 16 suicide attacks carried out by women in recent months in the volatile Al-Qaeda stronghold of Diyala province, north of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

Iraqi children (photo) in general make up 20 percent of the civilian victims of bomb attacks in the country.

How many Muslims has the global “jihad” movement killed?

Carlos Bledsoe/Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad/Abdulhakim Bledsoe/Human Pondscum is perfectly justified in a “nothing personal against Pvt. Long” murder because he believes the Quran has been desecrated by the American military and that U.S. soldiers are murdering innocent Muslims.

Previous FA posts:
June 3: Obama Silent On Killing Of Army Solder By Terrorist But Shocked Over Tiller Murder

June 3: Pvt. Long’s assassin roamed free because of “insufficient evidence” for wiretaps/investigation

June 2: Murdering US soldiers on the streets – the drawbacks of using law enforcement as terrorist policy

At his meeting with bipartisan leaders of Congress, Obama said he would make his stimulus proposal available on the Internet, with a Google-like search function to show each proposed project or program, by congressional district, according to three people who attended.

THE REALITY

In a press conference Thursday, the House Republican leadership spoke candidly about being kept out of the House-Senate conference on the Obama-Pelosi-Reid so-called “economic stimulus” bill. They confirmed they had not yet seen the text of the bill as of 4 p.m.

Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said he was unsure how many Democrats would vote with Republicans again on this bill but that he thought Republicans “may get a few” Democrats to side with them. The fact that the Demos have now broken their promise to have the public able to see the bill for 48 hours may drive more Dems into the Republican camp.

“[I] don’t know, ‘cause they haven’t seen the bill either,” Boehner said. “The American people have a right to know what’s in this bill,” Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind) told HUMAN EVENTS after the press conference. “Every member of Congress — Republicans and Democrats — voted to post this bill on the internet for 48 hours, 48 hours ago. We’ll see if the Democrats keep their word.”

For some completely unknown reason (I just can’t possibly imagine) MSNBC has not followed up on its own article by asking Democrats what happened to the 48hr online review?

So, who DOES know what’s in the bill that Congress is going to approve? Congress doesn’t. Lobbyists do

Z, a friend of mine, had an opportunity to listen to Dr. Jasser speak; and I think came away from the talk, a better person for it, and a better advocate for fighting the war against Islamic terror and Islamism, without lashing out at at the hundreds of millions of Muslims who practice the faith, in peace.

I know this doesn’t sit well with many right-wingers. Good. Sometimes, we need the stupid smacked out of us. We’ve become so educated on the dangers of the Islamist threat by immersing ourselves in Robert Spencerian research and anti-Jihad books, blog any and every news story on honor killings and Islamic cultural encroachments upon our western society, that we find validation in our dim view of Islam as a whole.

I’m not saying there aren’t real dangers and a real threat from wahhabism and Islamist fundamentalism. But I am saying that some of us are becoming religious bigots, where our prejudice and hatred are based upon self-indoctrination of anti-Islam literature. Our views against Islam are shaped not by a lack of education, but by an overabundance and an overbalance of education, tilted in one direction. We are all-too willing to believe the worst about Islam, and zero-in only on repeating the negative stories. Positive stories about Muslims get ignored or dismissed as the exception; we seize upon the negative news, then cry out “where are the moderate voices?” We don’t see them, because we’re too busy looking for the worst.

We are under threat of becoming the stereotype that multicultural liberals wish to see us as: intolerant, warmongering, religious and ethnic bigots.

I have an anti-Islam troll living under the bridge of my blog; anytime I come out with a post that doesn’t condemn the entire religion, he will crawl out of his hole to tell me how I am a dhimmi and defender of evil. Bigots like him are part of the problem and have their heads up their asses every bit as much as they rightfully accuse some of us as having our heads in the sand.

bin Laden and Zawahiri tried to convince the Muslim world that the West are at war with Islam. They have failed. That is, unless they’ve simultaneously convinced the West that Islam is at war with them.

Dr. Jasser represents the kind of modernity and reformation that Islam needs to undergo if it is to survive peacefully alongside the other great world religions in the 21st century. We should not fall into the trap of becoming what we hate.

Here’s an excerpt from Islam vs. Islamists (apparently uploaded by Tarek Fatah):

Another clip:

This is the PBS episode from their program series that they had initially pulled, apparently influenced by the likes of CAIR, who they deem to be the “true” “moderates”, because they are bearded. I got to see a free screening of this documentary in June of 2007 and highly recommend it to everyone. It is the irony of ironies that the multiculturalist liberals at PBS would suppress Islam vs. Islamists, when the four voices of those in the program are the very “moderates” people need to hear from.

When we lament, “where are the moderate voices in Islam?”, “Why aren’t they speaking out and denouncing Islamic terror?”…..well, you can thank, in part, PBS.

Ok, readers: Let me have both barrels in the face, and tell me why I’m wrong.

Muslims attend Eid-al-Fitr prayers on a street in Mumbai, India. Muslims across the world are celebrating Eid al-Fitr, the festival marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.Punit Paranjpe, Reuters

Most people assume that bigotry and prejudice are born of ignorance. Of a lack of education. This is true. But I think it is also based upon an overabundance of “slanted” knowledge.

Like many FA readers, after 9/11, I steeped myself in literature of the Robert Spencer-variety, warning me of the dangers of (radical/political ) Islam. Anyone who wanted to define Islam as “a religion of peace” was ridiculed as being asleep and ignorant; of having drunk the political correctness kool-aid and multiculturalist nonsense. And they were right.

But now, I think we have become so “educated” on Islam, that as mostly outsiders looking in, we have only educated ourselves to the opposite extreme, in our views. And that is just as damaging to fighting and winning the war against Islamic terror as it is to deny that we are engaged in a real war with a radical movement. Yes, radical. Not normative, but extremist, radicalism.

I know allies of mine on the right insist that radical Islam is the norm; that there is no such thing as a “moderate” Muslim, unless he be an apostate to the religion of Islam. And they will point me to all the passages from the Hadith and Koran that I’m already familiar with, and tell Muslims that they know Islam better than the Muslims themselves know Islam. Great.

A devout Muslim tells you he is peaceful, and you tell him, “No you’re not; and if you are, you don’t know Islam. You’re not a real Muslim, because I read Robert Spencer’s books and know better than you do about your own faith; you don’t get to define it, who practice it; I get to define it for you, who studies a slant side of it.” Merely reading anti-Islamic books and taking the Koranic word literally, isn’t necessarily education. It’s an important part of our education; but when you are only immersed in a one-sided viewpoint with an agenda, then that becomes propaganda. Propaganda from the right, countering propaganda from the left. Somewhere amidst all of that, lies the reality.

Michelle Malkin is a high-profile blogger of great influence, with many “fans” on the right side of the blogosphere.

Amy Proctor’s reaction to one of Malkin’s latest entries, is shared by myself as well. By way of Bottomline Upfront:

Michelle Malkin’s appalling new series on her blog, Stuff Muslims Don’t Like: A new feature, is inflammatory, insulting and ignorant. My husband is a MSG in the Army and a Religious Leader Engagement subject matter expert in the war on terror, particularly relating to Iraq, and he is equally appalled. She justifies her series by comparing it to a blog called Stuff White People Like:

“Of course, Stuff Muslims Don’t Like doesn’t purport to characterize the entire Muslim population anymore than Stuff White People Like purports to characterize the entire population of white people. It’s a look at predictable predilictions, proclivities, and trends.”

Sure it doesn’t, Michelle. She makes no distinction between an entire population and whoever her swipes are intended for. Her flawed analogy doesn’t consider that Islam is a religion, not a race.

A sign of a mature, 21st century-evolved religion, is one that is thick-skinned enough to endure irreverent humor and insults without flying off the handle. So someone like Bill Maher enjoys the freedom to slander the Pope and insult a great religion and we have the freedom to criticize him for it. Bill Maher isn’t courageous, since he knows Catholic Crusadists aren’t going to come after him and take his life; all he can whine about in terms of persecution and freedom of speech, is if his HBO show has the plug pulled because we exercised our freedom of speech in expressing our indignation and dissatisfaction. Real courage is standing up to the Islamic crazies. It’s when Iraqis like,

Abu Ali said that on 1 April 2007, he and his people attacked al Qaeda in Buhriz for their crimes against Islam. He also said something that many Muslims have said to me: al Qaeda are not Muslims. (Both Sunni and Shia have said nearly the exact same words, at times on video.)

Abu Ali said that “al Qaeda is an abomination of Islam: cutting off heads, stealing people’s money, kidnapping . . . every type of torture they have done.”

Muslims like him, who oppose the hirabahists, should be embraced as the true adherence to Islam. The majority of Muslims who are not plotting to subjugated the entire world under Islamic fundamentalism should be allowed to define who and what they are; not the armchair Spencerian Islamic scholars and not the Zawahiris and Qutbists.

You say you want to win the War on Terror? Win in Iraq? How does that instill confidence in Abu Ali that he chose not only the winning side by allying with the U.S., but also that he chose the right side, when we lash out as his religion, as a whole, rather than surgically zero in on the Wahhabists, Salafi fundamentalists, and Qutbist ideologists who are waging war on everyone, including on Muslims?

Amy Proctor writes further,

It goes on with comments of blathering ignorance of proportions that make me shudder. Do Malkin readers hold those views toward this man and his son? Or these Muslim women who are laying down their lives for their country? How about this man? Or these blind children and their amazing teacher? They’re Muslim, too. How about this Muslim who teaches children that the United States is their friend? Or this man and his son? Or these Muslims who reached out to the Vatican in a gesture of unity and peace? How about this Iraqi volunteer who saved U.S. troops and civilians by throwing himself on a suicide bomber? Funny, because I thought she and her readers typically praise these Muslims

Muslims have been losing their lives, fighting against al-Qaeda and other Islamic terror networks. American Muslims such as Dr. Zuhdi Jasser (if CAIR is the Jesse Jackson Rainbow/PUSH Coalition of the Muslim community, Jasser is like the Michael Steele of American Muslims) acknowledges that his faith needs reformation and modernization; telling devout Muslims like him that Islam cannot be reformed, or it’s no longer Islam, is like telling all the branches of Christianity that continue to spring up that they are not true Christianity, because they don’t practice the faith as it was practiced two thousand years ago (or is it 6,000?).

No, I’m not drawing a moral equivalence between Christianity and Islam. I’m neither a Biblical nor Koranic scholar, and am not talking about theological tenets. I realize that at their core, they have fundamental differences. Christianity has evolved. I find that a portion of the Muslim world is still rooted in 12th and 7th century cultural-thinking and beliefs.

Michael Totten points to a part of the Islamic world that has embraced modernity…and they aren’t even in the United States:

I’m writing this from the capital of Kosovo, the least “scary” Muslim country on Earth. I’ve grown accustomed to moderate Muslims after living in and traveling to places like Beirut and Istanbul, but Kosovo is surprising even to me. Islam in this country is so thoroughly liberal (“moderate” doesn’t quite cover it) that, if it weren’t for the mosques, there would be no visible evidence that Kosovo is a Muslim country at all. I’ve been in Prishtina, the capital, for four days, and I can count the number of women I’ve seen wearing a hijab on one hand. Aside from the conservative dating culture, women here are as liberated as Christian women in the rest of the Balkan region.

A large number of Kosovo’s Muslims are Sufis—the most peaceful and the least fundamentalist of all the world’s Muslims. Sufis can be found in many parts of the Islamic world, but here in Kosovo they proudly proclaim that they are the most “progressive” of all.

Soft-imperial Wahhabis are trying to export their brand of Islam from the deserts of Saudi Arabia to this fertile green land. They have their work cut out for them with this crowd. Bosnia notoriously welcomed thousands of Salafist mujahideen fighters from the Arab world during Yugoslavia’s violent demise. But the Kosovo Liberation Army brusquely told them to stay the hell out of their country—even while they faced an ethnic cleansing campaign directed from Belgrade.

Amy Proctor:

Malkin and her commenters ought to be ashamed of themselves. They say they support the war efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq but systematically insult the allies GEN Petraeus and our troops are making on the ground in the combat zone. Their words are as poisonous as any Democrat’s who continue to call Iraqis too lazy to fight for their own country. While politicians like Ron Paul or Dennis Kucinich argue that a U.S. presence in the Middle East in and of itself has provoked Muslim nations to take aim at U.S. interests around the globe, it is sentiments like Michelle Malkin’s that make it more difficult for Muslims to want U.S. soldiers on their soil. If these people are the friends of the troops, who needs enemies?

Some previous posts:
One Muslim’s Jihad, is Another Muslim’s Hirabah
LA Screening of Islam vs. Islamists
Counter-Propaganda
Dhimmi Я NOT Us
Understanding Counter-Insurgency
Islam for Dhimmis

There are several interesting aspects to this text.

Sources for Journalistic outtakes of “tape”.

CNN

FNC (since we do allow Fox to be used on this website despite calls from certain “open minded progressives” to censor them)

Notice that both sources say about the same thing.

So I found the actual text of the message without having to go to the islamofascist website.

Transcript of actual text:

In the name of Allah, the most compassionate, the most merciful.

To the intelligent ones in the European Union:

Peace be upon he who follows guidance.

This talk of mine is to you and concerns the insulting drawings and your negligence in spite of the opportunity presented to take the necessary measures to prevent their being repeated.

To begin, I tell you: hostility between human beings is very old, but the intelligent ones among the nations in all eras have been keen to observe the etiquettes of dispute and the morals of fighting.

This is best for them as conflict is ever-changing and war has its ups and downs.

However, you, in your conflict with us, have abandoned many of the morals of fighting in practice, even if you hold aloft its slogans in theory.

How it saddens us that you target our villages with your bombing: those modest mud villages which have collapsed onto our women and children.

You do that intentionally and I am witness to that.

All of this [you do] without right and in conformity with your oppressive ally who – along with his oppressive policies – is about to depart the White House.

And it is no longer hidden from you that these savage acts haven’t ended the war, but rather increase our determination to cling to our right, avenge our people, and expel the invaders from our country.

And [you also know now] that these massacres are never erased from the memory of the peoples and the effects of this are not hidden.

Although our tragedy in your killing of our women and children is a very great one, it paled when you went overboard in your unbelief and freed yourselves of the etiquettes of dispute and fighting and went to the extent of publishing these insulting drawings.

This is the greater and more serious tragedy, and reckoning for it will be more severe.

And I bring your attention to a telling matter, which is that despite your publishing of the insulting drawings, you haven’t seen any reaction from the one and a half billion Muslims, which includes an insult to the prophet of Allah Jesus, the son of Mary (peace and prayers be upon him).

We believe in all of the prophets (peace and prayers be upon them), and whoever detracts from or mocks any one of them is an apostate unbeliever.

And here it is worth pointing out that there is no need to use as an excuse the sacredness you accord freedom of expression and the sacredness of your laws and how you won’t change them.

If so, then on what basis were American soldiers exempted from being subject to your laws on your land?

And on what basis do you suppress those who cast doubt on the statistics of an historical event?

In addition, you know that there is one man who can put an end to these drawings, if it mattered to him: the crownless king in Riyadh who ordered your legal institutions to stop their investigations into the embezzlement of billions from the al-Yamamah deal, and Blair carried this out, and he is today your representative in the quartet.

To sum up, then, the laws of men which clash with the legislations of Allah the Most High are null and void, aren’t sacred, and don’t matter to us.

And in addition your practical stance towards the al-Yamamah deal requires you to admit that there are some values which are greater than your values.

In closing, I tell you: if there is no check on the freedom of your words, then let your hearts be open to the freedom of our actions.

And it is amazing and to make light of others that you talk about tolerance and peace at a time when your soldiers perpetrate murder even against the weak and oppressed in our countries.

Then came your publishing of these drawings, which came in the framework of a new Crusade in which the pope of the Vatican has played a large, lengthy role.

And all of that is confirmation on your part of the continuation of the way as well as a testing of the Muslims in their religion: is the Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) more beloved to them than themselves and their wealth?

The answer is what you see, not what you hear, and may our mothers be bereaved of us if we fail to help the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).

And peace be upon he who follows the guidance.

Well, it was short, which is unusual but it was full of lies of Western “imperialism” and “crusades” which is sadly not unusual.

I will go through this latest “Mein Kampf” screed by this little demon.

This talk of mine is to you and concerns the insulting drawings and your negligence in spite of the opportunity presented to take the necessary measures to prevent their being repeated.

It is called Freedom. If it offends you Usama, take one of those vests you put on your underlings and send yourself to “paradise”. Christians and Jews deal with insulting cartoons, comedy skits, and stereotypes weekly. The difference is that they do not go on world-wide riots because of them. This is one of the MANY differences between the civilized world and Bin Laden’s “utopia”.

Insulting cartoons and parodies are the very least Bin Laden and his deranged, demonic followers deserve.

“To begin, I tell you: hostility between human beings is very old, but the intelligent ones among the nations in all eras have been keen to observe the etiquettes of dispute and the morals of fighting.”

“Intelligent ones” being only those who submit to Bin Laden’s aspirations and quadruple standards (Jews, Christians, non-AQ Muslims, and AQ). “Observe the etiquettes of dispute and the morals of fighting” may refer to the Geneva Conventions, which the US and NATO are following and AQ has never followed and exploits to their advantage. Actually, Bin Laden shuns these man made rules in the next few paragraphs.

How it saddens us that you target our villages with your bombing: those modest mud villages which have collapsed onto our women and children.

Didn’t I see this lie on a Code Pink/Answer “anti-war” poster? In truth, the Coalition does everything possible to avoid civilian casualties while AQ blows up schools full of children. Sorry Usama… This lie may work with Ms Benjamin, Mr. Soros, and their deluded followers, but not with the real “intelligent ones”.

All of this [you do] without right and in conformity with your oppressive ally who – along with his oppressive policies – is about to depart the White House.

Looks like he will not be voting for Bush either….. Seriously though, Bin Laden equates educating females, holding elections, and building independent governments with “oppression”. Remember that his “ideal” was shooting women in soccer stadiums for wearing makeup under their burkas and forcing real oppression upon the word. His statement again sounds like something from ACT/ANSWER/Move-on.

And it is no longer hidden from you that these savage acts haven’t ended the war, but rather increase our determination to cling to our right, avenge our people, and expel the invaders from our country.

And [you also know now] that these massacres are never erased from the memory of the peoples and the effects of this are not hidden.

Projectionist? Yeah Bin… The people of Iraq and Afghanistan have increased determination to cling to their right, avenge their people, and expel the invaders from their country. Except, WE are not the invaders they speak of. AL AQEADA and Bin Laden are!!! Great work in helping us show the Iraqis what a living Hell life under AQ would be like and turning them against you. AQ’s massacres of Iraqi and Afghan civilians will never be erased from the memories of these people. What is more, old Bin, is that you are trying to reinforce this failure in Iraq by using the SAME TACTICS in Afghanistan!! Wow… Stuck on Stupid are we not Usama?

Although our tragedy in your killing of our women and children is a very great one, it paled when you went overboard in your unbelief and freed yourselves of the etiquettes of dispute and fighting and went to the extent of publishing these insulting drawings.

This is the greater and more serious tragedy, and reckoning for it will be more severe.

So the supposed “bombing” of women and children is NOTHING compared to…. INK!! Is the pen that mighty that AQ’s sword must crush it? Nice to have priorities Bin…. I can see Usama’s lack of value on the former as women are sex slaves and children are potential bomb delivery vehicles.

And I bring your attention to a telling matter, which is that despite your publishing of the insulting drawings, you haven’t seen any reaction from the one and a half billion Muslims, which includes an insult to the prophet of Allah Jesus, the son of Mary (peace and prayers be upon him).

We believe in all of the prophets (peace and prayers be upon them), and whoever detracts from or mocks any one of them is an apostate unbeliever.

This is called “taqqiyah” or deception. it is aimed at the weak-willed “moral equivalence” crowd which states all religions are the same. I do not even go to church and can easily tell the difference between Christianity and Islam. In truth, Bin laden and his ilk have already said they do not give a rat’s rear end about any other “false” prophet and only their views of Muhammad matter (just ask the thousands of Muslims Bin Laden’s people killed… oh, wait… we cannot). And we only saw mass riots and murder threats against he artists, news papers, and embassies of the countries involved. So if that is not a reaction, then what is coming?

And here it is worth pointing out that there is no need to use as an excuse the sacredness you accord freedom of expression and the sacredness of your laws and how you won’t change them.

If so, then on what basis were American soldiers exempted from being subject to your laws on your land?

Really, is Bin Laden a subscriber to Daily Kos and DU???? It shows. Actually, Usama, we American Soldiers ARE subject to MORE laws and restrictions than our civilians are. But that does not fit your demonic “I’m oppressed” idiocy. Wow… This guy is stuck on stupid….. Really stuck. Maybe this comes from his very well fed American Taliban henchman? These asinine statements surely sound like tripe that traitor was raised on and spouts.

In addition, you know that there is one man who can put an end to these drawings, if it mattered to him: the crownless king in Riyadh who ordered your legal institutions to stop their investigations into the embezzlement of billions from the al-Yamamah deal, and Blair carried this out, and he is today your representative in the quartet.

You know, it is ok to admit that your front firm lost a contract and you are pissed. I do not know if this is what happened, but it does appear that Bin laden lost something financially because of this.

To sum up, then, the laws of men which clash with the legislations of Allah the Most High are null and void, aren’t sacred, and don’t matter to us.

Remember what I said above about Bin Laden shunning these rules. Well, here they are. Bin Laden is on a mission from his “god”. Therefore, any “laws of men” which impede him are null and void. I made the same observation when President Clinton indicted him a decade ago. Human laws, especially from a non-Islamic nation, mean NOTHING to Bin Laden and his ilk unless he can use them against us.

In closing, I tell you: if there is no check on the freedom of your words, then let your hearts be open to the freedom of our actions.

And he wonders why we have trouble accepting that whole “religion of peace” thing. All I can say to that is, “Silence…. I kiiiillllll yooouuuu!!!”

And it is amazing and to make light of others that you talk about tolerance and peace at a time when your soldiers perpetrate murder even against the weak and oppressed in our countries.

More projectionism. US Soldiers are not setting off IEDs in schools and markets or kidnapping families. Again, maybe his fat henchman is getting quotes from somewhere.

Then came your publishing of these drawings, which came in the framework of a new Crusade in which the pope of the Vatican has played a large, lengthy role.

Always the reference to the defensive war fought by Europe which started in Tours, in what is now France under Charles Martel. Unfortunately, our severe lack of historical knowledge and continued self hate and ‘guilt’ blind us to what the Crusades were originally about. Thus Bin Laden’s lies hit guilt nerves.

Now.. Maybe Bin Laden does not understand this difference, but there is a difference between Catholicism and Protestantism. In fact there are huge differences, though not as much as there is between Christianity/Judaism and Islam. The Danes are 95% Evangelical Lutheran according to the CIA World Factbook. The Pope has no say over them.

The answer is what you see, not what you hear, and may our mothers be bereaved of us if we fail to help the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).

And peace be upon he who follows the guidance.

Last sentence first: It means “convert, surrender, or die” in case anyone is wondering.

For the other short paragraph. “What you see, not what you hear” could mean a lot of different things. It could mean that plans are already in place and this internet speech is the “execute command”. It could also mean the weapons used will not be explosives, but something far worse. It could also be an empty threat designed to make us ask the above question and panic ourselves. Time will tell.

So that is my take on this whole Bin Laden attack on a two-year old plus cartoon. In short, lampooning him and his Waffen SS style band is the least we can and should do. We should also do it more often.

We are told that the “youth violence” in Europe and the increasing violence among Islamists in America stems from a failure of the Islamists to assimilate into Western Culture. We are told it is somehow our fault this does not happen by some and that we need to be even more accommodating to the Islamists coming to the West, even when these people overtly state they are here to colonize and conquer.

As a further exhibit on this, I give you remarks by the Turkish Prime Minister speaking in Cologne, Germany.

Cologne, Germany — A crowd of 16,000 expatriate Turks cheered Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan at a vast indoor auditorium in Germany on Sunday as he told them to resist assimilation into the West.

The political rally by Germany’s biggest ethnic minority upset German politicians, who objected to a major public event on German soil being advertised on posters in Turkish only.

Erdogan indirectly addressed those concerns, saying it was right for Turkish immigrants to learn German and other languages so they could integrate, but wrong to abandon their Turkish heritage and assimilate.

“Assimilation is a crime against humanity,” he told the crowd. Many Turks had travelled from France, Belgium and the Netherlands to hear his hour-long address in the shiny venue, the Koelnarena.

“A crime against humanity”?? Peacefully becoming part of European Society, abandoning honor killings, military jihad, and respecting other religions and the non-religious and allowing all to practice their beliefs openly is a “crime”? I wonder what the city fathers of Constantinople would think? Or the Berber Christians? Or the Jews in Mecca? Oh, I forgot, they were slaughtered by Islamists for not converting to Islam.

“I can well understand that you are against assimilation,” he said. “It is important to learn German, but your Turkish language should not be neglected.”

He said ethnic Turks abroad should be more confident in standing up for their interests, and should win election as mayors and members of European national parliaments.

Anyone see the writing on the walls? Do not assimilate, remain true to your country of origin, and actively seek political rule. Do I need to go into the multiple stories of Islamist taking over sections of London, Berlin, Minneapolis, Dearborn, Paris, etc and even declaring Sharia sovereignty over some of these areas?

Meanwhile, Danes Nab Suspects in Cartoonist Plot

Danish police said Tuesday they have arrested several people suspected of plotting to kill one of the 12 cartoonists behind the Prophet Muhammad drawings that sparked a deadly uproar in the Muslim world two years ago.

The arrests were made in pre-dawn raids in Aarhus, western Denmark, “to prevent a terror-related murder,” the police intelligence agency said. It did not say how many people were arrested nor did it mention which cartoonist was targeted.

However, according to Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper that first published the drawings on Sept. 30, 2005, the suspects were planning to kill its cartoonist Kurt Westergaard. It said those arrested included both Danish and foreign citizens.

“There were very concrete murder plans against Kurt Westergaard,” said Carsten Juste, the paper’s editor-in-chief.

The cartoons were later reprinted by a range of Western publications, and they sparked deadly protests in parts of the Muslim world.

Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet, even favorable, for fear it could lead to idolatry.

Westergaard, 73, and his wife Gitte, 66, had been living under police protection because of the murder plans, Jyllands-Posten reported.

“Of course I fear for my life when the police intelligence service say that some people have concrete plans to kill me. But I have turned fear into anger and resentment,” Westergaard said in a statement published on Jyllands-Posten’s Web site.

PET, the police intelligence service, called the action “preventive,” saying it decided to strike “at an early phase to stop the planning and the carrying out of the murder.”

In the uproar that followed the publishing of the cartoons, Danes watched in disbelief as angry mobs burned the Danish flag and attacked the country’s embassies in Muslim countries including Syria, Iran and Lebanon.

Jyllands-Posten was evacuated several times because of threats and posted security guards at its office outside Aarhus and in Copenhagen.

The paper initially refused to apologize for the cartoons, which it said were published in reaction to a perceived self-censorship among artists dealing with Islamic issues, but later said it regretted that the cartoons had offended Muslims.

The Danish government also expressed regrets to Muslims, but noted that it could not interfere with the freedom of the press.

Kasem Ahmad, a spokesman for the Copenhagen-based Islamic Faith Community, a network of Muslim groups that spearheaded protests against the cartoons in Denmark, said he hoped Tuesday’s arrests would not rekindle the uproar.

“We urge Muslims to take it calmly,” he told the TV2 News network.

The rage over the caricatures resonated beyond Denmark. In Germany, two men were accused of planting bombs aboard a pair of German commuter trains in 2006 that failed to explode.

One of the men, Youssef Mohammed el-Hajdib, a Lebanese citizen, is on trial in Duesseldorf. The second man, Jihad Hamad, was convicted in December in Lebanon and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

El-Hajdib told the court last week that Hamad planned the attacks as revenge after some German newspapers reprinted the Muhammad caricatures.

Hamad, however, testified at his trial in Lebanon that el-Hajdib was the initiator of the failed plot. He said el-Hajdib brainwashed him and exposed him to extremist videos and propaganda.

Let us be very clear, “Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet, even favorable, for fear it could lead to idolatry” is a whitewashed statement. Islam currently VIOLENTLY opposes ANY critique and representation of their prophet and religion, especially by infidels. In the past, Islam has not been restrictive on this, but the resurgence of what amounts to Islamic Fascism , declares all “aposated” are automatically sentenced to death. No other religion operates like this, despite what the religious relativists state.

Comedy Central has refused to broadcast an image of Mohammed on their network

I thought it was Parker and Stone making another one of their jokes, but after seeing the last scene where Jesus craps all over Bush I knew right away they were making the same kind of statement we have all been saying since the cartoon fiasco. The network finds it ok to show Jesus in this light, but not Muhammed….simple disgusting:

I’m not sure if it’s been reported yet, but for what it’s worth, I just got off the phone with a Comedy Central spokesman. I asked him about last night’s episode of South Park in which, at a moment right before the prophet Mohammed was supposed to make a cameo, the words, “Comedy Central has refused to broadcast an image of Mohammed on their network” appeared on the screen.

I asked him whether this truly was Comedy Central’s decision or whether this was just another gag (with South Park, you never know). He said:

They reflected it accurately. That was a Comedy Central decision.

Just in case there was any confusion, that settles it. Comedy Central censored the image.

The MSM has picked up on the story:

Banned by Comedy Central from showing an image of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, the creators of “South Park” skewered their own network for hypocrisy in the cartoon’s most recent episode.

The comedy _ in an episode aired during Holy Week for Christians _ instead featured an image of Jesus Christ defecating on President Bush and the American flag.

In an elaborately constructed two-part episode of their Peabody Award-winning cartoon, “South Park” creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker intended to comment on the controversy created by a Danish newspaper’s publishing of caricatures of Muhammad. Muslims consider any physical representation of their prophet to be blasphemous.

Overall the episode was pretty funny, not as funny as it usually is, but good. The story isn’t the whole episode tho, it’s the fact that the Comedy Channel would puss out and bow to terrorists because that is exactly what they did by allowing those who use terror to dictate what can and cannot be shown on their network.

It’s ok to show Jesus in this light:

[gv data="PQHAyfTHObU"][/gv]

But not okay to show Muhammed handing over a football helmut:

And here is a example of what should of been shown while they quivered in fear: (Via PointFive)

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PARIS — A gang of young Muslims wielding iron rods has forced a Paris cafe to censor an exhibition of cartoons ridiculing religion, the owners of the establishment said on Friday.

Some 50 drawings by well-known French cartoonists were installed in the Mer a Boire cafe in the working-class Belleville neighborhood of northeast Paris, as part of an avowedly atheist show entitled, “Neither god nor god”.

The collection targeted all religions – including Islam – but there were no representations of the Prophet Mohammed such as sparked the recent crisis between the West and the Islamic world, according to Marianne who is one of the cafe’s three owners.

“We used to give glasses of water to a group of local boys aged between 10 and 12 who played football across the street. On Tuesday a few came in, flung the water on the ground and accused us of being racists,” said Marianne, who did not wish to give her family name. “Later more of them came back with sticks and iron rods and tried to smash the pictures. They managed it with a few of them. With the customers we chased them away, but they kept coming back,” she said.

Later the cafe-owners were approached by a group of older youths. “They said they did not approve of what the youngsters had done. But what we were doing was unacceptable, too. They warned us that if we didn’t take down the cartoons they would call in the Muslim Brothers who would burn the cafe down,” said Marianne. “They kept saying: ‘This is our home. You cannot act like this here’,” she said.

Refusing to dismantle the exhibition, the owners have placed white sheets of paper inscribed with the word ‘censored’ over the cartoons that were targeted by the gang.

“To take down the cartoons would have been a surrender. But on the other hand we cannot expose ourselves to this kind of violence. This way you can still see the pictures if you lift the paper,” said Marianne.

To those Muslims who are such fanatics that you will force your will upon other free people….kiss my ass

This one isn’t new, but did force a young women to be imprisoned.

The third jolly event of the week was those other excitable fellows — the Big Media White House reporters — jumping up and down shouting “Death to Dick Cheney!” NBC’s David Gregory, the George Clooney of the press corps, was yelling truth to power about why the Elmer-Fudd-in-gun-rampage story was released to “a local Corpus Christi newspaper, not the White House press corps at large.” I know how he feels. I remember, like, four or five years ago — early September, maybe second week — there was this building collapse in New York and I had to learn about it from the TV because this notoriously secretive paranoid administration couldn’t even e-mail me a timely press release. For an NBC guy discovering that some hicksville nowhere-burg one-stop-light feed-price sheet got tipped off before he did is like a dowager duchess turning up at the royal banquet to discover the scullery maid’s been seated next to the queen.

So anyway David Gregory’s going bananas and yelling “I will yell!” and “Don’t be a jerk!” at the White House press secretary, and there’s more smoke coming out of his ears than from Ronald McDonald in Lahore, and I’m thinking, you know, maybe Karl’s latest range of Rovebots that he planted in American media corporations are just a wee bit too parodically self-absorbed to be plausible. And then this lady pipes up and asks, “Would this be much more serious if the man had died?”

Well, maybe. And maybe it would be even ever so much more serious still if, after peppering him with birdshot, Cheney had dragged him into a safe house in the Sunni Triangle and decapitated him with a rusty scimitar while shouting “Allahu Ahkbar!” and then sold the video to al-Jazeera.

Fortunately, the Washington Post had that wise old bird David Ignatius to put it in the proper historical context: “This incident,” he mused, “reminds me a bit of Sen. Edward Kennedy’s delay in informing Massachusetts authorities about his role in the fatal automobile accident at Chappaquiddick in 1969.”

Hmm. Let’s see. On the one hand, the guy leaves the gal at the bottom of the river struggling for breath pressed up against the window in some small air pocket while he pulls himself out of the briny, staggers home, sleeps it off and saunters in to inform the cops the following day that, oh yeah, there was some broad down there. And, on the other hand, the guy calls 911, has the other fellow taken to the hospital, lets the sheriff know promptly but neglects to fax David Gregory’s make-up girl!

One can only hope others agree with Ignatius’ insightful analogy, and that the reprehensible Cheney will be hounded from public life the way Kennedy was all those years ago. One would hate to think folks would just let it slide and three decades from now this Cheney guy will be sitting on some committee picking Supreme Court justices and whatnot.

[...]It’s easy to be tough about nothing. The press corps that noisily champions “the public’s right to know” about a minor hunting accident simultaneously assures the public that they’ve no need to see these Danish cartoons that have caused riots, arson and death around the world. On CNN, out of “sensitivity” to Islam, they show the cartoons but with the Prophet’s face pixilated so that he looks as if Cheney’s ventilated him with birdshot and it turned puffy and gangrenous. C’mon, guys, these are interesting times. Anyone can unload the umpteenth round of blanks into the bulletproof Chimpy Hallibushitler, but why not take a shot at something that matters?

Or perhaps it would just be easier to change the term ”free press” to the ”Roses of the Prophet Muhammed press.”

One of his best pieces yet…and he continually outdoes himself week in and week out.

ANOTHER WEEK, another Muslim country burns in rage over months-old Danish cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in an unflattering light. On Friday it was Libya, and earlier in the week it was my father’s homeland, Pakistan, where violent protests were scattered across the nation. Some Muslims have decided that burning cities in defense of a prophet’s teachings, which none of them seem willing to practice, is preferable to participating in rational debate about the myths and realities of a religion whose worst enemies are increasingly its own adherents.

This week’s events should compel those of us who claim Islam as our system of philosophical guidance to ask hard questions of ourselves in order to revive the religion’s essential foundation: justice, peaceful and tolerant coexistence, compassion, the search for knowledge and unwavering faith in the unity of God.

[...]The first truth is that most Muslim ideologues are hypocrites. What has Osama bin Laden done for the victims of the 2004 tsunami or the shattered families who lost everything in the Pakistani earthquake last year? He did not build one school, offer one loaf of bread or pay for one vaccination. And yet he, not the devout Muslim doctors from California and Iowa who repair broken limbs and lives in the snowy peaks of Kashmir, speaks the loudest for what Muslims allegedly stand for. He has succeeded in presenting himself as the defender of Islam’s poor, and the Western media has taken his jihadist message all the way to the bank.

The hypocrisy only starts there. Muslims and Arabs have done pitifully little to help improve the capacity of the Palestinian people to be good neighbors to their Israeli brethren. Take the money spent by any Middle Eastern royal family at a London hotel or Geneva resort during one month and you could build enough schools and medical clinics to take care of 1,000 Palestinian children for a year. Yet rather than educate and feed Palestinian and Muslim children so they may learn to settle differences through dialogue and debate, instead of by throwing rocks and wearing bombs, the Muslim “haves” put on a few telethons to raise paltry sums for the “have nots” to alleviate the guilt over their palatial gilded cages.

The second truth ? one that the West needs to come to grips with ? is that there is no such human persona as a “moderate Muslim.” You either believe in the oneness of God or you don’t. You either believe in the teachings of his prophet or you don’t. You either learn those teachings and apply them to the circumstances of life in the country you have chosen to live in, or you shouldn’t live there.

[...]In fact, the most glaring truth is that Islam’s mobsters fear the West has it right: that we have perfected the very system Islam’s holy scriptures urged them to learn and practice. And having failed in their mission to lead their masses, they seek any excuse to demonize those of us in the West and to try to bring us down. They know they are losing the ideological struggle for hearts and minds, for life in all its different dimensions, and so they prepare themselves, and us, for Armageddon by starting fires everywhere in a display of Islamic unity intended to galvanize the masses they cannot feed, clothe, educate or house.

This is not Islam. And the faster its truest believers stand up and demonstrate its values and principles by actions, not words, the sooner a great religion will return to its rightful role as guide for nearly a quarter of humanity.

The writer, Manzoor Ijaz, has been speaking out against fanatical Islam for quite some time so his opinion is not that huge of a surprise. That my local Socialist paper would run it IS a surprise. But still, no sign of the cartoons on their pages.

While it appears most of Europe, and some of the MSM in the US, is appeasing the Muslim world a bevy of Al-Qaeda documents show’s the true intent of radical Islam:

Recently captured al-Qaeda documents portray terrorist leaders struggling over strategy, facing challenges by subordinates and issuing guidelines listing minimum qualifications for terrorism training camp supervisors.

Drawn from a classified database called “Harmony” compiled by the U.S. Special Operations Command, the documents were disclosed in a report released this week by West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center.

The documents were obtained during recent anti-terrorism operations, the report says. They came from a variety of sources and were selected because they show al-Qaeda discussions of ideology, tactics, potential operations or training, the study says.

The documents show al-Qaeda is committed to waging a holy war against “dictators of the Earth and secular groups” that will end only when “everyone believes in Allah.“

Even with this proof they continue to cower under the demands of Muslims worldwide. They just don’t get it do they? Appeasing them by not showing a few cartoons, or by pulling out of Iraq (cough Spain cough), doesn’t change the fact that they want ALL non-believers dead.

Will the world now come to grips with the fact that this is a new clash of civilizations? Jim Hanson hits the nail on the head with this piece:

The desire of many European countries to atone for their imperialist pasts has led them to an untenable position regarding their own Muslim immigrant populations and Islamists around the world. They practice multiculturalism, but there has been no assimilation by their immigrants or acceptance of a free Western society. They have maintained an insular culture and enforced many abhorrent customs, including forced marriage and honor killings. Now Islamists worldwide are expanding the scope of their assumed authority and demand submission or violence in ostensibly free countries.

[...]The Palestinians replaced one corrupt terrorist group with another and a nuclear Iran is a real possibility.

[...]Osama bin Laden calls to restore the Caliphate across the Middle East, but states directly that is only a base for expansion into infidel territory. Islamism is united in hatred of the West and the need to deflect attention from the huge disparity in quality of life between their states and free ones.

Demonizing the West as evil in mosques and schools inoculates the young against their natural desire for the freedom and plenty they can’t get at home. Islamists realize they must consolidate now or lose any chance as their youth continue to be exposed to the tempting blasphemy of Western culture. Islamists are making their play, and the West needs a coordinated response.

But is the West up for it? Will the West appease this movement as they did the Hitler movement in the 30’s? Most people shake their head in shame when they learn how most of the world appeased Hitler, given what we know today. But they didn’t know what was coming, there were signs of course but no one acted upon those signs and said enough is enough.

The West needs to say enough is enough NOW!

Victor Davis Hanson writes a wonderful column as usual comparing the world of the late 30’s with the world of today:

British intellectuals, like European Union idealists today, wrote books and treatises on the obsolescence of war. Conflicts were supposedly caused only by rapacious arms merchants and profiteers at home, not by anti-democratic dictators who interpreted forbearance as weakness. Winston Churchill was a voice in the wilderness ? and demonized as a warmonger and worse.

Today, the 50-year Cold War is over, and Europe is at last free of burdensome military expenditure and the threat of global annihilation. Like Osama Bin Laden, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad senses a certain weariness in much of the West as it counts on perpetual peace.

He assumes that most sober Westerners will do almost anything to avoid military confrontation to stop a potential threat ? even though, unlike Hitler, Ahmadinejad not only promises to liquidate the Jews but reveals his method in advance by seeking nuclear weapons.

Some naive conservatives in prewar Europe thought the German and Italian fascists would prove a valuable bulwark against communism, and so could be politically finessed. So, too, it has been at times with Islamic fascism. Arming the mujahadeen in Afghanistan, Pakistan or Saudi Arabia was once seen as an inspired way of thwarting Soviet communist imperialism.

At the time of the Ayatollah Khomeini’s homicidal fatwa against Salman Rushdie, religious conservative commentators from Patrick Buchanan to New York’s Cardinal O’Connor attacked Rushdie, rather than defended the Western right of free expression. Apparently, they felt such Islamic threats to supposed blasphemers might have positive repercussions in discouraging left-wing anti-Christian attacks as well.

In the 1930s, the doctrine of appeasement fobbed off responsibility of confronting fascism onto the League of Nations. Both France and England were quiet about the 1936 Italian invasion of Ethiopia and the German militarization of the Rhineland. They counted on multilateral action of the League, which issued plenty of edicts but marshaled few troops.

[...]As fascism spread, France worked on fortifying its German border with the Maginot Line, Oxford undergraduates voted to refuse “in any circumstances to fight for King and Country,” and British newspapers decried the Treaty of Versailles for unduly punishing Germany. This was all long before the “no blood for oil” slogan and Al Gore in Saudi Arabia apologizing to his Wahhabi hosts for the supposed American maltreatment of Arabs.

[...]Just as Hitler concocted incidents such as the burning of the Reichstag to create outrage, Islamist leaders incite frenzy in their followers over a supposed flushed Koran at Guantanamo and several inflammatory cartoons, some of them never published by Danish newspapers at all.

[...]The point of the comparison is not to suggest that history simply repeats itself, but to learn why intelligent people delude themselves into embracing naive policies. After the removal of the Taliban and Saddam Hussein, the furious reply of the radical Islamist world was to censor Western newspapers, along with Iran’s accelerated efforts to get the bomb.

In response, either the West will continue to stand up now to these reoccurring post-Sept. 11 threats, or it will see the bullies’ demands only increase as its own resistance weakens. Like the appeasement of the 1930s, opting for the easier choice will only guarantee a more costly one later on. .

While the world appeases these fanatics the news of the day appears grim as usual:

CNN and the rest of the MSM have gone out of it’s way to publish the Abu Ghraib photo’s but still refuse to publish the cartoons of Mohammed. And of course with their bias so instilled into their brains they see nothing wrong with this. The cartoons inflammed the Muslims. The pictures of an OLD case where the suspects have been tried and convicted for their crimes will inflame the Muslims. Nope, nothing wrong there.

Filipino Muslims are angry also:

Thousands of angry Filipino Muslims ?beheaded? two effigies of cartoonists and set a Danish flag on fire in a protest over the controversial caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed.

The protesters marched through the streets of this southern Philippine city and demanded death for the artists who drew the cartoons that first appeared in a Danish newspaper in September.

The Muslims then demand that laws be passed making any insult upon Mohammed a crime:

Head of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) and TV preacher Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, well-known for his appearances on the al-Jazeera satellite channel, has told the network he accepts Tuesday’s apology from an inter-faith Norwegian delegation for offence caused by the publication of Danish cartoons satirising the Prophet Mohammed. However, the apology for the cartoons’ re-publication by a Norwegian Christian newspaper last month is “not enough,” said al-Qaradawi, who is close to the Muslim Brotherhood movement.

Al-Qaradawi, who is imam of the Omara mosque in the Qatari capital, Doha, and also the head of the European Council for Fatwa and Research, said: “I accept in principle the apology from Norway, but this is conditional. We want the Norwegian government to pass a law that punishes all those who cause offence to religious symbols.”

“These kinds of acts must be considered a crime and be punished. Only then will we wholeheartedly accept their apologies,” he continued. The apologies from Norway do not justify the end of the consumer and retail boycotts of Scandinavian goods in many Arab countries – this can only happen when Norway passes a blasphemy law, he said.

Muslims worldwide will no longer eat danish’s, but they will eat Mohammed instead:

Iranians love Danish pastries, but when they look for the flaky dessert at the bakery they now have to ask for “Roses of the Prophet Muhammad.”
Bakeries across the capital were covering up their ads for Danish pastries Thursday after the confectioners’ union ordered the name change in retaliation for caricatures of the Muslim prophet published in a Danish newspaper.

“Given the insults by Danish newspapers against the prophet, as of now the name of Danish pastries will give way to ‘Rose of Muhammad’ pastries,” the union said in its order.

“This is a punishment for those who started misusing freedom of expression to insult the sanctities of Islam,” said Ahmad Mahmoudi, a cake shop owner in northern Tehran…

And more proof showing how backward these people are:

Aliye Cetinkaya, a journalist from the Turkish daily Sabah newspaper, who was reporting on the recent protests over the offensive caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, was stoned in Konya for reasons demonstrators said were provocative ? as she did not cover her head. Cetinkaya was taken away by male colleagues after stones hit her head and shoulders. The female journalist was attacked for being ?sexually provocative? for not wearing a head scarf at the demonstration organised by the Peoples Education Research and Support Group in Konya (He-Da-Der) and entitled ?Loyalty to the Prophet?.

All in all, another day of appeasement. I think I will end this with the words of Ann Coulter:

What is stunning about this spectacle is that their violence is working. With a few exceptions, the media won’t show the cartoons that incited mass violence around the globe (cartoons available at www.anncoulter.com…). And yet, week after week, American patriots endure “The Boondocks” without complaint. Where’s the justice here?

Perhaps we could put aside our national, ongoing, post-9/11 Muslim butt-kissing contest and get on with the business at hand: Bombing Syria back to the stone age and then permanently disarming Iran.

I would add to the business at hand by including: Every newspaper in the United States publish those cartoons.

UPDATE

And the appeasement continues:

A leaked Foreign Office memo published yesterday reveals that the government is to establish ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group banned by the Egyptian government.
Like other western countries, Britain is struggling with the dilemma posed by the electoral successes of Islamist groups either directly linked to terrorism or alleged to be fronts for violent organisations.

The memo, written on January 17 and leaked to the New Statesman, recommends increased engagement with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, the oldest Islamist group in the world. The recommendation has been accepted by Jack Straw, the foreign secretary.

The memo says: “The presentation of any change in the way we deal with the Muslim Brotherhood will have to be carefully handled, in order to safeguard our bilateral relations with Egypt.”

The whole memo can be read here.

How about this one:

BBC bosses are ready to AXE a ?1million episode of hit drama Spooks in which an al-Qaeda terrorist is shot dead ? in case it upsets Muslims.

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• Women Honor Thyself
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• Moonbattery
• The Black Kettle


But is the West up for it? Will the West appease this movement as they did the Hitler movement in the 30?s? Most people shake their head in shame when they learn how most of the world appeased Hitler, given what we know today. But they didn?t know what was coming, there were signs of course but no one acted upon those signs and said enough is enough.

The West needs to say enough is enough NOW!

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