Australia: Muslims outraged at PM’s “aggressive rhetoric against Muslims” [+Video]

What was his “aggressive rhetoric against Muslims”? What were his “incredibly reckless” remarks? He said:

“I’ve often heard Western leaders describe Islam as a religion of peace…I wish more Muslim leaders would say that more often and mean it.”

And:

“The Islamist death-cult has declared war on the world.”

In response, instead of declaring their loyalty to Australia and showing themselves to be on his side against the terrorists, Muslim leaders in Australia are claiming victim status. How unfortunately predictable.

“Tony Abbott under fire from Muslim community after national security speech,” by Tom Decent, Sydney Morning Herald, February 25, 2015:

Muslim community leaders have voiced their anger at Prime Minister Tony Abbott over his national security speech on Monday, saying it did nothing but inflame tensions and belittle the efforts of Muslims leaders working to decrease community antagonism.

The Lebanese Muslim Association condemned the “aggressive rhetoric against Muslims” employed by Mr Abbott on Monday, labelling it “politically opportunistic” and unnecessary.

“The Prime Minister’s comments are incredibly reckless,” said Samier Dandan, President of the LMA. “Few would fail to see this newfound focus on national security as anything other than an attempt at gaining public approval, especially in light of the contemporary political climate.”

In a national security address on Monday, Mr Abbott argued the Islamic community could be be doing more to stop the spread of extremism.

“I’ve often heard Western leaders describe Islam as a religion of peace,” Mr Abbott said. “I wish more Muslim leaders would say that more often and mean it.”

Head of the Arab Council of Australia, Randa Kattan, said the comments were completely unhelpful.

“I’m really fired up about this, I couldn’t sleep last night,” Ms Kattan said. “The top man [Mr Abbott] needs to quit making these comments, they are not helpful.

“It is counterproductive and extremely insulting to many of us who have been working really hard on this. It just inflames sentiments that are bordering on hatred and racism.”

Ms Kattan said non-Muslims would be affected and would have to fan “not embers, but flames of racism” as a result.

“Anybody who looks like us [Muslims] has been tarnished now,” Ms Kattan said. “It impacts on wider groups who look like us, or might have olive skin, people can’t tell the difference sometimes.

“They are not unanimous objects, they are living breathing human beings that have lives, that have children. They want to continue living these lives.”

Keysar Trad, a spokesman for the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia, was just as unhappy with Mr Abbott’s agenda.

He said he could not believe the Prime Minister talked down the efforts of Islamic groups.

“The government knows fully well how hard the Muslim community is working to help protect and improve the safety and security of Australia,” Mr Trad said. “Nothing has changed, I doubt they could pinpoint to anything we are doing less of than we are doing.

“This kind of message coming from a Prime Minister is very unhelpful in the circumstances.”

RELATED ARTICLE: Bangladesh: Atheist writer hacked to death after threats from Muslims

Islamic State preparing to declare Islamic emirate in Lebanon

The Islamic State is going to keep advancing until it is stopped, while our learned, tenured analysts assure us that it is a purely “nationalist” movement. “ISIS preparing to declare Islamic emirate in Lebanon: sources,” by Antoine Ghattas Saab, The Daily Star, February 23, 2015 (thanks to Jerk Chicken):

ISIS is preparing military plans to declare an Islamic emirate in Lebanon very soon to serve as a geographical extension of the so-called “Islamic State” announced by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Iraq last year, security sources said.

ISIS fighters have demanded support from the militant group in northern Syria to achieve this goal, the sources said.

They added that the ISIS command has begun preparations to set up a military organizational committee tasked with running Lebanese affairs and considering Lebanon as part of its state.

However, ISIS is facing difficulties in choosing a Lebanese commander for this mission. The reported appointment of the fugitive preacher Ahmad al-Assir for this post was merely a trial balloon, the sources said.

They added that arrangements to form an ISIS command for the Lebanon emirate were taking place under the supervision of the group commander Khalaf al-Zeyabi Halous, codenamed “Abu Musaab Halous,” a Syrian who had played a key role in the ISIS offensive to capture the Raqqa province in 2013.

Abu Musaab Halous, accompanied by a number of ISIS military commanders, recently visited the Qalamoun region on the Lebanese-Syrian border, where he met with field commanders with whom he discussed the creation of security and military formations between Qalamoun and Lebanon, the sources said.

In addition to the fact that the adventure of setting up an Islamic emirate in Lebanon has not received the green light from the powers backing ISIS, the group’s attempt expand into Lebanon might be doomed to failure, the sources added.

In the meantime, an influential party in Lebanon has received important information indicating that ISIS is bent on recruiting more suicide bombers equipped with explosives belts to target Shiite gatherings in Beirut and the southern suburbs as well as French and Western interests, while the Iranian Embassy in Beirut, which was targeted with a deadly twin suicide attack in November 2013, is still vulnerable to another assault.

As Lebanon faces growing security threats, military assistance to the Lebanese Army is expected to be stepped up to help the country stand on its feet.

The United States will provide the Lebanese Army with six Super Cobra fighter aircraft as part of the U.S. military aid to the Army, reports said. The aircraft are manufactured by the Bell military helicopter company….

RELATED ARTICLES:

Forbes: Five reasons the fight against the Islamic State isn’t about Islam

Bangladesh: Atheist writer hacked to death after threats from Muslims

The Jihadi John Executioner Has Been Unmasked…And Check Out the Background He Comes From

Egyptian Journalist speaks against an Islamic Caliphate: ‘So What If Muslims Ruled the World?! So Did Hitler’

Leading Egyptian journalist Ibrahim Issa recently stated the case against the Islamic Caliphate. “If you say that the Caliphate was the model of excellence… you are insisting upon a stupid, nonsensical, and meaningless lie,” said Issa on his Nugum FM radio show. The video was posted on the Internet on February 3, 2015.

Issa, who moderates a daily talk show on the Egyptian ON TV and has edited several leading Egyptian newspapers, was a harsh critic of Mubarak. In 2007, he received a prison sentence, but was later pardoned by Mubarak.

This journalist must be protected by Egyptian President al-Sisi to say this publicly and remain alive.

EDITORS NOTE: Video courtesy of MEMRI TV.

As Obama Gets His Way America is Losing Hers

Once, or actually much more than once Obama gets his way at America’s expense.  Recently, President Obama did not take long to veto the needed Keystone pipeline bill as he promised.  At the very least, the necessary pipeline would have created many hundreds of construction and permanent jobs. The needed supply of oil would have also contributed to our nation’s petroleum inventory. Also America’s position as an oil exporting nation would have been enhanced. Unfortunately, because of an ignorant based choice of American voters, our republic is now enduring perhaps the most anti American president in our nation’s history.  His biggest rival for most anti American president might be Woodrow Wilson. He supported the injurious Federal Reserve System we put up with today, along with the League of Nations and the promotion of harsh democrat party style racism. Wilson also supported a powerful centralized federal government.

I tried, but failed miserably to find at least one major decision or action that President Obama has taken that strongly benefits America. I even reached out to several Democrat Party supporters of Obama and requested that they please instruct me on any major policies of the president that has positively affected or strengthened America. (Crickets!!!!) HA! Even they were unable to even make anything up, let alone tell me something that Mr. Obama has actually done to benefit our nation.

It is amazing how certain people claim that those on the political left, especially politicians and professors are smarter than the rest of us. Thus when they secure even a modicum of authority, they use it to run roughshod over any law, anybody, or any tradition in order to inflict their progressive will upon the rest of us. The FCC decision to do to the internet what has been heaped upon the U.S. medical industry is evidence of that fact.

The Constitution clearly calls on the government to protect our republic from enemies both foreign and domestic. Yet the president has diligently worked to prevent border patrol agents from inhibiting law breaking illegal immigrants from strolling into our sovereign nation.  Why? Because they want to.  I thank God that the great state of Texas is leading a legal battle to restore the common sense practice of protecting our borders.  Speaking of protecting our Republic!  Dedicated muslim terrorist organizations, such as ISIS and Hezbollah along with enemy nations like Iran have vowed to destroy us and even kill president Obama. But what has he done?  For starters, Mr. Obama has appointed numerous America, Christian Black, and Jewish hating dedicated Muslims to important positions in our military and other federal government departments.

At the same time, thanks to the President’s anti U.S. military stance as well as drastic cutbacks in some weapons systems, navy vessels and maintenance.  America is now incapable of engaging two major wars or battles simultaneously. Both Russia and China are building up their massive armies and missile systems. Meanwhile, the United States continues to less than halfheartedly deal with dedicated Muslims who are on a mission to kill, steal from, and destroy America.

Because the progressives supposedly know more than the rest of us, they united with President Obama and saddled the rest of us with Obamacare. So now at the expense of personal choice and citizen government, certain medical procedures and overall rising costs, Mr. Obama got his way. For the sake of our Republic, I pray that President Obama and Congress will heed the advice of Presidential candidate, Dr. Ben Carson.  “As president, my plan to defeat radical Islamic terrorists would be to “destroy them first” instead of waiting to see what they will do to us and reacting to it.”

Thomas Jefferson understood that, as did General George Patton, and others who chose to govern America or deal with our enemies on behalf of our nations interests, as opposed to getting their way at America’s expense.

PBS VIDEO: Thomas Jefferson and Islamic Fundamentalism (1987)

Here is a PBS report on President Thomas Jefferson’s war against Islamic fundamentalism. This PBS film appeared on The McNeil/Lehrer News Hour in 1987.

According to the U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian:

The adoption of the Constitution in 1789 gave the U.S. Government the power to levy taxes and to raise and maintain armed forces, powers which had been lacking under the Articles of Confederation. In 1794, in response to Algerian seizures of American ships, Congress authorized construction of the first 6 ships of the U.S. Navy. In 1801, the Pasha of Tripoli, Yusuf Qaramanli, citing late payments of tribute, demanded additional tribute and declared war on the United States. The United States successfully defeated Qaramanli’s forces with a combined naval and land assault by the United States Marine Corps. The U.S. treaty with Tripoli concluded in 1805 included a ransom for American prisoners in Tripoli, but no provisions for tribute.

In 1812, the new Dey of Algiers, Hajji Ali, rejected the American tribute negotiated in the 1795 treaty as insufficient and declared war on the United States. Algerian corsairs captured an American ship several weeks later. In accordance with an agreement between the Dey and British diplomats, the Algerian declaration was timed to coincide with the start of the War of 1812 between Britain and the United States. The war with Britain prevented the U.S. Government from either confronting Algerian forces or ransoming U.S. captives in Algiers. Once the Treaty of Ghent ended war with Britain, President James Madison was able to request that Congress declare an authorization of force on Algiers, which it did on March 3, 1815. The U.S. Navy, greatly increased in size after the War of 1812, was able send an entire squadron, led by Commodore Stephen Decatur, to the Mediterranean.

Read more.

Coalition of African-American Pastors: Biased SCOTUS Justices must Recuse Themselves from Same-Sex Marriage Case

Rev. Williams Owens, President and Founder of the Coalition of African-American Pastors (CAAP) called on Supreme Court Justices Ginsburg and Kagan to recuse themselves from the same-sex marriage case to be heard by the Court this session, citing their stated bias. In order to preserve the integrity of the Court, CAAP also announced its intention of launching a petition campaign that would bring attention to the Justice’s lack of impartiality.

The move sprung from public comments made by Justice Ginsburg regarding her conviction that that American public would accept a ruling for same-sex marriage as well as actions by both Ginsburg and Kagan that confirm their biased position on the issue. Both Justices have performed same-sex weddings.

“A Justice of the Supreme Court is called on to avoid the appearance of bias—especially on a highly controversial and sensitive issue that is currently before the Court,” stated Rev. William Owens, President of the Coalition of African American Pastors. “And yet, both Justice Ginsburg and Justice Kagan have taken a public stance in favor of same-sex marriage, even going so far as to officiate at a same-sex wedding.”

“Not only is this a breach of ethics, but it calls into question the integrity of the Court and the supposed balance that the judicial branch is meant to provide in Constitutional interpretation,” Rev. Owens continued. “It is beyond objectionable that no action has yet been taken to ensure that the case will be adjudicated fairly. And so it falls to us, the people, to take action. CAAP is launching a petition urging Justices Kagan and Ginsburg remove themselves from decision-making on this issue and prevent a crisis brought on by the taint of a biased judiciary.”

“The Court has shown willingness in the past to insert itself in matters that are more properly the domain of the voters,” he said. “For a case that promises to dramatically affect the future of family, religious freedom, and much more, there cannot be any question of political bias on the part of the judges involved. We ask that Justice Ginsburg and Justice Kagan disqualify themselves from involvement in this case or that the Chief Justice Roberts takes the action needed to protect the integrity of the Court.”

RELATED ARTICLES: 

Former Federal Judge Says: “U.S. Supreme Court Justices who Performed Same Sex Marriages Should Recuse or Be Impeached”

Roy Moore: Two U.S. Supreme Court Justices Should Abstain from Gay Marriage Vote

EDITORS NOTE: Reverend Owens noted that members of the public are welcome to sign the petition on the CAAP website at caapusa.org.

The Right to Say No

Something very unpleasant is occurring in America. Those who have a strong religious faith are being denied the right to say “no” based on its teachings and values. This is particularly true these days as homosexuals, barely three percent of the population, demand that they be accommodated when their demand runs counter to thousands of years of what has been deemed moral behavior and, for many, still is.

When it comes to marriage. Gays insist they have a “right” to get married and call their union “marriage”, but there is absolutely nothing in the thousands of years of the Judeo-Christian ethic that defines same-sex unions as either moral or legal.

The most recent and egregious example of what can happen when someone obeys God rather than the state is Arlene’s Flowers, a small floral shop in Richland, Washington. Its owner, Barronelle Stuzman, declined to make flower arrangements for a gay couple’s wedding and, instead of finding a shop that would, they took their grievance to court. A judge ruled Ms. Stutzman violated the state’s anti-discrimination and consumer protection laws.

I find it odd that one cannot refuse to render a service or sell a product if that decision is based on one’s religious beliefs. Isn’t that a form of discrimination against religion? Yes, it is.

Commenting on these increasing cases filed by homosexuals, the noted conservative writer, Selwyn Duke, said “It is a new front in the war on faith, legitimate freedom and private property rights. Many point out that it constitutes an unprecedented trampling of religious liberty and this is true.”

America is a nation based on its Founder’s beliefs that the rights of its citizens came from God, not the state. Something is very wrong when judges ignore that fundamental truth.

Anti-discrimination laws have the intent of ensuring the right of people to be treated equally. Not all such laws are the same. Some permit exemptions based on religion or gender. The reality that women are different from men has seen some nations such as ours exclude them from serving in a frontline combat role or aboard submarines. This is a concession to reality.

Ms. Stuzman’s new reality, after forty years in business, is the loss of her business due to the fines that have been assessed, along with the cost of legal fees. “They want my home, they want my business, they want my personal finances as an example for other people to be quiet,” said Ms. Stuzman. The gay couple may love each other, but they have demonstrated their belief in their right to marry permits them to inflict an enormous harm on a 70-year-old florist. There is something truly obscene about that.

In August of last year, a same-sex couple from Newark requested the use of the Liberty Ridge Farm for their wedding ceremony and was denied. In order to comply with a court order that they make their farm available despite their religious convictions, Cynthia and Robert Gifford, the owners of the farm near Albany, N.Y., have decided to no longer host any wedding or other ceremonies.

It’s not like the New Testament isn’t quite clear regarding the issue of homosexuality:

Leviticus 18:22 You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our Go

Romans 1:26-28 “For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.”

Under Islam, you can be put to death for homosexuality.

Here in America, it is not the homosexuals who are subject to restrictions. It is people of faith who are being told they must provide services and products to them in the context if they intend to marry or as a reflection of their gender preference.

Urloved Photography is a small business in Northern California specializing in wedding and event photograph. In response to a request from a gay couple, Urlove replied with an email that said “Thanks so much for contacting us and for your very kind words. We feel that photographing a gay wedding is not the best match for us, however we can refer you to a colleague who would make a great match. We wish you the very best!” In California, however, one cannot reject business on the basis of sexual orientation.

Some states are trying to extend a measure of legal protection against the demands of homosexuals. In Kansas, its Federal and State Affairs committee has passed a bill aimed at protecting individuals, groups and businesses that refuse for religious reasons to recognize same-sex marriages or provide benefits to gay couples. Kansas law already protects employees from being sanctioned based on religious beliefs.

Federal judges have recently struck down bans on gay marriage in Oklahoma and Utah. In Indiana legislation to protect residents with strong religious beliefs from having to provide services and products to same-sex weddings is under consideration. In October, however, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Indiana’s gay marriage ban.

Our states are sovereign republics in their own right. That should be respected.

We are witnessing the arrogance of the homosexual community pitting itself against millennia of tradition and spiritual belief. Can’t find a photographer, florist or baker who wants to provide services for your same-sex wedding? Find someone who will.

Instead, states are caving into homosexual demands and asking their residents to abandon the reality that marriage is intended solely for a man and a woman.

© Alan Caruba, 2015

Jewish Myopia at Muslim Organized Solidarity Event in Oslo

Fjordman” – the nom de guerre of ex-pat Norwegian counter jihadist, Peder Jensen, sent us a report by NRK about the Saturday night rally, February 21, 2015, organized by a 17 year old Norwegian Muslim girl, Hajrah Arshad.   1,300 people formed a Ring of Peace around the Oslo synagogue organized by Miss Arshad.  Miss Arshad said:

Most of us Muslims stand up for Jews’ rights. I hope that other communities do like us and fight against radicalization. It is unfair to be set up against the wall for everything a Muslim terrorist does. We are not here today to say we are sorry on behalf of the Muslims that attacked people in Copenhagen. What we do here is to show everyone we stand with you. We feel the same fears as you, and we will bear the brunt together with you.

 Rabbi Michael Melchior of the Oslo Synagogue was reported by NRK to have “told the masses outside his synagogue about his trip to the funeral of the man killed outside the synagogue in Copenhagen last weekend.”

Afterwards, I sat with the grieving parents. I told them about the initiative of young Muslims here in Oslo, and the father of Dan Uzan embraced me and began to cry.

He said to me “You must say to the young Muslims in Norway that they have given me hope. They have given me a reason to continue living. Maybe it was a meaning to my son’s death. Maybe it gives reason to life for the future.”

This message goes to the entire world, it is not just here in Norway, it is a universal message.

 Ervin Kohn, a leader at the Oslo synagogue, spoke about this significant outpouring of support by Norwegian Muslims:

We must work against fear. It is much easier to work against fear when we are together. It is very nice that we are so many here today

Why has this “Peace Ring” gained so much attention? Because it is unique. I think we once again can say “Look to Norway” after what has happened here tonight. This event fills me with hope. Youngsters take back the power to define what a Muslim is. They will not let the extremists polarize society. We will continue this fight together.

There were strong appeals and rabbi shouted “Allahu akbar” – God is great – under his appeal.

 It was great to see. Muslims and Jews have the same ancestor. We have the same God. It is more that gathers us than separates us.

Fjordman noted in his email exchange:

Kohn is also  deputy director of the state-sponsored Norwegian Center against Racism, which has made combating Islamophobia a major priority.

Watch this You Tube interview with Korn.

Rabbi Melchior and Kohn exhibited myopia by their remarks. As we will see they are not alone among our co-religionists.

They didn’t heed the warnings by ancient Jewish Sage, Moses Maimonides, the Rambam, in his Epistle to the Jews of Yemen in 1172 C.E. about Islam and the Prophet Mohammed:

“After him [the biblical Esau] arose the Madman [ha-meshugga the Prophet Mohammed] who emulated his precursor since he paved the way for him. But he added the further objective of procuring rule and submission, and he invented his well known religion.”

“Remember, my co-religionists, that on account of the vast number of our sins, G-d has hurled us in the midst of this people, the Arabs, who have persecuted us severely, and passed baneful and discriminatory legislation against us […] Never did a nation molest, degrade, debase and hate us as much as they. Therefore when David, of blessed memory, inspired by the holy spirit, envisaged the future tribulations of Israel, he bewailed and lamented their lot only in the Kingdom of Ishmael, and prayed in their behalf, for their deliverance, as is implied in the verse, “Woe is me that I sojourn with Meschech that I dwell beside the tents of Kedar.” (Psalms 120:5).

In October 2010 we sent an open letter published in The Iconoclast about a previous act of Jewish myopia by Chancellor Arnold Eisen of the Jewish Theological Seminary in Manhattan concerning the institution’s sponsorship of interfaith programs with Muslim Brotherhood front group, Islamic Society of North America. We noted the Rambam’s letter and his flight from Muslim Spain, Al Andaluz:

Maimonides fled his native Cordoba during the era of the fanatic Berber Almohads who stormed across the Straits of Gibraltar to take over Al Andaluz in Muslim occupied Spain. The Almohads perpetrated some of the more heinous pogroms of Spanish Jewry.

Rabbi Melchior  was among  the hundreds of  Danes, including Prime Minister Prime Minister Helle Thorning Schmidt who  attended  the funeral to render  comfort to  the bereaved family of  37-year old  Dan Uzan, the Danish Jewish Economist and voluntary security guard at the Great Synagogue. He was killed by Danish Muslim terrorist, Omar Abdel Hamid el-Hussein.  El-Hussein ,prior to his murder of Uzan at the Great Synagogue , had  fired 40 rounds of  automatic fire into a Free Speech event at the Krudttønden Café with Swedish Artist Lars Vilks  and others present. He killed documentarian and filmmaker, 55 year old Finn Norgaard.

El-Hussein, the Danish-born son of Palestinian émigrés, was alleged to be a gang member, convicted of a stabbing, and spent time in a Copenhagen lockup, where it was alleged he was radicalized.  Danish security police had listed him as a dangerous risk, but apparently somehow he slipped through the cracks.  With the aid of like-minded Muslims who procured the weapons for el- Hussein he carried out his personal Jihad against Christian and Jewish infidels, last Sunday.

El-Hussein’s attitude is not uncommon in liberal Denmark given the evidence of rejectionist attitudes among young Danish Muslim criminals uncovered in the clinical work of Danish psychologist, Nicolai Sennels.  We should not forget the eruption a decade ago in 2005 of global attacks throughout the Muslim Ummah. They were caused by a political cartoon of Mohammed in a bomb-like Turban drawn by Kurt Westergaard for Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.  Most mainstream media and at least one academic press at Yale University were loath to reproduce Westergaard’s and the other 11 cartoons published by the Jyllands Posten.  Westergaard wasattacked in his home by a Somali émigré Muslim jihadist wielding an axe intent on doing bodily harm.  Swedish artist Vilks, who drew sketches of Mohammed as a roundabout dog, was at the Kruttodonden free speech forum emerging unhurt. His home in Sweden was firebombed by émigré Muslim Jihadis.

One of the Danish Imams Ahmed Akkari who triggered the conflagrations and murders in the wake of the Danish Mohammed cartoons incident, was revealed by Lars Hedegaard in August 2013 as having rejected Islam during an introspective sojourn in Greenland.  Akkari told a press conference that virtually all Mosques   in Denmark were headed by  extremists. Hedegaard, Danish and International Free Press Society co-founder,  was a victim of a Jihadi attempt on his life in February 2013 by a Danish Lebanese Muslim émigré who fired a shot at him masquerading as a Danish postal worker delivering a package to his home. Hedegaard’s attacker subsequently fled to Turkey where his extradition request in 2014  was refused and subsequently  he  disappeared into Syria to presumably join up with ISIS.

Apparently the several hundred Muslim who participated in the interfaith Ring of Peace at the Oslo synagogue didn’t get the message preached by a Copenhagen Imam  on the eve of last weekend’s  deadly attacks. The Algemeiner reported a translated MEMRI video of Hajj Saeed, the Imam of the Al-Faruq Mosque in the city,  on Friday February 13th rejecting  interfaith dialogue with Jews.  Imam Saeed is shown in the MEMRI video  preaching against the backdrop of a black flag of international Muslim extremist group Hizb ut- Tahrir  saying:

Interfaith dialogue is  a “malignant idea,” and claimed that, “the people responsible for interfaith dialogue want to make all religions equal. [By doing so] they want to equate Truth with Falsehood. Between heresy and deception, between the religion of the Prophet Muhammad and man-made laws, legislated by these criminals in order to rule the world.”

Regarding Jews specifically, Saeed said that the Prophet Mohammad had Jewish neighbors in Medina, but instead of trying to call for reconciliation with them, “in the manner of…those who call to reconcile Truth with Falsehood,” he called them to accept Islam. And when they rejected his call to Islam, “he waged war against the Jews.”

Whether in Oslo,  Copenhagen or in Washington, interfaith  peace gatherings involving Muslims, Jews, Christians and others, should draw attention to  murders  of  Jews, mass beheadings of  Christians in Libya, burning of fellow Muslims in Syria and Iraq.  Jews in Oslo who shout Allahu Akbar at such gatherings may be myopically hoping they share the same G-d.  Maimonides  told them early a  millennium ago that Allah is not their G-D.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in the New English Review. The featured image was taken on Feb. 21, 2015 of more than 1,000 people forming a “ring of peace” around the Norwegian capital’s synagogue, an initiative taken by young Muslims in Norway after a series of attacks against Jews in Europe, in Oslo. (AP)

How to Win the Christian Baker/Same-Sex “Wedding” Cake Debate

A homosexual couple goes into a known Christian bakery and asks for a wedding cake for a same-sex “marriage,” is refused and then files a government complaint or sues. “Intolerance! Bigotry! Equal access!” is the cry. Many Americans have read of such stories in the news. Often the attempted purchase is a set-up, with activist-minded individuals targeting bakers whom they know will decline the request and then be vulnerable to state persecution by zealous bureaucrats.

It’s a new front in the war on faith, legitimate freedom and private property rights. Many point out that it constitutes an unprecedented trampling of religious liberty, and this is true. It also violates the principle of freedom of association, which isn’t explicitly mentioned in the Constitution but should be upheld. But neither of these arguments should be the centerpiece of the fight against the tyranny in question. There is another, far more powerful argument:

Freedom of speech.

Usually missed in the commentary on this subject is that the bakers in question are not refusing service to a type of people — they are refusing to be party to a type of message. This is not debatable. When you put writing on a same-sex “wedding” cake, you’re crafting a message; if you place figurines (of two men, for instance) on that cake, you’re erecting symbols relating that message. Note here that the Supreme Court has already ruled that “Symbolic Speech” — a legal term in U.S. law — is protected under the First Amendment; examples of such rulings would be that pertaining to flag-burning and the Tinker v. Des Moines case.

And can we compel people to participate in the creation of a message? Forced speech is not free speech.

Some homosexuality activists have likened the bakers’ refusal to provide faux-wedding cakes to a denial of service to blacks. This is a false analogy. A race-specific refusal is denying service based on what a person is; in the wedding-cake incidents, denial was based on what message was being requested.

In point of fact, none of the targeted bakers had erected signs stating “No shoes, no shirt, no heterosexuality, no service.” Nor did they apply a sexuality test to customers. Homosexuals could patronize their establishments and purchase cookies, bread or any products anyone else could; they could even buy wedding cakes for normal weddings — as anyone else could. And, of course, probability would dictate that homosexuals did buy from those bakers at times.

What actually is analogous to the wedding-cake controversy is a black person asking a baker for a cake expressing a racial message such as “Black Power” or “Fight the Blue-eyed Devils.” Of course, it could also be a white person with a white-power message or a neo-Nazi asking a Jewish baker to craft an anti-Semitic one.

Some may now assert that while a faux-marriage message is positive (in their eyes, anyway), the above messages would be hateful. But the nature of a message doesn’t change the fact that it’s still a message. To drive the point home, should a liberal baker be compelled to craft the message, “Celebrate Gun Rights,” “Life Begins at Conception” or “Marriage is One Man, One Woman”?

Here’s another point: It has often been emphasized that unless the First Amendment protects even unpopular speech, it’s “protection” is a sham. After all, popular speech’s popularity is protection enough. Likewise, however, it’s also true that if the right to refuse to participate in speech doesn’t include the right to refuse to participate in popular speech, it is no right at all.

Note here that many commentators have made the “Nazi and Jewish baker” and “white supremacist and black baker” arguments, but they often take a freedom-of-association approach. This gives the other side the opportunity to counter with, “But Nazis and white supremacists aren’t ‘protected groups’; homosexuals are” (I reject the notion of “protected groups,” but the principle currently exists in law, and this is about crafting airtight legal arguments). Emphasizing the speech aspect presents the opposition with no such avenue of attack.

Some may now claim that messages vs. people in the baker controversies is a distinction without a difference, asking “Who else but homosexuals would request a faux-wedding cake?” First, there are many heterosexuals advancing the homosexual agenda, and it’s conceivable that such a person could order such a cake, for symbolic value, to serve at an activist gathering. This is in the same way a white person (N.Y.C.’s mayor Bolshevik Bill comes to mind) could order a cake with a black-power message. Or, a heterosexual wedding planner could attempt to order a faux-wedding cake. None of this matters, though. That a message may be characteristic of a certain group doesn’t change the fact that it’s a message. And forced speech isn’t free speech.

In the baker controversy, the free-speech argument should be superior in the courts of both law and of public opinion. While we ought to enjoy completely unfettered freedom of association, Americans long ago became inured to its trampling, and the courts universally accept the “public accommodation” rationalization. So it’s currently a non-starter. The religious-freedom argument is more effective, but it has two weaknesses relative to the free-speech strategy. First, there are many more limitations placed on religious practice than on speech; examples would be the outlawing of human sacrifice and polygamy. Thus, there’s more of a precedent for further limitations on religious practice. In the area of speech, not much is out of bounds aside from “yelling ‘fire!’ in a movie theater” and issuing threats.

This difference is evident in the burden placed on a person whose religious practice has been outlawed. As the Harvard Political Review points out, the “‘Sherbert Test’ requires that an individual must prove sincere religious beliefs and substantial burden through government action. If these are established, the law is unconstitutional unless the government proves a ‘compelling state interest’….” No such burden is placed on those exercising unpopular speech, however, and the government cannot prohibit it based on “compelling state interest.”

The second issue is that in these secular times, many Americans aren’t sympathetic to religious-freedom arguments. But freedom of speech enjoys much broader support, and the fear of its violation is far greater. Remember, only the religious engage in religious practice — but both the religious and non-religious engage in speech.

Of course, it should lastly be mentioned that the argument I’ve outlined would be applicable not just to bakeries, but anytime a message-oriented product or service is at issue.

It’s hard to imagine a sane court (which, unfortunately, leaves out a good portion of today’s judiciary) not finding in favor of the free-speech argument. It is airtight, and rationalizing it away would take far more complex intellectual contortions than the freedom-of-religion argument would require. Because, quite simply, forced speech is not free speech.

Contact Selwyn Duke, follow him on Twitter or log on to SelwynDuke.com

RELATED ARTICLE: Florist refuses attorney general’s options to settle lawsuit over same-sex weddings

Are Most Christians in Denial?

U.S. Christianity could be like the lukewarm church of Laodicea that had a materialistic focus. We can’t bring ourselves to see impending changes that take us out of our comfort zone. We don’t see end-times impending nor hear Christ’s words that could ready us. We are poorly prepared in spite of warnings.

When Christ said that the end of the ages referenced in Matthew 24:3 is “as the days of Noah” or “like a man traveling to a far country,” the question is, How much “as” or “like.”

Of course we don’t expect it to be exactly like Noah’s Flood, but there are clues “here a little; there a little” that suggest more likeness that we may be thinking—maybe we need to stretch our imaginations!

This article focuses on a key example, the Exodus. Why the Exodus? In Revelation 14:3,4 there are a group of people who sing a song that no one else can learn, probably because the song is about their experience and no one else will have their experience.

We see more details in Revelation 15:3, it’s “the song of Moses and…the Lamb.” Moses was the key figure in the greatest event in the Old Testament—the deliverance of a million+ slaves who survived a wilderness experience. Could we be in for such an experience? Maybe we should try to imagine how.

Supposing the economy falls apart like dozens of economists are predicting from the Obama administration policy of spending more and printing more money. With people needing to line up for hours to get basic supplies, moving out of the cities and into the country is the best way to ensure chances for survival says strategic relocation expert Joel Skousen who warns that population density is the greatest threat.

Can we imagine a parallel to Egypt when calamity fell and God took His people to the wilderness? They ate unleavened bread [like crackers] for seven days–we don’t know what they ate afterwards until they had quail and manna several weeks later.

The point is that Christians living in cities are poorly prepared to obey Christ if martial law is invoked in the face of calamity which the Bible shows is part of end-times. It’s not a matter of if, but when…

When you see the abomination [that early believers understood was military, so they fled when they saw the Roman army and were spared the siege by Titus)…flee to the mountains.” Matthew 24:15,16.

We are seeing a “militarization of police” [Google, 825,000 results] that should trigger some interest in those who are serious about their faith and obedience to Christ. It is easier to anticipate the need to go rural and take steps for readiness than to wait and rationalize that “God will help me” or “Jesus will save me” when we didn’t take His warnings.

RELATED ARTICLE: How Does Your State Rank in Church Attendance?

EDITORS NOTE: Dr. Richard Ruhling is a physician whose primary interest in retirement is Bible prophecy.  His eBook, Exodus 2 is available  and his website offers further information.

Is Allah the worst communicator ever?

A tragic tale of a stuttering, stammering, feeble deity. Another superb video by the great David Wood of Answering Muslims.

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“Scottish woman” may have helped recruit 3 missing UK teen Muslimas for the Islamic State

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Why Jews Vote Leftist?

Ben Shapiro takes a clear-eyed look at why American Jews vote for the anti-Israel Left.

Assyrian Christians Defending Their Homeland from Islamic State Genocide

In a “Crime Against Humanity” on January 8, 1914 a Jihad was declared by the Ottoman Empire against “all Christians”; it was a government ordered genocide against Greeks, Assyrian, and Armenian Christians, the genocide resulted in the brutal murders of over one million Christians over the next two years.  For over the last 3 years, the world has been witnessing another “Crime Against Humanity”; today the same type Jihad that was perpetrated against Christians over 100 years ago by the Ottoman Turks, is being perpetrated by ISIL and Al Q’ieda in another bloody genocide against Syrian in Syria and against Assyrian Christians on the Plains of Ninveh in Iraq.

The Plain of Nineveh is the 2000+ year old ancient homeland of Aramaic speaking Assyrian Christians in what used to be Mesopotamia, but is called Iraq today.  The Assyrian Christians pride themselves on being the oldest ethnic Christian community in continuous existence since Jesus Christ walked the face of the earth; they speak the same language Christ spoke, worship in churches the Christ’s Disciples founded, and since Roman times theses courageous Assyrian Christians have been persecuted and murdered for refusing to denounce their faith in Jesus Christ.  The Pope called the Assyrian Church “The Martyr Church.”  Hundreds of ancient Assyrian Christian Churches, some that go back as far as 1800 years are being burned to the ground, along with their ancient religious artifacts and historic bibles by ISIL and Al Q’ieda; the Tomb of Jonah has also been destroyed.  For over 3 years particularly vulnerable Assyrian Christians have been fleeing their ancient ancestral homeland in the Nineveh Plain from the onslaught of ISIL and Al Q’ieda, seeking protection from the Kurdish Pershmerga Forces from the bloody genocide that has been underway for many years, as have thousands of peaceful Muslims who refuse to support the Jihad of Christians by Radical Islamic Terrorists.

For over 3 years the international media has reported that ISIL and Al Q’ieda has been insisting on mass conversion to Islam or death; hundreds of thousands of Syrian and Assyrian Christians, are being horrifically targeted for religious cleansing by Radical Islamic Terrorists.  The terrorists are brutally torturing, crucifying, beheading, burying Christians alive, shooting them execution style, dowsing them in oil and burning them alive, cutting the young Assyrian Christian children in half, raping & murdering female children and women, conducting mass executions, and selling some of the Assyrian Christian women into white slavery (there are hundreds of photos of those atrocities on the worldwide net).  The Greek Catholic Relief Agency has reported that 300,000 Syrian and Assyrian Christians refugees have been seeking resettlement in the US thru the UN Muslim Resettlement Program, but they have been rejected by the UN and by the Obama administration.

Leaders of the International Community have been raising their voices in opposition to the current “Crime Against Humanity.”  The Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Royal Family in England, the UK Prime Minister, the King of Jordan, the President of Egypt, the President of Kurdistan, the Prime Minister of Japan, the Prime Minister of Australian, President George W. Bush, Reverend Billy Graham, the Patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Prime Ministers of NATO nations, the Prime Minister of Israel, Christian Religious Leaders of every denomination from throughout the world, and the Secretary General of the United Nations have all raised their voices in unison to demand that the bloody genocide of Christians in Syria and Iraq stop.  The occupant of the Oval Office has not joined world leaders in their condemnation of the genocide of Christians by ISIL & Al Q’ieda in this latest “Crime Against Humanity”: Obama refuses to utter one word of condemnation, nor has he called on the Radical Islamic Terrorists to stop the bloody genocide of defenseless Christians—his silence for the last 3 years has been deafening.  However, Obama did refer to Christians in a recent prayer breakfast, the same way Radical Islamic Terrorists refer to Christians, as “Crusaders.”

Less than 400,000 Assyrian Christians survivors of the 4,065,000 Assyrian Christians who once populated 70 Urmia villages in the Nineveh Plain remain in Iraq; many Assyrian Christians have fled the country and are among the 300,000 Christian refugees seeking entry into the US as refugees.  For over 3 years, the 400,000 Assyrian Christians have been desperately seeking military weapons and logistic support from the Obama administration and the Iraqi government.  Very little of the US military and logistic support, that is being sent to Iraq by the US, has been funneled by the Iranian controlled Iraq government to the Kurdish Pershmerga Forces.

For the last 3 years, the Iranian controlled Iraqi government has rejected distribution of any weapons and logistic support to the Assyrian Christians to save them from ethnic cleansing, or to the Sunni tribes who once allied themselves with US military forces in support of the “Surge” during the Iraqi War.  The friendly Sunni tribes have been persecuted by the Iranian controlled Iraqi Shite Government ever since friendly US military forces were summarily pulled out of Iraq by Obama. US Forces were completely pulled out of Iraq at the end of the Iraqi War, despite warnings from US military general officers and US senior intelligence officials, who warned that removing a residual US military force would destabilize Iraq, and allow Al Q’ieda to grow once again.  Future US military and logistic support from the US must to delivered directly to the Kurdish Pershmerga Forces, Assyrian Christians, and friendly Sunni tribes who once allied themselves with the US military during the “Surge.”

The Assyrian Christians in Iraq who make up the Assyrian Iraqi Democratic Movement (AIDM) have sought and obtained support from US Assyrian communities.  The American Mesopotamian Organization (AMO) and other Assyrian organizations in the US; have jointly developed a project entitled “Restore Nineveh Now” with AIDM    AMO is soliciting and collecting donated funds to equip and train 4000 Assyrian Christians volunteers in an newly developed Assyrian Militia, called “The Nineveh Plain Protection Units.”  Currently 600 volunteers are being trained to lead and mobilize “The Nineveh Plain Protection Units” in two locations in eastern Iraq.  The Nineveh Plain Protection Units will defend their fellow Assyrian Christians from being massacred in ISIL’s and Al Q’ieda’s Jihad (the below listed article provides specific details on the training that is underway).

The Combat Veterans For Congress support a coalition of 55 US Congressmen who have asked Obama to take immediate action to provide weapons and logistic support directly to the Assyrian Christian’s Nineveh Plains Protection Units and, after 3 years, to finally speak out against the bloody genocide being perpetrated by Radical Islamic Terrorists designed to annihilate the Ancient Faith Community of Assyrian Christians on the Plains of Ninveh.  Kindly click on the below listed link to watch a video of a Congressional spokesman for the 55 US Congressmen that was provided to us by Foster Friess.

Watch this 3:45 minute video from U.S. Representative Trent Franks:


‘We Love This Land’: Iraqi Christian Men Fight to Keep ISIS Away From Homes

A battalion of Assyrian Christian men train at a former U.S. military facility outside the city of Kirkuk, Iraq. (Photo courtesy: Kaldo Oghanna)

Athra Kado had never shot a gun before, let alone seen a battlefield.

Until recently Kado, 25, spent his young career in a classroom, teaching high school students how to speak Syriac, his native language.

But Kado is one of hundreds of Assyrian Christian men—many with no military experience—taking up arms to protect their towns from ISIS terrorists who invaded this part of Iraq early last year.

“If we don’t have land to live, what’s the purpose of teaching a language?” Kado tells The Daily Signal in a Skype interview from a former U.S. military facility outside the city of Kirkuk, where he is finishing up a training camp with 500 or so amateur fighters.

Recruits to the new Christian militia, or battalion, say their villages and families were abandoned by Iraqi government and peshmerga forces last summer, letting the terrorists seize control.

Since then, some 30,000 Christians have fled the Nineveh plains—an area inhabited by minority groups such as Iraqi Christians, Yezidis and Shabaks.

Without official government support, and with minimal equipment primarily funded through donations, the young Christian men—most in their early to mid 20s—feel a responsibility to defend their own.

“We saw that nobody was doing anything for us,” says Kado, whose home town, Al Qosh, is the only Christian town in the Nineveh plains free of ISIS control. “We know that we don’t have another chance if we don’t fight for ourselves. No one is protecting us. We want to make a change.”

Last summer, Iraq’s most prominent Christian political party, the Assyrian Democratic Movement, issued a call for volunteers from minority groups to form a local defense force to fight ISIS, the Sunni militant group also known the Islamic State or ISIL.

In late January, the Kurdistan Regional Government’s peshmerga—a leading force fighting ISIS that receives American support—offered up the Kirkuk training facility as the grounds for the Assyrian Christian battalion to learn military might.

“This is our right as human beings and as indigenous people: to protect our people and ourselves,” says Kaldo Oghanna, a party official from the Assyrian Democratic Movement who oversaw the training. “It is not logical for people south of north [of here] to secure this area.”

”This is our right as human beings and as indigenous people: to protect our people and ourselves,” says @KaldoRamzi.

Kado, the young fighter, said at least four Americans—volunteers with military experience—are helping train the men to use weapons such as automatic rifles, mortars, machine guns, AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades.

Fighters acquire skills fast, because they have to. They train from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day.

“When someone wants badly to do something, everything is easy for him,” Kado says.

“Me and my friends are getting this information so fast. We want to do that. We will go to our villages and towns and protect them so ISIS can’t come to our families.”

The training wraps up Thursday, when the civilian fighters are expected to be able to defend their turf.

“I know I am ready,” Kado says.

500 iraqi christian fighters

Some 500 amateur Assyrian Christian fighters learn how to be a disciplined fighting force. (Photo courtesy: Kaldo Oghanna)

Help Wanted

Oghanna says the training of Iraqi Christian fighters has occurred without financial support from the Iraqi, Kurdish or U.S. governments.

Donations, mostly from Assyrians abroad, fund everything from guns to bullets to food.

He hopes the United States steps forward—help that may be on the way.

The U.S. National Defense Authorization Act, approved in December, includes language to train and equip fighters against the Islamic State.

As part of the legislation, up to $1.6 billion should go toward support for units such as the Iraqi Army, Sunni tribal fighters, peshmerga and local forces protecting “vulnerable” minority groups in the Nineveh plains.

“The U.S. supports many groups [fighters], especially in Syria, where many of them convert to join ISIS,” Oghanna says. “We know it’s complex [to decide who to support], but we are for sure not going to convert to ISIS.”

‘My Land’

The Assyrian Christians, who consider themselves the indigenous people of Iraq, want to survive on their terms.

For Kado and the battalion fighters, that means staying in their villages, no matter that ISIS militants want to wipe Christianity out of Iraq.

Oghanna says there are currently less than 400,000 Christians living in Iraq, down from about 1.6 million in 2003. Most have fled.

Kado will not. His family’s roots in Al Qosh date back 400 years.

More than 400 families from other Christian villages have come to Al Qosh to seek shelter. So Kado stays.

“We don’t want to be refugees in another country,” Kado says.

Adds Oghanna, “It would be bitter for us to migrate to Europe and the U.S.”

Kado has great respect for America.

He listens to American music, and he learned English through the songs and lyrics of Whitney Houston.

Two of his brothers live in Detroit.

“I want to vacation in the U.S.,” Kado says, smiling sheepishly, listing Las Vegas as a spot he hopes to visit. “But I want to stay and live here.”

Kado is risking everything to stay—to be the guardian of his religion, his land.

“I have thought about dying,” Kado says. “But the most important thing I’ve learned in the camp is discipline. It’s not just Christianity. If it was just Christianity, I could be Christian in Europe. It’s a matter of … this is our land. We want to live on it. We love this land.”

EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is of a battalion of Assyrian Christian men training at a former U.S. military facility outside the city of Kirkuk, Iraq. (Photo courtesy: Kaldo Oghanna)

Let’s review the summit on countering violent extremism: America, we’re screwed. [VIDEO]

If President Obama could hit the “reset button,” I think he’d rewind this week and try to get a mulligan – but then again, I could be totally wrong. If I am completely wrong, then our policy towards degrading, defeating, and destroying ISIS is non-existent.

In simple terms, America, we’re screwed.

And just so everyone out there understands, there were things the Bush administration stated regarding combating this Islamic terrorist enemy with which I did not agree. However, President George W. Bush showed resolve when all seemed against him, and we did indeed defeat al-Qaida in Iraq. A fragile stability was handed over to President Obama, who then felt a campaign promise was more vital than reality on the ground. No one can debate this simple fact: a vacuum was left in Iraq. That which was defeated has reconstituted — and we have no plan to re-defeat. Speeches and rhetoric, yes, but no vision.

Consider this last week if you will. ISIS beheads twenty-one Egyptian Coptic Christian men and sends a definitive threat towards “Rome.” There are reports of forty-five people burned alive in the town of al-Baghdadi, located just five miles away from 300 Marines at al-Asad Base. And what has been our response in this week?

We need to attend to the “grievances” of the Islamic terrorists. We need to provide jobs and opportunities for the Islamic terrorists. Do I need to remind you State Department spokesperson Marie Harf’s inane comments?

What has been the prevailing theme from President Obama and his administration? We have Islamic terrorists — of course they’re not defined as Islamic — because it is OUR fault. We haven’t done enough for THEM. I guess the mantra emanating from the progressive socialist left is exactly what Hillary Clinton stated: we need to empathize with our enemy.

Here are some highlights – or should I say low-lights – from our apologist-in-chief this week.

As reported by USA Today, “President Obama said Thursday he doesn’t use terms like Islamic extremism because doing so would promote the false idea of a Western war with Islam, which would help extremists recruit more terrorists.”

“No religion is responsible for terrorism — people are responsible for violence and terrorism,” Obama told delegates at the White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism. Obama also said military force alone will not defeat terrorism, and the nation must work with local communities to reduce the influence of those who advocate violent extremism. “They are not religious leaders,” Obama said. “They are terrorists.” In his summit remarks, Obama cited the “fair amount of debate in the press and among pundits” about the words that used should be used to “describe and frame this challenge” of violent extremism. Groups like the Islamic State and al-Qaeda “try to portray themselves as religious leaders, holy warriors in defense of Islam,” Obama said, but “we must never accept the premise that they put forward, because it is a lie.” Obama also said Muslim communities have responsibilities to confront the abuse of religion. “Of course, the terrorists do not speak for a billion Muslims who reject their ideology,” Obama said. “They no more represent Islam than any madman who kills innocents in the name of God, represents Christianity or Judaism or Buddhism or Hinduism.”

RELATED ARTICLE: ISIS terror network expands across globe via loosely connected ‘affiliates’

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on AllenBWest.com.