Why would Bosnian Muslims get involved in plotting jihad terror activity? We have for years now been repeatedly assured that all the Muslims in and from Bosnia were moderates who loved America, and threatened with charges of “Islamophobia” if we even questioned that dogma. Those learned analysts have yet to explain the activities of these Bosnians and others like them.
Meanwhile, Facebook would do well to stop its jihad against counter-jihadists and keep better watch on activities like these.
More on this story. “Indictment: Bosnian immigrants plotted over Facebook,” by Jason Keyser, Associated Press, February 7, 2015:
CHICAGO (AP) – Six Bosnian immigrants accused of sending money and military equipment to extremist groups in Syria used Facebook, PayPal and other readily available services to communicate and transfer funds, according to a federal indictment.
All are charged with conspiring to provide and providing material support to groups designated by the U.S. as foreign terrorist organizations, including the Islamic State group and an al-Qaida-affiliated rebel group known as the Nusra Front.
The indictment unsealed Friday in U.S. District Court in St. Louis alleges they plotted by phone, Facebook and email; shared videos and photos related to their plans on social media sites; sent money via PayPal and Western Union; and shipped boxes of military gear through the U.S. Postal Service.
The defendants are accused of donating money themselves and, in some cases, collecting funds from others in the U.S. and sending the donations overseas. It says two of the defendants, a husband and wife in St. Louis, used some of the money to buy U.S. military uniforms, firearms accessories, tactical gear and other equipment from local businesses and ship it to intermediaries in Turkey and Saudi Arabia who forwarded the supplies to fighters in Syria and Iraq.
One of the suspects, Mediha Medy Salkicevic, a 34-year-old mother of four from the Chicago suburb of Schiller Park, appeared Saturday in federal court in Chicago. Wearing an orange jail uniform, she spoke only to confirm that she understood the charges. She appeared calm and smiled occasionally while consulting with her attorney.
Speaking to reporters afterward, defense attorney Andrea Gambino stressed that Salkicevic is considered innocent until proven guilty.
The indictment says the suspects used “coded language” in their communications over email and social media, using terms like “the beach” for places in Iraq and Syria.
But it says they also used terms such as brothers, lions, mujahids and shaheeds, or holy warriors and martyrs. Such language is commonly used among Islamic extremist groups and would seem likely to draw law enforcement scrutiny if posted openly on the Internet.
But terrorism financing expert Loretta Napoleoni said it’s a clever tactic to use such usual channels for communicating and sending money as long as the amounts are small, noting that so many people use them that it’s easy to “go below the radar.”
“That’s the easiest way to send money. … And frankly using the U.S. Postal Service is also a very good way not to be caught,” said Napoleoni, author of “The Islamist Phoenix.” ”There is so much stuff going through.”
The FBI arrested Salkicevic on Friday. If convicted, she could face up to 15 years in prison and a fine of up to $50,000 on each charge. The case will be tried in Missouri, where several other defendants were arrested. A bond hearing Monday will determine whether Salkicevic travels there on her own or in custody.
The indictment alleges the conspiracy began no later than May 2013.
All six people who are charged are natives of Bosnia who were living in the U.S. legally. Three are naturalized citizens; the other three had either refugee or legal resident status, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
Besides Salkicevic, the indictment names Ramiz Zijad Hodzic, 40, his wife, Sedina Unkic Hodzic, 35, and Armin Harcevic, 37, all of St. Louis County; Nihad Rosic, 26, of Utica, New York; and Jasminka Ramic, 42 of Rockford, Illinois….
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/Nihad-Rosic.jpg554638Jihad Watchhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJihad Watch2015-02-08 07:02:082015-02-08 07:05:44Bosnian Muslims in U.S. used Facebook, PayPal for Jihad plotting
This column is designed to contribute, in some small measure, toward halting the erosion of the unity of American citizens against Radical Islamic Terrorists as the primary national threat America is faced with today. Obama has repeatedly tried to divide and confuse American citizens about their understanding of what the real threat is that has killed and wounded thousands of Americans for the last 36 years—-specifically, it is Radical Islamic Terrorists.
In the video below you will be able to watch a very thorough analysis by Dr. Bill Warner of the 1400 year development and spread of Islam. Dr. Warner is a scientist who employed scientific logic to do an in depth analysis on the birth and development of Islam from 600 AD to the present day. He explains, in the video, the spread of Radical Islam from 615 AD (referred to as the 1st Jihad) to the fall of Constantinople in 1452 (referred to as the 2nd jihad), to 1915-1923, when the Turks and Kurds murdered one million Armenian and Assyrian Christians, and to 1979 (referred to as the 3rd Jihad) when for the last 36 years Radical Islamic Terrorists perpetrated 19,000 brutal attacks on Muslims, Christians, Hindus, and Buddhists—they have been killing peaceful Muslims who do not support their 3rd Jihad
For over 6 years Obama has been trying to confuse the understanding of American citizens with regard to the true nature of Radical Islamic Terrorists. Obama has been suppressing any reference to attacks by Radical Islamic Terrorists by using phrases such as “work place violence”. He has been aggressively instituting the use of political correct language to suppress the use of the word Islam with regard to brutal terrorism. The Obama administration has encouraged the left of center liberal media establishment to skew the reporting of attacks by Radical Islamic Terrorists by using phrases like “extremists, fanatics, etc..” Obama has ordered the sanitizing of all library documents and training manuals of federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies, in order to prevent them from mentioning Radical Islamic Terrorists being the true enemy that has been killing Americans for over 36 years–any reference to Islam or Muslim has been eliminated.
Since 1979. Radical Islamic Terrorists have been at war with and have been killing thousands of American civilians and U.S. Military personnel (On November 4, 1979, Iran took control of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and imprisoned 52 U.S. hostages, on April, 18, 1983 Iran bombed the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and killed 17 Americans, then on October 23, 1983 Iran attacked the U.S. Marine Barracks at Beirut International Airport killing 241 U.S. Marines and wounding an additional 100 US Marines. Iran continued to use the Iranian Republican Guards to kill US military servicemen in Beirut, the Dhahran Air Force Barracks, in Iraq, and in Afghanistan by supplying Iranian manufactured IEDs and weapons to Radical Islamic Terrorist for 36 years.
In “The Art of War” Sun Tzu said, ‘To truly defeat an enemy, one must truly know that enemy.” From 1776 to date, the US has been in conflicts with various enemies who were always properly identified by the US President—England, Spain, Mexico, the Kaiser, the Nazi Germany, Japan, the Communists in various countries (Russia, China, Cuba, North Korea, North Vietnam), Iran, Saddam Hussein, the Taliban, and Al Q’ieda, but the current occupant of the Oval Office refuses to state the U.S. is at war with Radical Islamic Terrorists, and ISIL. James Comey, the Director of the FBI, recently stated that the FBI has open cases in 49 states (excluding Alaska) concerning ISIL operatives and Radical Islamic Terrorists. ISIL and Islamic Terrorists have been able to easily walk across the wide open southern border because of Obama’s failure to comply with Federal Immigration Laws. ISIL and Radical Islamic Terrorists have also have been entering the US thru the UN Resettlement Programs for Muslim refugees; according to Greek Catholic agencies the UN and the US has excluded 300,000 Syrian & Assyrian Christians refugees who have lost their homes because of ISIL’s aggression (unfortunately, Muslim refugees have been given a fast track to US citizenship by Obama).
A good number of the newly admitted Muslims from the UN Resettlement Program who became U.S. Citizen on the fast track, subsequently left and fought with ISIL. Many of those Radical Islamic Terrorists who perpetrated genocide with ISIL are now returning to the US and have had no restrictions placed upon them by the Obama administration. Those returning ISIL fighters are going to 49 states, and will be forming or joining sleeper cells or may become lone wolves terrorists. Some of the Radical Islamic Terrorists who walked across the wide open southern border or entered in the UN Refugee Program will soon be given Work Permits and Social Security numbers by the Obama administration. There are not enough qualified intelligent analysts to check the backgrounds on 12.5 million immigrants waiting in line to get Work Permits and Social Security numbers (1.5 million dreamers, 6 million Muslim refugees, and 5 million illegal Immigration who fall under Obama’s Executive Order because they supposedly lived in the US for 5 years).
In the below video, Dr. Bill Warner explains why the most brutal genocide perpetrated against Hindus, Buddhists, Christians and Jews over a 1400 year period is going on today (Radical Islamic Terrorists have been torturing, beheading, crucifying, burning alive, burying alive, cutting the bodies of children in half, raping then murdering young girls and women, and shooting kneeling Christians in the head like the Nazis used to do). After release of the recent video of a captured Jordanian pilot being burned alive by ISIL, the leader of the Muslim institution widely regarded as the premier learning center for Sunni Islam called for the brutal punishment of Islamic State members. It was reported by Agence France-Presse that Grand Sheikh Al-Azhar Ahmed al-Tayib said that act was contrary to the Muslim religion, he issued a statement following the burning alive of Lt Muath al-Kaseasbeh saying the brutal act “requires punishment mentioned in the Quran for these corrupt oppressors who fight against God and his prophet: killing, crucifixion or chopping of the limbs.” King Abdullah II of Jordan stated that Islam needs a reboot. General Abdel Fatah el Sisi, the President of Egypt, said that Islam must be purged of ISIL and Al Q’ieda; he went out of the way to support Coptic Christians.
Even though The Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar Ahmed al-Tayib is condemning the genocide. Obama has been ignoring the genocide being perpetrated by Radical Islamic Terrorist for 6 years, and has never objected to the wholesale slaughter of Christians like the leaders of most European Countries, the Royal Family in England, the Prime Minister of Australia, the Pope, the Secretary General of the UN, the President of Egypt, the King of Jordan, and religious leaders around the world. The speech Obama made at the February 5, 2015 prayer breakfast linked Christianity to todays terrorism by ISIL which defies common sense and logic. Obama indicted Christians for committing “terrible deeds in the name of Christ”, he tried to convince the audience that ISIL was just doing what some Christians have done 1000 years ago. What Obama didn’t tell the audience that Christians were desperately fighting for their very survival for 700 years in Europe trying to defend themselves against the onslaught of Radical Islamic aggression. Obama also referred to Christians as Crusaders (a term Radical Islamic Terrorists use when referring to Christians) and denigrated the Crusades that were mounted to protect Arab Christians who were being slaughtered by Radical Muslims like Arab Christians are being slaughtered by ISIL today. Obama’s negative attitude toward Christians was clearly revealed by the content of his address; his comments have given rise to concerns by American Christians, and because of his past treatment of Christians in the U.S. Armed Forces Christians in America have valid concerns.
For 6 years, Obama has prevented Christian Chaplains in the U.S. Armed Forces from reading their Cardinals letters to parishioners, forced the performance of same sex marriages in military chapels when Christian Chaplains had deep held religious beliefs opposing them, and forced gay pride events to be held on military bases when Christian Chaplains opposed them–no-gay pride events or any other political events should be permitted on any military facility. A report in the Iron Mountain, MI Daily News quoted Chaplain Bob Mueller at the VA Hospital in Iron Mountain said he was ordered to cover the Cross, a picture of Christ, other Christian Icons, and the alter, and said “A couple of months ago, an order came down from Washington, DC to cover all things associated with Christianity in the VA Hospitals. Their solution is to cover everything in all VA Chapels across the county.” Chaplain Mueller went on to say, A few weeks ago an official from Madison, WI VA Administration came down here to tell me to “stop talking about Jesus, and stop reading Scripture out loud.’
Obama is making it very easy for Iran to develop nuclear weapons, is negotiating to let the Taliban take control of Afghanistan, has been appointing members of the Moslem Brotherhood to key positions in his administration, has freed over 50 very dangerous Radical Islamic Terrorists from the military prison in Guantanamo, Cuba, and has facilitated the entry of 6 million Muslims into the United States without requiring a detailed background investigation on them. Obama and Hillary once worked with Radical Islamic Terrorists to overthrow Muammar Gadhafi in Libya, which is now controlled by Al Q’ieda, supplied arms from Libya to Radical Islamic Terrorists in Syria who supported ISIL, and supported the Moslem Brotherhood to come to power in Egypt (who were overthrown by a pro-western military junta). Obama freed 5 of the most dangerous terrorists in Gitmo for an Army deserter, because he said we leave no man behind (the U.S. has left deserters behind in every war), yet Obama left the US Ambassador, two U.S. Navy Seals, and an Embassy Communications Specialist behind in the Battle of Benghazi——he abandoned them to be murdered by Radical Islamic Terrorists because he refused to issue “Cross Border Authority” to DOD so the US Military was not allowed to mount a rescue from US military forces that were within 2 hours away.
Over a year ago, Obama should have formed a coalition of countries including France, England, Jordan, Japan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Kuwait, Bahrein, and the United Arab Emirates to form a united front against Al Q’ieda, ISIL, and Iran (Israel should be a stealth partner like they were during Operation Desert Storm). Those counties and the US must collectively put 100,000 boots on the ground to crush ISIL Air power alone has never defeated any enemy, and over the last two years ISIL has gained a massive amounts of territory, 7 air strikes a day failed to deter ISIL whose numbers increased from 3000 to 40,000. A more effective air campaign must be mounted with the support of the coalition country air forces of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, France, England, the US, and the United Arab Emirates (during Operation Desert Strom 800 coalition air strikes/day were prosecuted/day). Special Operations Forces are needed on the ground to strike strategic targets, to provide air control support for the front line allied forces engaging ISIL, and to train allied forces. Weapons and logistics support must be provided to Jordan, the Kurds, Assyrian Christians, and to the Sunni tribes being oppressed by the Iranian backed Iraqi government. Obama has been providing logistics and weapons support directly to the Iraqis, who with their Iranian partners, have refused to provide those supplies to the aforementioned allies desperately in need of them.
While Dr. Bill Warner’s video is a little long but it is an outstanding historic analysis of Islam, and will explain why the current reduction in the strength of the U.S. Army to below WWII levels and the reduction of the number of US Navy ships to below WWI levels by Obama is the most dangerous initiative any occupant of the Oval Office has ever ordered in the last 238 years. If the hallowing out of the U.S. Armed Forces is permitted by the U.S. Congress it will dangerously affect the ability of the U.S. Armed Forces to be able to oppose the rapidly expanding Chinese, Russian, and Iranian armed forces. Americans must press their Congressional representatives to use the power of the purse to rebuild the hallowed out US Armed Forces and stop Obama’s civilian appointees at DOD from firing thousands of well-trained Combat Veterans from the U.S. Armed Forces—they are desperately needed to oppose ISIL.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/crusades-the-peoples-cube.jpg325600Joseph R. Johnhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJoseph R. John2015-02-07 13:10:002015-02-08 06:15:57VIDEO: Why Are We Afraid of Islam? A 1400 Year Old Secret…
There is grave danger in statements supporting moral equivalency and religious relativism. What happens is horrific behavior is excused because you have a certain recalcitrance in admitting the existence of evil.
President Barack Obama had the chance to affirm our Judeo-Christian faith heritage at the National Prayer Breakfast just days after the world was exposed to the savage and barbaric actions of ISIS in the burning to death of the captured Jordanian fighter pilot. But he did not.
As we reported yesterday, instead the Islamapologist-in-Chief attempted to find moral equivalency between the brutality of ISIS and Christianity, saying that violence rooted in religion isn’t exclusive to Islam, but has been carried out by Christians as well.
“Unless we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ,” Obama said. “In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ.”
Obama also denounced Islamic State terrorists for professing to stand up for Islam when they were actually “betraying it.” “We see ISIL, a brutal vicious death cult that in the name of religion carries out unspeakable acts of barbarism,” he said criticizing them for “claiming the mantle of religious authority for such actions.”
Now, being a simple student of history, I’d like to share a simple analysis — and please, I ask all the Islamapologists reading this to sit down and take a deep breath.
First of all, Pope Urban II called for the Crusade in response to Muslim brigands and raiders who were attacking Christian pilgrims in the Holy Land. I find it rather odd that Obama would refer to something that is over 900 years old in order to make a statement of relativism. The sad truth is that no one is running around in Knights Templar white robes declaring “God wills it.” However, the same enemy that Pope Urban II saw as a threat exists to today and still declares, “Allahu Akhbar.”
As for the Spanish Inquisition, consider that this came after the expulsion of Muslim domination on the Iberian Peninsula for some 700 years.
As a matter of fact, Islamists still refer to Spain as “Al Andalusia” which means to this day still consider it Muslim land — after all it was part of their caliphate conquest. Good thing ol’ Charles “The Hammer” Martel turned back an invading Muslim Army in 732 AD at the Battle of Tours — just as was done by the Venetian fleet at Lepanto in 1571 — just as done by the heroic European Knights at Vienna in 1683. Yes, the Inquisition was horrible and severely affected the Jewish population in Spain. It was however, an overreaction to ensure that Catholicism reigned superior and was never again subjugated as it had been under the Moors of North Africa.
I found it interesting that Obama failed to mention the exchange between the Dey of Algiers and Thomas Jefferson concerning the attacks of American vessels and enslavement of Americans by Muslims, the infamous Barbary Pirates. The Dey of Algiers conveyed to Mr. Jefferson that they were only carrying out the dictates of their prophet towards infidels, kafirs. Interestingly enough, hundreds of years later, the Maersk Alabama and Captain Phillips had to deal with the same — Islamic piracy. Back then Jefferson sent the Marines. And thank God a sharp thinking U.S. Navy Commander made a decision to give the green light to the exceptional U.S. Navy SEAL snipers in the case of the Maersk.
You see religious relativism in this case dismisses the actions of ISIS who is actually more closely following the exploits of Mohammad.
If you study history and begin at the Medina phase, approximately 622 AD, you’ll find a murderous warlord who used terror and “religious manipulation” as he led almost 25 combat raids, the first being the Nakhla raid, circa 622 AD. This all came after the “peaceful” first phase of Islam, just 12 years in length.
The world has been exposed to the brutality of militant Islam for some 1400 years – a theocratic-political totalitarian ideology that spread by way of the sword, not peaceful proselytization. Hence why the flag of Saudi Arabia has a koranic verse above the sword of Mohammad.
And if you understand the Koran and the hadiths you’ll find the history laid out here corresponds to a shift in the verses and traditions towards violence — which the latter verse under the premise of “nakeesh” (abrogation) supersede the previous “peaceful” verses — yet all are still held in equal regard as the words of Allah as revealed to Muhammad.
Lastly, as we shared yesterday, Obama should be careful in equivocating slavery and Jim Crow to the actions of ISIS — after all it was those righteous Democrat Christians who supported such heinous actions as lynchings.
I have a simple recommendation for President Obama — don’t attend any more National Prayer Breakfasts. The angst created by these ill-conceived words is just not worth it — better to just not be there, than to be there and call into question your loyalties to the Judeo-Christian faith heritage of America.
Obama once again attempted to lecture us and failed miserably. ISIS is Islamic, they are militant Islamists and they represent an evil that came from a man who went rogue and used a religious belief as a means to an end — power. Now, that should have been the crux of Obama’s comments, but I suppose those “undisclosed” Muslim leaders with whom he met had a different idea.
Mr. President, true, you are not running again, and true, you did win twice. But even truer, you are damning your reputation as a president and may never hold any regard or esteem of the American people. Then again, perhaps that was always your aim, as you fundamentally transform our beloved Constitutional Republic.
EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on AllenBWest.com. Image via Townhall.com.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/APTOPIX-Obama-Prayer-Breakfast.jpeg426640Allen Westhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngAllen West2015-02-07 12:52:032015-02-07 12:52:03Obama revealed his true colors at Prayer Breakfast, and true ignorance of history
The Islamic State’s claim to have restored the caliphate continues to appeal to Muslims in the West. But Western authorities have no plan, no strategy to try to counter this appeal, because they cannot even admit that it exists; instead, they must pretend that the Islamic State has nothing to do with Islam.
“6 people charged in U.S. with supporting ISIS,” CBS News, February 6, 2015 (thanks to Anne Crockett):
WASHINGTON — Six Bosnian immigrants have been charged in the U.S. for allegedly supporting the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the Department of Justice said Friday.
The suspects, five of whom were arrested in the U.S., are all charged with providing material support to terrorists and conspiring to provide material support and resources to terrorists, the DOJ said in a statement. They were identified as Ramiz Zijad Hodzic, 40, his wife Sedina Unkic Hodzic, 35, and Armin Harcevic, 37, who live in St. Louis County, Missouri; Nihad Rosic, 26, of Utica, New York; Mediha Medy Salkicevic, 34 of Schiller Park, Illinois; and Jasminka Ramic, 42, of Rockford, Illinois.
The suspects immigrated from Bosnia, the Justice Department said. Three of them became naturalized U.S. citizens and the others have legal resident of refugee status.
According to an indictment unsealed Friday, the defendants sent military supplies to a man named Abdullah Ramo Pazara, a Bosnian who traveled from St. Louis to Syria in 2013 to join ISIS. They also used Western Union and PayPal to transfer money to Turkey and Saudi Arabia, where third parties sent it to Syria and Iraq.
Pazara is believed to have been killed last year. He communicated with the defendants through social media, according to the FBI and DOJ, and bragged online about killing and kidnapping several people.
Ramiz Zijad Hodzic and Rosic face the additional charge of conspiring to kill and main persons in a foreign country.
Hodzic allegedly provided tactical advice to Pazara and other foreign fighters, the indictment said, and sent rifle scopes and range finders to Pazara, intending that they be used on sniper rifles. Rosic attempted to travel to Syria, according to the indictment….
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/IslamicState1-e1423309771374.jpg370640Jihad Watchhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJihad Watch2015-02-07 06:49:472015-02-07 06:50:01Six U.S.-based Muslims charged with supporting the Islamic State
As the world reacts with shock and horror at the increasingly savage deeds of the Islamic State (IS)—in this case, the recent immolation of a captive—U.S. President Obama’s response has been one of nonjudgmental relativism.
Speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast on February 5, Obama counseled Americans to get off their “high horse” and remember that Christians have been equally guilty of such atrocities:
Unless we get on our high horse and think this [beheadings, sex-slavery, crucifixion, roasting humans] is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ.
There is so much to be said here. First, the obvious: the wide gulf between violence and hate “justified in the name of Christ” and violence and hate “justified in the name of Muhammad” is that Christ never justified it, while Muhammad continuously did.
This is not just a theoretic point; it is the very reason that Muslims are still committing savage atrocities. Every evil act IS commits—whether beheading, crucifying, raping, enslaving, or immolating humans—has precedents in the deeds of Muhammad, that most “perfect” and “moral” man, per Koran 33:21 and 68:4 (see “The Islamic State and Islam” for parallels).
Does Obama know something about Christ—who eschewed violence and told people to love and forgive their enemies—that we don’t? Perhaps he’s clinging to that solitary verse that academics like Philip Jenkins habitually highlight, that Christ—who “spoke to the multitudes in parables and without a parable spoke not” once said, “I come not to bring peace but a sword.” (Matt. 10:34, 13:34).
Jesus was not commanding violence against non-Christians but rather predicting that Christians will be persecuted, including by family members (as, for example, when a Muslim family slaughters their child for “apostatizing” to Christianity as happens frequently).
Conversely, in its fatwa justifying the burning of the Jordanian captive, the Islamic State cites Muhammad putting out the eyes of some with “heated irons” (he also cut their hands and feet off). The fatwa also cites Khalid bin al-Walid—the heroic “Sword of Allah”—who burned apostates to death, including one man whose head he set on fire to cook his dinner on.
Nor is the Islamic State alone in burning people. Recently a “mob accused of burning alive a Christian couple in an industrial kiln in Pakistan allegedly wrapped a pregnant mother in cotton so she would catch fire more easily.”
As for the Islamic “authorities,” Al Azhar—the Islamic world’s oldest and most prestigious university which cohosted Obama’s 2009 “New Beginning” speech—still assigns books that justify every barbarity IS commits, including burning people alive. Moreover, Al Azhar—a religiousinstitution concerned with what is and is not Islamic—has called for the cutting off of the hands and feet of IS members, thereby legitimizing such acts according to Islamic law.
On the other hand, does Obama know of some secret document in the halls of the Vatican that calls for amputating, beheading or immolating enemies of Christ to support his religious relativism?… Keep reading
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/Obamaprayerbreakfast-e1423309428448.jpeg370640Jihad Watchhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJihad Watch2015-02-07 06:44:272015-02-07 06:44:27Obama Says Christianity No Different From Islamic State by Raymond Ibrahim
There are few people in the world, and fewer less who hold elected office, in a significant country who know more about Islam than our special guest – Member of Netherlands Parliament, Mr. Geert Wilders.
Join us as the man reviled by many enemies now being called a “prophet” by citizens throughout the free world explains exactly what is needed in the West to defeat Islamic jihad. After the Wilders interview, Tom and the boys along with Imam Abdullah discuss several of the key issues that Wilders addressed.
If you want to get a powerful, first-hand look into the supremacist Muslim problems faced by America, Israel, Holland and the West, turn in and enjoy!
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/geert_wilders100907-1112x762-e1395173364354.jpg439640Dr. Rich Swierhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngDr. Rich Swier2015-02-06 06:38:412015-02-06 06:45:44EXCLUSIVE VIDEO INTERVIEW: Geert Wilders on Islam
You know something is terribly wrong when three former Secretaries of State, Henry Kissinger, George Schultz and Madeleine Albright tell a Senate Armed Services Committee that the President of the United States is an idiot with no idea how to conduct foreign affairs. Well, they didn’t say it in those words, but that was pretty much the message. That was January 29.
Two days earlier retired 4-Star General James Matthis, former head of U.S. Central Command, former Army Vice Chief of Staff and 4-Star General Jack Keane, and Navy Admiral William Fallon, also a former CentCom chief, had also testified before the Committee. They had a similar message as the diplomats. Obama and the other idiots in the White House are completely clueless regarding the threat of radical Islam in general and a potential nuclear Iran in particular.
This is, after all, a White House that is trying to call those intent on taking over the entire Middle East and, after that, the rest of the world anything other than “terrorists.” They have used terms such as “insurgents”, “activists” and “militants.” Here at home, they are still referring to the killings at Fort Hood as “workplace violence.” Don’t any of these idiots understand that the terrorists, whether they call themselves al Qaeda or the Islamic State, Hezbollah, Hamas or any other name all constitute the same threat?
That’s what the generals addressed. They told the Senate committee that absence of a White House strategy makes the ISIS, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan wars “unwinnable.” I have been around since the end of World War II and that stretch of U.S. history is one in which we fought to a stalemate in Korea and a loss in Vietnam. After we won the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, Obama pulled out and now they are lost too. There was a time when Americans and their leaders knew how to win wars.
Indeed, there was a time when Americans preferred to elect generals to be their President, starting with George Washington. Among those with that rank were Andrew Jackson, Zachary Taylor, Franklin Pierce, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, Ruther P. Hayes, James A. Garfield. Chester A. Arthur. Benjamin Harrison, and Dwight D. Eisenhower. All the others had also served in the military in some capacity…except Barack Hussein Obama.
Obama not only doesn’t have experience in the military, he doesn’t seem to like them much. He has done everything he can to reduce our military capacity to fight a war anywhere or to show any genuine respect for the troops on active duty. The only uniform he ever wore was as an Indonesian Boy Scout.
Retired Marine Gen. Jim Mattis told the Congress “America needs a refresh national security strategy. We need to come out from our reactive crouch and take a firm, strategic stance in defense of our values.” Apparently those values don’t matter to the White House or to those left-wingers who wet their pants over the popularity of “Sniper”, a film that pays tribute to our troops who fought the war in Iraq.
Under Obama’s term in office, radical Islam has increased four-fold in the past five years, ISIS ten times since 2012 and Iran has masterminded control of the capitols in Beirut, Lebanon, Damascus, Syria, Baghdad, Iraq, and now in Sanaa, Yemen. It has been the power behind Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.
Gen. Keane described Obama’s withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan as an “absolute strategic failure.” He called radical Islam “the major security challenge of our generation.”
Regarding Iran, Gen. Keane said, “In 1980, Iran declared the United States as a strategic enemy and its goal is to drive the United State out of the region, achieve regional hegemony, and destroy the state of Israel.”
“Is there any doubt that Iran is on the march and is systematically moving toward their regional hegemonic objective?” asked Gen. Keane. “Iran has been on a 20-year journey to acquire nuclear weapons, simply because they know it guarantees preservation of the regime and makes them, along with their partners, the dominant power in the region, thereby capable of expanding their control and influence. Add to this their ballistic missile delivery system and Iran is not only a threat to the region, but to Europe, as well.” The U.S. in time will be in missile range.
“We have no comprehensive strategy to stop it or defeat it,” said Gen. Keane.
Thanks to Barack Obama, the United States of America can no longer be seen as the world leader, opposing the forces that seek to impose control. Former allies, particularly in the Middle East, no longer have any confidence that we would come to their defense if they were attacked.
Thanks to Barack Obama, our enemies have been emboldened and our allies confused, but it is not that confusing. He is an idiot who lacks any grasp of history’s lessons and he is a coward who cannot be expected to seriously respond to our own and our allies’ enemies.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/ISIS-Soldiers.jpg356640Alan Carubahttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngAlan Caruba2015-02-05 10:08:502015-02-06 06:17:19Terrorists and Our #@*%+ President
How could this be? Obama, Kerry, Biden, David Cameron, and everyone else assures us that the Islamic State has nothing to do with Islam. So why is it so appealing to young Muslims in the West? Why are Muslim parents encouraging their children to join it? The cognitive dissonance is massive, and the FBI isn’t doing what it should be doing: calling upon U.S. Muslims to teach against the Islamic State’s ideology.
Right now, it is not being countered with any organized program in U.S. mosques or Islamic schools, and no one seems to care.
“FBI official: ISIS is recruiting U.S. teens,” by Pamela Brown and Wesley Bruer, CNN, February 4, 2015 (thanks to Aron):
Washington (CNN)For the head of the FBI’s counterterrorist division, Michael Steinbach, the unknown worries him the most.
Steinbach is leading the daunting effort to stay on top of the evolving threat landscape, which includes targeting and recruiting teenage Americans. In an exclusive interview with CNN inside the agency’s Strategic Information and Operations Center, he acknowledged it’s extremely difficult to track every American who might travel abroad to join terrorist groups like the Islamic State.
“I’m worried about individuals that we don’t know about that have training,” Steinbach said. “We know what we know. But there is a number that’s greater than that that we don’t know.”
Steinbach says U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies don’t track individuals leaving the United States to vacation in Europe.
“Once you get to Europe, you can easily get down to Turkey and into Syria” Steinbach says.
There’s growing concern about homegrown violent extremism in the aftermath of last month’s terror attacks in Paris. Those strikes underscored the threat posed to the West by small groups of terrorists with western passports who are influenced by the rhetoric espoused by ISIS. Steinbach is concerned that type of attack could happen on U.S. soil.
When asked if there are ISIS cells in the U.S., Steinbach said “there are individuals that have been in communication with groups like ISIL who have a desire to conduct an attack” and those people are living in the U.S. right now, but he says the term “sleeper cells” is too simplistic, because the threat is much more complicated and diffuse.
In the U.S., the FBI has seen children as young as 15 recruited by ISIS and Steinbach said he “can’t speak with 100% certainty that individuals of that age group have not gotten over there successfully.”
In some cases, Steinbach said parents even encourage their children to be involved with terror groups.
“There are individuals out there who are inspired by the message of terrorist groups and they encourage family members, including their children, to follow that path,” he said, adding in those cases, the FBI holds the parents responsible….
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/alAmriki-e1423148209604.jpeg370640Jihad Watchhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJihad Watch2015-02-05 09:57:452015-02-05 09:59:40FBI official: Islamic State is Recruiting U.S. Teens
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/hate-crime1.jpg428640Dr. Rich Swierhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngDr. Rich Swier2015-02-05 09:37:162015-02-05 09:37:16A Special Kind of Hate
This is really unbelievable! The Iranian Shi’a Hezbollah terrorists are initiating confrontation of Israel’s borders and just a hop, skip and a jump away, the Sunni Islamic State is burning a Jordanian pilot alive.
Tune in as we explain how thias can happen! In 2008 Mughniyah got whacked by the CIA/Mossad because he was responsible for hundreds of deaths of innocent Americans and Jews. Recently his terrorist son, Jihad Mughniyah was evaporated by a missile and now the Iranians are really mad, thus launching attacks against Israel.
Put all this against the instability of the Middle East and man, we got some serious problems. The more you unravel the Iranian quest for NUKES, the more frightening the story develops. Imagine, Apocalyptic Ayatollahs with mega-destructive toys, let loose in a Sunni sand box and guess what you get? Dead Americans, Dead Jews and Dead Muslims.
These Islamic Shia’ Supremacists want control of Saudi oil, Saudi Mecca and Jerusalem and they KNOW that the way to achieve their Satanic objectives is to get their hands on red hot Plutonium! Thank Allah, we have President Obama standing between the Free World and Armageddon! This three-part series will tell you all you need to know that President Obama is the worst person in the world to trust with smashing Iran.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/isis-killed-jordanian-pilot.jpg390635The United West/ Defend The Borderhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe United West/ Defend The Border2015-02-05 06:46:022015-02-05 06:51:51Jihad Mughniyah and the Burned Jordanian Pilot
If you look for the worst in a group, you’re sure to find it. Using a twist on an Abraham Lincoln line, I made that statement on the Mildred Gaddis Show (Radio One Detroit WCHB AM) last Wednesday during a debate on “White Privilege: Myth or Reality.” Finding myself pitted against the other guest, whose name isn’t important, and the black callers, it was a spirited discussion, to say the least.
It was also, unfortunately, a good example of how hatred is like darkness: the more there is, the less you can see.
To the other guest and the black callers, white privilege’s reality was simply a “fact” everyone was obligated to acknowledge, and the only legitimate question was the extent to which it has affected our lives. My debate opponent was flabbergasted that I denied this.
Of course, the general explanation for “deniers” such as me — and this is the white man’s plight, the dogma goes — is that we’re so immersed in our privilege that we just can’t help ourselves and see beyond it. Thus is our opinion on the subject irrelevant.
This demonization is a bit like what befell the Jews in Nazi Germany. It mattered not if they didn’t have two pfennigs to rub together; by virtue of being Jewish they were automatically deemed privileged — and guilty of taking advantage of that privilege. And this justifies all manner and form of discrimination against the target group to “balance the scales.” Of course, those scales never do get balanced. For instance, even though South African whites are politically powerless today and subject to great discrimination and violence, they’re still blamed for their country’s woes.
But accepting white privilege as supposition is prejudice itself. If someone wishes to claim this phenomenon exists, the burden is on him to prove it; it is not on those who would have to prove a negative.
This proof is never forthcoming. The only argument offered is that whites are more prosperous and healthier socially than are blacks, which proves white privilege as much as blacks’ numerical dominance in the NBA proves black privilege. After all, Hindus (exclusively non-white) are the highest-earning religious group in the U.S., and Jews are number two, yet no one today takes this as proof of Hindu or Jewish privilege. In fact, in a radio debate some years ago I challenged a different guest — who cited whites’ higher incomes as proof of privilege — to be true to his rationale and speak of Jewish privilege (which he wouldn’t dare do). His response?
Jewish people can’t be privileged because we know they’ve suffered discrimination.
Of course, this is circular reasoning. Higher incomes were proof of his ideology — except when his ideology said that higher incomes weren’t.
But that’s the left-reason Left for you. They don’t need facts or logic. They know white privilege exists. They know whites discriminate. It’s just a matter of accepting the terms of surrender and your place in the re-education camp. Because they know. Yet the guest on that second show, a Ph.D., didn’t even know that whites (non-Hispanic) were only 63 percent of our population; he thought they constituted 80 percent. And this was quite striking, that he didn’t know the country’s racial and ethnic make-up — his Ph.D. was in ethnic studies.
But, hey, don’t you know? Educators today teach students “how to think” — as opposed to just teaching memorization and “facts.”
So it’s no wonder many don’t have enough facts to lend perspective to the few facts they do know. On the Mildred Gaddis Show I heard the usual refrains: whites had slaves, whites violated blacks’ civil rights, white men in America didn’t allow anyone else to vote. The other guest even bellowed, as if relating an unpardonable sin, that our country was founded only by white men. Is this shocking in a primarily white civilization? China was founded by Chinese, and ancient Egypt was founded by Egyptians.
French philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville noted, “The most dangerous moment for a bad regime is when it begins to reform itself.” Being a rough-hewn lot, all of man is a “bad regime.” But whites started to reform themselves.
And now they’re endangered.
That is to say, it’s true that whites engaged in slavery, violated human rights and suppressed voting. But is this notable? All groups did those things. Slavery has been practiced since time immemorial and still is not unusual in places such as Africa. What’s notable is that while it’s unlikely whites were the first ones to engage in slavery, they were the first ones to outlaw it. Europeans led the way there, followed by the U.S. a bit later.
Human-rights violations are also the historical norm. What’s notable is that whites were the group that originated our modern concept of human rights.
And for virtually all of history women and blacks couldn’t vote — anywhere — because no one could vote.
Until whites invented democracy.
It was born in Athens, Greece 2500 years ago. And modern constitutional republics were originated by whites as well.
Having said all this, I’ll now admit I’ve been wrong in denying the reality of white privilege. It certainly exists.
It’s the privilege from which anyone who resides in a primarily white nation benefits. People who live in Western lands enjoy a lifestyle unparalleled in history or anywhere in the rest of the world. As Thomas Sowell wrote recently addressing Barack Obama’s classless impugning of our country while in India, “[W]hat Obama called ‘terrible poverty’ in America would be called prosperity in India.”
This brings us to the fact that there is black privilege as well. It’s not enjoyed by most black people, who live in Africa often in misery and under despotism. But in the U.S. it means benefitting from quotas, affirmative-action, set-asides, immunity from many kinds of criticism, and the latitude to make racial remarks and jokes that would destroy whites’ careers.
Some may now fault me for framing all this in racial terms. But how else can one address a race-based claim such as white privilege? Don’t write the check if you don’t want it cashed.
It could also seem as if I’m engaging in white triumphalism. But while the causes of civilizations’ varying degrees of success constitute an interesting topic too complex to explore here, know that I don’t consider cultural and technological advancement a purely white domain. Egypt and China were once dominant powers, and China may become so again. But I am trying to balance the scales.
This returns us to my opening Lincoln line. If you focus on a person’s sins to the exclusion of his good deeds, you can make him appear the Devil incarnate. It’s fashionable today to look for the worst in whites, and because of this people are sure to find it. And the result is that we will hear things such as, to quote late leftist writer Susan Sontag, “The white race is the cancer of human history.”
But, of course, whites do have certain crimes to answer for. As an example and in an interesting irony, it seems it was a white man who disgorged the concept of white privilege.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/les-brown-quote.png384640Selwyn Dukehttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngSelwyn Duke2015-02-05 06:34:452015-02-05 06:34:45The Real White Privilege and My Radio Race War
ORLANDO – The Trail Life USA Board of Directors recently issued a Memorandum of Ministry Association with P.R.A.Y. (Programs of Religious Activities with Youth), formalizing the use of its materials as one of the options for Trailmen in the Spiritual Development aim of Trail Life USA.
Of the formal partnership, Trail Life USA CEO Mark Hancock responded, “Trail Life USA is excited about our partnership with P.R.A.Y. Our Christ-centered missions perfectly complement one another; we hope to further impact boys and their families with our shared focus on Christian growth.”
In September 2014 the P.R.A.Y. Board of Directors approved Trail Life USA as a “Youth Agency Member,” with P.R.A.Y. CEO Mark Hazlewood explaining, “P.R.A.Y. is all about bringing children, youth, and families to Christ, and Trail Life USA is a perfect fit for us. We welcome them as a member of P.R.A.Y. and look forward to ministry together!”
In addition to the P.R.A.Y. religious offerings, the Trail Life USA program also incorporates materials from the National Catholic Committee of Trail Life USA (NCCTL), the Members of the Churches of Christ for Scouting (MCCS), the Eastern Orthodox Committee on Scouting (EOCS), Manhood Journey, and participation in other religious activities within Trail Life USA including the Worthy Life Program, Values Frontier Elective Trail Badges, the Trail Life USA Spiritual Development Award, the Delta Life Discipleship Program Options, and the Freedom Experience Christian Education options.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/trail-life-usa-banner-e1389214408843.jpg237640Dr. Rich Swierhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngDr. Rich Swier2015-02-04 08:11:272015-02-04 08:11:27Trail Life USA Signs Memorandum with P.R.A.Y.
January 29, 2015, was Hijab Day at NP3 High School, in Sacramento, California. One student who is interning for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) gave a presentation on Islamophobia and in no time at all, the befuddled faculty, staff and students were “encouraged” by principal, Tom Rutten, to wear a hijab – a veil that covers the woman’s head and chest.
What began as the seventh century Bedouin woman’s attempt at privacy and protection from the desert has become a veil symbolic of a woman’s indignity and servitude. As Nonie Darwish so aptly explained in her book, Cruel and Usual Punishment, women have come to represent the totality of evil and inferiority in Islamic teaching.
Considered lacking in intelligence and religion, women are seen as half the worth of men in a Shari’a court; in the case of rape, her accusation has no worth without four witnesses. Women may be raped for wearing “indecent” clothing, and beaten by their husbands for leaving the house unaccompanied by a male relative. If her behavior further irritates, he may imprison her without food and clothing, and arrange for stoning until dead. In this despotic society, women bear the honor of the male, so that girls and women may be killed by a father who fears his esteem has been sullied.
The hijabs and burqas serve the purpose of enforcing women to obey Shari’a and submit to men. Furthermore, they are obligated to defend this life of bondage or else risk their own destruction at the hand of their families. It is because of such constant fear, that many women are defensive when challenged by non-Muslims. Some may even try to earn honor and respect by joining the radicals for violent jihad (holy war against the infidel).
To cultures that enjoy freedom, these concealed women should be regarded victims of sadism, forced to endure the insufferable heat of the subtropics under layers of clothing, and prevented from enjoying the summer sun and cool breezes. In fact, medical experts have noted that these covered women in northern climes, with less sunshine, are suffering disproportionately from osteoporosis due to the lack of Vitamin D, and experiencing an increased risk of pelvic fracture during childbirth. Their newborns are more prone to suffering seizures from the same deficiency.
Islamic law is concerned more with raping, beating, flogging, and stoning women than with honoring them. Shari’a law demands that women be covered from head to toe as a way of solving the male’s sexual temptations. Rather than teach the males self-restraint and respect, the woman shoulders the responsibility of hiding herself. Tragically, because some women want to appear obedient to their god and men, other women bear the burden of ridicule and targets of fatwas (legal opinions that often lead to threats of death).
Tom Rutten, the principal, and Scott Dosick, president of the Board of Trustees of the Natomas Unified School District, appear to be gullible and ill-informed. Whether somehow compelled or naively eager to please, they have, albeit temporarily, aligned the school to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood – both recognized as terrorist groups by the United States government. The usual claims are trumpeted, that this is to promote a deeper understanding between different faiths, but the interchange will predictably be in one direction only. The Muslims will not be required to don a Jewish kippah or a Catholic Sister’s habit, neither would they consider doing so this side of Paradise.
Rather than guide the new immigrants in becoming Americans, as previous ethnic groups have done, the school has accepted the customs from those who refuse to assimilate. When an intruder or invader makes demands (no matter how subtle) that are met with compliance and submission from the host, it is conquest, not assimilation. I am concerned about how the school will handle future requests, such as visiting the local mosque, installing footbaths in the restrooms, removing foods from the cafeteria that Muslims find offensive and demanding for halal foods, removing animal pictures they consider distasteful, removing Israel from a map, eliminating all historic information about the Ancient Israelites, and allowing a room and time for Muslim prayer.. These are among the many incremental adjustments to result in a gradual change of America as we know it.
The student, a representative of CAIR, whose motto is, “We are not here to be equal to other religions; we are here to dominate,” also conducted a discussion on Islamophobia, a term used to curb our freedom of speech by teaching non-Muslims to refrain from language they find offensive, including the violent history of Mohammed and Islam, the brutality of Sharia law, the truths about the treatment of women and sexual slavery, the 1400 years of Islamic savagery perpetrated by Muslims against all others, jihad and terrorism, studying democracy, and learning about Israel. By curbing our children’s free speech, behaviors, and dress choices, they are destroying our own cultural thoughts and behaviors, producing submissive adults. They have eliminated from the history books all Islamic violence, and the history and founding of America, including the Constitution and Bill of Rights. As our freedoms of thought and discussion are eroded, so are our cultural enthusiasm and growth. They are working to transform Americans into their image – one of a backward, destructive desert people.
CAIR has “engaged in more than 100 political influence operations on behalf of foreign principals in the United States.” I am deeply concerned that the school authorities knew that the student was an intern for the Hamas-linked terror organization, CAIR, the worldwide organization that is linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, supports terrorism, and seeks to implement Sharia-based governance globally. I am concerned that they could not or would not protect themselves and their students from the stealth cultural onslaught.
Therefore, in all fairness and in the interest of equality and mutual understanding, I ask Mr. Rutten and Mr. Dosick to please inform me when they will schedule the next days of honor for other religions, and precisely how they’ll equalize the programs. In that way, all the students may learn to appreciated each other and grow to be proud Americans with their rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness intact, each in his/her own way.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/jihad-woman.jpg429640Tabitha Korolhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngTabitha Korol2015-02-03 06:07:392015-02-03 06:07:39World Hijab Day: A Rutten Experience
You don’t have to be a Christian to appreciate the deceit in this canard. You can be a person of any faith or no faith at all. You just have to appreciate facts.
I first heard something similar to this cliché some 40 years ago. As a Christian, I was puzzled. In Christ’s view, the most important decision a person would make in his earthly lifetime was to accept or reject Him for whom He claimed to be—God in the flesh and the savior of mankind. That decision was clearly to be a very personal one—an individual and voluntary choice. He constantly stressed inner, spiritual renewal as far more critical to well-being than material things. I wondered, “How could the same Christ advocate the use of force to take stuff from some and give it to others?” I just couldn’t imagine Him supporting a fine or a jail sentence for people who don’t want to fork over their money for food stamp programs.
“Wait a minute,” you say. “Didn’t He answer, ‘Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s’ when the Pharisees tried to trick Him into denouncing a Roman-imposed tax?” Yes indeed, He did say that. It’s found first in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 22, verses 15-22 and later in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 12, verses 13-17. But notice that everything depends on just what did truly belong to Caesar and what didn’t, which is actually a rather powerful endorsement of property rights. Christ said nothing like “It belongs to Caesar if Caesar simply says it does, no matter how much he wants, how he gets it, or how he chooses to spend it.”
The fact is, one can scour the Scriptures with a fine-tooth comb and find nary a word from Christ that endorses the forcible redistribution of wealth by political authorities. None, period.
“But didn’t Christ say he came to uphold the law?” you ask. Yes, in Matthew 5: 17-20, he declares, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” In Luke 24: 44, He clarifies this when he says “…[A]ll things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.” He was not saying, “Whatever laws the government passes, I’m all for.” He was speaking specifically of the Mosaic Law (primarily the Ten Commandments) and the prophecies of His own coming.
Consider the 8th of the Ten Commandments: “You shall not steal.” Note the period after the word “steal.” This admonition does not read, “You shall not steal unless the other guy has more than you do” or “You shall not steal unless you’re absolutely positive you can spend it better than the guy who earned it.” Nor does it say, “You shall not steal but it’s OK to hire someone else, like a politician, to do it for you.”
In case people were still tempted to steal, the 10th Commandment is aimed at nipping in the bud one of the principal motives for stealing (and for redistribution): “You shall not covet.” In other words, if it’s not yours, keep your fingers off of it.
In Luke 12: 13-15, Christ is confronted with a redistribution request. A man with a grievance approaches him and demands, “Master, speak to my brother and make him divide the inheritance with me.” The Son of God, the same man who wrought miraculous healings and calmed the waves, replies thusly: “Man, who made mea judge or divider over you? Take heed and beware of covetousness, for a man’s wealth does not consist of the material abundance he possesses.” Wow! He could have equalized the wealth between two men with a wave of His hand but he chose to denounce envy instead.
“What about the story of the Good Samaritan? Doesn’t that make a case for government welfare programs, if not outright redistribution?” you inquire. The answer is an emphatic NO!” Consider the details of the story, as recorded in Luke 10: 29-37: A traveler comes upon a man at the side of a road. The man had been beaten and robbed and left half-dead. What did the traveler do? He helped the man himself, on the spot, with his own resources. He did not say, “Write a letter to the emperor” or “Go see your social worker” and walk on. If he had done that, he would more likely be known today as the “Good-for-nothing Samaritan,” if he was remembered at all.
What about the reference, in the Book of Acts, to the early Christians selling their worldly goods and sharing communally in the proceeds? That sounds like a progressive utopia. On closer inspection, however, it turns out that those early Christians did not sell everything they had and were not commanded or expected to do so. They continued to meet in their own private homes, for example. In his contributing chapter to the 2014 book, “For the Least of These: A Biblical Answer to Poverty,” Art Lindsley of the Institute for Faith, Work and Economics writes,
Again, in this passage from Acts, there is no mention of the state at all. These early believers contributed their goods freely, without coercion, voluntarily. Elsewhere in Scripture we see that Christians are even instructed to give in just this manner, freely, for “God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7). There is plenty of indication that private property rights were still in effect….
It may disappoint progressives to learn that Christ’s words and deeds repeatedly upheld such critically-important, capitalist virtues as contract, profit and private property. For example, consider His “Parable of the Talents” (see one of the recommended readings below). Of several men in the story, the one who takes his money and buries it is reprimanded while the one who invests and generates the largest return is applauded and rewarded.
Though not central to the story, good lessons in supply-and-demand as well as the sanctity of contract are apparent in Christ’s “Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard.” A landowner offers a wage to attract workers for a day of urgent work picking grapes. Near the end of the day, he realizes he has to quickly hire more and to get them, he offers for an hour of work what he previously had offered to pay the first workers for the whole day. When one of those who worked all day complained, the landowner answered, “I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?”
The well-known “Golden Rule” comes from the lips of Christ Himself, in Matthew 7:12. “So in everything, do unto others what you would have them do unto you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” In Matthew 19:18, Christ says, “…love your neighbor as yourself.” Nowhere does He even remotely suggest that we should dislike a neighbor because of his wealth or seek to take that wealth from him. If you don’t want your property confiscated (and most people don’t, and wouldn’t need a thief in order to part with it anyway), then clearly you’re not supposed to confiscate somebody else’s.
Christian doctrine cautions against greed. So does present-day economist Thomas Sowell: “I have never understood why it is ‘greed’ to want to keep the money you have earned but not greed to want to take somebody else’s money.” Using the power of government to grab another person’s property isn’t exactly altruistic. Christ never even implied that accumulating wealth through peaceful commerce was in any way wrong; He simply implored people to not allow wealth to rule them or corrupt their character. That’s why His greatest apostle, Paul, didn’t say money was evil in the famous reference in 1 Timothy 6:10. Here’s what Paul actually said: “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” Indeed, progressives themselves have not selflessly abandoned money, for it is other people’s money, especially that of “the rich,” that they’re always clamoring for.
In Matthew 19:23, Christ says, “Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to get into the kingdom of heaven.” A progressive might say, “Eureka! There it is! He doesn’t like rich people” and then stretch the remark beyond recognition to justify just about any rob-Peter-to-pay-Paul scheme that comes down the pike. But this admonition is entirely consistent with everything else Christ says. It’s not a call to envy the rich, to take from the rich or to give “free” cell phones to the poor. It’s a call to character. It’s an observation that some people let their wealth rule them, rather than the other way around. It’s a warning about temptations (which come in many forms, not just material wealth). Haven’t we all noticed that among the rich, as is equally true among the poor, you have both good and bad people? Haven’t we all seen some rich celebrities corrupted by their fame and fortune, while others among the rich live perfectly upstanding lives? Haven’t we all seen some poor people who allow their poverty to demoralize and enervate them, while others among the poor view it as an incentive to improve?
In Christ’s teachings and in many other parts of the New Testament, Christians—indeed, all people—are advised to be of “generous spirit,” to care for one’s family, to help the poor, to assist widows and orphans, to exhibit kindness and to maintain the highest character. How all that gets translated into the dirty business of coercive, vote-buying, politically-driven redistribution schemes is a problem for prevaricators with agendas. It’s not a problem for scholars of what the Bible actually says and doesn’t say.
Search your conscience. Consider the evidence. Be mindful of facts. And ask yourself: “When it comes to helping the poor, would Christ prefer that you give your money freely to the Salvation Army or at gunpoint to the welfare department?
Christ was no dummy. He was not interested in the public professions of charitableness in which the legalistic and hypocritical Pharisees were fond of engaging. He dismissed their self-serving, cheap talk. He knew it was often insincere, rarely indicative of how they conducted their personal affairs, and always a dead-end with plenty of snares and delusions along the way. It would hardly make sense for him to champion the poor by supporting policies that undermine the process of wealth creation necessary to help them. In the final analysis, He would never endorse a scheme that doesn’t work and is rooted in envy or theft. In spite of the attempts of many modern-day progressives to make Him into Robin Hood, He was nothing of the sort.
Summary
Free will, not coercion, is a central and consistent element in the teachings of Christ.
It is not recorded anywhere that Christ called for the state to use its power to redistribute wealth.
Christ endorsed things like choice, charity, generosity, kindness, personal responsibility, and voluntary association—things that are irreconcilable with coercively-financed redistribution schemes.
Lawrence W. (“Larry”) Reed became president of FEE in 2008 after serving as chairman of its board of trustees in the 1990s and both writing and speaking for FEE since the late 1970s. Prior to becoming FEE’s president, he served for 20 years as president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Midland, Michigan. He also taught economics full-time from 1977 to 1984 at Northwood University in Michigan and chaired its department of economics from 1982 to 1984.
EDITORS NOTE: The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) is proud to partner with Young America’s Foundation (YAF) to produce “Clichés of Progressivism,” a series of insightful commentaries covering topics of free enterprise, income inequality, and limited government. See the index of the published chapters here.As an organization unaffiliated with any particular faith, FEE encourages other perspectives on such matters. Mr. Reed wishes readers to understand that his personal perspective is not intended to proselytize for any particular faith or church but to illuminate his interpretation of the moral and economic dimension of Christ.)
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/20150129_jesusmosaicdetail.png313631Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFoundation for Economic Education (FEE)2015-01-31 15:50:472015-01-31 15:51:57CLICHÉS OF PROGRESSIVISM #42 – “Jesus Christ Was a Progressive Because He Advocated Income Redistribution to Help the Poor”
AEI’s National Mortgage Risk Index for Agency purchase loans hit a series high of 11.84% in December, with FHA and VA hitting their own series highs. The addition of about 215,000 loans brought the total number of risk-rated loans to 5.3 million.
All of the indices except Fannie/Freddie rose in December and hit series highs. If FHA were to adopt VA’s risk management practices, the composite index would drop to about 9%.
Origination Shares and MRIs by Lender Type
A dramatic decline in purchase loan market share for large banks continued in December, offset by an equally dramatic increase in the nonbank share. Large banks are the only lender type with net MRI decline since November 2012; hence, we must look beyond large banks to asses credit trends.
First-time Homebuyer Share of Purchase Loans*
The share for the combination of government-guaranteed and private-sector loans was estimated to be 50% in December, well above the comparable figure in the latest NAR survey of home buyers (36%).
Additional Detail on Total DTIs
37% of Fannie/Freddie loans have total DTIs > 38%, up from 14% in 1990 (based on Fannie random sample).
FHA and VA have a sizable share of loans with DTIs > 50%, an extremely high pre-tax payment burden. VA’s residual-income underwriting is key to limiting defaults.
High total DTIs crowd out participation in defined contribution retirement plans such as 401(k)s, most of which come with employer match. These provide a reliable and attractive means for private wealth accumulation, particularly for lower-income families.
Range of SMRIs for Home Purchase Loans Across States
There is a wide range for the composite SMRI, and states at the extremes tend to have low or high concentrations of FHA/RHS loans. The variation across states for Fannie/Freddie SMRI is narrow. The SMRI for FHA/RHS loans is uniformly high – above 20% in 48 states—, while the SMRI for VA loans is roughly half that for FHA/RHS loans at both the low and high end.
Housing Risk in Major California Metro Areas
House price risk in California is relatively high and has risen substantially since 2012.
Combination of elevated mortgage and housing cycle risk in historically volatile California market cause for concern, especially in lower income and minority areas such as Riverside-San Bernardino and Central Valley.
Housing Risk in Major Texas Metro Areas
While not as high as in California, house price risk in the top four metros in Texas is generally well above the national average and has risen since 2012. The plunge in oil prices will increase house price risk in Texas.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/179-Underwater.jpg364600Edward Pintohttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngEdward Pinto2015-01-29 08:00:422015-01-29 08:12:03California Housing Market Bubble Set to Burst — Will America Be Next?
