Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Islam intrinsically violent

ITALIAN editor and critic of Islamic extremism Magdi Allam, who converted to Catholicism from Islam and was baptised by Pope Benedict XVI, today branded his former faith as intrinsically violent. "I had to do this (abandon Islam)", Allam wrote in a long letter to the Italian daily Corriere della Sera. "Beyond ... the phenomenon of extremists and Islamist terrorism at the global level, the root of evil is inherent to a physiologically violent and historically conflictual Islam," wrote the Egyptian-born journalist, who says he has received death threats and is under police protection.

One of seven adults baptised during an Easter vigil yesterday evening, Allam, 55, is an editorial writer and deputy editor at Corriere. Regarding a combative tone that has made him famous in Italy, Allam wrote: "Over the years my spirit has been freed from the obscurantism of an ideology that legitimises lies and deception, violent death that leads to homicide and suicide, blind submission to tyranny." He described Catholicism as "an authentic religion of Truth, Life and Freedom".

By baptising Allam in the public ceremony, the Pope "sent an explicit and revolutionary message to a church that until now has been too cautious in the conversion of Muslims ... because of the fear of being unable to protect the converted who are condemned to death for apostasy," Allam said. "Thousands of people in Italy have converted to Islam and practise their faith serenely," he wrote. "But there are also thousands of Muslims who have converted to Christianity who are forced to hide their new faith out of fear of being killed by Islamist terrorists."

Allam adopted the Christian name of Cristiano (Christian), not a common name in Italy. Allam, who has been outspoken about the conflict in the Middle East, in 2006 organised a demonstration in Rome in support of Christians in the Muslim world.

Source



Unseen Wilder's Film Causes Global Hysteria

It's almost as bad as if someone on Wall Street yelled "HIV/AIDS is transmissible by paper money, AAAaaaa!" and everyone began running around in wretched agony.

Geert Wilder's 10-minute film "Fitna" has created a nearly identical hysteria, but globally. A film nobody has seen, which nobody can comment about, except that Wilders says it will quote from the Koran, and show the real-world consequences when people believe in those quotes and act upon them. Like, Koran quotes of Muhammed demanding the deaths of infidels, followed by real-world scenes of infidels being killed by angry Muslims. Or Muhammed approving of little girls being married to old bearded men, followed by real images of frightened little girls being married to old bearded men. Or Big Mo declaring "smite them at their necks" followed by you-know-what.

Apparently this kind of "reality TV" is really "too much" for the mainstream media, which prides itself on showing just about every kind of twisted lie and perversion-as-heath, to validate their allegiance to the First Amendment. But some Truth About Islam? Come on. "That's old fashioned"! "Instead, let's take these American and Israeli dolls and stick those long pins into them."

Consequently no EU TV or cable station will show it. You Tube has banned it. Governments are prepared to step in and stop it, maybe to arrest Wilders for daring to say he will show such a film, even though he hasn't. It is already a "thought crime" of the highest magnitude.

You can distribute and post "kill the Jews" rants from Hamas and Hezbollah, show beheading videos and Osama Bin Ladin's Favorite Fatwas, circulate them on DVD and YouTube and show them in mosques, swap them on Blueberry's and cell phones in the schools, and that's A-OK. But a ten minute film which matches Koran quotes with Muslim behavior... why, you must be mad! That's outrageous and unacceptable! A matter for the United Nations! Quick, throw the provocateur into prison!

Wilder's continues to get death-threats from all the Islamo-bomb-heads, jail-threats from his political foes, and the moderate Muslims are totally smugly silent. So, Wilders created a website with plans to make his film available as a free download, here: http://www.fitnathemovie.com/

I've checked that website several times over the last week, and it merely showed a colorful image of the Koran, with beautiful calligraphy Arabic script ("there is no god but Allah," etc.) with the sentence "Fitna, the Movie, coming soon". So periodically, people with interests in Wilder's film have checked that one-page website, in anticipation...

But if you missed it.... Too Late! Take a look at that website today, as it has been blocked by Network Solutions, the webhost.
This site has been suspended while Network Solutions is investigating whether the site's content is in violation of the Network Solutions Acceptable Use Policy. Network Solutions has received a number of complaints regarding this site that are under investigation. For more information about Network Solutions Acceptable Use Policy visit the following URL: http://www.networksolutions.com/legal/aup.jsp
Apparently, all the Islamofascists and their leftist friends have been barraging Network Solutions to halt this truth-telling film. Network Solutions will therefore go the way of Google in Communist China, except in this case, it will be censoring truth-fact content aimed at Western audiences, even as jihad-terror websites, porno-websites, and piracy-copyright websites continue to be available without so much as a problem. So much for the First Amendment, up for sale to the highest Islamic bidders, and negotiable to complaints by all the left-wing advocates of PC.

Michelle Malkin has an item on it, which might provide updates. Will any American company host "Fitna?"

And in case you are wondering where all of this is leading... "Scholars" demand laws criminalizing "insults" to Islam

If this situation bothers you, you can register your complaint with Network Solutions directly, against internet censorship, and urge the ending of the forbiddance of the Wilder's film, here: difm@networksolutions.com

Source



Bush admin appoints Muslim apologist to represent it

I wrote in NR last year about the Administration's peculiar decision to appoint the first ever US envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, a sort of European Union or British Commonwealth for Muslim countries. Fifty-seven nations (or over a quarter of all sovereign states) are members, and it comprises the largest voting bloc on the new UN Human Rights Council, which is why that body is entirely useless except as the umpteenth rod with which to flay the Zionist Entity. It seemed a safe bet that whoever got the nod from the State Department for the OIC gig would use it not to disabuse them of their illusions but to peddle a lot of equivalist mush. So meet Sada Cumber:
The technology tycoon who swapped Karachi for Texas 31 years ago, also told AFP in an interview that many major religions face the same kind of "bigotry" as Muslims who have launched a campaign against 'Islamophobia'. The widely debated "clash of civilizations" is really a "clash of ignorance", said Cumber, who this month became the first US special envoy to the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and launched his campaign at the 57-nation group's summit in Dakar on Thursday and Friday...

The United States is widely criticised in Muslim states for the Iraq war, the Guantanamo "War on Terror" prison camp and its policy in the Middle East... Polls in the United States indicate however that many Americans are equally suspicious of Muslims, particularly after the September 11, 2001 attacks...

Leaders complained widely during the summit about 'Islamophobia' in the West - Muslims portrayed as terrorists, Danish cartoons which lampooned the Prophet Mohammed and an anti-Islam film to be released by a far-right Dutch MP. Cumber said everyone at the summit understood that only a "minute minority" was involved. "Very few people do this anti-religion, and they don't leave Jews alone, they don't leave Christians alone and they don't leave Muslims alone." He added: "They are bigots and bigotry will always be there. So how much time, effort, assets, whatever, do you want to invest in that?"
Quite a lot. The OIC is at the forefront of efforts to, in effect, criminalize any criticism of Islam worldwide, and they're getting quite a lot of support from their patsies in the west.

Source



Asians vs. blacks

Back in the late 1980s I was on a plane flying out of New Orleans and sitting next to me was a rather interesting and, according to Barack Obama, unusual black man. Friendly, gregarious, and wise beyond his years, we immediately hit it off. I had been working on Vietnamese commercial fishing boats for a few years based in southern Louisiana. The boats were owned by the recent wave of Vietnamese refugees who flooded into the familiar tropical environment after the war. Floating in calm seas out in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, I would hear tearful songs and tales from ex-paratroopers about losing brothers, sisters, parents, children, lovers, and beautiful Vietnam itself to the communists.

In Bayou country I lived on boats and in doublewide trailers, and like the rest of the Vietnamese refugees, I shopped at Wal-Mart and ate a lot of rice. When they arrived in Louisiana the refugees had no money (the money that they had was used to bribe their way out of Vietnam and into refugee camps in Thailand), few friends, and a mostly unfriendly and suspicious local population.

They did however have strong families, a strong work ethic, and the "Audacity of Hope." Within a generation, with little or no knowledge of English, the Vietnamese had achieved dominance in the fishing industry there and their children were already achieving the top SAT scores in the state.

While I had been fishing my new black friend had been working as a prison psychologist in Missouri, and he was pursuing a higher degree in psychology. He was interested in my story, and after about an hour getting to know each other I asked him point blank why these Vietnamese refugees, with no money, friends, or knowledge of the language could be, within a generation, so successful. I also asked him why it was so difficult to convince young black men to abandon the streets and take advantage of the same kinds of opportunities that the Vietnamese had recently embraced.

His answer, only a few words, not only floored me but became sort of a razor that has allowed me ever since to slice through all of the rhetoric regarding race relations that Democrats shovel our way during election season:
"We're owed and they aren't."
In short, he concluded, "they're hungry and we think we're owed. It's crushing us, and as long as we think we're owed we're going nowhere."

A good test case for this theory is Katrina. Obama, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and assorted white apologists continue to express anger and outrage over the federal response to the Katrina disaster. But where were the Vietnamese "leaders" expressing their "anger?" The Vietnamese comprise a substantial part of the New Orleans population, and yet are absent was any report claiming that the Vietnamese were "owed" anything. This is not to say that the federal response was an adequate one, but we need to take this as a sign that maybe the problem has very little to do with racism and a lot to with a mindset.

The mindset that one is "owed" something in life has not only affected black mobility in business but black mobility in education as well. Remember Ward Churchill? About fifteen years ago he was my boss. After leaving the fishing boats, I attended graduate school at the University of Colorado at Boulder. I managed to get a job on campus teaching expository writing to minority students who had been accepted provisionally into the university on an affirmative action program. And although I never met him, Ward Churchill, in addition to teaching in the ethnic studies department, helped to develop and organize the minority writing program.

The job paid most of my bills, but what I witnessed there was absolutely horrifying. The students were encouraged to write essays attacking the white establishment from every conceivable angle and in addition to defend affirmative action and other government programs. Of the hundreds of papers that I read, there was not one original contribution to the problem of black mobility that strayed from the party line.

The irony of it all however is that the "white establishment" managed to get them into the college and pay their entire tuition. Instead of being encouraged to study international affairs, classical or modern languages, philosophy or art, most of these students became ethnic studies or sociology majors because it allowed them to remain in disciplines whose orientation justified their existence at the university. In short, it became a vicious cycle.

There was a student there I'll never forget. He was plucked out of the projects in Denver and given a free ride to the university. One day in my office he told me that his mother had said the following to him: "M.J., they owe you this. White people at that university owe you this." M.J.'s experience at the university was a glorious fulfillment of his mother's angst.

There were black student organizations and other clubs that "facilitated" the minority student's experience on the majority white and "racist" campus, in addition to a plethora of faculty members, both white and black, who encouraged the same animus toward the white establishment. While adding to their own bona fides as part of the trendy Left, these "facilitators" supplied M.J. with everything he needed to quench his and his mother's anger, but nothing in the way of advice about how to succeed in college. No one, in short, had told M.J. that he needed to study. But since he was "owed" everything, why put out any effort on his own?

In a fit of despair after failing most of his classes, M.J. wandered into my office one Friday afternoon in the middle of the semester and asked if I could help him out. I asked M.J. about his plans that evening, and he told me that he usually attended parties on Friday and Saturday nights. I told him that if he agreed to meet me in front of the university library at 6:00pm I would buy him dinner. At 6pm M.J. showed up, and for the next twenty minutes we wandered silently through the stacks, lounges, and study areas of the library. When we arrived back at the entrance I asked M.J. if he noticed anything interesting. As we headed up the hill to a popular burger joint, M.J. turned to me and said:
"They were all Asian. Everyone in there was Asian, and it was Friday night."
Nothing I could do, say, or show him, however, could match the fire power of his support system favoring anger. I was sad to hear of M.J. dropping out of school the following semester.

During my time teaching in the writing program, I watched Asians get transformed via leftist doublespeak from "minorities" to "model minorities" to "they're not minorities" in precise rhythm to their fortunes in business and education. Asians were "minorities" when they were struggling in this country, but they became "model minorities" when they achieved success. Keep in mind "model minority" did not mean what most of us think it means, i.e., something to emulate. "Model minority" meant that Asians had certain cultural advantages, such as a strong family tradition and a culture of scholarship that the black community lacked.

To suggest that intact families and a philosophy of self-reliance could be the ticket to success would have undermined the entire angst establishment. Because of this it was improper to use Asian success as a model. The contortions the left exercised in order to defend this ridiculous thesis helped to pave the way for the elimination of Asians altogether from the status of "minority." This whole process took only a few years. Eric Hoffer said:
"...you do not win the weak by sharing your wealth with them; it will but infect them with greed and resentment. You can win the weak only by sharing your pride, hope or hatred with them."
We now know that Barack Obama really has no interest in the "audacity of hope." With his race speech, Obama became a peddler of angst, resentment and despair. Too bad he doesn't direct that angst at the liberal establishment that has sold black people a bill of goods since the 1960s. What Obama seems angry about is America itself and what it stands for; the same America that has provided fabulous opportunities for what my black friend called "hungry" minorities. Strong families, self-reliance, and a spirit of entrepreneurship should be held up as ideals for all races to emulate. In the end, we should be very suspicious about Obama's anger and the recent frothings of his close friend Reverend Wright. Says Eric Hoffer:
The fact seems to be that we are least open to precise knowledge concerning the things we are most vehement about. Vehemence is the expression of a blind effort to support and uphold something that can never stand on its own.
Source

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Political correctness is most pervasive in universities and colleges but I rarely report the incidents concerned here as I have a separate blog for educational matters.

American "liberals" often deny being Leftists and say that they are very different from the Communist rulers of other countries. The only real difference, however, is how much power they have. In America, their power is limited by democracy. To see what they WOULD be like with more power, look at where they ARE already very powerful: in America's educational system -- particularly in the universities and colleges. They show there the same respect for free-speech and political diversity that Stalin did: None. So look to the colleges to see what the whole country would be like if "liberals" had their way. It would be a dictatorship.

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, GREENIE WATCH, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here. For times when blogger.com is playing up, there are mirrors of this site here and here.

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