Sunday, January 22, 2012
Over the past few weeks we have learned that Norwegian police officers and judges may be allowed to wear Muslim headscarves while acting in their official capacities, and that a Muslim woman is touring schools instructing students on the wonders of wearing the veil.
Bruce Bawr writes that 20-something Aisha Shezadi Kausar has been lecturing students on the veil as a “feminist choice.” She claims the veil is part of her “struggle for freedom” (George Orwell is spinning) and that the only reasons for opposing veils are “prejudice” and “fear of foreigners.”
And the kicker, according to Bawr, is that the brainwashing sessions are sponsored not by some radical Muslim organization but by leftist literary groups.
Perhaps Ms. Kausar should also teach the girls that the headscarf or veil may save them from being raped. Norway has a rape epidemic, with police statistics showing it is mostly Muslim men raping white native Norwegian girls. Muslim men have said in Norwegian news reports that women who don’t wear a headscarf or veil are whores.
It is truly bizarre that leftists and feminists champion a religion, Islam, in which women have the legal status of minors,which reserves the right to beat or kill women with impugnity, and views non-Muslim women as whores. But it’s nothing new; we have seen this strange coalition since before 9/11. I have stood in anti-Iraq War demos in Trafalgar square with a Wahhabi on one side and pot-smoking leftist radical on other. Both hate Western civilization.
Although it’s an annoying organization with its detractors within France, it would be instructive for the Norwegian students to know that there is actually an ex-Muslim women’s group called Ni Putes Ni Soumises (Neither Whores Nor Submissives, because Muslim women who wear the headscarf or veil are submissive, and are not free, in the eyes of Islamic law. Those who do not wear them are whores.
Norway is probably the most acute case of radical Islamization in Western Europe. With a relatively tiny population of under 5-million, Norway’s leftist government has embraced Hamas and scorned Israel, and thrown wide the gates to the radical Muslim agenda.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Where is the next Ronald Reagan when you need them? Never has the voter appetite been greater for a president who will truly change the disastrous course this country is on and return it to its original charter: a “beacon on a hill,” a source of light in the world by example and not by intervention; a haven of freedom with a very limited government that lives in fear of both the people and the constitution, and one that gets the heck out of the way of wealth creation and human ingenuity.
This is what we have in 2012: The Democrat in the White House, endorsed by a leading communist, continues his program to turn America into a bankrupt European welfare state.
And what of the Republican field? Pick your metaphor: Re-treads, scrap heap, bone pile; a collection of various career politicians, some of whom seem to have been running for 20 years, and most of whom have been hypocrites on government spending at one time or another.
When it comes to the Welfare State, almost all Republican lawmakers have been hypocrites, picking and choosing their favorite pork. If the economy were to turn up and the deficit shrank a little, I think most of this field would return to their limited modified pork barreling ways.
Each candidate has some core of true believers, but many GOP voters have one hand holding their noses while their other hand pulls the voting lever. With the current field, a truly spot-on conservative platform has yet to meet an electable candidate: the dream candidate, this generation’s Ronald Reagan.
In discussions with European conservatives (they’re called liberals over there—which is the correct usage of the word), I’m often asked why there are so few dynamic, electable, truly limited government conservatives running for Ppesident of the United States. Many were astonished that John McCain was the best the GOP could do in 2008.
I told them my opinion, which is that leftists who believe in big government naturally flock to Washington. The best and brightest progressives are enthusiastic about more laws, taxes, and regulations. But our best conservative leaders are off creating wealth, running companies or, as I put it, "coaching football teams."
America desperately needs another Reagan, a leader from outside the beltway, who hasn’t had his mind turned to jello by the sickening miasma that our national political culture has become, and who grasps the real God-ordained mission of this nation.
Monday, December 26, 2011
My hunch is that if Iraq does not completely collapse into sectarian violence and anarchy within half a year, it will peacefully slip into the control of Iran. And a very real issue in next year’s presidential election is likely to be “Who lost Iraq?”
America spilled precious blood and treasure to eliminate Saddam Hussein. But we traded a perceived threat for what few at the time realized would be a costly nation-building nightmare. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell famously warned about Iraq that if “we break it, we own it.”
In the heady early days of the Iraq War, it sounded like annoying carping, but it was exactly right. And we broke Iraq well. It’s still broken.
George W. Bush’s Wilsonian impulse to spread democracy and “nation-build” sprang from a belief expressed by Bush several times that all people want to live in freedom. And that is certainly not true.
Thirty-nine people died in Christmas day bombings in Nigeria because an Islamic terrorist group called Boko Haram demanded that “democracy and the constitution…be suspended."
Every people group does not want democracy. Some simply want more food or for someone else to die. Some are devoting their lives to the implementation of Islamic Sharia law, which brings backwardness, slavery, and barbarity.
In Iraq, the terrorist bombs started going off as soon as the last American troops were out of the country. The attacks last Thursday on majority Shiite areas are suspected by some as part of an Iranian-backed plot to re-ignite civil war against minority Sunnis.
Iraq’s Vice-President Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni, has been forced to hide in Kurdistan after being accused of murder and terrorism by the Iraq’s Shia-dominated government. Al-Hashimi speaks convincingly about how Iran has already successfully infiltrated the government and the Iraqi military, and is behind the false charges against him. A delegation of Iraqi generals went to Iran last month to explore greater military cooperation between the two countries.
Some argue that Turkey and Saudi Arabia will never allow Iraq to fall under Iranian influence, but that may be hard for them to prevent, when Iraq and Iran share such strong religious ties and a long border.
And if Iraq collapses or becomes a defacto satellite of Iran, a very toxic public debate will commence in this country over whether all those young American men and woman died in vain for a failed nation-building project half a world away, and who is responsible for “losing Iraq.”
Tuesday, December 06, 2011
It would be instructive for everyone, especially Europeans, to look again at old photos of soldiers merrily marching off to World War I. Their smiles and confidence reflected the prevailing view that they should expect a short, glorious war. But very few of those smiling men would return in one piece, if they returned at all.
For Europeans in 1914, it was simply impossible to imagine the enormous scope of the death and upheaval that was coming. Fifteen million would die. The borders would be re-drawn. All the major empires, from London to Istanbul, would fall or be mortally wounded. And the resulting political trauma would usher in Nazism and Marxism-Leninism, and then an even bloodier second world war.
No, Europe is not facing anything like the destruction that awaited it in 1914. But the continent also does not seem to fully grasp what is coming down the road, or what to do about it. Each new bailout announcement from Brussels is greeted in the media as final salvation, after last month’s announcement of final salvation didn’t cut it (because the bailout wasn’t big enough).
If there is one thing you can take to the bank, it’s that bailouts cannot save the euro. It should be self-evident from the way the bailouts have ballooned from from 100 billion, to 440 billion, to 780 billion to 2 trillion Euros. There is no realistic amount of money, and no easily implementable plan that can save the euro in its present form. And each new, bigger rescue plan is simply doubling down on a bad bet, contributing to a final collapse that will be even more spectacular than before.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told the French news magazine L’Express that Europe is facing an existential crisis that could lead to revolution and war. Today former German finance minister Peer Steinbrueck, warned that a collapse of the eurozone could reignite nationalism in Europe: "If the eurozone were to collapse, it could quickly lead to a political renationalization in Europe."
But these are like generals fighting the last war. The threat to Europe is not rising nationalism when the euro fails, but political collapse and extreme social chaos from economic devastation.
It was reported today that bank runs have begun in Greece. That’s what happens when monetary systems collapse. The rich flee, store shelves and bank vaults empty, and those unfortunate “have-nots” who are left are very, very unhappy. And what comes after that could indeed look like a replay of a very unpleasant period of European history.
Wednesday, November 09, 2011
Why are so many Muslim countries so backward economically? Six hundred million Muslims, one out of two, live in grinding poverty, 230 million in Islamic countries suffer from hunger.
Take away the oil wealth of some Middle East nations, and the situation gets exponentially worse. We’re talking about probably hundreds of millions more who would be living in squalor.
I have written in previous blogs the theory that Islam has wrecked culture and learning in the Middle East. Now, Mike Schuman, the outstanding economics correspondent at Time Magazine, has written an excellent piece about the roots of Muslim economic misery in The Curious Capitalist blog.
One conclusion is that the stricture of Islamic law strangles economic growth and business innovation.
I was reminded of what Gamal al-Banna, the brother of the Muslim Brotherhood founder, told Norwegian journalist Walid al-Kubaisi:
“The Muslim mind is rusty. It has done nothing for the last 1,000 years. One thousand years ago the innovation ended. What does that mean? It means that you act without thinking. Muslims have become like monkeys, only imitating others. This has lasted 1,000 years.”
The crux of the Muslim deficiency, from economics to culture to the scarcity of Nobel Prize winners, is modern Islam’s hostility toward human liberty. Al-Banna, known as a reformer within Islam, says, “There is no Islamic authority that respects freedom or democracy."
Some experts say Islam needs its own reformation, as Christianity experienced. But to bring Islam from the medieval period where it now squats and into the modern era would finish it as a major force in world affairs. Modernity and freedom are the enemy of modern Islam, eating away at its moral authority.
The great Islamic expert Bernard Lewis at Princeton told me that this is precisely why the Ayatollah Khomeini used the term the great tempter to describe America. Islam draws its considerable spiritual power through the use of fear and oppression, and from the control of women and young people.
Islam loses when it comes up against a vigorous and attractive Western culture. Birth rates fall. Views moderate. Islam can only dominate where Western culture is weak, and where there is a religious or cultural vacuum.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Spanish police are investigating the poisoning deaths of more than a dozen dogs in Lerida, Spain. Local residents believe they are being killed by Muslims.
Soeren Kern of the Hudson Institute, and the senior analyst for Transatlantic Relations at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos, writes “Muslims in Spain Declare Jihad on Dogs:”
“All of the dogs were poisoned in September in Lérida's working class neighbourhoods of Cappont and La Bordeta, districts that are heavily populated by Muslim immigrants and where many dogs have been killed in recent years. Local residents say Muslim immigrants killed the dogs because according to Islamic teaching dogs are "unclean" animals.
Over the past several months, residents taking their dogs for walks have been harassed by Muslim immigrants opposed to seeing the animals in public. Muslims have also launched a number of anti-dog campaigns on Islamic websites and blogs based in Spain.
In response to the "lack of sufficient police to protect the neighbourhood," 50 local residents have established alternating six-person citizen patrols to escort people walking their dogs.
Muslims in Lérida say the presence of dogs violates their religious freedom and their right to live according to Islamic principles.”
This is a very interesting period in Spain when there are the beginnings of push back against Islam after years of apathy.
In Catalonia, the city of Lerida has banned the burqa in public and the city of Salt has banned new mosques for one year. I’ll be bringing you some firsthand coverage from Spain in the weeks ahead.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Hundreds of Muslims have reportedly defied a French ban on outdoor prayer, which went into effect today. The French government announced Thursday it was banning praying outside and officials had pledged to enforce it.
French interior minister Claude Gueant said he had nothing against Islam but wanted it out of the public eye because France was a secular state. Here is my story about Muslim prayers in the streets of Paris. I'm told that it had a big political impact in France.
Meanwhile, the Dutch prime minister says the government has drawn up legislation to ban face-covering veils such as the burqa, worn by some Muslim women.
Mark Rutte says the proposed ban will be sent to the government's legal advisory body, the Council of State, before lawmakers vote on it. The legislative process is expected to take months.
The government said in a statement Friday that the ban aims at "protecting the character and customs of public life in the Netherlands."
If, as expected, parliament approves the ban, the Netherlands will follow France and Belgium in outlawing the veil.
Both of these laws stand up for important principles in the struggle over Islamization in Europe. But the demographic statistics are the ticking time bomb.
Muslim immigrant birth rates have been so high compared to native birthrates, that someday large Muslim political blocs in each nation might team up with the far Left to simply overturn any laws deemed anti-Muslim.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
I was sent to New York on 9/11 and left from Virginia Beach with a camera crew at mid-day. All flights were grounded, so we drove.
We stopped first in a largely deserted Washington. I remember it feeling like I was in a real life Hollywood "end of the world" movie.
We arrived in Newark around midnight and could see from across the river the dust cloud hovering over lower Manhattan, illuminated by the work lights from Ground Zero. I have said many times that it seemed to me to be a reminder of the presence of God.
The bridges and tunnels into Manhattan were closed, so we continued north some 20 miles, crossing over at Tarrytown and headed back down into Yonkers. We talked our way through some police road blocks and into the Bronx, and then drove down into the deserted streets of New York City in the early hours of Sept. 12.
All of Manhattan smelled of an electrical fire, and that ubiquitous gray dust from the remains of the World Trade Center was blowing through the air and down the streets.
We went to Ground Zero and interviewed police officers and watched dump truck after dump truck carry debris away from the crater.
The next morning after a live shot we walked to Washington Square and saw all the desperate notices with photos pinned to a wall at the memorial. "Have you seen?" spouses, fathers, mothers, friends, brothers, sisters; all who had worked in the World Trade Center.
I think about that feeling that I was somehow in an "end of the world" movie. It certainly was the end of one world, and the beginning of another.
It was the end of a world in which we felt invulnerable to the forces that have for so long wanted to kill us.
It was the beginning of a new world in which those of us who experienced 9/11 would never again take the feeling of peace and safety for granted.
(This piece was originally published in 2009.)
Tuesday, September 06, 2011
Influential Iranian Cleric Ayatollah Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi has made a speech declaring that "democracy, freedom, and human rights have no place” in Islamic theology.
This according to the Iranian dissident website, Rooz. Mesbah-Yazdi is no less a member of the Association of Teachers of Qom Theological Center, which is the spiritual heart of Shi'ite Islam.
This should be embarrassing for 
groups like CAIR, which would like to insert Islam alongside Christianity and Judaism as an "Abrahamic faith" that influenced the development of Western democracy, deserving of equal or even top billing in American textbooks.
The issue of the compatibility of Islam and democracy is an interesting one. Before you scoff at the notion, there many Muslim democrats in this country, including the Center for Islamic Pluralism, a group that I know pretty well and one that is led by very fine democrats and patriots.
But are Muslims who are true democrats, and who believe in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and who do not believe in violent jihad, true Muslims? They would say that they are.
But some Muslim leaders, such as the Ayatollah Mesbah-Yadzi, might have them killed if given the chance.
Another interesting debate is Islam and the arts. Do the teachings of Mohammed and the Sharia allow it?Islam expert Robert Spencer writes,
"Few people realize that the Sharia, Islamic law, forbids representational art and music. Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, said: 'Allah Mighty and Majestic sent me as a guidance and mercy to believers and commanded me to do away with musical instruments, flutes, strings, crucifixes, and the affair of the pre-Islamic period of ignorance.' He also said that 'on the Day of Resurrection, Allah will pour molten lead into the ears of whoever sits listening to a songstress."
Spencer continues, "Can you imagine believing in a God who not only did not inspire great composers such as Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Handel, and Mendelssohn, but who says that to listen to the works of such men is an act of 'ignorance' for which one will be punished -- indeed, tortured? Can you imagine believing in a God who will likewise torture people for creating and appreciating such monuments of human creativity as the Mona Lisa, Michelangelo's David, the Pieta, the Girl with the Pearl Earring, the Statue of Liberty, and the Great Buddha of Kamakura?"
Some Muslims respond that what Mohammed was talking only about was sleazy music that leads one to sin. But some Muslims, such as the Taliban, enforce the ban on music and art.
I often think of this when I am listening to a great hymn or gazing at great art. There is a huge chasm between Christianity and Islam when it comes to culture. Some argue that Islam, as it is widely practiced today, generates no cultural richness or scientific achievement. It caused an Asia Times columnist to ask, "Who are the 'extraordinary' Muslims?"
“Where are the Muslim scientists, novelists, entrepreneurs, athletes and musicians? Apart from [mostly corrupt] political leaders, a reasonably diligent reader of a quality newspaper in the West will not be able to name a single Muslim distinguished in any field of human endeavor.
Excluding the politically awarded Peace Prize, Muslims have won only three Nobel prizes since their inception more than a century ago, or one for every 450 million Muslims alive today. By contrast, there have been 169 Jewish Nobel Laureates (excluding the Peace Prize), or about one for every 89,000 Jews alive today. During the past century, a Jew was 5,000 times more likely to win the Nobel than a Muslim."
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Folks in the western U.S were entitled to be amused at the “panic” in the eastern U.S. over what was in most areas a very mild earthquake.
It was the seismic equivalent, in terms of actual damage, of an inch of snow hitting the Sunbelt. Or maybe more like a light dusting of snow.
CBN is 150 miles from the epicenter and when it happened (and I lost my balance during an audio recording), I thought I had had one of those so-called “senior moments.” An earthquake is just not in our East Coast thinking when things start to shake.
And in fairness to my fellow Easterners, I saw no “panic” around here, but something more like wonder, amusement, and even satisfaction. People seemed pleased to have personally felt such a rare and large-scale geologic event.
Unfortunately, there is still a very destructive earthquake in the future for the eastern U.S., as I wrote about last year.