http://www.gulf-times.com/qatar/178/details/359198/residents-urged-to-respect-qatar-customs,-values By Joseph Varghese/Staff Reporter Hand gestures which do not agree with the norms and values of Qatar are treated as an offence and therefore punishable by law, Captain Rashid Mubarak al-Khayareen of the Community Police Department has said. He also said that Qatari laws and regulations prohibit begging and there is harsh punishment awaiting […]
Time to Shield the U.S. from EMP Threats “Protecting the national grid could be accomplished at a cost to the average rate payer of merely 20 cents annually,” says Dr. Peter V. Pry. Instead of fixating on George Zimmerman’s trial, the U.S. media would much better serve the public by probing real existential threats to the […]
Home How could the Muslim Brotherhood and other proponents of political Islam (including the violent kind) fool so many in the West for such a long time? Why did the West accept their demagoguery about “Islamic democracy” or “the rule of law” instead of recognizing that the former is an oxymoron and the later is […]
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Into-the-fray-Incompetent-impotent-irrelevant-319586 Against the backdrop of unspeakable brutality raging in Israel’s immediate environs, continued negotiations for Palestinian statehood reflect the abject failure of ‘right-wing’ advocacy. The Palestinian people are an integral part of the Arab nation. The Palestinian Arab people believe in Arab unity… However, they must, at the present stage of their struggle, safeguard their […]
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/state-departments-credibility-remains-in-tatters?f=puball After the news broke that the ambassador to Belgium and members of his security detail had allegedly been soliciting prostitutes, including in some cases minors, President Obama quietly announced that he would reward another major fundraiser, Denise Bauer, by naming her as the replacement for that post. Bauer had been “finance chair for Women […]
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/scandal-staining-hillarys-record
In September 1995, then-first lady Hillary Clinton spoke on human rights for women and girls, detailing in a speech in China a shocking list of abuses around the world.
“It is time for us to say here in Beijing … that it is no longer acceptable to discuss women’s rights as separate from human rights,” she said at the Fourth World Conference on Women. She even criticized the host country for limiting discussions of women’s issues.
Clinton talked, in devastating detail, about violations committed globally. She spoke against selling women and girls into slavery or prostitution, or raping them as a terror tactic or prize of war.
Clinton has used the rights of women and girls as the cornerstone of her career since graduating from law school and working as an attorney for the Children’s Defense Fund. She continued to do so as first lady, as a U.S. senator, as secretary of State. Last week, she did it again, as a Clinton Global Initiative advocate.
How jarring, then, for allegations to emerge of top State Department officials under Clinton concealing abuses of women and children by U.S. diplomatic staff.
A State Department whistleblower has accused high-level officials of a vast cover-up that included squelching investigative findings that members of then-Secretary Clinton’s security detail – as well as the U.S. ambassador to Belgium – solicited prostitutes.
http://frontpagemag.com/2013/david-solway/the-question-of-islamic-reform/print/
Perhaps the major theological problem confronting the revisionist Muslim community today—i.e., those whom we call “moderates” or “secular-oriented intellectuals”—is the canonical scriptures which define their faith and without which Islam would cease to exist. The dilemma for these “enlightened Muslims” is the Koran itself, with its ubiquitous summons to warfare, conquest, enslavement and social and economic persecution of vanquished peoples, which is why they are preoccupied, to the brink of obsession, with the twin concepts of re-interpretation and contextualization.
These meliorists are convinced that Islam is diametrically opposed to something called “Islamism,” that Islam is essentially a “religion of peace” rather than a bellicose imperial movement and that its founding texts therefore invite reinterpretation. This belief can be readily demolished by anyone with a cursory acquaintance with the Islamic literature and a modicum of common sense. For once the incendiary and violent passages are expurgated from the Koran and the Hadith, and the philosophical and political curriculum appropriately bowdlerized, there is far too little left over on which to base a credible and authoritative, world-historical faith. Indeed, as I have argued before, the result would resemble a version of Baha’i’ and could no longer legitimately be called Islam. Re-interpretation is effectively a dead end, a theological placebo swallowed by the naïve or the willfully ignorant who find the strong medicine of reality unpalatable or even abhorrent.
The notion of contextualization fares no better. Here the thesis is that one must adopt a historical or dialectical perspective on the progressive evolution of belief systems. The repugnant portions of the scriptures are understood to apply only to the times in which they were conceived and written. Of course, there is some truth to this contention. The Bible also contains offensive passages which have been despumated with the passing of time. But the difference between the Bible and the Koran is categorical. The former is largely narrative and parabolic in structure and the parts we would regard as objectionable are comparatively few. The Koran, on the contrary—especially the longer, Medinan section—is almost unrelentingly belligerent and exhortative, commanding the believer to slay, conquer, oppress and impose draconian taxes on those who have been subjugated.
http://frontpagemag.com/2013/lloyd-billingsley/tsarnaev-hasan-and-deadly-political-correctness/print/ On Wednesday Dzhohkar Tsarnaev pleaded not guilty to 30 counts in the Boston Marathon bombings and jury selection began in the case of U.S. Army Major Nidal Hasan, accused of murdering 13 at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009. The Hasan and Tsarnaev cases emerged the same day in testimony before the House Homeland Security […]
http://frontpagemag.com/2013/davidhornik/obamas-israeli-turkish-detente-goes-bust/print/ Last March 22, at the tail-end of President Obama’s visit to Israel, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu “apologized” over the phone to Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the 2010 Mavi Marmara incident—in which Israeli commandos, in fighting for their lives against a club- and knife-wielding mob of Turkish Islamists, killed nine of […]
http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=4957
Two related pieces that appeared in Haaretz on Thursday illustrate the pitfalls of diplomacy. One is an interview with outgoing Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren, by Ari Shavit. The other is an op-ed by J Street Vice President for Communications Alan Elsner on Ron Dermer, slated to replace Oren in the fall.
In the interview, Oren is characteristically eloquent. Summing up his stint in Washington, he remains ambassadorial. This would not be a problem if it were clear from the article which country he has been representing for the past four and a half years.
The confusion does not stem from the fact that he was born and raised in the USA. Oren is a Zionist who immigrated to Israel decades ago.
To be sure, his impeccable English, knowledge of Beltway politics and familiarity with American culture undoubtedly figured into the calculation that led to his appointment by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. That Oren looks and sounds good on television must also have been considered an asset.
But these traits were not the only reason that Oren was selected over other candidates for the coveted position. Just as important to Netanyahu — who appropriated key Foreign Ministry functions from its minister, Avigdor Lieberman — was Oren’s lack of public affiliation with the Israeli Right.
