Countdown to burqas on fashion show runways By Carol Brown

The world of fashion means little to me. But the steady encroachment of Islamic norms in our culture does. It seems no place is safe from sharia’s creep into every aspect of our society. Most recently it popped up on the fashion runway when Indonesian Muslima Anniesa Hasibuan had her clothing designs featured at New York’s Fashion Week.

(Hasibaun swaddled in high-end Muslima attire.)

All the models wore hijabs as they strode the catwalk.

Here’s one model being readied for her hijab. Oh, it’s so exciting! (sarc off)

A hijab is not a fashion statement. It’s not an accessory like a hat or a scarf. It’s a statement about Islam and sharia. These models (none of whom, I speculate, is Muslim) had no business wearing hijabs. In so doing, they normalized them and made them seem innocuous when they’re anything but. What next? Will they have to recite the shahada before strutting their stuff on the runway? (See here for an excellent discussion of what a hijab means, presented by Bill Warner.)

As for the audience at fashion show, after the sharia-on-the-runway display, they went wild with excitement. CNN reports:

The show concluded with a standing ovation from audience members.

Lori Riviere, the press manager for the event, said: “I have been doing this for a really long time and I have never seen a standing ovation at the end of a show. We all had goose bumps.”

Why a standing ovation? Oh, that’s right. That’s what dhimmis do. Muslims are a special class as Islamophilia spreads like wildfire across the West.

Meanwhile, no event like this would be complete without the now predictable reference to “making history,” as reported in Teen Vogue:

A designer just made history at NYFW in the most inclusive and inspiring way. Designer Anniesa Hasibuan marched an army of gorgeous girls down the catwalk, all in full hijab. While the collection boasted intricately embroidered gowns, metallic brocade tops, and lust-worthy jewelry, it was the headwear that stole the show.

Yeah, you heard that right: “teen.” Let’s get our girls ready to don their hijabs and brainwash them to perceive Islamic garb as normal and not indicative of anything problematic.

Teen Vogue wasn’t the only place to breathlessly push the “historic” hype. CNN, the BBC, and other media outlets were all on board (here, here, and here).

I’ll tell you what would be historic at this point. Let’s stop embracing all things Islamic. Let’s stop going to bat for Islam. Let’s stop lying and try speaking the truth about Islamic law and how Islamic cultural norms run counter to American values.

Let’s stop legitimizing, glamorizing, and elevating Islamic expression in the West. Let’s stop buying into the meme that Islam is not at all different from any other religion. Let’s stop peddling the lie that Muslims are victims and that the slightest of slight accomplishments (even faux ones like Clock Boy’s non-invention) must be met with gushing recognition and praise.

Here’s a novel idea: let’s stand for America and American values and let those who embrace values diametrically opposed to our own live elsewhere instead of infiltrating and colonizing the greatest nation that ever was – a nation that will fail to be if we continue down this insane path, from our aversion to naming the enemy to models on NYC runways wrapped up in hijabs and everything in between.

Colorado College Accused of ‘Body Shaming’ for Being Committed to Healthy Living By Katherine Timpf

A student at Colorado College wrote a piece claiming that the school’s commitment to a healthy lifestyle is actually a bad thing — because it’s body-shaming people, particularly men.

“Several aspects of the CC community such as numerous healthy eating habits, gym programs, and outdoor activities, foster a culture of body shaming even for male students,” Jade Pearl Frost, a senior who is a double major in feminist and gender studies and English, writes in a piece for the Feminist Wire.

“While I am not suggesting that these aspects are detrimental in and of themselves, I argue that the College values these things in ways that are overwhelming and exclusionary,” she adds.

First of all, she’s correct that “healthy eating habits, gym programs, and outdoor activities” are most certainly not “detrimental.” They are, in fact, this thing called “good.” It’s good that her school cafeteria has “an abundance of” healthy food options and “a renovated fitness center.” What would she rather have, a cafeteria that serves only bologna and cheese sandwiches on white bread and a dirty garbage gym with a bunch of broken machines, just so overweight kids wouldn’t feel bad about themselves?

Her attitude in this piece is one that has become all-too common — one that focuses on victimization rather than empowerment. The right attitude would be to say that it’s great that those students who are out of shape have so many campus resources to help them change that if they wanted to.

By the way, the fact that they are, indeed, campus resources — that is, available to all students — makes her claim that they are “exclusionary” completely illogical. After all, “available to all students” is the opposite of “exclusionary,” and it shouldn’t be surprising that nowhere in her piece does she provide a single, concrete example of how they are “exclusionary” other than to say that to say that there’s “an unspoken rule” in the gym “that the cardio section is for the feminine and the weight room is for the masculine.”

First of all, I’d argue that her observation that more women use the cardio section and more men use weight room is probably due to the fact that women just generally are more interested in cardio, and men just generally are more interested in weight-training. In any case, calling it “exclusionary” when, as she herself admits, “the fitness center is open to all genders and everyone a part of the CC community” is factually incorrect. What is the school supposed to do? Force female students to get buff as hell when they don’t want to? Force dudes to get drop their weights and hop on a stationary bike?

In her discussion of fitness-masculinity issues, she also laments the fact that “if the male student doesn’t participate in outdoor activities such as Winterfest and BreakOut Trips, then they are seen as not having body management.” Personally, I’d say that if your biggest problem is that your school is offering too many ski trips, then you are probably doing just fine.

Other than ski trips, another program that Frost sees as problematic is the “Tigers Don’t Waste” program, which discourages students from wasting food.

University Warns Students Against Thoughtcrime Expressing genuine surprise can be an aggressive act of marginalization. By Josh Gelernter

American universities have crossed a new threshold in the progressive war on independent thought: Clark University has told its students that “showing surprise” can now constitute an act of aggression against another student.

Last week, the New York Times ran a piece titled “Campuses Cautiously Train Freshmen against Subtle Insults.” It opens by recounting a question-and-answer session with Clark’s microaggressions czar, chief diversity officer Sheree Marlowe. A student — who begins by saying she’s “really scared to ask this” — asks Miss Marlowe if, when she’s in her car, or with a group of white friends, its “okay” to sing along with music that uses the “N word.”

Miss Marlowe’s answer, says the New York Times, is an “unequivocal ‘no.’”

Also verboten: asking Asians students whom “you don’t know” for help with math homework; asking a black student if he plays basketball; asking a student whose race you’re unsure of about his race. This is all pretty standard stuff on the modern campus. But Clark has entered new territory by expanding the category of forbidden aggressions to include thought crimes: “Showing surprise when a ‘feminine’ woman says she is a lesbian” is, according to Clark, an aggressive act.

There’s a famous scene in Quentin Tarantino’s magnum opus Pulp Fiction in which two characters are getting to know each other:

“Actually, there’s something I’ve wanted to ask you about, but you seem like a nice person, and I didn’t want to offend you,” says Vincent Vega to his boss’s new wife, Mia.

“Oh,” says Mia, “this doesn’t sound like mindless, boring, getting-to-know-you chit-chat. This sounds like you actually have something to say.”

“Only if you promise not to get offended,” says Vega.

EXPLOSION IN NEW YORK

New York (CNN)An explosion ripped through the Chelsea neighborhood in New York City Saturday night injuring dozens and a second device with wiring was found blocks away, authorities say.
Police officers and federal agents were scouring the streets with flashlights, robots and dogs to ensure there were no other devices in the area.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters early indications are that the explosion at 23rd Street and 6th Avenue in Manhattan that injured 29 “was an intentional act.” Investigators believe the blast was caused by an explosive device in or near a dumpster, a law enforcement source told CNN.
Police have video from businesses on the street where the explosion occurred, which could yield key details about the hours before the attack. Investigators are looking at surveillance video appearing to show a person near where the explosion at the 23rd street location occurred, according to a local and federal law enforcement official. Investigators are trying to determine if that individual is connected to the explosion.
De Blasio says “there is no evidence at this point of a terror connection” and there is no “credible and specific threat” to New York City. Police have increased security across the five boroughs as
Ambulances arriving at some local hospitals were being checked by armed guards.
24 people were taken to the hospital after the explosion, but “none of those injured are likely to die,” the mayor says.
De Blasio says they also believe there is no specific connection to an earlier incident in New Jersey, where an explosion went off in a garbage can on the route of a Marine Corps charity run.
A second device blocks away New York explosion leaves dozens injured in Chelsea – CNN.com
A device at a second location in Chelsea appears to be a pressure cooker, according to multiple local and federal law enforcement officials.
As first responders converged on the explosion site and began blocking off streets in the Chelsea neighborhood, attention soon turned to a second device.
Blocks away from the first explosion, what appears to be a pressure cooker with dark colored wiring coming out of the top center of the device was found, according to multiple local and federal law enforcement officials.
The device is connected by silver duct tape to a small dark colored device attached to the outside of the pressure cooker, according to multiple local and federal law enforcement officials.
None of the officials would say at this point what was inside the pressure cooker.
CNN has viewed an image of the device verifying the description.
Some residents in the area say they were told to stay away from windows when police were searching the area.
Police combed the second location with flashlights, looking under cars, looking in trash cans and looking in doorways, CNN’s Richard Quest reports.

Snowden Is a Traitor and a Fraud, Period A bipartisan House Intelligence Committee report drives a stake through his disgraceful pardon bid. By Fred Fleitz

At a time of extreme partisanship in our country and in the midst of what may be the most contentious presidential election in U.S. history, a congressional committee did something extraordinary: It issued a bipartisan and unanimous report on an extremely divisive issue. This issue is whether former National Security Agency technician Edward Snowden, who stole 1.5 million classified documents and leaked thousands to the news media, is a true whistleblower or a traitor.

The report by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (where I worked for five years) found what many of us have long argued: Snowden is not a whistleblower; he is a disgruntled former intelligence employee who did enormous damage to U.S. national security. Click here to read the unclassified summary of this report.

The House Intelligence Committee report could not be better timed, having come out the day before the opening of Oliver Stone’s hagiographic film Snowden and a new campaign by liberal groups and the news media to persuade President Obama to pardon Snowden for the contribution he supposedly made to the cause of protecting civil liberties.

The five findings in the committee report’s unclassified summary are stunning.

Snowden Caused Tremendous Damage to National Security.

The vast majority of the documents he stole have nothing to do with programs impacting individual privacy interests — they instead pertain to military, defense, and intelligence programs of great interest to America’s adversaries. Although many experts had already concluded this, the report added that the U.S. government has spent at least hundreds of millions of dollars and will eventually spend billions to counter the damage done by the Snowden leaks.

The most well-known Snowden disclosure concerned the NSA metadata program, which collects phone records but not the contents of phone calls. Although this program has long been overseen by the congressional intelligence committees and helped halt several terrorist attacks against the United States, Snowden’s leaks about it led to a hysterical and uninformed reaction by the press and some members of Congress that led Congress and President Obama to implement major restrictions, which have made this program much more difficult for intelligence officers to use to identify and track terrorist suspects.

Snowden’s defenders claim that since the metadata program violated the Constitution and the privacy rights of Americans, Snowden was justified in leaking information to the press about it and therefore should receive a presidential pardon. Putting aside that Snowden didn’t bother trying to raise his supposed concern about this program through legal channels, the facts are that the vast majority of court decisions on this program upheld it as legal, Congress and the Justice Department have monitored it, and only very minor abuses were discovered. To read more on this issue, see my May 2015 NRO article “NSA Data Collection: Necessary or Unconstitutional.”

While the unclassified report summary does not give specifics of how Snowden’s leaks benefited U.S. enemies and terrorists (that is probably detailed in the classified version available to all House members), U.S. intelligence officials have publicly stated that Snowden’s leaks have allowed ISIS and al-Qaeda to evade detection by Western intelligence services. Former CIA director James Woolsey has called for Snowden to receive the death penalty because his leaks of NSA monitoring techniques helped the ISIS-inspired terrorists who committed the November 2015 Paris terrorist attacks conceal their electronic communications.

Obama’s Cash-for-Jihad Program Let’s give Iran, a certified state sponsor of terrorism, billions in cash. What could go wrong? By Andrew C. McCarthy —

The Obama State Department is convinced that Syrian dictator Bashar Assad and his regime’s cronies are financing terrorism. How come? Well, because they conduct business in cash.

In fact, in its most recent annual report on state sponsors of terrorism, State frets “that 60 percent of all business transactions [in Syria] are conducted in cash and that nearly 80 percent of all Syrians do not use formal banking services.” This has created a “vast black market,” the components of which are exploited by “some members of the Syrian government and the business elite . . . in terrorism finance schemes.”

Interesting thing about that: There are only three countries on the list of state sponsors of terrorism — Syria, Sudan, and Iran. That last one is worth highlighting. Iran, after all, is not just the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism; it is also the world’s leading state sponsor of . . . Syria — providing it with lots of that cash the State Department is so concerned about.

Oh, I nearly forgot: Iran also happens to be the jihadist regime that President Obama just gave $1.7 billion to . . . in cash.

Or should I say, at least $1.7 billion.

It is hard to decide what is the most appalling thing about Obama’s $1.7 billion payoff to the mullahs: the ransom for the release of American hostages, which has predictably induced Tehran to take more hostages; the pallets of untraceable currency loaded on multiple planes of the national airline regularly used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to arm Assad and facilitate terror; the withdrawals from a shadowy Treasury Department fund structured in a manner designed to conceal that money was being transferred to Iran. The transaction is so shocking, one can easily forget that it is just the latest in a long series of payoffs.

The “Virtuous” New Nazis by Giulio Meotti

Instead of worrying about Islamist terrorism and Molenbeek, Brussels’ nest of jihadists, there are racists in Europe who want to crush Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East.

They all falsely claim to be a “peaceful”, using “economic means” to correct “wrongs” in the Palestinian territories. However, they never seem to try to correct any of the wrongs of the corrupt, repressive governments of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas in Gaza, or even to advocate there for a free press, for the rule of law or for building a stable economy. Their true, racist motives are unmasked.

The pre- or post-1967 lines are only an alibi for these new Nazis. Many consider Israel in its entirety illegal, immoral, or both — even though Jews have lived on that land for 3,000 years — part of it is even called Judea. Their appetite for accusing Jews of having the audacity to “occupy” their own historical, Biblical land only reveals their collusion the darkest lies of Islamic extremists, who are trying to destroy the indigenous Christian Copts in their native land of Egypt, and the indigenous Assyrian Christians whom we see being slaughtered throughout the Middle East. Should the French be accused of “occupying” Gaul? Just look at any map of “Palestine,” which blankets the entire state of Israel: to many Palestinians, all of Israel is a single giant settlement that has to be dismantled.

Meet the packs of new Nazis, posing as Righteousness and Virtue, pursuing new exterminationist policies against Israel and, right after that, the Jews.

“In Nazi Germany,” noted Brendan O’Neill in the Wall Street Journal, “it was all the rage to make one’s town Judenfrei.”

“Now a new fashion is sweeping Europe: to make one’s town or city what we might call ‘Zionistfrei’ — free of the products and culture of the Jewish state. Across the Continent, cities and towns are declaring themselves ‘Israel-free zones,’ insulating their citizens from Israeli produce and culture. It has ugly echoes of what happened 70 years ago.”

The Nazis said “kauft nicht bei Juden”: do not buy from Jews. The slogan of these new racists is “kauft nicht beim Judenstaat”: do not buy from the Jewish State. The Nazis repeated “Geh nach Palästina, du Jud”: Go to Palestine, you Jew. Racists in Europe shout “Jews out of Palestine!”

Let us take a look at who they are. The city council of Leicester, for one, recently approved banning products “made in Israel.” Think of that: a city without Israeli products. This is not Nazi Germany in 1933; this is a British city under Labour leadership in 2016. Two Welsh councils, Swansea and Gwynedd, blocked commercial partnerships with Israeli companies. In Dublin, a well-known restaurant, Exchequer, decided not to use the Israeli products. The Irish town of Kinvara became “Israel-free”. In Spain, the town of Villanueva de Duero no longer distributes Israeli water in its public buildings. The French city of Lille froze an agreement with the Israeli town of Safed.

PRESUMED TO BE DUMB, BRENNAN NOW PROVES IT

CIA Director: Terrorism a ‘Distorted Interpretation of Various Religious Faiths’ By Bridget Johnson

WASHINGTON — CIA Director John Brennan said this week that terrorist groups “have been unfortunately successful in attracting individuals to their distorted ideology and distorted interpretation of various religious faiths” largely due to lacking political and economic reforms in many countries.

“There are a lot, a lot of opportunities for these terrorist groups to capitalize on those problems and issues. To me, I’d like to think that, you know, the United States has demonstrated, through the course of time, that we take very seriously the obligation and responsibilities that go along with what I refer to as American exceptionalism,” Brennan said at a Center for Strategic and International Studies forum Wednesday marking the 10th anniversary of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.

“My definition of American exceptionalism may be different than others,” he added. “I don’t think that we as people are better than others. I think that we as a country, though, have been tremendously fortunate and blessed to have the resources, the people, we’re the world’s melting pot. We are, without a doubt, the world’s superpower.”

Brennan said he wished the U.S. had “that magic wand” to resolve issues like the Syrian war.

“And despite the challenges that we still face there, good on the United States for trying… Unfortunately, there are individuals who opt for violence and militarism as a way to push forward their agendas and to try to achieve their aims, again, which are perversions of religious faiths.”

The CIA chief said President Obama is an “exceptionally quick study” and “would always want to be asking questions about what it is that we know and with a lawyer’s mind” during presidential briefings.

At the moderator’s urging, Brennan reflected on “Underwear Bomber” Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who tried to down a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day 2009. Leon Panetta was in charge of the agency at the time; Brennan was Obama’s homeland security advisor.

“I can vividly recall getting the call at home at about, I forget what it was, maybe noon or 11:00 on Christmas Day when I was preparing the Christmas dinner for my family,” Brennan said. “And all of a sudden we found out that somebody — somebody’s underwear was on fire on a plane in Detroit and there may be something to this.”

Israel Suffers Four Attacks in 24 Hours Palestinian shot dead after stabbing Israeli soldier in Hebron By Rory Jones

TEL AVIV—A knife-wielding Palestinian assailant stabbed an Israeli soldier before being shot dead by security forces in the West Bank city of Hebron on Saturday, the military said, the fourth attack against Israelis in less than 24 hours.

The soldier was taken to the hospital.

Two Palestinians and a Jordanian were also killed on Friday by Israeli forces after launching separate knife and car-ramming attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers, the country’s police and army said.
The bevy of attacks revived a wave of Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed that began last September but had tapered off in recent months as Israel heightened security and Palestinian leaders called for their youth to shun violence.

A Palestinian assailant stabbed an Israeli soldier on Friday afternoon at a checkpoint in the West Bank city of Hebron before being killed, Israel’s military said. The soldier was evacuated to the hospital, it added.

Hours earlier in the nearby Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba, two Palestinians rammed their car into a bus stop full of Israeli settlers, injuring three people, the army said.

Israeli soldiers then fired on the car, killing one assailant and wounding the other, it said.

A knife-wielding Jordanian citizen also on Friday attacked Israeli police near the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem’s Old City before being killed, a police spokeswoman said. It wasn’t clear why the man was in Israel and an investigation had been launched, police said.

Over the past year, Palestinians have launched more than 300 attacks against Israelis, killing 40 people and wounding more than 500, according to Israeli officials.

Some 200 Palestinians have also been killed by Israeli forces, most after attacks against Israelis, according to Palestinian officials.

The violence had slowed since July, when Israel imposed military and financial restrictions on the Palestinian West Bank after a series of bloody attacks on Jewish settlers in the territory.

Trump and the Translators A chance to prove his policy is not anti-Muslim but anti-jihad.

At the recent commander-in-chief forum, a woman asked Donald Trump whether he would let an undocumented worker who wanted to serve in the armed forces stay in the U.S. His answer probably wasn’t what people expected. “I think that when you serve in the armed forces, that’s a very special situation,” Mr. Trump said, “and I could see myself working that out, absolutely.”

Thanks to the Obama Administration and Congressional Republicans, the GOP candidate now also has a chance to show common sense on the matter of Muslims. At issue is a special visa program that expires Oct. 1 for foreign translators who served honorably with U.S. troops, the State Department or agencies such as the FBI—and whose lives are now in danger because of that service.

These visas are meant for folks such as Janis Shinwari, who in April 2008 was attached to a U.S. Army unit in Ghazni province when it was ambushed and Lieutenant Matt Zeller was blown into a ditch by an enemy mortar. Two Taliban were about to kill him, Mr. Zeller says, when his interpreter, Mr. Shinwari, shot them dead. Mr. Zeller says he knows at least four other Americans whose lives Mr. Shinwari saved.

The danger these former translators face is real. Last year Sakhidad Afghan, an interpreter for the U.S. military, was hunted down by the Taliban, tortured and executed. He had been waiting years for a special visa.

Congress should have extended the program for a year this spring, but it got caught in domestic politics. Bob Goodlatte, the Virginia Republican who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, said the visas are an immigration measure under his jurisdiction. He says he supports the program but also says we need “reasonable limits.” The final House language allocated no new visas and narrowed the criteria for eligibility.

Utah’s Mike Lee held up the bill in the Senate to make an unrelated point, so the provision never got a vote. Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions has come out publicly for letting the program expire. That means these visas are in limbo as Congress tries to complete a defense bill before Members head home for the election.

The leaders who should be loudly calling on Congress to keep this program going—President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Defense Secretary Ash Carter, presidential nominee Hillary Clinton—have been silent. Meanwhile, Messrs. Goodlatte and Sessions are effectively strangling the measure.