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The Taqiyya Factor By Carol Brown

Taqiyya is an Islamic doctrine that allows Muslims to deceive non-Muslims. As in lie to them. Dr. Sami Mukaram, author of Taqiyya in Islam, writes: “Taqiyya is of fundamental importance in Islam. Practically every Islamic sect agrees to it and practices it… Taqiyya is very prevalent in Islamic politics, especially in the modern era.” (Specific references to taqiyya in the Quran, the Hadith, and in Islamic law, can be found here.)

One of the most common and persistent forms of taqiyya we are witnessing today is noted at Islam-Watch:

When placed under scrutiny or criminal investigation, (even when there is overwhelming, irrefutable evidence of guilt or complicity), the taqiyya-tactician will quickly attempt to counter the allegation by resorting to the claim that it is, in fact, the accused who are the ‘the victims’. Victims of Islamophobia, racism, religious discrimination and intolerance. Currently, this is the most commonly encountered form of distraction and ‘outwitting’….

An Adult on Campus Mitch Daniels offers a lesson to college administrators.

We’ve been wondering all week what happened to the grown-ups on American university campuses, and it appears we have a sighting. Mitch Daniels, the president of Purdue University, spoke up Wednesday about the children’s revolt at Yale and Missouri in a letter “to the Purdue community.”
It deserves to be quoted at length: “Events this week at the University of Missouri and Yale University should remind us all of the importance of absolute fidelity to our shared values. First, that we strive constantly to be, without exception, a welcoming, inclusive and discrimination-free community, where each person is respected and treated with dignity. Second, to be steadfast in preserving academic freedom and individual liberty.

“Two years ago, a student-led initiative created the ‘We Are Purdue Statement of Values,’ which was subsequently endorsed by the University Senate. Last year, both our undergraduate and graduate student governments led an effort that produced a strengthened statement of policies protecting free speech. What a proud contrast to the environments that appear to prevail at places like Missouri and Yale. Today and every day, we should remember the tenets of those statements and do our best to live up to them fully.”

Richard Baehr: Netanyahu Tries to Bring Back the Democrats

On the most important foreign policy vote in a decade, on an issue with enormous consequence for Israel, Republican members of Congress were 100% opposed to the Iran nuclear agreement.
On the other hand, almost all of AIPAC’s supposed great Democratic friends in Congress did not have the guts to oppose their fellow party member, President Barack Obama, and the ministrations of his “whips,” Sen. Dick Durbin and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. In the Senate, only four of 46 Democrats voted against the nuclear agreement, and only one, New Jersey’s Robert Menendez, risked the wrath and vindictiveness of the administration by also speaking out in opposition.
This week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in the United States for the Jewish Federations General Assembly in Washington. It was also his first visit with Obama following the Iran nuclear deal and his controversial appearance before a joint session of Congress, which was boycotted by about a quarter of all Democratic House and Senate members. Netanyahu has a sophisticated understanding of American politics, and is aware that damage has been done to the historic bipartisan support for Israel.

The Unknown: Islam and The Real Assault on Women

http://jamieglazov.com/2015/11/12/the-unknown-islam-and-the-real-assault-on-women/

On this new edition of The Unknown, Anni Cyrus focuses on Islam and The Real Assault on Women. And she asks: Where are the feminists?

Don’t miss it!

Yale Crybullies Whine They Can’t Sleep Over Offensive Halloween Costumes “I don’t want to debate. I want to talk about my pain.” Daniel Greenfield

The Missouri crybullies got their way, purging administrations for not taking their whininess seriously fast enough (thereby making them feel unsafe). And then they turned on the media which had been churning out their propaganda with more bullying and crying.

The Yale crybullies are still whinging on because the administrators who suggested that maybe they should grow up instead of whining about other people’s Halloween costumes still haven’t been fired.

Why haven’t they been fired yet? The Yale crybullies feel so unsafe. They need kitten pictures. They can’t even sleep now.

Jencey Paz, whinged that, “I have friends who are not going to class, who are not doing their homework, who are losing sleep, who are skipping meals, and who are having breakdowns.”

Another student howled at an administrator,

“In your position as master,” one student says, “it is your job to create a place of comfort and home for the students who live in Silliman. You have not done that. By sending out that email, that goes against your position as master. Do you understand that?!”

“No,” he said, “I don’t agree with that.”

Campus Commotions Show We’re Raising Fragile Kids By Jonah Goldberg

It seems like every week there’s a new horror story of political correctness run amok at some college campus.

A warning not to wear culturally insensitive Halloween costumes sparked an imbroglio at Yale, which went viral over the weekend. A lecturer asked in an e-mail, “Is there no room anymore for a child to be a little bit obnoxious . . . a little bit inappropriate or provocative or, yes, offensive?”

Students went ballistic. When an administrator (who is the lecturer’s spouse) defended free speech, some students wanted his head. One student wrote in a Yale Herald op-ed (now taken down): “He doesn’t get it. And I don’t want to debate. I want to talk about my pain.”

Washington Post columnist (and Tufts professor) Daniel Drezner was initially horrified by the spectacle but ultimately backtracked. Invoking Friedrich Hayek’s insights from “The Use of Knowledge in Society,” Drezner cautions outside observers that “there is an awful lot of knowledge that is local in character, that cannot be culled from abstract principles or detached observers.”

As a Hayek fanboy and champion of localism, I should be quite sympathetic. But this time, I think Drezner’s initial reaction was closer to the mark. The notion that the Yale incident is an isolated one defies all the evidence.

Obama Mouthed Some Pro-Israel Lines, but His Disdain for Netanyahu Remains Clear By Tom Rogan

During his meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu at the White House yesterday, President Obama stated that the “security of Israel is one of my top foreign-policy priorities.” Of course, this sentiment might have been slightly more believable had President Obama a) said those words in something other than a lethargic tone, or b) not listened to Netanyahu’s statement with the humor of a human death star

Although Netanyahu claims that the meeting was productive, major problems continue to corrode U.S.-Israeli relations.

Front and center is President Obama’s flawed approach to dealing with Israel. On crucial issues, the White House continues to treat Netanyahu’s government disdainfully and as irrelevant to its Middle Eastern policy. The Obama administration has long acted grumpily toward Israel. Consider former Middle East adviser Dennis Ross’s perspective on the idiotic accusation of racism Susan Rice lobbed against Netanyahu. According to Ross, Rice believed that “the Israeli leader did everything but ‘use the N-word in describing the president.”

While Mr. Netanyahu’s conduct has not been perfect — he deserves criticism for his spokesman’s anti-Obama rant — Israel’s emotion at the American president’s perceived lack of interest is understandable. After all, facing an international plague of anti-Israel boycotts, Western delusions about Gaza, and an Iran armed with nuclear weapons, Israel worries that its American support is perishing and that it will soon stand alone. And while Israel’s worries reflect a broader dysfunction of President Obama’s diplomacy (one that is also indirectly fueling sectarian paranoia in the Middle East), Israel’s concern has an obvious historical foundation — the Holocaust. Sadly, however, President Obama believes he can paper over this widening chasm with the false elixir of increased aid and the inexcusable prisoner release of Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard.

Peter Smith: Warmism’s Six Degrees of Separation

How, in the midst of alarmists’ tireless headline-grabbing, can common folk form a considered view? The truth is that we can’t. We are all in the hands and at the mercy of the political elite. That should make us all feel safe in our beds
I find it taxing to discuss the climate with those who are unabashed global warmists (GWs). I don’t mind disagreements per se but, I am sorry, most GWs are muddled-headed wombats when the matter proceeds beyond the notion that the planet is warming to what should be done about it, the practicalities and the cost. I want to help.

Categorisation is a helpful tool to make sense of complicated situations. In this case it might help to set down a broad classification of beliefs. Now any broad classification involves a fair degree of fudging. Bear that in mind.

I will go in just six steps; from the extreme GWs to the sceptics. Attributions are indicated in brackets.

American Jews’ New Obsession: Transgender Rights By Lauri B. Regan (Huh????)

On my way back from David Horowitz’s Restoration Weekend in Charleston, I opened up the Post and Courier newspaper to Section D, entitled “Faith & Values.” What struck me was an article on the second page reporting that the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) had adopted a resolution supporting transgender rights. The resolution calls for congregations and camps to have gender-neutral bathrooms, use gender-neutral language, and train religious school staff on gender issues.

I have no idea what any of this gender identity noise really means, but I have concluded that this whole movement (together with the delegitimization of Israel, the legalization of marijuana, demonizing those who are offended by Planned Parenthood’s fetal tissue trade, push for single-payer health care, and prosecution of those who question the scientific basis of man-caused global warming) is just one giant progressive wave to further supplant Judeo-Christian values and alter the moral fabric of our society.

Jews are being stabbed, run over, and shot on streets across Israel on a daily basis; they are fleeing Europe en masse as anti-Semitic attacks have become common place; and BDS (the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement) is flourishing across the globe as the number of hate groups continues to grow and their influence continues to be peddled. The streets of American cities are becoming unsafe, as Jews become victims of attacks with Molotov cocktails and knives, our college campuses have become anti-Semitic centers of pro-Palestinian/pro-Hamas hate including violence and intimidation by members of Muslim hate groups, and liberal American Jews, including mainstream Jewish establishments, welcome anti-Israel groups into their open tents.

Keystone Is a Fake Green Victory If abundant fossil fuels is what affords such victories, well, you see the paradox.

By all means, read Bill McKibben’s victory proclamation on Keystone XL posted by the New Yorker, first for its infantile analysis.

• He sees Keystone as a harbinger, which it surely is: President Obama waited seven years to kill the pipeline, then did so when he no longer had to face voters and when gasoline prices are near an all-time low in real terms. If abundant fossil fuels is what it takes to afford Mr. McKibben such victories, well, you can see the paradox.

• He celebrates the divestment movement as if it means anything. But buyers will always materialize for profitable businesses. Anyway, 80% of the world’s fossil-fuel reserves are not held by publicly traded businesses, but by state-run companies—run by states that have never shown interest in anything but revenue maximization.
• He thinks solar is somehow changing the energy picture, but for every additional unit of solar the world consumed in 2014, it consumed 325 additional units of fossil energy.

• He is fooled by warnings from the BlackRock investment house and Mark Carney of the Bank of England about fossil-fuel reserves becoming “stranded assets,” as if energy shares are priced in the expectation that 100% of hydrocarbon reserves will be produced.