http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3549/britain-immigration There are roughly 863,000 people living illegally in Britain, of whom 604,000 (70%) live in London. — London School of Economics Britons’ view immigration as the biggest problem facing their society, according to a flurry of new surveys and research reports about the current state of affairs in Britain. Taken together, the data highlights […]
http://frontpagemag.com/2013/jamie-glazov/christianity-islam-and-atheism-the-struggle-for-the-soul-of-the-west/print/
Frontpage Interview’s guest today is William Kilpatrick, the author of several books, including Psychological Seduction and Why Johnny Can’t Tell Right from Wrong. His articles about Islam have appeared in FrontPage Magazine, Investor’s Business Daily, Catholic World Report, and other publications. His most recent book, Christianity, Islam, and Atheism: The Struggle for the Soul of the West explores the threat that Islam poses to Christianity and Western civilization. The book also examines the role played by militant secularists in facilitating the expansion of Islam.
FP: William Kilpatrick, welcome to Frontpage Interview.
Let’s begin with you telling us what inspired you to write this book.
Kilpatrick: In a way it’s a continuation of an earlier book of mine, Why Johnny Can’t Tell Right From Wrong. That book looked at the ways in which moral relativism impaired Johnny’s ability to tell right from wrong. Part of the new book looks at the ways in which cultural relativism, or multiculturalism, impairs his ability to tell friend from foe. One of the chapters is titled “Why Johnny Can’t Read the Writing on the Wall.” One of the main reasons Western citizens can’t see the obvious about Islam is that they have been subjected to an educational system that insists on the moral equivalency of all cultures and religions, just as it had previously insisted on the equivalency of all value systems. So, the initial impulse for writing the book was my realization that the same people who introduced moral chaos into schools and society were now bent on normalizing an alien ideology. Or, to paraphrase Mark Steyn, the people who brought you Heather Has Two Mommies are about to bring you “Heather has four mommies and a great big bearded daddy.”
FP: Can you explain the title?
Kilpatrick: I use the word “atheism” in the title as shorthand for both atheists and militant secularists, most of whom tend to be on the left. Many Christians have awakened to the fact that they are in a cultural struggle with secular leftists, but far fewer have come to the realization that they are also in a civilizational struggle with Islam. Fewer, still, are aware that, as you point out in United in Hate, the left has formed a tacit alliance with radical Islam against the West.
Of course, Christians aren’t the only ones who are threatened by Islamic expansion. All non-Muslims are. But in the West, Christianity has traditionally been the focal point of resistance to Islamization. Unfortunately, Christianity in the West has been weakened both by secular attacks and by self-inflicted wounds. As a result, Christians in the West are failing to stand up for their cultural heritage. In fact, many fail to realize that their culture is under attack.
But without Christianity you are left mainly with philosophies of relativism, skepticism and materialism—philosophies that have proved themselves incapable of resisting Islamization and, in fact, serve to enable its spread. You can see this most clearly in Europe where the decline of Christianity has been accompanied not only by the rise of secularism but also by the rise of Islam. With the loss of faith has come a loss of meaning and the loss of a sense among Europeans that they have anything worth defending. The loss of faith is also one of the main factors accounting for Europe’s population loss. In other words, the decline of Christian faith in Europe created a spiritual vacuum and a population vacuum, both of which Islam was quick to fill.
While Muslim leaders and radical secularists are fully engaged in the struggle for the soul of the West, many Christians seem unaware that they are under attack from two sides. They need to wake up before it’s too late.
FP: In one of your chapters, you spoke of “Christian enablers of Islam.” Can you elaborate on that?
Kilpatrick: Many Christian leaders unwittingly act as enablers of Islam’s totalitarian agenda by focusing on the surface similarities between Christianity and Islam rather than on the profound and irreconcilable differences. A prime example is the Vatican II document Nostra Aetate which includes a short statement of the Church’s relation to Muslims. Essentially, it says that Muslims adore the one God, revere Jesus, honor Mary, and value the moral life. Reading it one could easily jump to the conclusion that the Christian faith and the Islamic faith are very much alike. One might also conclude that Islam is indeed a religion of peace that has been hijacked by a handful of terrorists who misunderstand their own religion.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jan/22/hillary-clintons-legacy/
This week, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will be making her swan song appearance on Capitol Hill, providing at last to Senate and House panels her testimony about the Benghazigate scandal. Under the circumstances, legislators may feel pressured to be deferential and to keep their questions more limited in scope and superficial rather than probing. For the good of the country, it is imperative that they resist going soft.
After all, the hearings Wednesday before the two chambers’ committees responsible for foreign policy oversight afford the final opportunity to examine with the sitting secretary of state her legacy with regard not only to the fiasco that left four Americans dead in Benghazi last Sept. 11, but with the policies that led up to that event — policies that are roiling the region today and that will afflict us for many years to come.
In other words, the object of the exercise must be to understand how we got to the point in Libya where Shariah-adherent jihadists felt able to attack American facilities and diplomatic personnel murderously and with impunity. Consequently, Mrs. Clinton’s interlocutors need to go beyond exploring the record of repeated rejections of requests from Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and others to enhance security at the “mission” in Benghazi and the lack of U.S. response once the attack was launched.
Legislators must ensure that the following issues, for example, are also addressed:
Who was responsible for devising and executing the policy of engaging, legitimating, empowering, funding and arming Islamists like the Muslim Brotherhood? It appears to date back to at least March 2009, when the United States first co-sponsored a Shariah-driven United Nations Human Rights Council resolution criticizing expressions that offend Islam. What role did Mrs. Clinton play in that initiative and in the broader policy of which it was a leading indicator?
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/ny-times-environmental-desk-goes-the-way-of-global-warming?f=puball “What’s in worse shape,” asked the Heartland Institute’s Director of Communications, Jim Lakely, in a January 11th blog post. “The state of the Earth’s climate? Or the state of the New York Times? Global temperatures are not rising all that quickly, so the Earth is doing fine. Meanwhile, the Old Gray Lady is shutting […]
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/my-life-in-words Contributing Editor Edward Cline was interviewed by Family Security Matters about his life, writing career, and goals. He is first and foremost a novelist, but over the years has written hundreds of book and movie reviews, political and cultural columns, and papers for a variety of print and weblog publications. Born in Pittsburgh in […]
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/breaking-muhammad-is-just-likegeorge-washington?f=puball
Achieving the seemingly impossible, “interfaith activist” and Trinity College (Dublin) Ph.D. candidate Craig Considine has reached new heights in modern Islamophile naïveté. Considine has stiff competition in this regard, given Director of National Intelligence James Clapper’s February 10, 2011 assessment of the Muslim Brotherhood as “largely secular” and as a movement that “has eschewed violence and has decried Al Qaeda as a perversion of Islam” and has “pursued social ends, a betterment of the political order in Egypt.” Yet those who thought that uncritical glorification of the Religion of Peace could not get any worse should consider Considine’s latest Huffington Post (HP) article, “An Unlikely Connection Between the Prophet Muhammad and George Washington.”
Considine begins his analysis discussing a “Prophet Muhammad” in seventh-century Arabia who “had a vision to create a new religious and social order.” Citing various verses from the Quran and hadith, Considine seeks to show that Muhammad “told his band of followers to behave wisely and civilly.” Considine in turn sees “Muhammad’s wisdom … echoed again” in the behavioral rules encompassed in Rules of Civility, a book first written by the United States’ Founding Father George Washington as a 13-year-old boy. According to Considine, both the “Holy Quran, the Islamic Scripture which documents God’s revelations to Muhammad,” and Rules of Civility “offer guidance toward achieving a more peaceful and noble life.”
Although Considine finds an “unlikely connection” between Muhammad and Washington, he determines that:
… in fact they share strikingly similar biographies. Muhammad and Washington were students of history, restorers of justice and fierce warriors who led their respective nations through successful revolutions. Both men united a large swath of political territory and served as the founding father for two unprecedented social movements-Islam and the United States of America-whose universal ideals would both spread throughout the world respectively.
Considine cites the famous eulogy of Washington’s fellow Founding Father, Richard Henry Lee, who called Washington “first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.” Considine also notes that even Britain’s King George III attributed to his colonial rebel the “greatest character of the age.” Considine, meanwhile, notes without any further analysis that “Muslims worldwide see Muhammad as the perfect human being,” an Islamic doctrine stipulated in verse 33:21 of the Quran (consistently called “Holy” by Considine). Considine furthermore cites Mahatma Gandhi calling Muhammad “a treasure of wisdom not only for Muslims but for all mankind.”
Citing respective passages of the Quran and Rules of Civility, Considine draws several parallels between Muhammad and Washington. He concludes, for example, that both men opposed “foul language” and “taught their peers to improve relations with others by using kindness and positive words.” This would “avoid misunderstandings and create a more harmonious society.”
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/new-campaign-against-rep-bachmann-for-anti-brotherhood-stance People for the American Way (PFAW) has launched a new campaign against Representative Michele Bachmann (R-MN), who, after her recent re-election to Congress, has been re-appointed to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI). A PFAW-sponsored petition with 178,000 signatures is to be presented to House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) on Monday 21 […]
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/column.php?n=2434 “Kilpatrick concludes that the crisis of Christian faith is the problem and its strengthening is the solution. Christians have a duty to speak out against wife-beatings, forced marriages, genital mutilation, and honor killings. But should Christians avoid offending Muslims? Kilpatrick explains, “Christianity itself is inherently a criticism of Islam’s claim to have the final […]
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/
2013.01.21 (Salmiyeh, Syria) – Shahid suicide car bombers destroy thirty lives in a commercial district.
2013.01.21 (Kabul, Afghanistan) – At least three innocents are killed during a Fedayeen suicide assault on a traffic police headquarters.
2013.01.19 (Tigantourine, Algeria) – Twenty three hostages are killed by their Islamic captors during a rescue attempt. Twenty-five more are found summarily executed
2013.01.19 (Kano, Nigeria) – At least five people are killed in an attempted Boko Haram assassination of a popular emir.
2013.01.18 (Sur Kas, Pakistan) – Laskhar-e-Islam mortar a family home, killing the mother and father and severely injuring their girl.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2013/01/21/Report-Marine-General-Forced-Out-Of-CENTCOM-For-Questioning-Obama-s-Advisers
Reports indicate that Marine General James Mattis is being forced out of CENTCOM for questioning certain aspects of the Obama administration’s Middle East policy.
In particular, it appears his questions surrounding the U.S. response to Iran’s nuclear ambitions drew the ire of civilian military and security advisers.
These civilians were apparently upset by the way Mattis pushed them to “consider second and third-order consequences of military action against Iran.” Nor did they appreciate the way he pushed them to think long term and consider what the U.S. will do if Iran develops non-nuclear weapons that can be used to keep U.S. ships out of the Persian Gulf.
Mattis also expressed concern over the consequences of certain aspects of the U.S. approach to Afghanistan and Pakistan. It seems this line of reasoning didn’t sit well with National Security Adviser Tom Donilon.
