Editor’s note: The letter below was formulated on behalf of the Israeli Prime Minister by Steven Plaut: Dear Leaders and Commissioners of the European Union: As Prime Minister of Israel I would like to thank you for sharing your thoughts with the world about how Israel should solve the Middle East conflict, namely […]
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3860/race-perpetual-victimhood
African Americans are urgently in need of helpful solutions rather than having their leaders exploiting their plight for votes. So to keep the black vote, the party [Democrat] and its supporters use racism as a tool to portray Republicans and other opponents of Democrats, such as the tea-party movement, as racists. This is not what the civil rights movement was about.
The highly sensationalized George Zimmerman case, which ended in his acquittal in the death of Trayvon Martin in the Florida state court, is far from over and could end up in federal court. The NAACP has announced that it will pursue civil rights charges with the department of Justice. The Association’s President, Benjamin Jealous, said the group will not rest until racial profiling in all its forms is outlawed. The justice department is now evaluating whether it has enough evidence to support a prosecution of Zimmerman. Although racism and stereotypes exist in America and need to be opposed, the Zimmerman case is not the battleground for this cause, nor is Zimmerman’s acquittal a civil rights issue. Instead the emotions of the public have been riled up by the politicization of the case.
Even Al Jazeera joined in the fray of feeding into the politics of race by highlighting the demonstrations in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York, while quoting its reporter, Andy Gallacher, from Miami:
“This case has raised a lot of issues for people, not just about race but also about gun control….. You’ve heard a lot of people talking about this case and saying race wasn’t an issue, but that isn’t the case, it is all about race.”
A subtle characteristic has been interwoven in the Zimmerman case from the onset, one that intrinsically portrayed the tragedy of Trayvon Martin’s death as the fight for black equality, for which Martin Luther King fought for during the Civil Rights Movement. Yet young Trayvon Martin — although flagrantly brandished as an icon for civil rights — was an ordinary youth, evidently troubled and in need of care and guidance, like many other youths. Here is some of what was revealed about Martin: a photo in which he shows his gold teeth to the camera while pointing upwards his middle fingers; suspension from his school less than a month before his encounter with Zimmerman; texts and photos of firearms associated to Martin and a “U gotta gun?” text sent from his phone eight days before his death; texts referring to marijuana and photos that show him blowing smoke; texts and a video that suggest his involvement in organized fights.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/18/ohio-statehouse-holocaust-memorial-star-of-david_n_3612373.html Plans for a Holocaust memorial at the Ohio Statehouse have stirred a debate over the separation of church and state that may lead to a lawsuit because a focal point of renowned architect Daniel Libeskind’s design is the Star of David. Plans for the memorial in in Columbus, Ohio, by Libeskind, the son of […]
http://frontpagemag.com/2013/mark-tapson/the-4-most-unhinged-responses-to-the-zimmerman-verdict/
The recent George Zimmerman acquittal drew predictable responses from the race-obsessed left: death threats directed at Zimmerman, his family and the jurors; protests with signs provided by and promoting Communist organizations; violence and vandalism; and of course community organizing by race hustlers Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson. But it also brought forth a few particularly irrational reactions. In no particular order of degree of insanity, here are four notably unhinged responses to the verdict, no doubt with more to come:
#1. “God is a white racist.” An online editorial declared that the Zimmerman verdict confirms that the Christian god not only hates blacks, but is actively walking around looking to shoot them:
As a black woman in a nation that has taken too many pains to remind me that I am not a white man, and am not capable of taking care of my reproductive rights, or my voting rights, I know that this American god ain’t my god. As a matter of fact, I think he’s a white racist god with a problem. More importantly, he is carrying a gun and stalking young black men.
Anthea Butler, who – and this will shock no FrontPage reader – is a professor of religion and Africana at the University of Pennsylvania, continued in that vein: “Their god is the god that wants to erase race, make everyone act ‘properly’ and respect, as the president said, ‘a nation of laws’; laws that they made to crush those they consider inferior.”
She’s partially right – the Christian god does want believers to treat people of all races equally and does want them to act properly and respect the law – but inexplicably, Butler considers that a bad thing. Apparently she would prefer a god that shares the left’s obsession with racial division and with mob lawlessness. She also seems confused about the fact that our laws were made not to “crush” the “inferior,” but to protect them.
Butler objects to “this pseudo-god of capitalisms [sic] and incarceration that threaten [sic] to take over our nation.” She goes on to claim that racism in America “has its underpinnings in Christianity and its history,” conveniently forgetting that the abolition of slavery and the civil rights movement have their underpinnings in Christianity and in American history. But of course, a balanced historical perspective is an undesirable quality in today’s academics, whose foremost specialty is always social justice.
#2. Boxer rejects the American flag: This doesn’t refer to Barbara “Call me Senator” Boxer, but to U.S. Olympic boxer Terrell Gausha, who began wearing the American flag in the 2012 London Games but was so disgusted by Zimmerman’s acquittal that he has vowed never to wear it again: “How can I wear my stars and stripes proudly in a country where they make a big deal out of Mike Vick fighting dogs, but not a young innocent black male’s life?” he asked in an interview.
On Tuesday, which was Tisha B’Av—a mournful Jewish holiday that commemorates two destructions of Jerusalem, the Spanish Expulsion, and other disasters of Jewish history—Israel’s far-left daily Haaretz trumpeted the news that the European Union had issued a new directive.
It bans any and all interactions, economic, social, or academic, with Israeli companies or institutions situated in East Jerusalem, the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), and the Golan Heights—that is, the places Israel took over in the 1967 Six-Day War, where a total of 700,000 Israelis (not far from 10 percent of the country’s population) now live.
The directive also states that “all agreements between the State of Israel and the EU must unequivocally and explicitly indicate their inapplicability to the territories occupied by Israel in 1967.”
In the run-up to the Six-Day War—among other such statements—Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser said, “Our basic objective will be the destruction of Israel.” Syrian defense minister (later prime minister) Hafez Assad said, “I, as a military man, believe that the time has come to enter into a battle of annihilation.” Iraqi president Abdur Rahman Aref said, “The existence of Israel is an error which must be rectified. This is our opportunity to wipe out the ignominy which has been with us since 1948. Our goal is clear—to wipe Israel off the map.”
Israelis secretly dug 10,000 graves for the expected victims of the war. Some 14,000 hospital beds were prepared. Gas masks were handed out to the population. Survivors of the European Holocaust in particular were gripped with fear.
The thing about a police state is that it tends to creep up on you. One day you think the Bill of Rights is intact and the freedoms you take for granted are intact, but the next day you find out that under the National Defense Authorization Act (HR 1540), signed into law by President Obama on December 31, 2011, you can be arrested and detained without recourse to an attorney or the courts.
HR 1540 kills the concept of Habeas Corpus by permitting the detention of U.S. citizens without trial. In 2009 the National Emergency Centers Act, HR 645, was introduced for the establishment of “internment camps.” I have not been able to determine if it was passed and signed into law, nor have I found any explanation why the Congress of the United States either passed or even considered these laws.
The 2001 Patriot Act was justified as a response to 9/11 and revised in 2012. It gives the government unprecedented powers of surveillance and enforcement in the name of deterring terrorism.
One of Obama’s many executive orders permits him to “commandeer” all domestic U.S. resources, including food and water supplies, energy productions, and transportation, even in times of peace, with no congressional oversight. On March 16, 2012, the National Defense Resources Preparedness EO expands on a law from the 1950s as the Cold War was heating up and there were fears of a conflict with the Soviet Union.
President Obama, obsessed with leaks to the press, has now turned the entire federal government into a workplace where employees are expected to report “suspicious activity” of their co-workers. Failure to do so could result in penalties including criminal charges. Though figures differ, by 2010 there were an estimated 2.5 million full-time federal employees.
According to an article by Jonathan S. Landay and Marisa Taylor, two reporters for McClatchy newspapers, the October 2011 executive order mandating the program is “based on behavioral profiling techniques that are not scientifically proven to work, according to experts and government documents.” The program, deemed flawed, “could result in illegal ethnic and racial profiling and privacy violations.”
As Americans have been learning in airports across the nation, the Transportation Security Authority routinely engages in profiling and highly intrusive physical “pat downs” that many find humiliating.
In 2011, the TSA’s “VIPR teams” conducted an estimated 8,000 unannounced security screenings at subway stations, bus terminals, seaports, and highway rest stops in which Americans were required to show some proof of identity. This is the same administration that opposes voter ID, but not when the police functions of the TSA are concerned.
In bits and pieces, news of activities at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been reported and, when the dots are connected, some very scary conclusions can be reached. Why has DHS purchased 1.6 billion bullets as of March of this year? That is reportedly twenty times more than the amount of bullets expended in the Iraq War. Why is the DHS reportedly sending thousands of heavily armored vehicles and combat gear to cities and towns around the nation for use by police forces that are increasingly being militarized?
Recently, Christian Bible translators considered changes that would make Christian scriptures more palatable to Muslim audiences. Instead of “in the name of the Father,” they put forth the phrase “in the name of Allah.” “Baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit” was reformulated as “Cleanse them in the name of Allah, his Messiah, and his Holy Spirit.” In addition, Isa a prophet of Allah in the Koran who is superseded by Mohammed, has been equated with Jesus in the Christian Bible. Of course, many Christians view this as blasphemy.
The push for biblical changes came in large part from Christian leaders of the “Insider Movement” who endeavor to reach Muslim communities by encouraging Muslims to embrace Christianity by “worshipping Jesus or Isa in the mosque.” This is an accommodation to enable Muslims to follow Jesus, yet not explicitly express Christian faith. The “Insider Movement” has been gaining steam for the past decade and advances the idea of the blending of faith rather than complete conversion to Christianity.
It remains to be seen if these modifications or conscious accommodations to Islam, created by proselytizing Christians, threaten the integrity of Christian beliefs. However, a more significant threat to Christianity has existed for years in the form of ongoing, aggressive interfaith activities spearheaded by Muslims who use this religious context to shield their ulterior motive: spreading the supremacy of Islam.
This deceptive undertaking is part of the phased plan for “civilizational jihad” put forth by the Muslim Brotherhood in “An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America.” Muslims have been encouraged to form coalitions under the guise of cooperation in order to “absorb” Western culture. They have been encouraged to “take from people the best they have” and “understand the benefit of agreement, cooperation, and alliance.” This effort has translated into establishing so-called “interfaith” groups and ostensibly fostering “interfaith” activities. The problem has been that all cooperation and accommodations are one-way, favoring Muslims and Islam.
http://www.nationalreview.com/node/353716/print
With Mohamed Morsi out and Egypt’s future unclear, Erick Stakelbeck, author of the new book The Brotherhood: America’s Next Great Enemy, talks to National Review Online’s Kathryn Jean Lopez about what the “Arab Spring” turned into and where Egypt may go from here, with a warning for the United States.
KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ: Is there anything about what’s going on in Egypt right now that surprises you?
ERICK STAKELBECK: I’m a bit surprised that it took the Egyptian military a full year to finally step in and pull the plug on Morsi’s disastrous, aggressively Islamist tenure. Beginning in August 2012, when Morsi suddenly and boldly sacked Egypt’s longtime defense minister and other top generals, and continuing through that November, when Morsi seized dictatorial powers and then rammed through a nakedly sharia-driven constitution, it was obvious that he and the Brotherhood (aided by a freshly minted, Islamist-dominated parliament) were going “all in” on their dream to transform Egypt into a draconian Islamic state. In the process, they dropped their longtime strategy of stealthy gradualism and made their nefarious intentions for Egypt abundantly clear to the world.
All the while, the Egyptian military brass largely stayed silent, even as Morsi attempted to stack its ranks — and those of Egypt’s military academy — with Islamists. Why the military waited so long to turn back the MB tide is unclear. As NRO’s Andrew McCarthy has pointed out, top general Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, who was handpicked by Morsi, may himself have Islamist tendencies. But Morsi’s ham-handed, polarizing, and tactless methods of going about the Islamist project in Egypt had to be red flags for al-Sisi and other possible sympathizers in the military (as was the looming possibility of famine and starvation among segments of the Egyptian populace). The final tipping point for the military was clearly the demonstrations — the largest in human history — against Morsi and the Brothers during the first week of July.
And that brings us to the greatest surprise of all: that the Muslim Brotherhood, long the world’s most politically astute, patient, and disciplined Islamist movement, overplayed its hand so badly in Egypt and revealed its true intent so early. At the end of the day, instituting sharia was more important to Morsi and his fellow Brothers than feeding the Egyptian people or making even the slightest attempt at jumpstarting the Egyptian economy. That in itself is not surprising. This is who the Brothers are, after all: committed ideological fanatics. What is surprising is that they made it so obvious, so soon.
LOPEZ: What is going on in Egypt now? What do Egyptians want?
Syria is burning, not because of the Arab Spring or Tyranny or Twitter, or any of the other popular explanations. The fire in Syria is the same firestorm burning in Iraq, in Turkey, in Lebanon and throughout much of the Muslim world. It has nothing to do with human rights or democracy. There is no revolution here. Only the eternal civil war.
Most people accept countries with ancient names like Egypt, Jordan and Syria as a given. If they think about it at all they assume that they were always around, or were restored after the fall of the Ottoman Empire. But actually the countries of the Middle East are mostly artificial creations borrowing a history that is not their own.
When Mohammed unleashed a fanatical round of conquests and crusades, he began by wrecking the cultures and religions of his native region. And his followers went on to do the same throughout the region and across the world.
Entire peoples lost their history, their past, their religion and their way of life. This cultural genocide was worst in Africa, Asia and parts of Europe. But the Middle Eastern peoples lost much of their heritage as well.
The Muslim conquerors made a special point of persecuting and exterminating the native beliefs and indigenous inhabitants they dominated. Israeli Jews, Assyrian Christians and Persian Zoroastrians faced special persecution.
Conquered peoples were expected to become Muslims. Those who resisted were repressed as Dhimmis. But those who submitted and became Muslims suffered a much worse fate, losing major portions of their traditions and history. They were expected to define themselves as Muslims first and look back to the great day when their conquerors subjugated them as the beginning of their history. Their pre-Islamic history faded into the mists of the ignorant past.
But Islam did not lead to a unified region, only to a prison of nations. The Caliphates, like the USSR, held sway over a divided empire through repression and force. Many of those peoples had lost a clear sense of themselves, but they still maintained differences that they expressed by modifying Islam to accommodate their existing beliefs and customs.
Why do millions of Egyptians, including politicians and activists, consider Anne Patterson, the U.S. ambassador to Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood’s “stooge”—as she is so commonly referred to by many in Egypt, from the media down to the street?
In America, some are aware of matters, such as that “Patterson in particular resisted opportunities to criticize the Morsi government as it implemented increasingly authoritarian policies. In a memorable May interview with the Egyptian English-language news sit[e] Ahram Online, she repeatedly dodged pointed questions about Morsi’s leadership. ‘The fact is they ran in a legitimate election and won,’ she said…. Republicans from Texas Senator Ted Cruz to House Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce have pounced on statements like these, increasingly seeing Patterson as the key implementer for a policy that at least offers tacit support to the Muslim Brotherhood.”
Following the Egyptian media, however, one discovers that the reasons Egyptians dislike Patterson are many and unambiguous.
Last week, for example, El Fagr reported that, during their most recent phone conversation, Patterson demanded that Egypt’s recently appointed Supreme Commander of the Egyptian Armed Forces, General Abdul Fatah al-Sisi, release all Muslim Brotherhood members currently being held for questioning: “And when Sisi rejected this order, the American ambassador began threatening him that Egypt will turn into another Syria and live through a civil war, to which Sisi responded violently: ‘Neither you nor your country can overcome Egypt and its people.'”
Earlier, Patterson was reported as “trying to communicate with General Sisi, demanding dialogue with the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, and concessions to them,” to which Sisi reportedly retorted: “Stop meddling in our affairs… the Egyptian people are capable of looking after their own welfare.”
