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A total of 501 juveniles have been reported missing in D.C. since the beginning of the year. This startling number has forced the hands of several officials who’ve written a letter to call on special help from the Justice Department in investigating the matter.
The letter, obtained by the Associated Press, asked FBI Director James Comey and Attorney General Jeff Sessions to “devote the resources necessary to determine whether these developments are an anomaly or whether they are indicative of an underlying trend that must be addressed.” It was signed by Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Cedric Richmond (D-La) and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, who represents D.C. in Congress.
“Ten children of color went missing in our nation’s capital in a period of two weeks and at first garnered very little media attention. That’s deeply disturbing,” Richmond’s letter said.
As the AP reports, the District of Columbia logged 501 cases of missing juveniles, many of them black or Latino, in the first three months of this year, according to the Metropolitan Police Department, the city’s police force. Twenty-two were unsolved as of March 22, police said.
The Twitter profile for the DC police department is quite literally riddled with images of missing young black and latino girls. In spite of the officials’ concern and the posts on Twitter, police are assuring the public that there is nothing out of the ordinary. (Read more from “Hundreds of Washington, D.C. Children Missing Already in 2017, Officials Seek FBI Help, Fear Pedophile Network Growing” HERE) http://joemiller.us/2017/03/hundreds-washington-d-c-children-missing-already-2017-officials-seek-fb
Trump Accuses Freedom Caucus of Saving Planned Parenthood and Obamacare
March 26, 2017
/by Al Perrotta
The fallout over the failure of the House GOP to pass the Obamacare replacement bill last week continued Sunday. In an early morning tweet, President Trump accused the House Freedom Caucus and other conservative groups of saving Planned Parenthood and Obamacare by refusing to back the GOP effort. And to think, on Friday, Trump called the Freedom Caucus “friends.” Heritage Foundation president Jim DeMint responded to the President’s tweet, saying the American Health Care Act would not have repealed Obamacare and lowered premiums. He did agree with Trump that a “better bill” is within reach and offered up Heritage’s own plan. President Says “Do Not Worry!” The AHCA was pulled from the House floor Friday in what the media is touting as a humiliating political defeat for the president. Trump isn’t acting too humiliated. In a Saturday tweet he assured the American people, “Do not worry!” He promised “we will all get together and piece together a great health plan for THE PEOPLE.” And he again declared Obamacare is collapsing of its own accord. White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus agreed, telling Fox News Sunday “Obamacare is imploding, it’s exploding.” He also suggested that “at the end of the day it’s time for the (Republican) party to start governing.” House Speaker Paul Ryan admitted as much Friday after pulling the bill. He blamed the failure to get the bill passed on the “growing pains of government.” “We were a 10-year opposition party, where being against things was easy to do,” Ryan said. “You just had to be against it. Now, in three months’ time, we tried to go to a governing party where we actually had to get 216 people to agree with each other on how we do things.” Vice President Mike Pence said Saturday it’s “back to the drawing board.” However, Priebus warns holdout Republicans no perfect bill exists. “We can’t be chasing the perfect all the time,” he said, “Sometimes you have to take the good and take the win.” Meanwhile, the progressive dream of a single-payer health care system is alive and well. Sen. Bernie Sanders told a town hall Saturday he plans on introducing a “Medicare for all” bill in the next couple weeks. (For more from the author of “Trump Accuses Freedom Caucus of Saving Planned Parenthood and Obamacare” please click HERE) http://joemiller.us/2017/03/trump-accuses-freedom-caucus-saving-planned-parenthood-obamacar
Over a mere two decades, the Pentagon lost track of a mind-numbing $10 trillion — that’s trillion, with a fat, taxpayer-funded “T” — and no one, not even the Department of Defense, knows where it went or on what it was spent.
Even though audits of all federal agencies became mandatory in 1996, the Pentagon has apparently made itself an exception, and — fully 20 years later — stands obstinately orotund in never having complied.
Because, as defense officials insist — summoning their best impudent adolescent — an audit would take too long and, unironically, cost too much.
“Over the last 20 years, the Pentagon has broken every promise to Congress about when an audit would be completed,” Rafael DeGennaro, director of Audit the Pentagon, told The Guardian recently. “Meanwhile, Congress has more than doubled the Pentagon’s budget.”
Worse, President Trump’s newly-proposed budget seeks to toss an additional $54 billion into the evidently bottomless pit that is the U.S. military. . .
[W]ithout the mandated audit, the DoD could be purchasing damned near anything, at any cost, and use, or give, it — to anyone, for any reason.
Officials with the Government Accountability Office and Office of the Inspector General have catalogued egregious financial disparities at the Pentagon for years — yet the Defense Department grouses the cost and energy necessary to perform an audit in compliance with the law makes it untenable.
Astonishingly, the Pentagon’s own watchdog tacitly approves this technically-illegal workaround — and the legally-gray and, yes, literally, on-the-books-corrupt practices in tandem — to what would incontrovertibly be a most unpleasant audit, indeed.
Take the following of myriad examples, called “plugging,” for which Pentagon bookkeepers are not only encouraged to conjure figures from thin air, but, in many cases, they would be physically and administratively incapable of performing the job without doing so — without ever having faced consequences for this brazen cooking of books.
To wit, Reuters reported the results of an investigation into Defense’s magical number-crunching — well over three years ago, on November 18, 2013 — detailing the illicit tasks of 15-year employee, “Linda Woodford [who] spent the last 15 years of her career inserting phony numbers in the U.S. Department of Defense’s accounts.”
Woodford, who has since retired, and others like her, act as individual pieces in the amassing chewed gum only appearing to plug a damning mishandling of funds pilfered from the American people to fund wars overseas for resources in the name of U.S. defense.
“Every month until she retired in 2011,” Scot J. Paltrow wrote for Reuters, “she says, the day came when the Navy would start dumping numbers on the Cleveland, Ohio, office of the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, the Pentagon’s main accounting agency. Using the data they received, Woodford and her fellow DFAS accountants there set about preparing monthly reports to square the Navy’s books with the U.S. Treasury’s – a balancing-the-checkbook maneuver required of all the military services and other Pentagon agencies.
“And every month, they encountered the same problem. Numbers were missing. Numbers were clearly wrong. Numbers came with no explanation of how the money had been spent or which congressional appropriation it came from. ‘A lot of times there were issues of numbers being inaccurate,’ Woodford says. ‘We didn’t have the detail … for a lot of it.’”
Where a number of disparities could be corrected through hurried communications, a great deal — thousands each month, for each person on the task — required fictitious figures. Murkily deemed, “unsubstantiated change actions” — tersely termed, “plugs” — this artificial fix forcing records into an unnatural alignment is common practice at the Pentagon.
Beyond bogus books, the Pentagon likely flushed that $10 trillion in taxes down the toilet of inanity that is unchecked purchasing by inept staff who must be devoid of prior experience in the field of defense.
This tax robbery would eclipse the palatability of blood money — if it weren’t also being wasted on items such as the 7,437 extraneous Humvee front suspensions — purchased in surplus over the inexplicable 14-year supply of 15,000 unnecessary Humvee front suspensions already gathering warehouse-shelf dust.
And there are three items of note on this particular example, of many:
One, the U.S. Department of Defense considers inventory surpassing a three-year supply, “excessive.”
Two, the stupefying additional seven-thousand-something front suspensions arrived, as ordered, during a period of demand reduced by half.
Three, scores of additional items — mostly unaccounted for in inventory — sit untouched and aging in storage, growing not only incapable of being used, but too dangerous to be properly disposed of safely.
Worse, contractors greedily sink hands into lucrative contracts — with all the same supply-based waste at every level, from the abject disaster that is the $1 trillion F-35 fighter program, to the $8,123.50 shelled out for Bell Helicopter Textron helicopter gears with a price tag of $445.06, to the DoD settlement with Boeing for overcharges of a whopping $13.7 million.
The latter included a charge to the Pentagon of $2,286 — spent for an aluminum pin ordinarily costing just $10.
Considering all the cooking of numbers apparently fueled with burning money stateside, you would think Defense channeled its efforts into becoming a paragon of economic efficiency when the military defends the United States. Overseas. From terrorism. And from terrorists. And terrorist-supporting nations.
But this is the Pentagon — and a trickle of telling headlines regularly grace the news, each evincing yet another missing shipment of weapons, unknown allocation of funds, or retrieval of various U.S.-made arms and munitions by some terrorist group deemed politically less acceptable than others by officials naming pawns.
In fact, so many American weapons and supplies lost by the DoD and CIA become the property of actual terrorists — who then use them sadistically against civilians and strategically against our proxies and theirs — it would be negligent not to describe the phenomenon as pattern, whether or not intent exists behind it. . .
For now, we know generally where our money is going: war. Which aspect of war — compared to the power of your outrage about its callous and reckless execution in your name — matters little. (For more from the author of “$10 Trillion Missing From Pentagon and No One — Not Even the DOD — Knows Where It Is” please click HERE) http://joemiller.us/2017/03/10-trillion-missing-pentagon-no-one-not-even-dod-knows/
“There was a shooting here this morning around one o’clock in the morning,” Cincinnati Police Department Sgt. Eric Franz told ABC News of the incident at Cameo Nightclub. “It’s a large and complicated homicide scene.”
Sgt. Franz added, “At this point we have multiple witnesses we’re interviewing and we have nobody in custody.”
Assistant Police Chief Paul Neudigate tweeted that as far as officials know, there was only one shooter. At an earlier press conference, though, Capt. Kimberly Williams had said there was multiple shooters. Neudigate also said the motive remains unknown, but “there are no indications this incident is terrorism related.”
Update: Motive is still unclear but there are no indications this incident is terrorism related.
— LtC. Paul Neudigate (@PaulNeudigate) March 26, 2017
Cameos Update: Only one reported shooter at this time, still investigating if others involved.
— LtC. Paul Neudigate (@PaulNeudigate) March 26, 2017
Ref Cameo incident, confirming 15 total victims at this time, one of which is deceased. Continuing to investigate, no current updates.
— LtC. Paul Neudigate (@PaulNeudigate) March 26, 2017
At the press conference, Capt. Williams said of a possible motive, “I don’t want to make speculations on what happened, but just keep an eye on your young people … I don’t know if this had to do with an argument or neighborhood issues or what. Just, I’m asking parents … know what your young people are doing.”
Capt. Williams said the shooting occurred inside Cameo, and that “chaos” ensued as people fled from the venue.
“We’ve got a really large scene at multiple hospitals,” Sgt. Franz said of the victims.
Kelly Martin, a spokeswoman for University of Cincinnati Medical Center, told ABC News that it admitted 8 people early this morning: 4 in stable condition, 3 in serious condition and 1 in critical condition.
A spokesman for Bethesda North Hospital told ABC News it admitted two patients related to the shooting, but did not provide their conditions.
At Christ Hospital, a spokeswoman told ABC News it admitted two individuals with minor injuries from the shooting.
On its Facebook page, Cameo says it provides “excitement and entertainment to the tri-state,” adding that Saturdays at the venue are “grown and sexy night.”
Make sure you’re never raped in the state of Idaho: If you’re five years old and your attackers are from a politically protected class, you’re only worth $4,500.
There seems to be no willingness on the part of the state or the county to reimburse this long-suffering family for any of the other costs that they have incurred because of the crime. Because they felt threatened – with very good reason – in continuing to live next door to one of the attackers’ families, they have been living in a succession of hotels; they have spent in excess of $2,000 in hotels alone.
Why did they have to relocate? Because Muslims were stopping in front of their home at night and shooting bottle rockets at it at 11:30 p.m. Apparently that kind of menacing and harassment doesn’t qualify as demonstrating a need for relocation.
The family also incurred babysitting fees, as well as expenses for transportation to get themselves to and from court. Then there is the astronomical cost of their lawyer, and other costs that he will require to accomplish anything positive for them.
This poor family has suffered almost every kind of injustice, and there is no light at the end of the tunnel.
It is outrageous. And it gets even worse. For the longest time, the attacker wasn’t even limited in his access to the community’s children; now he must be supervised by someone 14 years old or older. When they stipulated this, the court had to have been aware that there was a boy who videotaped the rape who was also 14. This is a gross insult against this victimized family – and a direct result of a judge’s decision.
Meanwhile, the neighbor of the family who caught the perpetrators in the act, an elderly woman known to all as “Grandma Jo,” has been living in constant terror since she first happened upon the grisly scene. She has been stalked by the Iraqi family of the 7-year-old attacker. Her apartment is back-to-back with theirs; they peer into her windows and pace back and forth in front of her apartment in a clearly menacing manner.
The prosecuting attorney, Grant Loebs, has gone out of his way to imply that this rape was false information. His interviews have led the media and public officials to deny clear facts of the case. The U.S. attorney for Idaho even vowed to charge anyone who made false statements about the perps. The Hamas-tied Council on American-Islamic Relations has whined that the case has become “a lightning rod for anti-Muslim, and anti-refugee sentiments.”
Meanwhile, the victim in Twin Falls, once a happy and social child, now frequently insists that she wants to be alone. She finds a small and safe space inside a closet and stays in it alone for hours. Once a very chatty and happy child, she has become very quiet. Even during the summer heat of Twin Falls, she always wore two T-shirts and two pairs of underwear. She talked constantly about “those naughty boys” and asked her mother repeatedly not to tell her father everything that happened because it will upset him.
The alleged attackers’ families had no trouble getting new homes, but the victim’s family is still without a new apartment. Now that the media firestorm has subsided, the family is simply being ignored.
This little girl deserves justice. And she is not getting it. We are not going to forget about this case. The authorities who have failed this family and betrayed it for political correctness need to be repudiated, rejected, rebuked and removed from office. Enough is enough.
The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and Linda Sarsour, a militant Palestinian activist, have lost their lawsuit against President Donald Trump over his immigration moratorium stopping foreign nationals attempting to enter the United States from six terror-tied countries.
Judge Anthony Trenga, who sits on the U.S. Eastern District Court of Virginia, said the president does indeed have the authority to protect the country’s national security interests.
“The President has provided a detailed justification for the Order based on national security needs, and enjoining the operation of [executive order] would interfere with the President’s unique constitutional responsibilities to conduct international relations, provide for the national defense, and secure the nation,” Judge Trenga said in his opinion.
“The President has unqualified authority to bar physical entry to the United States at the border,” Trenga added.
Several officials from the Hamas-tied Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) sued Trump over what they called a “Muslim Exclusion Order.” Officials listed on the docket have in the past expressed support for U.S.-designated terrorist organizations, cheered terrorist attacks, and campaigned against cooperating with the FBI.
In his 32-page ruling, Judge Trenga rejected that the moratorium is a “Muslim ban.”
The order “clearly has a stated secular purpose — to protect U.S. citizens from terrorist attacks,” Tenga said.
The moratorium — which was recently struck down by federal courts in Hawaii and Maryland — imposes a temporary stop on citizens from six terror tied countries — Syria, Iran, Yemen, Libya, Somalia, and Sudan — from entering the United States.
As Conservative Review’s Daniel Horowitz has explained, the courts do not have the plenary power to interfere with the president’s executive order, and other decisions concerning national security and immigration matters.
The Department of Justice said in a statement in reaction to the ruling: “As the Court correctly explains, the President’s Executive Order falls well within his authority to safeguard the nation’s security.”
CAIR, the radical group that brought the suit, will appeal the ruling, according to their lawyers from the far-left American Civil Liberties Union.
An additional lawsuit was filed against the Trump order in a D.C. federal court Friday. The Universal Muslim Association of America (UMMA) — an Islamic group funded in part by a foundation connected to the regime in Iran — says the president’s executive order is harmful to Muslims and inflicts “a damaging stigma upon them based on their religious affiliation.” (For more from the author of “Virginia Judge Says Trump Order Is Not a Muslim Ban, but Actually Protects Citizens From Terror” please click HERE) http://joemiller.us/2017/03/virginia-judge-says-trump-order-not-muslim-ban-actually-protects-citi
( ,Muslims do not assimilate, they infiltrate )
The Canadian House of Commons passed anti-Islamophobia motion (M-103) on Thursday, leaving opponents stunned that protests and tens of thousands of Canadian signatures to petitions calling for rejection of the motion were ignored. M-103 was touted as advancing tolerance, inclusiveness and racial harmony, but instead it bestows a special status to Muslims and is a first step in edging Canada down a dangerous path, eroding the freedom of speech and potentially leading to the censorship of reporting on crimes committed by Muslims in the name of Islam. Even after the cover-up of the UK’s “grooming gangs” and the eventual revelation that up to “one million white English children” may have been victims of Muslim rape gangs; the sex assaults in Germany which have led to signs in pool areas telling Muslim migrants that it is not appropriate to touch women; Sweden’s rape crisis; and France’s no-go zones, still, the German Media Council told journalists not to mention the ethnicity or religion of perpetrators on the grounds that it would be discriminatory to do so. Such an approach leaves Westerners ignorant and uninformed, and living in a permanent state of unease. In Canada, Mohamed Huque, executive director of the Islamic Family and Social Services Association in Edmonton has already called for migrant sex crimes to be covered up following the sex assault of six Edmonton teen girls of which a Syrian refugee was arrested.
In a Toronto Sun article entitled “I’m a liberal Muslim and I reject M-103,” Farzana Hassan writes:
Internationally, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation has moved to curtail “Islamophobia” in the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights. I categorically reject such restriction on free speech, just as I reject M-103, tabled by Liberal MP Iqra Khalid, who has refused to remove the term from the motion.
Following the passage of M-103, a reporter in the CBC video here begins by saying: “That woman with the glasses is Liberal Iqra Khalid. It’s hard to tell if she’s happy or just relieved that her motion passed.” Khalid emerged beaming like the proverbial cat that got the canary after her victory in Parliament by a 201-91 vote, courtesy of the majority Liberal government. Most Conservative Members of Parliament voted against the motion, “with leadership candidate Michael Chong and Simcoe North MP Bruce Stanton voting in favour.” Some say that a motion is harmless, but it is not. It guides legislative decisions. Liberal MP Raj Grewal revealed the ominous intentions behind the “anti-Islamophobia” motion during the M-103 parliamentary debate of February 15, 2017, when he stated:
One of the most important things about the motion that Canadians should understand is that it encourages a committee to collect data and to present that data in a contextualized manner so we, as members of Parliament elected to this chamber, can study it and propose laws.
Iqra Khalid now stands as a hero among Islamic supremacists after managing quite cleverly to play the victim herself and on behalf of other Muslims. She spoke to reporters after the motion was passed on Thursday:
“I’m really happy that the vote today has shown positive support for this motion and I’m really looking forward to the committee taking on this study,”
Khalid is referring to the Commons heritage committee, which is now tasked with developing a “government-wide approach for reducing or eliminating systemic racism and religious discrimination, including Islamophobia.” Following the passage of M-103, Khalid was swamped by the media, and pressed by a reporter on whether she thought she could have allayed the concerns of many Canadians by including a written definition of “Islamophobia.” Instead of addressing the question, Khalid clumsily dodged answering. The reporter continued: “Why won’t you answer my question?,” at which point Khalid rudely turned away from him. Still in full avoidance mode, she turned to another reporter, who embarrassed her further by stating that she, too, was interested in an answer to the question. Now cornered and looking foolish, Khalid turned back to the original reporter and asked, “What was the question?” The reporter repeated himself but she replied only by hailing the merits of M-103, stating that it involved a collaborative effort and had the support of Canadians, parliamentarians and grassroots organizations, which is a bogus assertion. There was no collaboration, but rather a dictation to all Canadians by the Liberal government and Islamic supremacists.
Khalid refused discussion with community members and groups that did not align with her agenda, including those who stressed the need either to fully define “Islamophobia” or otherwise change the word in the interests of a united Canada. One of those groups was the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), which stated in a declaration that “We believe the term ‘Islamophobia’ should be replaced with a more precise phrase, such as ‘anti-Muslim bigotry,’ which was suggested by, among others, former Justice Minister Irwin Cotler.” Jews and blacks still suffer more hate and racism, by far, than Muslims do, but Iqra Khalid was not interested in them, nor in inclusiveness.
If Khalid’s intentions were as benign as she pretends them to be, she would hardly be so dogmatically resistant to adopted the suggested phrase, “anti-Muslim bigotry,” that was presented to her as an option that would be acceptable to all peace-loving Canadians. Khalid sought to use the specifically branded term of “Islamophobia,” which is a broad and sweeping term intended to intimidate and silence critics of Islam. Iqra Khalid appeared to be well aware of the confusion that resulted from her “Islamophobia” motion as she remained resolute in insisting on that word.
Khalid is well versed in deceit, and has, despite her harmless appearance, a questionable history. She is a former president of the Muslim Brotherhood-linked Muslim Student Association (MSA) at York University. MSA’s are “essentially an arm of the Saudi-funded, Muslim Brotherhood-controlled Muslim World League.” The Muslim Student Associations are also well known for their aggressive Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions drives on campus to demonize and delegitimize the State of Israel, and for their intimidation of Jewish students. In January 2016, Khalid received a red carpet welcome from board members of the Palestine House in Mississauga (near Toronto) and a “large number of members of the Palestinian community,” including Palestinian political activists. Palestine House supports the Palestinian al-Quds Intifada, and its settlement program was defunded by the former Conservative Harper government for allying itself with terrorism.
The controversy surrounding Khalid’s motion was first portrayed in the mass media as an issue of right versus left and of white supremacists versus “immigrants.” Even the tragic shooting in January at the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec City — which killed six people and injured 19 — ended up being used as a political rallying point to shore up support for M-103 and fan the flames of division that were spreading fast, despite the lack of transparency about what really occurred at that mosque and the motive behind the shooting. But Forum Research proved that Canadians still widely rejected M-103. The research group found that only 14% of people supported M-103, and an Angus Reid poll showed that only 12% thought that M-103 was “‘worth passing’ and ‘will help reduce anti-Muslim attitudes and discrimination.’”
Behind Khalid were muscular Muslim Brotherhood lobbies and a global network. Canada’s first anti-Islamophobia motion that passed in October and the second, M-103, were built on petition e-411 by Samer Majzoub, who managed a Muslim Brotherhood-linked Montreal high school, and is a leader of the self-described Muslim Brotherhood-linked Muslim Association of Canada (MAC). Majzoub even accused Conservative MPs of “stoking a wave of anti-Muslim sentiment” in opposing M-103.
Petition e-411, which was presented with 70,000 signatures, outlined the contributions of Islam throughout history and declared Islam a religion of peace that had been hijacked by a violent few. The petition was celebrated by the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), the former Canadian branch of CAIR (CAIR-CAN). CAIR was listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terrorism funding trial in U.S. history, related to funding Hamas. CAIR was also designated a terrorist organization by the United Arab Emirates. The NCCM’s Executive Director, Ihsaan Gardee, said of the first anti-Islamophobia motion that it sent “a strong message to Canadians that discrimination and hatred against Muslims is unacceptable.” Six major Canadian cities also signed an anti-Islamophobia charter last summer, which was initiated by the NCCM.
Those who are pushing the “Islamophobia” agenda have not finished, either in Canada or worldwide. This nefarious scheme can be traced all the way up to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). The OIC has many member nations that once subscribed to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but which signed on to the Cairo Declaration of Human rights in August 1990. The Cairo declaration affirmed that Sharia is the sole source of determining human rights. Sharia is regarded as divine law, and any insult to Muhammad or Islam is deemed blasphemous.
The passing of this “Islamophobia” motion in Canada represents a low point for freedom and an outstanding achievement for Islamic supremacists. For over 20 years, the OIC has been pressuring the West to restrict tghe free speech in accordance with its charter to “to combat defamation of Islam.” In 2009, an official OIC organization, the International Islamic Fiqh (Jurisprudence) Academy, issued fatwas calling for bans on the freedom of speech, legislation to protect Islamic interests, and judicial punishment for public expressions of apostasy. Demands to ban the freedom of speech also came from Egypt’s Salafist Nour party, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hizballah and al-Qaeda-linked groups.
The “Islamophobia” subterfuge is not new in Canada. In November 2012, a video created by a member of the Canadian military that mocked Osama bin Laden was deemed Islamophobic. The video was shown during an event as a satire of the brutalities practiced within Islamic regimes, which freedom-loving Muslims themselves rail against. The head of the Royal Canadian Air Force, Lt.-Gen. Yvan Blondin, was so upset by this video that he issued an apology to those who were offended and stated that the military has “zero tolerance for acts that do not reflect our Canadian values, especially the respect we owe to other cultures and religions.” A full military investigation was also launched, with a promise to follow through with disciplinary action against those involved. CAIR-CAN called it “tragic that an ignorant prank threatens to cast a shadow on our heritage.” The real tragedy, however, was the intimidation and attempt at censorship. And as accusations of “Islamophobia” grow more common in the West, there are bound to be much more intimidation and censorship.
In a special contribution to the Montreal Gazette, Montreal physician Dr. Sherif Emil, who grew up in Saudi Arabia, wrote prior to the passing of M-103:
The demagoguery of Islamophobia is already manifest in the Liberals’ apparent quest to brand all opposed to M-103 as extremists, racists and bigots. All three opposition parties supported an alternative motion that urged the House to condemn “all forms of systemic racism, religious intolerance, and discrimination of Muslims, Jews, Christians, Sikhs, Hindus, and other religious communities….
No Liberal MP supported the motion; it seems they did not have the guts to defy their prime minister and be — well — liberal.
The controversial Muslim author and speaker Irshad Manji once told Canada’s Globe and Mail that “offending people may be the only way to achieving a pluralistic society.” The best defense against the Islamophobia ploy is the active defense of our constitutionally protected principles of human rights, especially the freedom of speech, even when that speech is offensive, and the encouragement of pluralism within Islam. To criticize or insult Islam — or any religion, for that matter — is neither racist nor incitement to hatred. In fact, the reverse is true: smothering public discourse creates a fertile ground for toxic emotions to fester against Muslims, thereby creating the opposite of what Iqra Khalid says she is trying to do.
Some other recent incidents of Islamic supremacist incursion in Canada: Ontario also unanimously passed an anti-Islamophobia motion, and most disappointing was that Progressive Conservative leader Patrick Brown “instructed” his caucus to vote for it; the Peel Regional School Board in Mississauga is not only allowing Islamic sermons, but is refusing to monitor the contents of those sermons. Parents are furious. When protests erupted a couple of months ago, Peel police intervened as if they were Sharia police and bullied a female protester outside. New protests have now begun. Last Wednesday, a Peel District School Board meeting about Muslim prayer was cleared by police after some infuriated attendees shouted comments about Sharia and concerns about the Islamic indoctrination of children; pages were torn from a Quran.
Author Bruce Bawer in his book While Europe Slept warns that Europe is being destroyed from within by Islamic incursion, and most Europeans don’t even know it is happening. The same process has begun in Canada, with its suicidal refugee policy of welcoming in unvetted asylum seekers and ramming “anti-Islamophobia” initiatives down the throats of Canadians, along with the persistence of Canadian authorities in unreasonably accommodating Islamic supremacists and even allowing Muslim Brotherhood-linked groups and individuals to sway public policy. The only positive aspect of the M-103 “anti-Islamophobia” ordeal was the open and widespread rejection of it by Canadians of every race and religious background.
Wednesday’s terrorist attack near Parliament in London—on the one-year anniversary of the Brussels airport attack—is a vivid reminder not only of the enduring nature of post-9/11 terrorism, but of how the threat continues to evolve.
Despite steady Islamist goals for high-profile attacks on Western targets and the continuing risk to airlines and other transportation modes, the norm for the near term will likely be small groups of jihadists and solo terrorists using unsophisticated weapons (including knives, machetes, and vehicles) to attack indiscriminately.
This type of threat will only grow in our homeland in 2017—not in spite of our overseas success in fighting the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, but because of it.
Although far from over, the battle to liberate Mosul from ISIS will ultimately prevail, as will the inevitable follow-on fight to free Raqqa. Understandably, many people see those goals as the end of the road for ISIS. What could possibly be next?
This mindset, however, overlooks the nature of the war that the enemy intends to fight. This discussion must look beyond the borders of Iraq and Syria toward the broader region, and to the West.
Indeed, the war today is global: No matter how protected we Americans consider ourselves, guarded by two major oceans on each coast, geography’s shield has in fact weakened in the 21st century. Walls or no walls, America remains vulnerable.
Ordinary Americans should prepare now to better confront ISIS and similarly-inspired fighters, at an amount loosely proportional to the expanding degree of our military victories overseas.
As ISIS loses territory, and as thousands of its fighters flee Mosul, Raqqa, and other sites in the coming months, many potential ISIS recruits who already live in the West will seek out targets here that are more readily available.
The most recent U.K. attack illustrates this, and although Western Europe is an easy target, the United States remains at the top of ISIS’ list of targets.
Understanding this, ordinary Americans should take three basic steps to confront the coming threat.
First, know the enemy and discuss them openly.
It’s easy to remain numb to the nebulous risk from ISIS or al-Qaeda after more than a decade and a half of conflict with Islamists, most of it being seen only on television and in lands far away.
Yet every town in America is just one news cycle away from becoming the next London, Paris, San Bernardino, or Orlando. Learn about what the enemy plans to do and how they plan to do it.
If you haven’t looked at any of their English-language online magazines, consider doing so. Much of their propaganda is indeed grisly and horrific, but some of it is useful for understanding the kind of evil we are facing, and the kind of vigilance it will take to confront it.
Consider one sobering example from ISIS’ magazine, Rumiyah:
… the blood of the disbelievers is halal, and killing them is a form of worship to Allah … This includes the businessman riding to work in a taxicab, the young adults (post-pubescent ‘children’) engaged in sports activities in the park, and the old man waiting in line to buy a sandwich. Indeed, even the blood of the [infidel] street vendor selling flowers to those passing by is halal to be shed—and striking terror into the hearts of all disbelievers is a Muslim’s duty.
Such calls to violence are indeed unnerving, but they should sober us to the threats we face. Although jihadists’ justification for the murder of civilians is not new, these texts also describe recommended tactics and other specifics worth knowing. The first step is to understand that threat, and to discuss it.
Second, when it comes to anticipating ISIS, al-Qaeda, and similar threats, think outside the box.
Don’t think of potential terrorists strictly as “military-aged males” anymore. Today they can come in all shapes, sizes, ages, and sexes.
Just two months ago, female combatants engaged Navy SEALs with automatic weapons in the well-publicized Yemen raid. Young terrorists have been observed for years, as The Washington Post also confirmed in a recent story titled “The Islamic State’s New Threat: Child Terrorists.”
ISIS’ “cubs of the Islamic State” indoctrination program is well-documented, and the list of child terrorist acts is long and growing: a knife attack on a police officer in Hannover by a 15-year-old girl in February 2016, a 16-year-old girl plotting a bomb attack who was arrested last month in France, not to mention the dozens of horrific acts committed by ISIS-led children such as the shooting and decapitating of prisoners.
According to the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, between September 2014 and the end of 2016, there were “34 teen or pre-teen plots in seven countries [including the U.S.], with civilians most commonly targeted and knives repeatedly the weapon of choice.”
Many experts also warn that children of ISIS fighters are one of the biggest future threats.
If you doubt this claim, consider that “Jihad John,” the infamous YouTube ISIS executioner, eventually unveiled as Mohammed Emwazi and later killed, had graduated from the University of Westminster in 2009 with a computer programming degree … and was just 12 years old on Sept. 11, 2001.
Also, realize that your biggest risk might not be flying on a commercial airline flight. ISIS has excelled at finding unexpected means of inflicting harm and instilling fear.
This also means that the old “run, hide, fight” mindset is becoming obsolete. Consider the value of learning creative defense tactics that could be more useful in meeting a terror threat should it reach your street—and perhaps take a CPR class (British Member of Parliament Tobias Ellwood was the first on scene to administer aid to the stabbed London policeman on Wednesday).
Third, and finally, guard against the potential excesses of increased vigilance.
“Vigilance” and the well-known rule, “If you see something, say something,” have become clichés in our day, but they do have an important meaning.
The attempted vehicular attack in Antwerp, Belgium, this week was reportedly prevented by both civilians and police who were extra vigilant after hearing news of the U.K. attack. Heightened awareness like this on a daily basis has great potential to save lives.
Striving to become better prepared and thinking through potential terror-related scenarios is appropriate. On the other hand, paranoia, xenophobia, and hyperbolic generalizing are not.
We should live between the two extremes of blissful naiveté and paranoia. We cannot be paralyzed by political correctness and willful ignorance, but neither should we be spooked and mentally overcome by the enemy.
Americans must develop sober, informed, and determined resistance to terrorism—both to its attack form, as well as its underlying ideology.
The enemy is plotting and is always on the move. Our military and intelligence authorities are doing their part. Are we? (For more from the author of “Confronting Terrorism Is Every American’s Responsibility” please click HERE) http://joemiller.us/2017/03/confronting-terrorism-every-americans-responsibility/
Part 35
( Read find out what the Qur'an really teaches )
The claim circulates now and again among those who grasp at straws to be optimistic that the Qur’an promises the land of Israel to the Jews. This sura, unfortunately, undercuts their optimism.
This is yet another late Meccan sura. Its name comes from v. 35, where Abraham appears and prays, but following the convention of the naming of Qur’an chapters, this name has little to do with the content of this sura; more is said about Abraham elsewhere in the Qur’an.
Allah begins by celebrating the “Book which We have revealed to you” (v. 1) — which is, of course, the Qur’an that was, according to Islamic tradition, delivered to Muhammad. In the words of Ibn Kathir, it is “the most honored Book, that Allah sent down from heaven to the most honored Messenger of Allah sent to all the people of the earth, Arabs and non-Arabs alike.”
With this Book, Muhammad can “bring mankind out of darknesses into the light” (v. 1) — the light of Allah — but of course for the unbelievers there is a terrible penalty in store (v. 2): “woe to them on the Day of Judgment because they defied you, O Muhammad, and rejected you,” says Ibn Kathir. For they dared to prefer this world to the next and to keep people from the path of Allah, and they are “seeking to make it deviant” (v. 3) — that is, they are, in the words of Maulana Bulandshahri, “ever vigilant to expose any defect that they hope to find in the religion (D’in) of Islam.” Yet Allah has sent messengers to people speaking in their own language so they can understand the message clearly (v. 4), but after that, says the Tafsir al-Jalalayn, echoing the Qur’an itself, “God then sends astray whomever He will and He guides whomever He will.”
Then Allah, never afraid of repeating himself, returns to the stories of Moses (vv. 5-8) and some of the other prophets (v. 9). The unbelievers “returned their hands to their mouths” (v. 9) on hearing the messengers’ clear proofs. “It is said,” explains Ibn Kathir, “that they pointed to the Messengers’ mouths asking them to stop calling them to Allah, the Exalted and Most Honored. It is also said that it means, they placed their hands on their mouths in denial of the Messengers. It was also said that it means that they did not answer the call of the Messengers, or they were biting their hands in rage.” Then comes a dialogue between the unbelievers and the messengers (vv. 10-15) that appears to be meant to apply to all the experiences of all the prophets Allah has sent to the world, but which once again, as we have seen in other late Meccan suras, closely traces and universalizes Muhammad’s dealings with his own people, the pagan Quraysh of Mecca. Maulana Maududi makes this clear when he explains that v. 13, “The disbelievers warned their Messengers, ‘You shall have to return to our community or we will assuredly expel you from our land.” This is a reference to a threat the Quraysh had issued to Muhammad: the verse “clearly indicates,” Maududi says, “that the persecution of the Muslims was at its worst at the time of the revelation of this Surah, and the people of Makkah were bent on expelling the Believers from there like the disbelievers of the former Prophets.”
But Allah will turn the tables on the unbelievers: “We will surely destroy the wrongdoers, and We will surely cause you” — that is, Muhammad and the Muslims — “to dwell in the land after them” (vv. 13-14). This gives the lie to the often-repeated claim that the Qur’an promises the land of Israel to the Jews. This claim is based on Qur’an 5:21: “O my people, enter the Holy Land which Allah has assigned to you and do not turn back and become losers.” But the Jews, according to the Qur’an, did turn back, earning the curse of Allah (2:89, 3:112, 9:30), and as this verse shows, the Muslims inherit the land they were promised.
Allah follows this up with more warnings for the unbeliever: “Before him is Hell, and he will be given a drink of purulent water” (v. 16). The unbeliever will suffer “a massive punishment” as “death will come to him from everywhere, but he is not to die” (v. 17), and his work in this world will come to nothing (v. 18). Allah can even replace the entire creation if he wishes (v. 20). On Judgment Day, the weak will blame the arrogant (v. 21), and Satan will acknowledge that while both he and Allah made promises to people, he — Satan — proved to be a betrayer (v. 22). According to Ibn Jarir, Satan will tell the unbelievers at that point, when it’s too late: “I deny being a partner with Allah, the Exalted and Most Honored.” And “Iblis [Satan],” says Ibn Kathir, “may Allah curse him, will stand and address” those whom he led astray, “in order to add depression to their depression, sorrow to their sorrow and grief to their grief.” No mention is made, however, of the conundrum created by Allah’s leading people astray. The righteous, in any case, will enter “ gardens beneath which rivers flow” (v. 23).
Allah then compares his word to a strong tree and the “bad word” (v. 26) to a tree without roots — a comparison reminiscent of Jesus’ parable in Matthew 7:17-19 (see also 7:24-27). Muhammad once told his companions, “There is a tree among the trees which is as blessed as a Muslim,” and explained, “It is the datepalm tree.” (Bukhari 7.65.355) This may have been because of the spiritual powers of dates. Muhammad also said: “He who eats seven Ajwa dates every morning, will not be affected by poison or magic on the day he eats them.” (Bukhari 7.65.356) Allah will strengthen the believers in this world and the next (v. 27); Muhammad explained: “When a Muslim is questioned in his grave, he will testify that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that Muhammad is Allah’s Apostle, and that is what is meant by Allah’s statement” in v. 27.
After that, Allah yet again warn the unbelievers of hellfire and remind them of Allah’s blessings (vv. 28-34). In a hadith, Muhammad identifies “those who exchanged the favor of Allah for disbelief and settled their people the home of ruin?” (v. 28) as “the disbelieving pagans of Mecca,” thus reinforcing Maududi’s impression of this sura as a warning to the Quraysh when tensions between them and the Muslims were high.
In verses 35-41 Abraham prays that Allah will make Mecca “secure” (v. 35) for himself and for his children, some of whom he has settled “in an uncultivated valley near Your sacred House” (v. 37) — that is, the Ka’aba, which Abraham built, according to Islamic tradition. That the land is barren makes them dependent upon the good will of those in the area: Abraham asks Allah to “make hearts among the people incline toward them and provide for them from the fruits that they might be grateful” (v. 37). However, according to Ibn Abbas, Mujahid and Sa’id bin Jubayr, this is restricted to Muslims only: “Had Ibrahim said, ‘The hearts of mankind’, Persians, Romans, the Jews, the Christians and all other people would have gathered around” the Ka’aba. But Abraham, they explain, said “some among men,” thus “making it exclusive to Muslims only.”
According to one of Muhammad’s companions, Abdullah bin Amr, Muhammad recited part of Abraham’s prayer here — “indeed they have led astray many among the people” (v. 36) — and wept, crying out three times: “O Allah, Save my Ummah [community]!” In another indication of the importance of Muhammad to Allah, he sent Gabriel to the prophet with these instructions: “Go to Muhammad and tell him this; “˜We will make you pleased with your Ummah, O Muhammad, and will not treat them in a way you dislike.”
Allah then repeat still another time that the sinners who remain heedless of his truth will nonetheless face his dreadful judgment (vv. 42-52).
Freshman Senator Kamala Harris, D-Calif., might have one of the most disturbing – albeit increasingly common – arguments against Trump’s Supreme Court nominee yet: He’s not a judicial activist.
Friday morning, the former Golden State attorney general made known that she wouldn’t support Judge Neil Gorsuch to replace Justice Antonin Scalia because he “has consistently valued legalisms over real lives.”
Naturally, the idea that a judge ought not be more concerned with the application of the law, rather than its outcome, raised some eyebrows.
Harris links to her recent op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle, where the senator seeks to paint Trump’s nominee in the same league as the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz, a creature desperately in search of a heart.
The implication? Our jurists should be more concerned with emotions and outcomes versus faithful application of the law, and Neil Gorsuch is a big meanie-head.
But that supposedly absent heart debuted on the judge’s sleeve during the hearings. Faced with such questions and accusations multiple times this hearing, the answer or implication thereof has been simple: He didn’t like the outcome, but that’s the law as written (i.e., his job). If legislators don’t like it, change the law or pass a new one.
In her defense, Senator Harris is quite new to her position and may not quite be used to the job of a federal legislator, but she and the 534 members of Congress have the power to change laws and outcomes they don’t like. It’s all lined out in Article I of the Constitution.
But rather than embrace her role as a legislator and Gorsuch’s as a judge, Harris opts to openly defend judicial activism and cite it as the definitive reason for fighting his confirmation, quoting Thurgood Marshall’s aphorism to “do what you think is right and let the law catch up.”
One only wonders what any of the founders would think of that statement from a member of the “weakest branch of government,” or the use of it to defend bench legislation by a U.S. Senator. Well, they wouldn’t like it.
As stated concisely by attorney T. Greg Doucette, “I’m sure there are intellectually honest reasons to oppose Gorsuch. ‘Legalisms over real lives – for a judge – is not one of them.”
(For more from the author of “This Calif. Dem Just Gave the Dumbest, Most Ignorant Reason to Oppose Gorsuch … EVER” please click HERE) http://joemiller.us/2017/03/calif-dem-just-gave-dumbest-ignorant-reason-oppose-gorsuch-ever/
( Muslims do not assimilate, they infiltrate )
( Muslims do not assimilate, they infiltrate )( Muslims do not assimilate, they infiltrate )
OTTAWA – The House of Commons voted Thursday afternoon to condemn “Islamophobia and all forms of systemic racism and religious discrimination” but the vote for the controversial M-103 was not unanimous.
Liberals, New Democrats, and Green Party MP Elizabeth May were in favour; most Conservative and all Bloc Quebecois MPs were opposed.
The vote was 201 for and 91 against.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Finance Minister Bill Morneau and four other cabinet ministers were absent.
NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair was present — he voted in favour — as was interim Conservative leader MP Rona Ambrose, who was opposed.
It was a free vote, meaning MPs did not have to follow a party line, and two Conservative MPs voted in favour: leadership candidate Michael Chong and Ontario MP Bruce Stanton.
The motion was proposed by Iqra Khalid, a first-time MP representing a Mississauga, Ont. riding. In addition to the resolution condemning Islamophobia, it asks the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage to study the issue of “eliminating systemic racism and religious discrimination including Islamophobia;” and calls on the federal government collect data on hate crimes for further study.
“Our country is very diverse,” Khalid said after the vote. “I think that we need to continue to build those bridges amongst Canadians, and this is just one way that we can do this, by really understanding the issue and really listening to what Canadians have to say. I’m really looking forward to the track that the Canadian Heritage Committee takes on this.”
Meanwhile a new poll released Thursday suggests that if the vote on M-103 was up to most Canadians, it would fail.
Pollster Angus Reid Institute asked 1,511 Canadians, “if you were a a Member of Parliament, how would you vote on this motion (M-103)” and found that 42 per cent would vote against it; 29 per cent would vote in favour and 29 per cent were not sure or would have abstained.
In debate earlier this week, Conservative MPs endorsed the sentiment but objected to the wording of the motion in the belief that it could lead to the suppression of speech rights.
“The word ‘Islamophobia’ can be used to mean both discrimination against Muslims and criticism of Islamic doctrine or practice. It is important that we not conflate the two – religious people deserve legal protection, but religions do not,” Conservative MP Garnett Genuis said during a Commons debate Tuesday night. “People should not discriminate against individuals, but should feel quite free to criticize the doctrine, history, or practice of any religion.”
More:
Faith Goldy of TheRebel.media immediately reacts to this attack on Canadians’ most precious freedom– the freedom of speech. SIGN THE PETITION: http://www.FreedomToOffend.com
And as noted here: Canada’s M-103 debacle is a trial balloon for something much bigger
A Macdonald-Laurier Institute survey from 2011 found 62% of Canadian Muslims backed some form of Shariah law.
We may not see it now, but this motion is a trial balloon for the main event – likely a future debate that will resemble what Ontario had in 2005. But this one will be much bigger.
Sharia law is preached in every Canadian mosque, where violence against Jews and non-Muslims is preached with nary a word from the Liberals who are intent on turning Canada into a third world Islamic hell hole.
( Muslims do not assimilate, they infiltrate )
Read MorePamela Geller is the President of the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), publisher of PamelaGeller.com and author of The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration’s War on America and Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance.
( MUSLIMS DO NOT ASSIMILATE, THEY INFILTRATE! )
( Read find out what the Qur'an really teaches )
This sura dates, like suras 6, 7, 10, 11, and 12, from late in the Meccan period, the first period of Muhammad’s career as a prophet. Its name comes a phrase in v. 13, “And the thunder exalts with praise of Him.” Its main theme is summed up by v. 1, in which Allah tells Muhammad, “These are the verses” — ayat, signs — “of the Book; and what has been revealed to you from your Lord is the truth, but most of the people do not believe.”
Ibn Kathir sees the four Arabic letters that begin this chapter, and similar unexplained letters beginning many suras of the Qur’an, as confirmation of its miraculous character: “Every Surah that starts with separate letters affirms that the Qur’an is miraculous and is an evidence that it is a revelation from Allah, and that there is no doubt or denying in this fact.” Despite the mystery of these letters, however, he goes on to assert that the Qur’an is “clear, plain and unequivocal,” and that “most men will still not believe, due to their rebellion, stubbornness and hypocrisy.” The Tafsir al-Jalalayn and the Tanwir al-Miqbas min Tafsir Ibn Abbas say that the “most people” who will not believe according to v. 1 are the people of Mecca.
In what should they believe? In verses 2-19 Allah emphasizes his power in all things. Allah “erected the heavens without pillars that you see; then He established Himself above the Throne and made subject the sun and the moon, each running for a specified term. He arranges matter; He details the signs that you may, of the meeting with your Lord, be certain.” (v. 2) The idea that the heavens rest on unseen pillars, presumably fixed on earth, manifests a prescientific understanding that belies contemporary Islamic apologists’ claims that the Qur’an shows awareness of modern cosmology and other aspects of modern scientific understanding that weren’t discovered until centuries after it was written. Ibn Kathir expands even more upon this when he writes in explanation of this verse: “The distance between the first heaven and the earth is five hundred years from every direction, and its thickness is also five hundred years. The second heaven surrounds the first heaven from every direction, encompassing everything that the latter carries, with a thickness also of five hundred years and a distance between them of five hundred years.”
This is not to say that Islam envisions a physical Allah — the Allah whom “no vision can grasp” (6:103) and who is “nearer than the jugular vein” (50:16) is not physical, but this is the subject of some Sunni-Shi’ite polemics. Some argue that even though Allah is nearer than the jugular vein, he is not everywhere. Some modern Muslims argue that to affirm otherwise would be to fall into pantheism and shirk: the association of partners with Allah, the cardinal sin in Islam. They argue this from the fact that Allah has “mounted the Throne” (v. 2; also 7:54). The Imam Abul Hasan al-Ashari (874-936) argued against the claim of the rationalist-minded Mu’tazilite sect that this verse meant that Allah was everywhere. “If it were as they asserted,” he asked, “then what difference would there be between the Throne and the earth?” And the tenth century scholar of hadith Ibn Khuzaymah declared: “Whoever does not affirm that Allah is above His heavens, upon His Throne and that He is distinct from His creation; must be forced to repent. If he does not repent, then he must be beheaded and then thrown into a garbage dump, so that the Muslims and the Ahl-Dhimma (the Christians and the Jew) will not suffer from his stinking smell.”
In all of creation are “signs for a people who give thought” (v. 3). Allah expatiates upon his power in creation: the sun and moon are subject to him (v. 2, a verse to ponder for those who equate Allah with the moon god); he sees all things (vv. 8-9); Zeus-like, he “sends thunderbolts and strikes therewith whom He wills while they dispute about Allah” (v. 13). But the unbelievers, perverse as ever, ask Muhammad “bring about evil before good” (v. 6) — that is, they ask him in derision to bring divine chastisements upon them, according to the Tanwir al-Miqbas min Tafsir Ibn Abbas, and demand miracles (v. 7). Each believer, meanwhile is guarded by angels (v. 11). Ibn Kathir says that there are four: two guards, one in back and one in front, and two who record the Muslim’s good and bad deeds. The believer greets the recording angels during prayer, turning to his right and left shoulder and saying each time, “Peace be upon you.”
The same verse suggests that people really do have free will: “Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves” (v. 11). The Tafsir al-Jalalayn explains: “He does not deprive them of His grace — unless they have altered the state of their souls, from [their] comely nature, through an act of disobedience.” Yet it is hard to see how this fits in with the idea that “had Allah willed, He would have guided the people, all of them” (v. 31); “whomever Allah leaves astray – there will be for him no guide” (v. 33); and other passages that state that one’s belief or unbelief is up to Allah (10:99-100). In Islamic history the idea of free will was early on declared heretical. The twelfth-century Hanbali jurist Ibn Abi Ya’la describes the Qadari sect, which affirmed free will, as the worst of heretics for making such a claim: “They are those who claim that they possess in full the capacity to act (al-istitâ`a), free will (al-mashî’a), and effective power (al-qudra). They consider that they hold in their grasp the ability to do good and evil, avoid harm and obtain benefit, obey and disobey, and be guided or misguided. They claim that human beings retain full initiative, without any prior status within the will of Allah for their acts, nor even in His knowledge of them. Their doctrine is similar to that of Zoroastrians and Christians. It is the very root of heresy.”
Allah then does what he does so often: repeats familiar themes. The righteous will enter Paradise (vv. 20-24, 35); those who break Allah’s covenant are accursed (v. 25); the unbelievers demand a sign (v. 27) and will be punished in this world and the next (v. 34); the unbelievers ascribe partners to Allah (v. 33) and reject part of the Qur’an (v. 36), while the believers do the opposite. He dismisses the unbelievers’ demand for a miracle: “And if there was any qur’an by which the mountains would be removed or the earth would be broken apart or the dead would be made to speak, but to Allah belongs the affair entirely” — that is, the Qur’an is better than a miracle. The Tafsir al-Jalalayn explains that it was “revealed when they said to him, “If you are [truly] a prophet, then make these mountains of Mecca drift away before us, and make for us rivers and springs in it, that we may plant and sow seeds, and resurrect for us our dead fathers to speak to us and tell us that you are a prophet.” But even if those things happened, they still wouldn’t believe.
The Tafsir al-Jalalayn says that the phrase “Allah eliminates what He wills or confirms, and with Him is the Mother of the Book.” (v. 39) refers to the Qur’an: “God effaces, of it [the Book], whatever He will and He fixes therein whatever He will of rulings or other matters, and with Him is the Mother of the Book, its [source of] origin, of which nothing is ever changed, and which consists of what He inscribed in pre-eternity (azal).” This remains the orthodox view of the Qur’an: that it is a perfect, unchanging copy of the Mother of the Book that has existed forever with Allah.
(Revised July 2015)
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Security Alert: Windows 10 Has Been Quietly Logging EVERY KEYSTROKE You Type And Sending It To Microsoft (This Is How To Stop It)
March 23, 2017
/by Mac Slavo
Yesterday we reported that an international group of hackers claim they have breached Apple’s iCloud user database and stolen 300 million usernames and passwords. The group has threatened to initiate a widespread factory reset on April 7th, 2017, potentially wiping out data on tens of millions of iPhones and iCloud accounts should Apple fail to pay a ransom. But that breach by nefarious hackers, while serious, is nothing compared to what your trusted operating system provider may be doing on your personal computer. According to a recent report, if you are a Windows 10 user then every single keystroke you have ever typed on your computer may have been logged and sent to Microsoft. You know those nagging questions during the installation process that ask you whether or not you want to “help” improve Windows by sending data to Microsoft? If you happened to answer “yes” to one of these questions, or if you went with the Microsoft default installation, there is a real possibility that everything you have done on your computer from the get-go, including sending “secure” messages (because the keyboard logger captures your keystrokes before they appear in your secure messaging app), is now a part of a massive user database somewhere. There’s been heaps of controversy associated with Microsoft’s latest operating system Windows 10 since it was launched, but the latest issue takes the cake – apparently Windows has been quietly logging every single keystroke users make on their keyboards from the beginning. Even better, that data is being constantly sent to Microsoft’s servers on a regular basis. Via IB Times It’s been reported that Microsoft has been using the data to improve artificial intelligence writing and grammar software, but it’s not clear what else they are doing with it. If you are OK with sharing your personal messages, usernames and passwords with Microsoft for the betterment of the Windows universe, then there is nothing else you need to do at this time. But if you are concerned about your personal privacy, there are two ways to avoid having your computer spied on using this keylogger method. Choose A Custom Installation When installing Windows 10 for the first time you’ll want to select a ‘Custom Install’. This will allow you to choose what you do or do not want activated. To be safe, select ‘no’ for all options related to sending information or data to Microsoft or third-parties. Update Your Privacy Settings There is a simple way to identify whether or not your typing activities are being logged. Simply click on your Windows 10 Start Menu. From there, go to Settings (or the gear icon) -> Privacy -> General You’ll want to turn off the option that says, “Send Microsoft info about how I write to help us improve typing and writing in the future.” msft-screenshot2 Once moved to the ‘Off’ position, Microsoft keyword logging should no longer be a problem. But even though Microsoft will no longer be accessing your data, keep in mind that recent leaked documents reveal most devices have been compromised by intelligence services, meaning that not only can they see what you are typing to friends, family and business colleagues, but they can remotely monitor your voice and video communications in real-time without you even knowing its happening, including when you think your computer is turned off. (For more from the author of “Security Alert: Windows 10 Has Been Quietly Logging EVERY KEYSTROKE You Type and Sending It to Microsoft (This Is How to Stop It)” please click HERE) http://joemiller.us/2017/03/security-alert-windows-10-quietly-logging-every-keystroke-type-sendi
Over the past decade, pollsters charted something remarkable: Americans—long known for their piety—were fleeing organized religion in increasing numbers. The vast majority still believed in God. But the share that rejected any religious affiliation was growing fast, rising from 6 percent in 1992 to 22 percent in 2014. Among Millennials, the figure was 35 percent.
Some observers predicted that this new secularism would ease cultural conflict, as the country settled into a near-consensus on issues such as gay marriage. After Barack Obama took office, a Center for American Progress report declared that “demographic change,” led by secular, tolerant young people, was “undermining the culture wars.” In 2015, the conservative writer David Brooks, noting Americans’ growing detachment from religious institutions, urged social conservatives to “put aside a culture war that has alienated large parts of three generations.”
That was naive. Secularism is indeed correlated with greater tolerance of gay marriage and pot legalization. But it’s also making America’s partisan clashes more brutal. And it has contributed to the rise of both Donald Trump and the so-called alt-right movement, whose members see themselves as proponents of white nationalism. As Americans have left organized religion, they haven’t stopped viewing politics as a struggle between “us” and “them.” Many have come to define us and them in even more primal and irreconcilable ways.
When pundits describe the Americans who sleep in on Sundays, they often conjure left-leaning hipsters. But religious attendance is down among Republicans, too. According to data assembled for me by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), the percentage of white Republicans with no religious affiliation has nearly tripled since 1990. This shift helped Trump win the GOP nomination. During the campaign, commentators had a hard time reconciling Trump’s apparent ignorance of Christianity and his history of pro-choice and pro-gay-rights statements with his support from evangelicals. But as Notre Dame’s Geoffrey Layman noted, “Trump does best among evangelicals with one key trait: They don’t really go to church.” A Pew Research Center poll last March found that Trump trailed Ted Cruz by 15 points among Republicans who attended religious services every week. But he led Cruz by a whopping 27 points among those who did not. (Read more from “US Culture in Crisis: Church Attendance Plummets, White Supremacy, Racial Hatred and Societal Polarization Skyrockets” HERE) http://joemiller.us/2017/03/us-culture-crisis-church-attendance-plummets-white-supremacy-racial-
BREAKING: Schumer: Democrats Will Filibuster Gorsuch
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By Aleen Realmuto
March 23, 2017 —
Senate Democrats will attempt to filibuster the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced on Thursday during a speech on the Senate floor, Breitbart reports. This is the fourth day of Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on Gorsuch, who currently serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Although the more liberal members of the committee tried to provoke Gorsuch, the Colorado judge remained poised and disciplined during his testimony on Tuesday and Wednesday, avoiding any missteps. That part of the hearing process is now over, and senators are now listening to witnesses for and against the nomination. Gorsuch appears to continue headed toward a successful confirmation in the Republican-controlled Senate. But today Schumer criticized what he called Gorsuch’s “lack of candor and desire to answer” questions before the committee. He then announced, “After careful deliberation, I have concluded that I cannot support Judge Neil Gorsuch’s nomination to the Supreme Court.” While it only takes a simple majority of 51 votes in the 100-member Senate to confirm a nominee, Schumer then went on to say that Gorsuch “will have to earn 60 votes for confirmation.” This means a filibuster. Under Senate Rule 22, for any question involving debate, if senators wish to continue speaking, it takes a three-fifths vote of the full Senate (60 out of 100) to invoke a motion for cloture, which limits debate to no more than 30 additional hours, after which a final vote must be held. When senators insist on continuing debate until cloture shuts them down, it’s called a filibuster. Filibusters have historically been for legislative debates only, not judicial nominations. The first time in American history that a filibuster was used to stop any judicial nomination was 2003, when Senate Democrats filibustered President George W. Bush’s nomination of Miguel Estrada to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, followed soon thereafter by other Bush judicial nominees. The only previous filibuster attempt ever made over a judge was in 1968 against the nomination of Justice Abe Fortas to become chief justice and replace Earl Warren. However, a majority of senators went on record saying they would vote against Fortas in any event, so it was not the filibuster that stopped Fortas. It was instead lacking enough votes to confirm him. For Estrada, by contrast, a majority of the Senate went on record supporting his confirmation, so it was the 60-vote threshold for cloture obstructing an up-or-down vote that defeated his nomination. The architect of the then-unprecedented strategy of using a filibuster to block an up-or-down vote on judicial nominations was none other than Schumer, who at the time had only been in the Senate for less than five years, and was not in a leadership position. In November 2014, then-Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) reinterpreted the rules of the Senate so that the filibuster could not be used on any presidential nominations except the Supreme Court, clearing the way for Democrats to confirm several nominations that Republicans had blocked. This tactic has been called the “constitutional option” by some, and the “nuclear option” by others. With Schumer’s announcement that he will lead a filibuster of Gorsuch’s nomination, Republicans must either pick up eight Democrats to join Republicans in voting for cloture, or Republicans must hold together at least 50 of their 52 members (with Vice President Mike Pence as a tie-breaker) to extend the constitutional option to Supreme Court nominations. The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to vote Gorsuch out of committee on April 3, sending the nomination to the Senate floor for this filibuster showdown.
Bare Naked Islam
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The watchman on the wall sounding the ALARM
Mar 23 2017
MONTANA and NORTH DAKOTA are two of many states legislating to ban sharia law
( Muslims do not assimilate, they infiltrate )
Political correctness forces them to call it a ban which would prohibit judges from applying foreign laws in their courtrooms, but everyone knows it’s a ban on sharia law, which has already been used by judges for their rulings in several states in at least 50 cases involving Muslims.
Buzzfeed Thirteen states have introduced similar anti-foreign law bills in 2017, and nine states already have the law on the books. The U.S. Constitution already forbids the use of foreign law, but apparently, there are many judges who ignore that.
Assembly of Muslim Jurists of AmericaAMJA’s goal: replacing our Constitution with sharia law:
The enablers of radical Islam in government, academia and the media regularly dismiss warnings about sharia law creeping into American judiciaries.. They have either never heard of, don’t want to know about, or don’t want you to know about AMJA. Learn more here: mainstream-american-muslim-jurists-blueprint-for-undermining-americas-legal-system
The Center for Security Policy conducted a study of the American judicial system and found an alarming trend of more and more cases being decided using Shariah law, documenting at least 50 cases in which judges used Sharia law in their decisions. See: Shariah in American Courts: The Expanding Incursion of Islamic Law in the U.S. Legal System
In one instance, the study reported on the case of a New Jersey woman who filed for a restraining order against her husband because of spousal abuse.
Both wife and husband are Muslim and from Morocco. The husband began physically abusing the wife only three months of marriage. His abuse was so extensive that she sustained injuries to her entire body including her breasts and pubic area. The husband told the wife that under Islamic law, he had authority over her body and could have sex with her any time he desired, whether she wanted it or not, and on multiple occasions he physically forced himself on her in an abusive manner and against her will.
“The trial court refused to issue a final restraining order against husband finding that, although husband had harassed and assaulted wife, husband believed it was his religious right to have non-consensual sex with his wife and that belief precluded any criminal intent on the part of husband.”
Montana lawmakers are close to passing a bill aimed at preventing Islamic law from being used in court cases, based on claims Muslims in America are trying to subvert the US Constitution.
While the bill, SB97, does not single out Islamic law in its language — it aims to prohibit “the application of foreign law” — much of the discussion surrounding the bill on Monday focused on Shariah law, according to the Associated Press.
“If you go back and listen to the testimony of the proponents of this bill in both the House and Senate, the legislative intent is crystal clear that it targets one religion,” Democratic Rep. Ellie Hill Smith of Missoula told the AP. “That this was a Shariah law bill. It’s what every proponent had talked about.”
The state House passed the bill by a vote of 56-44. The bill must now go through a final vote, and if it passes, will go to on to Montana Governor Steve Bullock for signing.
Many advocates see this bill, and those like it, as unnecessary and redundant because their provisions violate the Constitution of the United States. (But that hasn’t stopped several judges from using sharia law in their decisions involving Muslims as below)
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In 2017 alone, thirteen states have introduced similar anti-foreign law bills, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Nine states already have laws that prohibit foreign law. Over 120 similar bills or amendments aimed at preventing Sharia law from being applied to US courts have been submitted in state legislatures since 2011.
David Yerushalmi, an Arizona lawyer, through his group, American Laws for American Courts (ALAC), has provided the defining template for many anti-foreign law or anti-Sharia bills around the country. Montana’s bill SB97 appears to have similar passages, to ALAC bill templates, as well as identical portions from other anti-foreign law bills across the country that likely also drew from ALAC’s template.
Sun Herald In North Dakota, a bill to prohibit judges from applying foreign laws in their courtrooms interferes with religious freedom and unfairly targets Muslims, leftist and Muslim opponents of the measure told lawmakers.
But Republican Rep. Kim Koppelman, the measure’s primary sponsor, told the Senate Judiciary Committee that it doesn’t target any religion and doesn’t violate the state and U.S. constitutions. Proponents call the bill “American Laws for American Courts.” More than a dozen similar measures are being considered in other states. Opponents have referred to them as anti-Sharia bills and say they are fueled by anti-Islamic sentiment.
Jennifer Cook, policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of North Dakota, said the bills are “susceptible to constitutional challenge.” “There is significant evidence on the record that the intended purpose for the introduction and passage of such laws is to single out the Muslim faith and deny religious freedom to those people who follow Islam,” she said.
The GOP-led North Dakota House approved the measure in February. The full state Senate will debate the bill later, after it gets a recommendation from that chamber’s judiciary committee.
There are nine states—Alabama, Arizona, Louisiana, Kansas, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Tennessee—that prohibit the use of foreign law in their state courts.
In 2017, thirteen states have introduced legislation on the subject. The table below lists the legislation.