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.

2017 PROPOSED LEGISLATION PROHIBITING USE OF FOREIGN LAW IN STATE COURTS

STATE	BILL NUMBER	SUMMARY
Arkansas	HB 1041	Protects the rights and privileges granted under the Arkansas constitution and the U.S. Constitution. Declares American laws for American courts.
Connecticut	HB 5547	Concerns the application of foreign law in the state. Protects Connecticut citizens from the application of foreign law.
Idaho	HB 94	Adds to existing law to prohibit the application of in Idaho courts in certain instances.
Indiana	SB 16	Relates to application of foreign law. Provides that a court may not apply, enforce, or grant comity, res judicata, claim preclusion, or issue preclusion to a foreign law, ruling, or judgment if doing so would violate the fundamental liberties, rights, and privileges guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States or the Constitution of the state of Indiana. Relates to provisions in contracts or agreements that provide for the choice of foreign laws.
Indiana	SB 56	Relates to application of foreign law. Provides that a court may not apply, enforce, or grant comity, res judicata, claim preclusion, or issue preclusion to a foreign law, ruling, or judgment if doing so would violate the fundamental liberties, rights, and privileges guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States or the Constitution of the state of Indiana. Relates to provisions in contracts or agreements that provide for the choice of foreign laws in interpretation.
Iowa	HB 223	Relates to the application of foreign laws and constitutional rights; includes effective date provisions.
Kentucky	HB 40	Establishes legislative intent that the rights of an individual afforded under the constitutions of the commonwealth and the United States take precedence over the application of any foreign law in any judicial or quasi-judicial proceeding. Defines specific terms. Construes waivers of constitutional rights. Provides exceptions for corporate entities. Prohibits choice of venue outside of the commonwealth or United States to preserve the constitutional rights of the person against whom enforcement is sought.
Kentucky	HB 131	Establishes legislative intent that the rights of an individual afforded under the constitutions of the commonwealth and the United States take precedence over the application of any foreign law in any judicial or quasi judicial proceeding. Defines specific terms. Strictly construes waivers of constitutional rights. Provides exceptions for corporate entities.
Maine	HB 631	Addresses the application of foreign law in this State with the goal of protecting American citizens’ constitutional rights when foreign laws and foreign legal doctrines are applied in judicial and administrative tribunals.
Missouri	HB 299	Specifies how courts may rule in contractual disputes involving the law of other countries.
Montana	SB 97	Prohibits the application of foreign law in state courts. Relates to courts. Relates to federal government. Relates to state government.
Oregon	SB 479	Prohibits courts from applying Sharia law.
South Carolina	HB 3188	Prevents a court or other enforcement authority from enforcing foreign law in this state from a forum outside of the United States or its territories under certain circumstances.
Texas	HB 45	Relates to the application of foreign laws and foreign forum selection in this state.
Texas	HB 498	Relates to the application of foreign laws and foreign forum selection in a proceeding involving marriage, a suit for dissolution of a marriage, or a suit affecting the parent-child relationship in this state.
West Virginia	HB 2769	Relates to the preservation of rights guaranteed by the West Virginia Constitution and the United States Constitution when deciding the comity of a legal decision in a foreign country.

Bare Naked Islam

To read all articles go to http://www.barenakedislam.com/

The watchman on the wall sounding the ALARM

London jihad attack just the latest in twelve years of jihad attacks in UK

( Muslims do not ASSIMILATE, ,THEY INFILTRATE )

March 23, 2017 10:37 am By Christine Williams 1 Comment

Jihad Watch

To read all articles go to https://www.jihadwatch.org/

The watchman on the wall sounding the ALARM

Blogging the Qur’an: Sura 12, “Joseph”

January 21, 2008 2:49 am By Robert Spencer

Here is yet another Biblical story recast and retold in the Qur’an, and like the overwhelming majority of Biblical stories in the Qur’an, is employed to make the same point: Muhammad is a true prophet, he is being mistreated like all other prophets, and those who are ridiculing and rejecting him will be severely punished.

Sura 12, “Joseph,” is another late Meccan sura. It was revealed, says Maududi, “when the Quraish” — the pagan Arabs of Mecca, and the tribe of which Muhammad was a member — “were considering the question of killing or exiling or imprisoning him.” It tells the story of the patriarch Joseph, again — as we saw in sura 11 with the stories of other prophets — with a clear message relating to Muhammad and his opponents.

Allah begins in verses 1-3 with another panegyric to the Qur’an. Ibn Kathir expresses the mainstream Islamic view when he says: “The Arabic language is the most eloquent, plain, deep and expressive of the meanings that might arise in one’s mind. Therefore, the most honorable Book, was revealed in the most honorable language, to the most honorable Prophet and Messenger, delivered by the most honorable angel, in the most honorable land on earth, and its revelation started during the most honorable month of the year, Ramadan. Therefore, the Qur’an is perfect in every respect.”

This is not, of course, a perspective that tends to be welcoming of critical examination of the book — as was  in the news in 2008 with the discovery of 450 rolls of film of ancient manuscripts of the Qur’an that had been concealed, apparently to avoid offending delicate Muslim sensibilities.

Then Allah tells the story of Joseph (vv. 4-101). According to Maududi, one of the principal purposes of this account was — yet again — to warn people not to reject Muhammad. Its aim, he said, was to apply the story of Joseph being rejected by his brothers to Muhammad’s tribe that rejected him, the Quraysh, “and warn them that ultimately the conflict between them and the Holy Prophet would end in his victory over them. As they were then persecuting their brother, the Holy Prophet, in the same way the brothers of Prophet Joseph had treated him…And just as the brothers of Prophet Joseph had to humble themselves before him, so one day the Quraish shall have to beg forgiveness from their brother whom they were then trying to crush down.” He points to verse 7, “Certainly were there in Joseph and his brothers signs for those who ask,” as referring to the Quraysh, who should heed the warning given them in this sura.

The Qur’anic tale of Joseph is an abbreviated version of the story in Genesis 37-50, with some notable differences from the Biblical account. Joseph has a dream that eleven stars and the sun and the moon prostrate themselves to him (v. 4) — that is, his parents and brothers. Dreams are to be taken seriously: according to Abdullah bin Abbas, “the dreams of Prophets are revelations from Allah.” Muhammad himself explained this as not applying just to the prophets, but as a general principle: “A good dream is from Allah, and a bad dream is from Satan. So whoever has seen (in a dream) something he dislike, then he should spit without saliva, thrice on his left and seek refuge with Allah from Satan, for it will not harm him, and Satan cannot appear in my shape.” (Bukhari 9.87.124)

The brothers, jealous, want to kill him (v. 9), but finally decide to throw him down a well and tell their father, Jacob, that he is dead (vv. 15-18). In a departure from the Biblical account, Jacob doesn’t believe them (v. 18). The Tanwir al-Miqbas min Tafsir Ibn Abbas says “he did not believe them because in another occasion they said that Joseph was killed by thieves.”

Anyway, then Joseph, sold into slavery in Egypt, is the target of an attempted seduction by the ruler’s wife (v. 30). Another detail not contained in the Biblical account is that Joseph “would have inclined to her had he not seen the proof of his Lord,” and Allah warded him off “from him evil and immorality. Indeed, he was of Our chosen servants” (v. 24). The sharp dualism in Islam appears as Maududi sees a lesson in this: “Contrast the former characters [Jacob and Joseph] molded by Islam on the bedrock of the worship of Allah and accountability in the Hereafter with the latter molded by kufr [unbelief] and ‘ignorance’ on the worship of the world and disregard of Allah and the Hereafter.” She accuses him of impropriety (v. 25), but Joseph’s innocence is established when it is found that his cloak is torn in the back, not in the front — he was, in other words, fleeing from her (vv. 27-28). Her husband laments: “Indeed, it is of the women’s plan. Indeed, your plan is great.” (v. 28)

The wife then holds a banquet for the women of the city, who are so awed by Joseph’s good looks that they begin cutting their hands (v. 31). Ibn Kathir explains: “They thought highly of him and were astonished at what they saw. They started cutting their hands in amazement at his beauty, while thinking that they were cutting the citron with their knives.” The ruler’s wife felt exonerated: “When they felt the pain, they started screaming and she said to them, ‘You did all this from one look at him, so how can I be blamed?'”

Joseph is ultimately imprisoned (v. 35). When two fellow prisoners ask him to interpret their dreams (v. 36), he first tells them that he is a good Muslim: “I have left the religion of a people who do not believe in Allah, and they, in the Hereafter, are disbelievers” (v. 37). He follows the religion of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and “it was not for us to associate anything with Allah” (v. 38). He languishes in prison for awhile longer, but ultimately gets a chance to interpret the king’s dream (vv. 46-49). The ruler’s wife confesses her wrongdoing (v. 51) and so Joseph is freed and rewarded (vv. 54-56). Joseph’s brothers come to him for help during the famine, not recognizing him (v. 58); Joseph demands that they bring their youngest brother (v. 60).

Muhammad Asad explains how the story then unfolds: “Joseph had wanted to keep Benjamin with himself, but under the law of Egypt he could not do this without the consent of his half-brothers.” But when the goblet is discovered in his brother’s bag, “Benjamin appeared to be guilty of theft, and under the law of the land Joseph was entitled to claim him as his slave, and thus to keep him in his house.” The point of the Qur’anic story is that Allah orders all events, and none can thwart his will: “Thus did We plan for Joseph. He could not have taken his brother within the religion of the king except that Allah willed” (v. 76). Joseph reveals his identity to his brothers (v. 90), who beg Allah’s forgiveness (v. 91) and receive it (v. 92, 98). Jacob and his brothers go live with Joseph in Egypt (vv. 99-100).

Allah emphasizes that all this is a warning (vv. 102-111). Allah tells Muhammad that he revealed the story of Joseph to him “by inspiration,” for Muhammad was not present when Joseph’s brothers plotted against him, so how could he know how it happened unless he is a true prophet (v. 102)? Still, most will not believe (vv. 103, 105, 106), although this is not an invented tale, but a confirmation of existing Scripture (v. 111) — which Scriptures, of course, to Muhammad’s great vexation, did not actually confirm his message.

(Revised July 2015)

Gorsuch Nearly Got Through His Hearings Unscathed —Then SCOTUS Stepped In

March 23, 2017/

by Kevin Daley

Senate Democrats put Judge Neil Gorsuch on the defensive during his third appearance before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary Wednesday, grilling him over one of his holdings that was reversed by the Supreme Court and for his alleged ties to “dark money.” The exchanges marked the first time Democratic attacks on the judge seemed to gain traction, since GOP aides rushed spin to reporters for the first time in the hearings. Despite this, there was a tangible sense inside the Capitol Hill committee room that the main work of the hearings had more or less concluded. Empty seats filled the press gallery, before a dais that was nearly vacant for most of the day. In the early minutes of the hearing, the Supreme Court handed down a ruling which overturned one of Gorsuch’s own holdings. The case involved an autistic student seeking compensation for costs incurred pursuing private education. The student’s family argued they were owed compensation because a special education plan devised by the student’s public school was inadequate to meet his needs, forcing the family to seek a private alternative. A lower court found in the school’s favor, and anchored much of its analysis in an opinion Gorsuch wrote in 2008 as a judge on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In the ruling, Gorsuch said schools are in compliance with the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA) — which requires public schools to provide disabled children with a “free appropriate public education” — so long as they provide some form of educational benefit to the student. The Supreme Court unanimously overturned this holding, finding public schools had to provide a greater level of benefit than Gorsuch asserted. Senate Democrats trumpeted the decision as further proof Gorsuch consistently aligns with the powerful, a theme on which they hit throughout the week. (Read more from “Gorsuch Nearly Got Through His Hearings Unscathed — Then SCOTUS Stepped In” HERE) http://joemiller.us/2017/03/gorsuch-nearly-got-hearings-unscathed-scotus-stepped/

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The Ridiculous Reason the FBI Has Decided to Investigate Conservative Websites

The FBI is investigating whether conservative news sites, including Breitbart and InfoWars, cooperated with the Russian government in an effort to influence the presidential election.

McClatchy reports the investigation is focused on the use of strategically-timed social media “bots” employed to blitz social media with pro-Donald Trump and anti-Hillary Clinton stories.

A bot is simply a program that gathers information based on defined specifications.

“The bots’ end products were largely millions of Twitter and Facebook posts carrying links to stories on conservative internet sites such as Breitbart News and InfoWars, as well as on the Kremlin-backed RT News and Sputnik News,” sources told McClatchy.

“This may be one of the most highly impactful information operations in the history of intelligence,” one former U.S. intelligence official stated on a condition of anonymity.

Federal investigators are seeking to discover if Breitbart and other sites cooperated in the efforts.

According to Alexa, Breitbart’s web traffic shot up dramatically in October, in relation to other similar websites, and has remained at a high level since. It currently is in the top 100 most viewed websites in the country, even outpacing FoxNews.com.

Breitbart reported on Nov. 19 that it experienced a record 300 million page views over the previous 31 days.

The news site did not respond for comment about the McClatchy story.

Breitbart’s former chairman, Steve Bannon, stepped down to become the CEO of the Trump campaign in August. He now serves as a top adviser on the president’s White House staff.

InfoWars’ Alex Jones responded to the story on his radio program on Monday.

“To be called a Russian asset by McClatchy and by the LA Times and by a bunch of other publications today is funny, if it wasn’t so serious,” he said.

“I don’t personally take this as a threat … I’m threatened for the country. I mean if the Russians want to secure our borders, cut our taxes, not have us go bankrupt, rebuild our military, block radical Islam — well then, hell, I’m a Russian agent! But I’m not,” Jones added, according to The Daily Caller.

As reported by Western Journalism, FBI Director James Comey confirmed on Monday in testimony before the House Intelligence Committee that his agency is investigating “alleged links” between the Russian government and the Trump campaign.

Earlier this month, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper stated on Meet the Press there was “no evidence” of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., voiced the same conclusion on Fox News Sunday. (For more from the author of “The Ridiculous Reason the FBI Has Decided to Investigate Conservative Websites” please click HERE) http://joemiller.us/2017/03/fbi-investigating-conservative-sites-possible-russian-links/

Bombshell: Obama’s NSA Illegally Spied on Sheriff Joe Arpaio

Sheriff Joe Arpaio said that Barack Hussein Obama Soetoro Soebarkah’s fraudulent documents were a “national security issue” and that Obama was the “aggressor” in attacking America. However, one wonders just how much he understood the threat a timeline has now emerged via an Operation Dragnet Whistleblower that details how the National Security Agency was conducting illegal electronic surveillance on then-Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Arizona judges involved in the immigration case at the time while then-Attorney General Eric Holder and the Department of Justice was prosecuting Arpaio between 2008 and 2010.

To read more http://www.dcclothesline.com/2017/03/21/bombshell-obamas-nsa-illegally-spied-on-sheriff-joe-arp

When Asked About Latest Wiretapping Claims, Spicer Drops a Big League Bombshell

March 23, 2017/by Christian Datoc

Sean Spicer revealed during Wednesday’s press briefing that they were caught off guard by Congressman Devin Nunes’ Wednesday press conference, in which he stated President Trump’s personal communications may actually have been collected by the Obama administration during the 2016 election.

Nunes, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told reporters that significant development in the committee’s investigation revealed “that on numerous occasions the intelligence community incidentally collected information about U.S. citizens involved in the Trump transition.”

Reporters asked Spicer if the White House was “concerned” about the optics of Nunes’ meeting with the president on the findings, a meeting which might be construed as White House interference in an ongoing investigation.

Spicer responded in the negative — clarifying that it was Nunes not President Trump who requested the meeting — before blasting a double standard in the media.

“Let me get this straight,” Spicer continued. “Number one, two weeks ago, we said this is the appropriate venue. Number two, you have asked over and over again why aren’t we meeting with certain individuals.” (Read more from “When Asked About Latest Wiretapping Claims, Spicer Drops a Big League Bombshell” HERE) http://joemiller.us/2017/03/asked-latest-wiretapping-claims-spicer-drops-big-league-bombshell/

ILLINOIS: Terrorism-linked Muslim Brotherhood’s student arm, the Muslim Student Association, shows American girls how to submit to male domination by wearing an Islamic supremacist headbag

( Muslims do not assimilate, they infiltrate! )

Because nothing symbolizes women’s rights more than glorifying a death cult posing a religion that enslaves and oppresses women more than any culture on earth.

PJ Star  Several teachers and students had already donned the distinctive head covering and hurried to class early Wednesday before Ariej Mohamed arrived for school. But when Mohamed, a senior at Richwoods High School, saw dozens of students in the school foyer, either wearing or waiting to try on Muslim headbags, she went into typical teen-girl ecstasy.

“Oh, my God, this means the world to me,” she raved. “People are standing with me. I didn’t go to the Women’s March, but this is just as inspiring.” 

In that moment, international tensions surrounding prejudice, travel bans and Islamophobia dissolved into joyous giggles of teenage girls celebrating World Hijab Day. (Will they be celebrating Muslim Female Genital Mutilation Day next?)

This is the second year Richwoods students participated in the global Muslim event, which has occurred Feb. 1 for the past five years. Women of all faiths wear the traditional religious headcovering, a symbol of oppressioon, in solidarity with Muslim women. 

Mohamed, who is Muslim and president of the school’s Muslim Student Association, intentionally desecrated the American flag, by wearing a red, white and blue headbag printed with the stars and stripes of the American flag.

Mohamed lied when said women can choose whether or not to wear the hijab. In the West, it might be her choice but not in most Muslim countries, where it ordered by men.

For her, wearing the scarf represents safety and security, even though she has been the subject of crude comments from strangers. (No, she wears it to show she is better than uncovered women in accordance with Islam) “I feel like it’s a way to say I’m Muslim, it makes me feel stronger,” Mohamed said.

Richwoods High School is becoming sharia-compliant by giving Muslim students their own private space for Muslim prayers during school hours.

Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Diq8jxcDvWQ

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Texas: High school ‘Muslim prayer room’ challenged
( Muslims do not assimilate, they infiltrate! )

Leo Hohmann follows up on the special accommodations for Muslims that we posted about last week in Islamic call to prayer in public high school (video).

The prayer room at Liberty High School in Frisco, Texas, has been provided to meet the special needs of Muslim students since 2009.

Source: High school ‘Muslim prayer room’ challenged

For at least 30 minutes every weekday for the past seven years, a classroom at Liberty High School in Frisco, Texas, gets transformed into an on-campus mosque.

At least a dozen students use the “Muslim prayer room” between 2:05 and 2:35 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Controversy over the prayer room was sparked by an article in the student newspaper, the Wingspan, which clearly laid out how the room is used and by whom.

That prompted State Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, to instruct one of his deputies to send a letter to the school district warning that special accommodations for one religion over another are unconstitutional.

“Liberty High School’s policy should be neutral toward religion,” read the letter sent to Frisco’s superintendent by Deputy Attorney General Andrew Leonie. “However, it appears that students are being treated different based on their religious beliefs. Such a practice, of course, is irreconcilable with our nation’s enduring commitment to religious liberty.”

Principal Scott Warstler said students of other faiths are allowed to meet on campus as well, but he told the student newspaper, Wingspan, that these other meetings are held “before or after school.”

School-district officials told the local CBS affiliate the room is not exclusively for Muslims and any student can go there to pray or meditate.

The Conservative Tribune noted the conspicuous absence of watchdog groups, such as the ACLU, which typically raise concerns whenever Christian students are allowed to pray on school property. They are nowhere to be heard in this case.

But one First Amendment advocate, attorney David Coale, did tell CBS that the school district appears to be on shaky ground constitutionally. Setting aside a special room for Muslims to pray during school hours is fraught with questions.

The following are just a few:

• Could a male Catholic student, for instance, walk into the room during the prescribed Islamic prayer time, sit on the female side of the room and pray the rosary?
• Would a non-Muslim be allowed to walk into the prayer room at the designated time and not take off his/her shoes and sit next to a member of the opposite gender?
• Could an evangelical student bring his Bible and offer to close the prayer time with a reading from the New Testament?
• Could an Orthodox Christian set up an icon of Christ and venerate it with the sign of the cross?

Other questions remain unanswered as well:

• Are these students trusted to fulfill the Muslim duties of Friday prayer without an imam present?
• Are they performing the ritualistic Muslim requirements for foot washing before the Friday prayers, and, if so, where are they doing this?

It’s just the latest example of special accommodations being made for Muslims in the education establishment.

Where the Fight Against ISIS Stands, and How the US Can Win

The Trump administration has invited 68 countries and international organizations to attend a summit in Washington on Wednesday to coordinate policies to defeat the Islamic State, also known as ISIS.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will lead the two-day gathering of foreign ministers in synchronizing coalition efforts to destroy ISIS on the battlefield, prevent it from staging a comeback, and deprive it of money, arms, and recruits.

The military campaign launched by the anti-ISIS coalition has made considerable progress in recent months. The ongoing offensives to push ISIS out of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, and seize Raqqa, the de facto ISIS capital city in Syria, will be key topics at the summit.

The Iraqi army, in coordination with Iraqi Kurdish and Shiite militias, launched the offensive against Mosul in October, and has surrounded and retaken most of the city. They have been aided by a U.S.-led air campaign and supported by U.S. advisers, trainers, artillery batteries, and special operations forces.

Defeating ISIS in Syria is likely to be much more difficult than in Iraq because of the lack of reliable partners on the ground.

Syria’s brutal dictatorship has long been hostile to the United States. Backed by Russia and Iran, President Bashar al-Assad’s regime has focused its military attacks not on ISIS, but against more moderate rebel groups, including some supported by the United States.

Washington has been working with Syrian Kurdish militias, which have been effective military forces, but they are handicapped by the fact that they are feared and resented in the predominantly Arab areas that ISIS controls.

Moreover, Turkey considers them to be terrorists due to their affiliation with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, a terrorist group that Turkey has been fighting on and off since 1984.

The Pentagon in recent weeks has deployed several hundred Army rangers and Marines to Syria to bolster Syrian rebel groups and provide artillery support to help them defeat ISIS. This is in addition to an estimated 500 American special operations personnel already in Syria.

The Trump administration’s revised plans for seizing Raqqa reportedly call for an enhanced U.S. military role, including the deployment of additional U.S. special operations forces, artillery, and attack helicopters.

More Help Needed

Washington also should press its NATO allies and Arab coalition members to provide more military forces and support for the impending offensive against Raqqa.

The anti-ISIS summit also is an opportunity to develop a supportive international framework for transforming the military defeat of ISIS into a sustainable long-term political defeat.

The summit meeting should focus on how to restore law and order and enable self-government in areas of Syria liberated from ISIS. This means recruiting as many local Sunni Arabs as possible to root out ISIS and preclude it from resurging.

Washington also should press coalition members to take more effective steps to choke off fundraising for ISIS, combat its internet recruitment efforts, and discredit its propaganda.

The summit meeting also should focus on enlisting coalition members–particularly the rich Sunni Arab oil kingdoms—to provide adequate financial support for humanitarian aid for Syria’s huge refugee population and help Syrians to eventually rebuild cities shattered by the war.

But as long as Syria’s ferocious civil war rages on, international efforts to ease the humanitarian catastrophe, stabilize the country, and permanently bury ISIS will remain precarious exercises.

Washington should lead international diplomatic efforts to pressure the Assad regime to accept a political settlement to end the conflict, including the full autonomy of regions that have expelled the regime’s repressive presence.

To nail the ISIS coffin shut, Washington must use the summit meeting to coordinate coalition efforts not only on the military front, but on the diplomatic, counterterrorism, humanitarian, and self-government fronts as well. (For more from the author of “Where the Fight Against ISIS Stands, and How the US Can Win” please click HERE) http://joemiller.us/2017/03/fight-isis-stands-us-can-win/

Blogging the Qur’an: Sura 11, “Hud”

( Read find out the Qur'an really teaches )

January 14, 2008 5:27 am By Robert Spencer

After reading sura 11, you might need to hit the hair dye aisle down at the Wal-Mart.

Sura 11, “Hud,” dates (like sura 10) from late in the Meccan period, the first part of Muhammad’s prophetic career. Its name comes from verses 50-60, which tell the story of the prophet Hud, who was according to Islamic tradition sent to the Ad people of Arabia around 2400 BC. Sura 11 repeats in stronger terms the warnings of sura 10 concerning Allah’s judgment. That, according to a hadith, caused Muhammad anxiety. Once one of his leading followers, Abu Bakr, said to him, “O Messenger of Allah, verily your hair has turned gray.” Muhammad replied that Sura 11, along with suras 56, 77, 78, and 81, all of which deal with judgment day, “have turned my hair gray.”

Allah begins this hair-graying sura begins (verses 1-24) with a recapitulation of many themes touched on in sura 10, including the wisdom of the Qur’an itself (v. 1). Mujahid, Qatadah, and Ibn Jarir, among others, explained this verse as meaning that the Qur’an is “perfect in its wording, detailed in its meaning. Thus, it is complete in its form and its meaning.” For, says Ibn Kathir, “this Qur’an descended, perfect and detailed, with the purpose of Allah’s worship alone, without any partners.” The Qur’an is also inimitable: Allah repeats his challenge to produce a sura like it in v. 13. He stresses some familiar themes: the necessity to worship only Allah (v. 2) and the dependence of all creatures upon him (v. 6); the worthlessness of idols (v. 14); the deceptive glamour of this life (v. 15); the dreadful punishment (vv. 16, 22) that awaits those who “invent a lie against Allah” (v. 18), and the delightful gardens that await the blessed (v. 23).

Allah makes a strange statement in v. 5: “ Unquestionably, when they cover themselves in their clothing, Allah knows what they conceal and what they declare.” What would covering themselves with clothing have to do with Allah knowing them? Well, it appears that some people wore clothes to conceal themselves from Allah, particularly during intimate moments: Ibn Abbas explains that “there were people who used to be shy to remove their clothes while answering the call of nature in an open space and thus be naked exposed to the sky. They were also ashamed of having sexual relations with their women due to fear of being exposed towards the sky. Thus, this was revealed concerning them.”

Oh.

Then follow the stories of various prophets, all revolving around their rejection by perverse and obstinate unbelievers. Allah tells the story of Noah and the ark, with a significant difference from the Biblical story (vv. 25-49). In Genesis 6-9, Noah has nothing to do with the unbelievers at all; God tells him, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh; for the earth is filled with violence through them; behold, I will destroy them with the earth” (Genesis 6:13), and tells him to build the ark, but he doesn’t tell him to go warn the people about the flood. But in the Qur’an, Noah comes to his people with a “clear warning” (v. 25) that they should “serve none but Allah” (v. 26). So the corruption and violence of which the people are guilty in the Biblical account in the Qur’an become simply idolatry, or more precisely, shirk, the association of partners with Allah.

Of course, Muhammad came to his people with a clear warning (14:52) that they should serve none but Allah (3:64), and so in this account Noah is kind of a proto-Muhammad, preaching a message identical to his. And that is, indeed, how Islam views all the Biblical prophets. They, like Muhammad, taught Islam — it was their followers who corrupted their teachings to create modern Judaism and Christianity. Even the reception Noah receives resembles how the pagan Quraysh received Muhammad. The unbelievers tell him he is just a man and charge him and his followers with lying (v. 27), and even claim he is forging the messages he claims are from Allah (v. 35). Noah counters by saying that it won’t matter what he says to them if Allah has determined to lead them astray (v. 34). This, of course, almost exactly replicates Muhammad’s experience: Allah tells him to tell the unbelievers that he is just a man (18:110); they charge him with lying (42:24) and with forging the Qur’an (v. 13); and of course Muhammad also teaches that if Allah wills to lead someone astray, no one can guide him (7:186).

Noah is, then, essentially a stand-in for Muhammad. Indirectly emphasized is the identity of the messages of all the prophets, and the obstinacy of the unbelievers before the manifest truth of Allah. One of those unbelievers is Noah’s son, who declines to enter the ark and instead says, “I will take refuge on a mountain to protect me from the water” (v. 43). His son dies in flood, and Noah reminds Allah of his promise to save his family (which came in v. 40): “My Lord, indeed my son is of my family” (v. 45). But Allah tells him, “O Noah, indeed he is not of your family; indeed, he is one whose work was other than righteous” (v. 46). Belief and unbelief in Islam supersede even family ties. Ibn Kathir explains: “Thus, for his son, it had already been decreed that he would be drowned due to his disbelief and his opposition to his father.”

The story of Hud (verses 50-60) follows a roughly similar pattern. He tells the people of Ad to repent (v. 52), but they complain that he has brought them no clear sign (v. 53), and are destroyed — although Hud and his people are saved (v. 58). Allah repeats the same pattern in telling the story of Salih (vv. 61-68), who was sent sometime after Noah’s time to the Thamud people, who lived in northern Arabia. Allah gives them a sign of his power: the “she-camel of Allah is a symbol to you” (v. 64) — which according to some traditions emerged miraculously from a mountain. The Thamud are told not to harm it, but they do anyway (v. 65) and are destroyed (v. 67), except for Salih and the believers (v. 66).

Allah then retells the Biblical story of Abraham, Sarah and Lot (vv. 69-83), culminating in the destruction of an unnamed Sodom and Gomorrah (v. 82) with a strong hint of an unnamed crime of sodomy (v. 79). Then he tells the story of Shu’aib, prophet to the Midianites, in language very similar, and with an identical outcome, to the story of Hud (vv. 84-95).

Then in verses 96-123, Allah recapitulates many themes of the entire sura, with passing reference to Moses and Pharaoh (vv. 96-98). Both those who reject Allah and those who accept him will face a fearsome judgment, leading to hellfire for the unbelievers and Paradise for the believers (vv. 103-108). Allah gave Moses the Torah, but there are disputes about it (v. 110), which Allah would have already settled except that he has decided to “delay His chastisement from your nation,” according to the Tanwir al-Miqbas min Tafsir Ibn Abbas. The believers should pray and be steadfast (vv. 114-115), for all this is Allah’s will: “And if your Lord had willed, He could have made mankind one community; but they will not cease to differ.” (v. 118). Yet believers must trust in him (v. 123) — or else.

Neil Gorsuch Shows Christians Why We Need to Build up Our Own Elites

Judge Neil Gorsuch’s performance before the Senate has been very encouraging. His knowledge, training and intellectual rigor put the demagogic Democrats to shame. So far he seems like a worthy heir to Antonin Scalia. Let’s hope that America watches these hearings and learns that there is a strong and substantive intellectual case for respecting the Constitution as it was written.

And let’s be thankful for a moment for the existence of Christian or pro-Christian elites. It’s a gravely endangered species, as ruthlessly hunted and rare as white rhinos or tigers, and arguably even more important.

Populism Is Great, But It’s Not Enough

I have written quite a bit in defense of the impulse behind today’s populism, both in Europe and America. Donald Trump’s victory in the primaries over “made man” Jeb Bush, wunderkind Marco Rubio, and self-made legal genius Ted Cruz (among others) was stunning. His defeat of Hillary Clinton was nothing less, I think, than divine intervention. It gave our country what might be its last chance to step back from the brink.

Both victories were possible because Trump saw that our country’s anointed elites — and even the elites within the GOP — are profoundly out of touch with the views, worries, and day-to-day experience of ordinary Americans. That’s true on issues from culture and foreign policy to mass, low-skill immigration.

Europe’s dominant classes are even more disconnected. They shrug at the Continent’s plummeting birth rate, tell their drivers to avoid the “no-go” areas now dotting their countries’ major cities, and count on millions of sullen, barely employable radical Muslims to fund their collapsing pension plans. Yeah, that will work out just fine.

We Need Faithful Elites

As someone who backed Pat Buchanan in 1992, 1996, and 2000, I think have the populist street cred to say this: We also need elites.

We need the right people, with top talent and the best training, to take on the worst that our enemies have to throw at us, and give as good as they get.

We need Christians and conservatives who can argue with icy logic before the Supreme Court, and lovingly stroke the heart strings when speaking to the public.

We need academics rigorously trained in the humanities to pass on the glorious culture that is Christian humanism.

We also need research scientists who can analyze and debunk the grandiose claims of techno-utopians. When some guy in a white lab coat from MIT promises us that mixing the DNA of humans and pigs will allow us to upload our souls onto the Internet and live forever as gods (or something), we need another guy in an even whiter coat who can dismantle those ideas in detail. Just waving the Bible or the Summa Theologica isn’t enough. That’s how we lose.

Learn from the Scopes Monkey Trial

Watch that great piece of anti-Christian (and largely fictional) propaganda, Inherit the Wind. The film shows how in the Scopes “Monkey Trial,” atheist Clarence Darrow used his very slight advantage in scientific knowledge to paint the great William Jennings Bryan as a scripture-blinkered rube.

In fact, historians have pointed out that Bryan’s deepest concern was not for the inerrancy of scripture, but the wicked uses that eugenicists were already making of Darwin. Even as that trial unfolded, Margaret Sanger was conspiring with misanthropic elitists to impose forced sterilization laws in a dozen American states. Their “scientific” basis? Appropriated Darwinism. This toxic pseudo-science even made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, as Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote in defense of such forced sterilization laws that “three generations of imbeciles is enough.”

It’s too bad that Bryan didn’t have the science background to put the pseudo-science of eugenics itself on trial.

Where Will the Next Neil Gorsuch Go to Law School?

Imagine if Neil Gorsuch had not been trained in legal and moral thinking at (among other places) Oxford University, by a brilliant scholar and consistent thinker like John Finnis. How would he be doing under hostile questioning by ax-grinding Democrats armed with carefully crafted talking points by dozens of left-wing judicial activists?

Actually, you don’t need to make the imaginative experiment. Just read up on the performance of the poorly prepared attorney picked by the Trump team to defend its first Executive Order on immigration. It was embarrassing. When a conservative administration’s representative can’t out-perform the clowns on the Ninth Circus Court, you know you have a personnel problem.

That problem’s about to get much, much worse. We need to figure out what to do about it. I worked for ten years with Intercollegiate Studies Institute, a nexus for conservative faculty in a dozen different fields. We had members with brilliant records in history, English, law, political science, you name it. One thing those people have in common: Most of them are over 50. A lot are over 60. Some of the best have already retired, or gone to God.

As graduate schools in such fields become more radicalized, as tenure committees use both affirmative action and blatantly political standards in picking future faculty, they are strangling the next generation of conservative elites in the cradle.

Would the next Neil Gorsuch, or Ted Cruz, even get into a top-tier law school? (Harvard Law just eliminated the requirement for the LSATs, freeing its admissions staff to be more arbitrary.)

Would they get recommendations to work at a top law firm? Would such a law firm hire them, given that it was almost impossible to find attorneys willing to oppose the LGBT lobby in Obergefell v. Hodges, for fear of boycotts and harassment? How long will it before membership in the Federalist Society, the lawyers group that drew up President Trump’s “short list” of potential SCOTUS nominees, is a crippling career impediment? Where will find the people with credentials in the humanities to train future mainstream scholars in social sciences and the humanities?

We Need Graduate Schools and Law Schools of Our Own

Conservatives and Christians have made attempts to work around the legal bottleneck, with mixed success. A faithfully Christian law school in Canada, Trinity Western, lost its accreditation because of its commitment to biblical values. While American “alternative” law schools such as Ave Maria and Regent University law schools turn out very competent lawyers, I doubt very much that we’ll be seeing Supreme Court nominees who graduated from either one anytime soon.

We’re about to enter a cultural, political, and legal desert, as the left’s stranglehold over elite institutions exerts its long-term intended effect. Christians and conservatives need to wake up and start pouring money and thought into how we can smuggle our future leaders past the left’s starvation blockade. (For more from the author of “Neil Gorsuch Shows Christians Why We Need to Build up Our Own Elites” please click HERE) http://joemiller.us/2017/03/neil-gorsuch-shows-christians-need-build-elites/

Trump Makes Next Move to Shape Federal Judiciary

President Donald Trump has tapped a federal district judge from his list of potential Supreme Court picks to be his first nominee to a federal appellate court—putting Trump slightly behind President Barack Obama, but ahead of President George W. Bush in shaping the judiciary.

The White House announced Tuesday that Trump intended to nominate U.S. District Judge Amul R. Thapar to serve as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit.

Thapar, son of Indian-American immigrants and a former federal prosecutor, now serves as a federal judge in the Eastern District of Kentucky. Bush appointed him in 2008.

The announcement for a nomination comes as Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch, is going through his confirmation hearings in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Appeals court judges can be nearly as important as Supreme Court judges since the high court is limited in the number of cases it accepts.

There are 19 appellate court vacancies across the United States that Trump could fill, and 96 on federal district courts, according to Elizabeth Slattery, a legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation.

There are also two vacancies on the U.S. Court of International Trade and six on the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. There are a total of 677 authorized district judgeships and 179 total court of appeals judgeships.

“This is a great sign that President Trump takes lower courts seriously,” Slattery told The Daily Signal. “The last administration did not make lower court judges a priority, and that ended up being good for conservatives because it has left Trump with a lot of opportunities. There was a lot of thought that the president would wait until the Gorsuch nomination reached its conclusion.”

Given his position on the Trump campaign’s Supreme Court list of 21 names, this could be grooming Thapar for the Supreme Court, said Curt Levey, president of the Committee for Justice, a conservative legal group, and a senior legal fellow for FreedomWorks.

“Everyone on that list was ranked somewhere from good to great as far as being a constitutionalist,” Levey told The Daily Signal. “Certainly if he is qualified to be on the Supreme Court, he is qualified to be on an appeals court. He would be the first Indian-American on the Supreme Court. There is no better way to give him credentials.”

Obama’s first appeals court nomination was on March 17, 2009, naming David Hamilton to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Obama had 49 appeals court judges confirmed to the bench during his two terms. Obama made his first district court nomination on June 25, 2009, naming Jeffrey Viken to the U.S. District of South Dakota. A total of 270 Obama district court nominees were confirmed.

Bush’s first appeals court nomination did not happen until May 9, 2001, when he named Roger Gregory to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. That same month, Bush nominated Richard F. Cebull to serve as the judge for the U.S. District of Montana. Bush named a total of 61 appeals court judges that the Senate confirmed and filled a total of 263 vacancies on district courts.

President Bill Clinton outdid both Bush and Obama, naming 62 appeals court judges and 306 district judges.

As for Thapar, before serving on the bench, he was the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky. He was previously an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of Ohio and in the District of Columbia.

Thapar began his legal career in private practice. He clerked for Judge S. Arthur Spiegel on the District Court for the Southern District of Ohio and then with Judge Nathaniel R. Jones of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, to which Trump has selected Thapar to serve on. Thapar received his bachelor’s degree from Boston College in 1991 and his Juris Doctor from the University of California, Berkeley. (For more from the author of “Trump Makes Next Move to Shape Federal Judiciary” please click HERE) http://joemiller.us/2017/03/trump-makes-next-move-shape-federal-judiciary/