On the campaign trail?
This analysis from icWales expands on an idea I set forth here yesterday — that the new Al-Qaeda tape (here's the full text again, from MEMRI) is trying to split the coalition. It adds that "Osama" is trying to make sure that Bush is defeated. (Thanks to JimB.)
A MAN identifying himself as al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden offered a truce to European countries in an tape broadcast today that tries to drive a wedge between America and its European allies.It may also have been a message to sympathetic militants to back off from attacks in Europe.
The CIA said the voice on the tape was probably that of the multi-millionaire terror leader and was recorded recently.
European nations quickly ruled out any sort of negotiation with al-Qaida.
But experts on militant Islam say the message appears aimed at the European people - hoping they will pressure their governments in the wake of last month's Madrid bombings to stop supporting US military operations in Muslim nations.
And, an analyst said, it appears also to be a message to al-Qaida sympathisers to stop European operations to avoid galvanising support for Washington's war on terrorism.
"Bin Laden is seeing how those bombings in Madrid were used by the Americans to pressure Europe into more action," said Montasser el-Zayat, an Egyptian lawyer who defends Islamic radicals. "This tape is a message to those groups to cease these actions."
The message described the September 11, attacks on the United States and the March 11 Madrid train bombings as revenge strikes, though it did not directly claim al-Qaida responsibility.
The tape, which aired in full on pan-Arab satellite stations Al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya at more than seven minutes, came at a time when the US led coalition in Iraq is facing particularly violent resistance.
"I am offering a truce to European countries," the taped message said as the stations showed an old, still picture of bin Laden. "Its core is our commitment to cease operations against any country which does not carry out an onslaught against Muslims or interfere in their affairs."
"The door to a truce is open for three months," but that could be extended, the tape said. "The truce will begin when the last soldier leaves our countries," the speaker said without elaborating.
Bin Laden is believed hiding in the mountains along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The stations did not say how they received the tapes.
Several audio and video tapes of al-Qaida's number two, Ayman al-Zawahri, have been released in recent months, but today's was the first purportedly from bin Laden since January.
In London, the Foreign Office ruled out any deal with bin Laden, saying al-Qaida's "attacks are against the very idea of coexistence. ... The right response is to continue to confront terrorism."
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said in Rome that "it's unthinkable that we may open a negotiation with bin Laden, everybody understands this."
Spain's incoming foreign minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, told his nation's parliament that "we don't have to listen to or answer" the tape. While a German government spokesman said: "There can be no negotiations with terrorists and serious criminals like Osama bin Laden."
The message said, "What happened on September 11 and March 11 was your goods delivered back to you. Security is a need for all humans and we could not let you have a monopoly on it for yourselves."
"People who are aware would not let their politicians jeopardise their security," it added in a direct appeal to European citizens.
Spain's outgoing Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's Popular Party strongly backed the war in Iraq despite popular and political opposition.
It lost general elections three days after March 11 terror attacks killed 191 people. Incoming Socialist leader Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has pledged to withdraw Spain's 1,300 troops from Iraq by June 30 unless there is UN control by then.
The truce was offered, the speaker said, because polls have shown that "most of the European peoples want reconciliation" with the Islamic world.
Spanish authorities say the Madrid bombers were acting independently but may have had ties with Islamic extremists elsewhere. The United States has blamed September 11 on al-Qaida.
"They say that we kill for the sake of killing, but reality shows that they lie," the tape said.
Russians, he said, were only killed after attacking Afghanistan in the 1980s and Chechnya, Europeans after invading Iraq and Afghanistan and the Americans in New York after "supporting the Jews in Palestine and their invasion of the Arabian Peninsula."
Dia'a Rashwan, noting that tape deviated from bin Laden's usual labelling Europeans as "the Crusader-Jewish alliance," said the al-Qaida leader appeared to be focusing on the European people to get them to pressure their governments and "isolate the American administration even from its European allies."
Bin Laden, he said, also may want to show he is still alive so he can try to sink President George Bush's re-election bid. The purported bin Laden message denounced the US war on Iraq, saying it was making "billions of dollars" for companies, naming the American firm Halliburton.
The message also vowed revenge for Israel's killing of Sheik Ahmed Yassin, founder and spiritual leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas. The message said that American policy ignores the "real problem," which is "the occupation of all of Palestine."
OBL's too late: ""isolate the American administration even from its European allies."
In the run-up to the Iraq War (confirmed by the subsequent findings from captured Iraqi documentation and the ongoing UN OILSCAM), it was clear that America has virtually no European allies, save Britain, Italy and some of the ex-Soviet Bloc states. The current war forced the issue, and illustrated French, German and other Europeans' duplicity and deceit, as well as the virulently anti-American, Jew-hating nature of European politics.
It's hard to believe the slogan of the Spaniards less than 100 years ago was: Better to die on your feet than live on your knees.
Just a note to Robert if you read the comments: This is THE most important blog. You are doing a great service to your country and humanity at large. Thank you for your work. The product is masterful, more importanly, the message is urgent.
Jane
So he gave 90 days from the date of tape release? What would the precise date of that be?
I can only hope it is Not a signal to begin new attacks. It may sound selfish, but I figure to be Married within 10 or 12 days of that deadline. And after reading a report on TechCentralStation about the Canadian emergecny prepardness group that has done virutally Nothing since it's inception 2 1/2 years ago, I have to be More than a bit concerned about this situation.
Let's hope the intelligence agencies in Europe have been busy.
i don't believe it is bin laden. i think he's dead. he would give proof of life if he were alive in order to stir up the jihadists. this is probably someone with a voice similar to his -- and the content is taken from "le monde" and moveon.org
"War is deception. Negotiate peace with your enemy until you are strong enough to annihilate him." Thus said the Prophet Muhammad as one of his fundamental rules of waging jihad. I believe what we are seeing with the UBL truce offer is the "The Quraysh Model of Meccan Conquest." Three years after the Battle of Badr, Muhammad signed a 10 year non-aggression treaty with the Meccans. He knew he couldn't sack Mecca with his current strength. Less than one year later, with a fortified military, Muhammad sacked Mecca.
Arafat also used this justification in defense of criticism condemning him for signing the Oslo Agreement.
It's just a matter of who will be sacked first, Spain or France.
In my previous posts, I worried that Bin Laden and the senior Al Qaeda leadership had detected an appeasement streak in Europe that far surpassed the debacle in Madrid last month.
In Howard Kurtz's Media Notes column of the Washington Post today he comments (and has a link) to the Nicholas Kristof article from the New York Times in which he received several e-mails from readers opposed to the war in Iraq. They admitted that they viewed US casualties as a positive development. That hoped the worse it got the more we would turn back from the War On Terror.
I am sure Freud could come up with some analysis on people that wish harm on themselves and view attacks on their culture as some sort of positive development. An unpleasant historical example comes to mind. In the years before the Fall of Rome, the Romans never really accepted Chrisitianity as did those in the countryside. The looked with glee on the hedonism of the past much as the Howard Dean types probably view the 1960's. Although, I will throw on an occassional "Dead" cd I don't look for any enlightenment from "Jerry and the boys."
I fear too many people in the west are looking for some sort of enlightenment and judging from the empty churches and synagogues they are not looking for it there. So the "I am ok your ok" philosophy doesn't sound all that bad. Along comes Osama with "Peace In Our Time" platfrom and everything is going to be fine. The far left thinks if we could just get rid of this nasty "War On Terror" everything will be perfect. In their minds Neville Chamberlain was misunderstood.
We may think that most sane people of the west understand the War on Terror (even if they don't completely agree with) but I fear there is a growing opinion that we are the problem and Bin Laden is just fighting back the injustice we created.
Rome fell, not with a heroic battle but an embarrasing skirmish. The Faith that the elites rejected would grow but with a terrible price of the centuries of the Dark Ages that followed. I believe we are facing some tough months of attacks(especially around the time of the Olympics and US election.) I am an optimist by nature but feel many who don't like the War On Terror are going to say it was the fault of those who wanted to fight the war not those that attacked. I hope I am wrong!
Robert, how about if a bunch of us "invested" in a conference about the nature of the enemy? Even those of us who haven't won the lotto lately could buy a few shares, and maybe this way gather up enough funds to kick-start the thing. Gather up a potential faculty, make a list of topics to be covered, including poster-talks, get potential vendors, find a convenient location, and then let us know how much each share will cost.
I mean, if it worked for the Green Bay Packers, surely it would work for you! Your fans are every bit as enthusiastic as theirs--am I right, guys?
Cubed,
That would be great. If you get any serious responses, I'll look into how much it would cost and we can try to get it going. Some of my colleagues and I have wanted to put on a conference for years, but have not been able to get funding. Maybe it could be a grass roots thing. I am in touch with most of the people who could be great speakers at the thing, so I doubt it would be hard to get them.
Best
RS
His Excellency Sheikh bin Laden has offered the hand of peace to the corrupt, degenerate states of Europe. All that they must do in order to live in peace is to cease their agression against Allah's people, including those who reside within their borders, and to cease supporting the Zionist and Crusader armies. It may be that a few fanatics reject this offer of peace and the opportunity to live as Almighty Allah has ordained. As for them, the jinn will feast on their bones.
Some minor notes:
1. Reza is a man's name. It is Persian.
2. I made a typing error, omitting the "u" ("is") from the phrase Allahu akbar (Allah is greatest). Some ignorant people noticed this and made much of a simple typographical error, spinning absurd theories about the omission. I therefore continued the misspelling intentionally in order to annoy them. Henceforth, until I become tired of educating the ignorant, I shall use the correct spelling.
Allahu akbar
Let`s do it!
LET`S DO IT!
"His Excellency Sheikh bin Laden has offered the hand of peace to the corrupt, degenerate states of Europe. All that they must do in order to live in peace is to cease their agression against Allah's people, including those who reside within their borders, and to cease supporting the Zionist and Crusader armies. It may be that a few fanatics reject this offer of peace and the opportunity to live as Almighty Allah has ordained. As for them, the jinn will feast on their bones."
There you have it, folks- a perfect encapsulation of the jihadist mentality. Please, no one bother reponding to Reza, he'll just go away. BUT, save this quote and send it out to anyone questioning the ferocity of the islamist onslaught. Even the most craven politician should be able to comprehend this venom.
(Finally, Reza, have some dignity- throw off the mantle of the arabs who made the Persians their bum-boys. Re-acquaint yourself with your native religion, Zoroastrianism. Regain Persia's immense cultural and intellectual wealth by vanquishing the lowly arab influence that has been allowed to ooze into your culture.)
on wall street we have a saying that goes something like: "you can't negotiate with a man who has nothing." reza, you have nothing! islamofascism has laid waste what was once a wonderful persian society. there is no negotiation. you can have anyone who accepts the fraudulent olive branch from the fraudulent bin laden tape. they would go your way, anyway. they are foolish. which just reinforces the maxim that your philosophy is foolish -- that is why it attracts fools.
Reza
I realize the rhetoric can get heated, so here's your chance to logically explain to the "ignorant West" why we should want to believe that Bin Laden and his form of Islam should be anything that we should want to have any part of.
Most of America is Christian, a religion founded by Jesus who's message was spread peacefully under heavy persecution throughout the Middle East, Europe and North Africa for three centuries until it was legalized by the Roman Empire in the fourth century.
Do you understand why Christians would be scared when they hear that your relgion attacked Europe in it's early days? The Crusades, however, bloody they may have been were an answer to these invasions and attacks on Christian pilgrims, no to mention an Egyptian cleric in the 11th century that called for the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepluchre.
If you believe Islam is a peaceful relgion why do you embrace Bin Laden? Why aren't you embracing moderate clerics who say Bin Laden doesn't represent true Islam? What if we don't want to become Islamic. What if we believe Jesus is the Savior. Or what if someone is Jewish? I think the answer is obvious by your embrace of Bin Laden. Finally, Reza have you ever really read the Christian Gospels? You might want to give yourself a chance. A true intellectual looks at all religions before deciding upon what he thinks truly represents God. Do you really think Bin Laden represents a loving God? Jesus said "You shall know the tree by it's fruit." The tree of Bin Laden bears no fruit it it rotting with disease and blight. Stay away from that tree lest you get consumed with that disease and suffer it's deadly fate!
You ask why the world must embrace Islam. The answer is simple. Islam is the final revelation of Allah to mankind. Moses (PBUH), Jesus (PBUH), and the other prophets who preceeded Muhammed (PBUH) were Muslims. All human beings are born Muslim. The final revelation of Allah to his messenger Muhammed (PBUH) is perfect and incorruptible. The Quran and the Sunnah contain everything that is necessary for man to live as Allah has ordained. Everything is based upon these perfect revelations.
Please note that Islam is not simply a "religion" in the way that Westerners understand their corrupt, falsified, and abrogated beliefs (Judaism and Christianity). Islam prescribes everything necessary to human society. When the Caliphate encompasses the entire Earth, and when Allah's holy law (Sharia) applies everywhere, then true peace shall reign on Earth.
Allahu akbar
Robert,
I think some place in the mid west would be great. My better half is a Director at a hotel. I would be more then happy to get it all set up. Just say the word and I will get started.
Wild Hare
Robert - Let us know the cost for your conference. There are many "silent witnesses" that perhaps could contribute and even some with deep pockets that could be persuaded.
Reza - You continually indict yourself with your own words and prove OUR point for us. Keep those comments coming. You give us plenty of ammunition to give to our friends and colleagues as to why they should resist Islam. Thank you very much. You are making our job so much easier.
I agree epq... Reza is doing a fine job. His comments give us strength, and cause us to focus our efforts to not only resist but to fight. Knowledge is power. We do not need to fabricate or stretch the truth. Muslims give us all we need. Simple sit back and let others read their words.
Do you fools actually believe that you can "resist" and "fight" the will of Almighty Allah? Look around you. Your "culture" is crumbling in a tide of immorality, pornography, homosexuality, and greed. Listen to the call to prayer from the mosque in your neighborhood. Observe the people in your streets - the virtuous Muslim women modestly dressed and wearing hajib while your daughters dress and behave like whores. Every day more of the symbols of your false religions are destroyed and removed from your public places, and every day more people embrace Islam.
As I said earlier, get used to it. Your grandchildren will be Muslims.
Allahu akbar
reza
i'll think of your comments tonight while i eat some pork rinds while drinking a beer and watching some decadent[partial nudity] television as far as i'm concerned go crawl back into your 7th century mud hut and seethe and whine because while i was busy enjoying life and being productive you just seethe and whine because nobody wants to worship the the black rock in mecca while you worship death and darkness the rest of us celebrate life
Reza
I never know whether to laugh or cry when Muslims criticise us for 'immorality'. Yes, we can be immoral, but in so doing we know we are going against our ethical values.
Muslim 'morality' in contrast encompasses such beautiful practices as polygyny, easy divorce for men - thus ensuring a perpetual rotation of 'wives' (who are of course bought and paid for), temporary 'marriage' - prostitution by any other name, forced marriages, young girls married off to men old enough to be their grandfathers - child abuse, the acceptance of pederasty - again, child abuse, 'honor killings', female circumcision, male custody of children after divorce. The list goes on.
It all adds up to a sexual paradise for men, but at the cost to your humanity.
And this is moral?
Also, has it ever occurred to you that yours is the only culture - as far as I'm aware, please correct me if I'm wrong - that shrouds half its population in black, denying them even a face and completely dehumanising them, because women are nothing more than walking vaginas. And women in the west are according to your view nothing more than sex objects? Please!
Whatever the faults of non-muslim men towards their women, they never denied them a face, never imprisioned them in their houses, never subjected them to the all-encompassing male tyranny that Muslim males exert over their own mothers, sisters and daughters. For God's sake, husbands in Islam even 'own' their wives' breastmilk. Is there any part of a woman that you men don't own?
And Reza, you're proud of this? You're obviously a person who thinks about things, think what your religion is doing to the women in your life. Don't you care?
I say this to all Jihadists everywhere....You will NEVER intimidate the U.S. I will NEVER submit to your tactics, and if you think you can defeat us think about Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
I support a conference. It will require some planning. The talks, forums, etc need to be focussed and factual. The key arguments of islamic fundamentalists (that would be you Reza) should be publicized and refuted on a factual basis.
People need to know the facts in order to speak with real conviction. Just getting mad and emotionalizing is counter-productive. I know from experience.
Mike
Reza:
Your last email summed it all up. Islam is the final, perfect revelation from God and is all-encompassing in its application. Everything is covered, all aspects of human life, relationships, business, morality, etc.
If you are right, then that is obvious. But what if you are only partially right, or even wrong?
Why do you believe what you believe?
That question is what differentiates the West from Islam. Only in the West do we question things. It is the source of our freedom and our great material prosperity. We are always changing, evolving, moving forward. Sure, there are many immoral and bad displays of public behavior in the West, but it's all out in the open. We don't hide it in a harem. Because it's all out in the open we learn and deal with problems. For instance, racial segregation used to be accepted, but now it's no longer seemn as good, but as a false prejudice.
Your brand of Islam is rigid and unchanging. An ideological straight jacket that is controlled by mullahs.
Your vision of Islam is the perfect fusion of state power and religious power. It is the ultimate form of totalitarianism.
It brings to mind Aldous Huxley's quote:
"Church and State,
greed and hate,
two baboons of the same grat ape"
That's the perfect description of your brand of Islam.
Islam is now experiencing its fateful encounter with the USA. Islam will therefore undergo its own Reformation, because the power of Freedom will cause this to happen.
Sorry Reza, you are on the wrong side of history. But you can always change your mind and outgrow your medieval mindset. Good luck.
Mike H
Friends,
About a year ago some like-minded folks and I tried to put together a conference on "Jihad and the Oppression of Non-Muslim Minorities in Muslim Societies: A Forgotten Human Rights Issue." We were in touch with a lot of front-line speakers, and projected a budget thusly:
Organization and Publicity: ~$10-$15,000
Speaker Travel, Lodging, Meals, and Honoraria: ~$35- $40,000
TOTAL: ~$50,000
Never got it from anyone, although I tried many avenues.
Now, if you all seriously want to donate to this, let me know. But it would have to be a whole lot of people to raise that money. If you are seriously interested, email me and I'll see about it.
Many thanks
RS
Cubed--great idea on the conference. Perhaps the recommended authors on the book area of this site could participate and report on their current work.
I would either attend or purchase the report from the conference. I'm new to this site and am excited about picking up Spencer's books.
The comments from the local jihad poster are welcomed, but I get the feeling that there is no reasoning with this person, as perhaps is the case with all jihadists.
A question for the posters...if disruption of the activities of a country is a defining characteristic of terrorism, would Ghandi have qualified as a terrorist? Doesn't an element have to also be the intention to cause harm to individuals through the initiation of violence?
(Good post Mike)
Robert, maybe people just hadn't been exposed to your scholarship and insights long enough by a year ago; maybe the problems just weren't on the "front burner" then to the degree they are now.
I will e-mail you to let you know that I would support such a venture. No deep pockets here, but a lot of modest "investments" can add up fast. Truly, folks, this would be an investment in the finest sense of the word--an investment in the preservation of the Free World for ourselves and for our grandchildren, Reza notwithstanding. My Number 2 Daughter (by the way, Reza, that useless female is getting her Ph.D. next month in molecular cell biology--can you even spell that?) will be giving birth to my first grandchild in mid-September--who knows, he may be born on 9/11, and I'll be damned if I'm going to hand that child over to the enemy without a fight! As far as I can see, Robert is a huge part of the fight.
WILD HARE, great thought; your better two thirds is a hotel director; my Number 1 Daughter got her degree in convention planning (although she works in a different field now, still, maybe she could be useful). What do you say, gang, if we can keep the costs in line, we could pull this thing off!
Wild Hare's spouse has some expertise that feeds directly into such a conference, as does one of my daughters, and I must believe that there is an awful lot of other, relevant talent out there!
It does seem that the interest may (at last) be here; I think we're catching on to the need for this sort of information.
Let's see: If there are 1000 people out there with $50 to spare, that about does it. I dunno, but that sort of puts in in perspective, sort of makes it look less like a fantasy, more "do-able."
Or 100 people with $500, or 2000 people with $25, or 100 people with $250 plus 400 people with $62.50, or. . . Well, you get the picture. This thing could get real!
Tell you what--everybody who could give anything WHATSOEVER to jumpstart a Robert Conference, e-mail him just to let him know. Then he would know whether the interest is there.
LET'S ROLL!
Reza;
You're a trip, you really are!
"Please note that Islam is not simply a "religion" in the way that Westerners understand their corrupt, falsified, and abrogated beliefs (Judaism and Christianity)"
We really tire Reza, of muslims Unfounded, unproved allegations that our Bible is corrupted.
The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, survives to this day. It serves as irrefutable proof that nothing was changed. It was translated 275 years before the Christian era. It matches today’s Old Testament with astonishing accuracy. We also have the Dead Sea scrolls. They were found by a Bedouin shepherd boy in the caves of Qumran. They date between 250 B.C. and 70 A.D., and were thus written during the very period Muhammad claims the Bible was corrupted. These 2,000-year-old scrolls prove that the foundation of Islam is fictitious. They are virtually indistinguishable from today’s text.
By the time Muslims said it was corrupted, there were hundreds of translations and as many as a hundred thousand copies distributed throughout the civilized world. Do you suppose that they were all brought together and altered in identical fashion just to spite Muhammad? Or is it more likely that Allah doesn’t know what he is talking about? That’s the crux of the issue.
Reza, wheres the original copies of your Qur'an?
Oh..thats right ..you haven't got any have you? The earliest one is in the British museum, and dates to about 790ad, 150yrs after Muhammed died.
"Your "culture" is crumbling in a tide of immorality, pornography, homosexuality,"
Admitidly, Reza our culture falls far short of Yahwehs standards of morality. It is a secular culture.
But are you saying this immorality is only present in our culture??
Mmmmm...perhaps you'd like to comment on this and this and maybe this.
Also Reza, I work with refugees, who are pretty much all Muslim. I go in to their homes on a weekly basis. I discovered a while back that receiving "Al - Jazeera" isn't the only reason why they have 2 foot wide satellite receivers on the side of their homes. (And I'm not talking about 'moderates' these are Qur'an believing - 5 prayers a day - Mosque going - Jihad spouting Muslims) tuning in to channel xxx. One of them asked me if I watch it.
I told him the truth, I don't.
I'm a Christian after all.
I pointed out it was "Haram".
YahwehU Akbar.
kc
KC,
Years back, I saw this article in Biblical Archaelogist's review that I thought you might find interesting, given your posting above.
They found some bodies, which had been buried as far back as the period of the Judges/early prophets. On those bodies, they found the pylacteries (titaphot - Hebrew) and the scrolls inside of them were made of beaten silver - not parchment). What was fascinating about them, once they were unrolled, was that the wording on the silver scholls was word for word the same as you can find in the Hebrew texts today. Thought you might like that little tid-bit. ;-)
Sorry though that I can't give you the reference info for that article. It was quite fascinating.
Aurrrggghhh, spelling... That would be "phylacteries" (who uses this word today?) and "scrolls" - not silver scholls - lol.
The conference project could start with a dedicated web page / link from here.
How about a list of 100 most outrageous claims by muslims, and their refution.
100 of the most outrageous pc academics
100 of the most servile, self-abasing dhimmi Westerners
100 of the most.....you get the idea
Keep things concise, to the point, easy to understand, easy to implement.
I don't have deep pockets but I'll start the pledge drive with $100. Start an account and I'll transfer the funds.
Mike
Three cheers, Mike--I'll match that!
Thank you, Michael and Cubed.
Maybe another page is a good idea. But it's kind of a Catch-22; I can't list the names of the speakers without funding, and without listing who will be there, well, it's just sort of a vague idea instead of something substantial.
I am not meaning to carp. I'll think it over.
Meanwhile I am very close to getting 501c3 status but I don't have it yet. You folks could make your donations through the existing Amazon or Paypal avenues (see at left), or wait for further word about that.
In either case, many thanks.
Best
RS
answer to pea-nut: terrorism is defined in the dictionary as follows:
"The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons."
mohandas gandhi would more aptly represent the opposite phenomenon. indeed the following is a quote attributed to gandhi:
"When [we] shall get together on the teachings laid down by Christ in his Sermon on the Mount, we shall have solved the problems … of the whole world."
by the way, gang. the conference sounds like a winner. i have two preliminary suggestions:
(1) i understand your dilemma, robert, regarding calling speakers and setting up a schedule without funds; however, some sort of draft theoretical summary/overview of what a conference would look like and what topics would be discussed (actual speaker names could wait until later) would allow for folks to get a picture in their minds.
(2) we should look to some institutional sponsorship for their interest in writing checks of size.
btw, i'm in for an indication of interest of $100.
Surely some of us must know people with deep pockets that could invest in Robert's venture. Perhaps if we tell them that their capitalistic heads are one the line as well as their fortunes is Sharia is imposed on us. Some would prefer to submit or convert to keep their fortunes, but I would hope that others would prefer that Islam does not become a world POWER force which is what this is really about, not religion.