Fear and loathing at the public library

"Faced with the task of becoming more knowledgeable about her religion, my daughter searched the Quran to find the exact meaning of jihad and came to this conclusion: "I think it's a good thing, mom, because I'm striving to perfect my religion."

It's easy to find out what "Jihad" is according to the "holy" koran.

I don't know why it's such a complicated task to this man's daughter, or to him. Doesn't he own a Koran? What need for 15 books is there? Does he not have a couple of Islamic books? Some hadith from Bukhari, muslim ? With Jihad being the most important pillar of islam, you would think "dear old dad" would know what jihad is.

His statement is like a Christian saying they don't know who Jesus is.

Flip flip flip ah, here it is:

Jihad:
Qur’an 33:22 “Among the Believers are men who have been true to their covenant with Allah and have gone out for Jihad (holy fighting). Some have completed their vow to extreme and have been martyred fighting and dying in His Cause, and some are waiting, prepared for death in battle.”

It's a good thing mom!! She's striving to perfect her religion. (by killing people)

Bukhari:V4B53N412 “Allah’s Apostle said on the day of the conquest of Mecca, ‘There is no migration now, only Jihad, holy battle. And when you are called for Jihad, you should come out at once.’”

Inner struggle huh?

Bukhari:V4B52N311 “Allah’s Apostle said, ‘There is no migration after the Conquest of Mecca, but only Jihad. When you are called by the Muslim ruler for Jihad fighting, you should go forth immediately, responding to the call.’”

Inner fighting?? (Sing) everybody was jihad fight-e-ing! Dae was fast as light-ne-ing....

Muslim:C28B20N4631 “I heard Muhammad say: ‘I would not stay behind when a raid for Jihad was being mobilized unless it was going to be too hard on the believers. I love that I should be killed in Allah’s Cause; then I should be brought back to life and be killed again.’”

Every single MUSLIM source defines JIHAD quite clearly. I don't know why this fellow, an obvious LIAR, had a need to go to a LIEbrary and take out 15 books on the subject, and even then his obviously illiterate daughter could only come to a rediculous lie and state it was perfecting her religion.

Will this newspaper print the truth if we send it in? I doubt it.

I guess printing out the meaning of Jihad and sticking it under the editors windshield wipers, and everyone elses is in order.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has a Department of Agricultural Jihad.

Is that where they beat ploughshares into swords?

The Islamic Republic of Iran has a Department of Agricultural Jihad.

Is that where they beat ploughshares into swords?
- from above

Brilliant!

I wonder would she be allowed to become Mrs Matt
Leinart.

So what if the FBI takes look at this little girl?

American Muslims just can't seem to understand that our government is not their enemy, and as representing the American people, most fervently does not want to be their enemy. Aren't American Muslims fighting against terrorism as American citizens and as such, shouldn't they welcome scrutiny?

If they continue to treat their own government as the enemy, how long will it be before that government is forced to reciprocate?

If the daughter is interested in finding out about the meaning attached to the word "Jihad" she need only consult "The Legacy of Jihad." There she will find what generations of Muslim scholars and Qur'anic commentators, as well as the most important Western students of Islam, say about Jihad -- and they all happen to say exactly the same thing. She can find the most famous Muslim theologian Al-Ghazali (presumably unwarlike because "Sufi" and the word "Sufi" conjures up for so many, and so wrongly, the idea of otherworldly whirling dervishes) insisting that Jihad is an annual duty; she can find the historian Ibn Khaldun casually insisting on the duty of violent Jihad, and she can find everyone else, among the most noted Muslims (yes, all four schools of Sunni jurisprduence are coved, as well as the Shi'a), and among the most noted non-Muslim (no espositos need apply) scholars of Islam.

It is certainly true that in the last few decades, as Muslims have been allowed to settle within what they regard as Dar al-Harb, that is behind enemy lines, and have had to shore up their position until such time as they grow more powerful and numerous, have also had to keep avoiding the issue of what Islam is all about, and especially about the concept of Jihad. The nearly $100 billion spent by Saudi Arabia alone has gone a long way, for some of that goes to pay for mosques and madrasas and of course propaganda on behalf of Islam everywhere (often by employing armies of Western hirelings -- ex-diplomats, ex-intelligence agents, journalists, academics enjoying direct or indirect Arab and Muslim support, and businessmen interested only in the promise of contracts by which they may get a tiny share of those OPEC trillions). And the religiously-sanctioned lying, beginning with taqiyya, which has its roots in Shi'a Islam but also has been fully accepted, as a practice, by the Sunnis, and kitman, both not only allow but encourage Muslims to lie about Islam itself, about the contents of the faith, in order to protect it, and the Believer, from outside enemies. What began as a Shi'a doctrine to protect the Shi'a from Sunni persecution is a general Muslim doctrine, and of course fits perfectly with everything we know about Islam as an aggressive belief-system fashioned, in the first place, to justify and promote conquest.

When Muhammad declared that "war is deceit" that was enough -- deceit comes naturally to the Muslims in dealing with Infidels, and anyone with immediate experience of that world everyone else -- everyone, that is, until the last few decades, when Muslims in the Infidel West, or having from Dar al-Islam to deal with the Infidel West, for a while could get away with no questions asked. No one thought to wonder what Islam was all about. It was said to be a "religion." Muslims tell us, endlessly, with not the slightest proof, that it is "the world's fastest growing religion" (perhaps they simply are referring to unchecked Muslim birth-rates, and Muslim persecution and murder of non-Muslims within Muslim-ruled lands).

But now they have to deal with the matter. Now too much evidence of Jihad -- and even the dawning of understandiing that Islam has to be investigated, its tenets thoroughly understood and exposed, what is in the immutable canoncial texts -- not just the Qur'an but also the Hadith and the Sira -- need to be understood, before these bland assurances, either from Western leaders, or from the army of Muslim apologists with their smiling, plausibgle, affable looks that can suddenly turn, Jekyll-and-Hyde like, if anyone dares to call their bluff, to question them in detail about the life of Muhammad, or about passages in the Qur'an that cannot be explained away, or even about the doctrine of naskh. I have seen, many of us have seen, these same "smylers with the knyf under the cloke" (as Chaucer described Treachery) began to lie and lie and lie about Jihad to those Infidels, even as they knew perfectly well, and talked about on every Muslim website, and in every all-Muslim gathering, and all over the Dar al-Islam (but of course the new translation services, such as MEMRI, are making them a bit nervous -- goodness, how terrible of the Infidels to actually translate what we say in the privacy of Dar al-Islam) about Jihad. For Jihad is understood perfectly, the stuff of khutbas (sermons), of newspaper articles, of talk in the souks and the shisha-parlors and on the streets and in the madrasas and of course in the mosques, the hundreds and hundreds of thousands of mosques.

Why this Muslim could not have simply turned to the Encyclopedia of Islam, or the Dictionary of Islam, or the thousands of Muslim websites that define "Islam" -- instead of forming the basis for this idiotic Whittier newspaper's this "where-will-it-all-end" argument --well, we know the answer.

But do the readers of that Whitter newspaper know? Does the writer of the article know -- or was it just a little too difficult for that reporter, and that newspaper, to finid out about "Jihad" itself?

Google Semeen Issa. She's a regular producer of such agitprop. Don't know how she got identified as a "non-Muslim," since she's a member of the Muslim Women's League, and one post cites her as past president of MWL. Let the outing begin.

I think we all agree that it’s next to impossible for a Muslim (or a non-Muslim married to a Muslim) not to know about Jihad and Jihadists. The main point the not-so-innocent Semeen Issa (president of the Muslim Women’s League as documented at http://www.mwlusa.org/publications/opinion/veil.html) is trying to make is that the “FBI’s Gestapo methods encouraged by the outrageous Patriotic Act” might just knock on this wonderful peace loving Muslim family’s door and ask embarrassing questions which they cannot truthfully answer about their wonderful “religion of peace”.

But wait... I thought the FBI didn't believe in profiling, given the time they spend in airport security searching blue-haired old ladies. (For verily, there was no maestro but Lawrence Welk and Myron Floren was his messenger!)

Honestly, though, I don't see Semeen Issa's logic about being targeted personally if it was the titles of books that would raise a red flag. I'm sure a person of any color or creed would get flagged for surveillance if they checked out Let's Build a Bomb with Abu Musab al Zarqawi, but if simply researching Islam (including its violent tendencies) gets one put on a list, even I'd better check under the bed for an FBI agent...

I'm also not sure why Whittier Daily News thinks there's a story here to begin with when nothing's happened yet.

This story is based mainly on a hoax story about how a man was visited by the FBI: www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/12-05/12-24-05/a01lo719.htm

Federal agents' visit was a hoax
Student admits he lied about Mao book
By AARON NICODEMUS, Standard-Times staff writer

NEW BEDFORD -- The UMass Dartmouth student who claimed to have been visited by Homeland Security agents over his request for "The Little Red Book" by Mao Zedong has admitted to making up the entire story. [snip]

or see: hughhewitt.com/archives/2005/12/25-week/index.php#a000876

or:
www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2005/12/24/students_tall_tale_revealed/

Confesses fabricating US surveillance story

By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff | December 24, 2005
[snip]
The story stems from an incident in the fall in a history seminar on totalitarianism and fascism taught by a colleague of Williams, Robert Pontbriand. The student, who was in the seminar, told Pontbriand he had requested an unabridged copy of ''Quotations From Chairman Mao Tse-Tung" through the UMass interlibrary loan system for a research paper.

Days later, he told Pontbriand, he was stunned to get a visit by Homeland Security agents who told him the book was on a ''watch list" and asked why he wanted it. Pontbriand was appalled. ''A university is a place for the open inquiry for the truth," he said.

The story quickly made its way around the history department, and it might have stayed on campus if The New York Times had not broken a story about President Bush's approval of a controversial domestic spying program.

After that story, a Standard-Times reporter called Williams, who has traveled to Afghanistan for research, to ask whether he was concerned about government surveillance, Williams said.

As an afterthought, Williams said, he told the reporter about the alleged visit by the Homeland Security agents, and that became the lead of the Dec. 17 Standard-Times story.

John Hoey, spokesman for UMass-Dartmouth, said the university did not expect to take any action against the student. ''This was a conversation that took place between a student and his faculty members," Hoey said.

Dan Rosenfeld, managing editor of the newspaper, declined to comment yesterday, saying that the paper considered it a ''competitive newspaper story."

The university issued a statement Monday defending academic freedom, but said it had had no visits from Homeland Security agents and no record of any student seeking the Mao book through an interlibrary loan.

The student later told the professors he had requested the book at UMass-Amherst. But officials there said UMass-Dartmouth students cannot use their ID cards at the Amherst library and that all interlibrary requests are made by the libraries, not students.

A Homeland Security spokeswoman in Washington said she had no record of any interview of a UMass-Dartmouth student and pointed out that the department does not have its own agents. An FBI spokeswoman in Boston also expressed doubt.

That didn't stop it from buzzing around the Internet and even being picked up by Kennedy, who cited it as the latest example of the Bush administration's intrusion on civil liberties.

''Incredibly, we are now in an era where reading a controversial book may be evidence of a link to terrorist," he wrote in an op-ed piece in Thursday's Globe.

Laura Capps, a Kennedy spokeswoman, said last night that the senator cited ''public reports" in his opinion piece. Even if the assertion was a hoax, she said, it did not detract from Kennedy's broader point that the Bush administration has gone too far in engaging in surveillance.[end]

"American Muslims just can't seem to understand that our government is not their enemy"

Not just American Muslims; the vast majority of American Leftists feel this way (as does a tiny minority of American ultra-right-wing and/or fringe libertarian nuts).

Besides this vast majority of American Leftists (which constitutes probably only 20% of Americans), we have a much larger majority of Americans who are not "Leftist" in the strident sense, but who have been infected by PC givens, among which is an irrational degree of distrust of American government, authority, ideals, history and patriotism.

"American Muslims just can't seem to understand that our government is not their enemy"

I don't take the complaints of Muslims seriously because they always fail to blame the jihadis.It's always the government's fault or the medias fault. Never the fault of Muslims.The reality is, if Muslims hadn't flown planes into buildings murdering thousands of people, there would not be a Patriot Act or increase surveillance of Muslims.Muslims have only themselves to blame.

Since the Patriot Act was enacted, how many high school girls have been questioned by federal agents related to books they have checked from the local library? Does anybody know? I'm guessing ... zero.

"Google Semeen Issa. She's a regular producer of such agitprop. Don't know how she got identified as a "non-Muslim," since she's a member of the Muslim Women's League, and one post cites her as past president of MWL. Let the outing begin."
-- from a posting by "longtime lurker" above

Exactly. And make sure, those of you who live in the catchment basin of the Whitter Daily News, that that newspaper is inundated with phone calls and letters all about the sinister Semeen Issa, and perhaps parents at the apparently public Middle School she teaches at would like to find out a bit more about what she teaches their children, beginning with a close look at the homework and the handouts and what the children themselves say they have learned.

Find out more. See what she's up to. See if she can keep her campaign of desinformatsiya out of the schoolroom -- or if she is using it, now and again, as a place of sly, intermittent, but nonetheless clear indoctrination.

If so, make a fuss.

Make much more than a fuss.

This kind of thing cannot go on.

The Whittier Daily News is exactly what we don't need in this country. They distort truth for a knee jerk emotional reaction. Here's one, How about September 11th, 2001!!! Who gives a flying fart about them feeling apprehensive about being Muslim. In 1986, while on an excersice with NATO forces, as a U.S. Marine, we met the enemy. As a matter of fact, in DENMARK!!! Copenhagen. As Marines are wot to do, we were looking to enjoy the European night life in this particular city. (Copenhagen) Accompanied by some very beautiful women. The Islamic males did not take to this very lightly. As we tried to make our way to the dance floor, they put up hostile resistance. Some of us being elbowed, very hard!!. So hard, you could feel the actual hatred in their blows!!! The same thing happened on the way off the dance floor. Of course, we were not allowed to retaliate, for it meant starting an international incident being the U.S. military!!! But these Islamofeces didn't care. They could attack us without restraint, but we had to maintain our composure, Marines not fighting back, but being assailled by the enemy!!! So screw this person and his/her daughter. If they don't like the feelings that they have about being apprehensive, leave us. And while I'm on a roll, the Whitter Daily Distorted News can go with them!!! As a matter of fact, you can use your freedom of the press powers over there. Especially in Iran. May be being over there will make you struggle with those anti American demons that possess you. You know, wage "jihad" within yourself. Especially when they shut you down. Or may be when they kidnap and behead one of your editors for any crime against Islam, Muhammad or any of the numerous offences that they can come up with. At least they won't have to worry about the Patriot Act. Or the FBI kicking their doors. Nor will they have to worry about us "non Muslims" not understanding their religion. They don't have to worry about any free thinking American misunderstanding their religion. We got a crash course in Islam 101 September 11th, 2001!!!

Hopefully this newspaper article will prompt readers to want to find out more about Jihad, using the Internet. Googling the word "Jihad" brings up "Jihad Watch" first!

Gee, I thought the Jews controlled the media...(heavy sarcasm)

Sent to the Whittier Daily News, a Tribune Newspaper: I am not holding my breath to see it printed or responded to.

I suggest you do a little reading at Jihadwatch.com least you fail to see the broader implications of the views that your paper is distributing in the community. The term Jihad means a lot more to radical Islam than what Mrs Issa is professing in her letter. I would be saddened to know that a domestic attack by Jihadists could have been prevented, but for the concern that a school girl might be inconvenienced with the remote possiblity that she might be questioned over her choice of library books. There are radical Islamists in the US that wish us harm. Mosque members in Lodi Ca were arrested for plotting terrorism. Check out the recent news from Chandler Az. also. The radical jihadists are the same people that brought you the embassy bombing in Lebanon, USS Cole, first World Trade Center bombing at the beheast of a NY blind Imam, thwarted LAX bombing, terrorist training camps in Oregon, 9-11 twin tower bombings, uncalculable world wide suffering, etc-etc-etc. These are the people that behead teachers in Afganistan in order to close schools that have commited the unforgivable offense of educating girls at their schools. (It is ironic that Ms Issa, a teacher in Arcadia Ca., would fear for her life in many Islamic countries if she were to educate girls as she does openly does here in the US).
Ask the Issa's whether their point of view would change if their daughter was not allowed to go to school, or Mrs Issa was not allowed to work as a teacher. Ask Mrs Issa what she would think if the Arcadia middle school she works at was the target of a Chechen style takeover and terrorist bombing, as was an elementary school in Beslan. Ask them what they would say if the California Aquaduect was destroyed and their family had no water to drink. Ask them whether they would trade the lives and economic disruption a dirty bomb at the NY stock exchange, for their daughter's right not to be questionsed about some library books. Ask them what they would say if any of these acts could have been stopped by the powers of the Patriot Act. Sadly, our memories of 9-11 are fading as time passes, and Mr. Issa is more concerned whether his enjoyment of the USC Texas game would be interrupted by questions about some library books, but I think he greatly overestimates his family's importance in the vast scheme of this threat to our safety.

Since Wikipedia was referenced in the article, I thought a little Wiki-Schadenfreude may be in order:

Google "Pelican S---," only replacing the dashes with the appropriate letters. Click on the first link.

It made me smile.

Ironman Hondo says:

"...They don't have to worry about any free thinking American misunderstanding their religion. We got a crash course in Islam 101 September 11th, 2001!!!"

Yeah!

For a start, how can the Whittier Daily News refer to the author and her family as "patriots?" There may be some patriotic Muslims in the U.S., but if so, they are WAY TOO QUIET. I think quiet Muslim communities may be populated--at least in part--by Muslims who fulfill their duty to perform "jihad in the way of Allah" by supporting the violent jihadists. And we know what the violent ones want to destroy! So "patriots" is a REALLY poor choice of descriptive nouns, W. Daily News.

And really, who the heck cares if they worry about the FBI knocking on their door? Reverse the picture, and imagine an American family living in Kandahar or Fallujah or some other god-forsaken place, and spouting off about the local police or gov't agencies. The folks who'd come knocking on their door would be carrying kalishnikovs ~ and it would be the middle of the night ~

"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy.

The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity.

The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.

Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities...but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world.”

Sir Winston Churchill, from The River War, first edition, Vol. II, pages 248-50 (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1899).

Whittier is a town of about 85,000, just north of Los Angeles.

If the little darling is able to checkout 15 books on any given subject, I would think there must be quite a few more on said subject for the other patrons to check out, too.

So if the precocious little dear was able to check out 15 books about Jihad, I wonder just how may such books the Whittier public library has on hand.

And any public library in a town the size of Whittier with enough books to allow checkouts on such a grand scale deserves additional observation.

So, for the sake of my grandchildren, that would be a very good thing, mom.