Abukar Arman is the new special envoy to the U.S. for the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) that leads the Somali Unity government and presided over bloody Sharia rule in Somalia in 2006.
Leftist/Jihadist Alliance Alert: Abukar Arman is also a columnist for the Huffington Post. There he has said of the Rifqa Bary case: "It should surprise no one that this case has attracted the 'who-is-who' among the usual suspects -- the founder of paranoia fueling website JihadWatch, Robert Spencer."
Jihad Watch: Accused by the Taliban of fueling paranoia! Bumper stickers should be issued!
Arman has previously numbered me among people he dubbed "provocateurs," but I think he gives me way too much credit. After all, as far as provocations go, I got nothing on the African Taliban! For other interesting sidelights on Arman, see here and here.
Also, Abukar Arman was (and may still be) the head of the Columbus, Ohio, office of the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). You know, CAIR, that moderate civil rights organization so beloved of the mainstream media and all too many government and law enforcement officials.
Revealing -- yet again -- of what CAIR really is, and what it is doing in the U.S.
Many thanks to Rusty over at the Jawa Report for the tip.
Abukar Arman is the new special envoy to the U.S. for the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) that leads the Somali Unity government and presided over bloody Sharia rule in Somalia in 2006.
...................
It always astonishes me how short many people's memories are. I am not talking about a knowledge of centuries-old history here, but just thinking back *four short years*.
The "Islamic Courts" instituted barbaric Shari'ah law in Somalia. One can argue whether Al-Shabab is worse than the Islamic Courts in one way or another, but the the situation in Somalia *is not* that of a democratic (or even comparatively sane) government fighting off a Jihad insurgency.
It is a case of rival Jihad terrorists fighting over the corpse of ravaged Somalia—and one faction, insanely, is doing it with our tax dollars.
Abukar Arman's profile and list of stories over at Huff-and-Pose (a name alleged to have been coined by a photographer when doing a shoot of a certain aging feminist for the Earthers' weekly magazine "Beards and Birkenstocks") can be found at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/abukar-arman . I sometimes post comments to stories over there just for fun using a different handle, and almost never fail to draw jeers and brickbats from the overwhelmingly Leftist audience, whether it is defending Rifqa Bary, or the Baptists in Haiti arrested for "child trafficking" or Sarah Palin. I especially enjoy commenting on stories by Hollywood Actors. I urge other JW posters also to set up accounts on HuffPo and become part of the dialog stream. Be polite and respectful - it drives them crazy.
Eastview, thanks for the tip. Looks like it's time for a little educatin'!
This particular bulletin from Spencer is, alas, sorely deficient in direct sources for certain claims -- e.g., the central claim, that "Abukar Arman is the new special envoy to the U.S. for the Islamic Courts Union (ICU)" is linked by Spencer to a Jawa Report article that itself links to a preceding Jawa Report article, where the claim is made without any substantiating citation, as far as I can tell.
As far as the U.S. supporting one jihadist (I.C.U.) group against another (Shabab), I don't mind that kind of Realislamik as long as it is used as an intelligent strategy with the ultimate goal of, as Hugh oft says, weakening the Camp of Islam -- but, of course, this is not happening currently. The problem is not with the principle, but with the guiding politico-military philosophy behind the principle.
Hesperado, check out http://somaliweyn.org/pages/news/Feb_10/7Feb18.html
The President of the Somali Transitional Federal Government his Excellency Sheikh Shariff Sheikh Ahmed has appointed Hesperado wrote:
This particular bulletin from Spencer is, alas, sorely deficient in direct sources for certain claims -- e.g., the central claim, that "Abukar Arman is the new special envoy to the U.S. for the Islamic Courts Union (ICU)" is linked by Spencer to a Jawa Report article that itself links to a preceding Jawa Report article, where the claim is made without any substantiating citation, as far as I can tell.
...................
Here's a Somali source, Hesperado:
"Somalia: President Shariff appoints new envoy to USA"
Abukar Arman as the Somali envoy to the United States of America.
Official letter from the information department of the office of the Somali president had the text, that the President has appointed Abukar Arman as the Somali representative to the USA.
This is a new start of relationship between the government of the United States of America and the Somali Transitional Federal Government.
The appointment of Mr. Arman as the Somali representative to the United States of America will create a good quality in the relationship between the two countries as many people believe.
http://www.somaliweyn.org/pages/news/Feb_10/7Feb18.html
Try this non-Jawa link for size Hesp:
http://terrorfreesomalia.blogspot.com/2010/02/somali-talaban-president-appoints.html
The question that Hesp often poses here at JW, since his own former blog, dedicated solely to "critiquing" Robert Spencer, is now defunct, and his new, non-frequented blog, leads him inevitably back to JW over and over again, is why Spencer never speaks the hardline truth in lock-step, as Hesp sees it, about Islam?
In this particular case, the learned Hesp, critiques Spencer for simply linking the Jawa Report twice as a source for this article, but ignores the substance, if he deems Spencer to be correct.
The Hesp usually does that. He critiques his betters, or tries to, just so everyone can "know" and acknowlede that their allegience to the truth about Islam, given freely by Spencer, is merely an adulterated product which Hesp can best deliver.
No mention why, by Hesp, he has not accomplished this feat to date, of course.
http://ohioagainstterror.blogspot.com/2008/03/terror-apologist-abukar-arman-appointed.html
I guess they could all be lying Hesp, but I never figured you to run interference for Islam, just to satisfy your own bruised ego.
Pride indeed, doth cometh before the fall.
Back to the subject under discussion - It has been confirmed that "Abukar Arman as the Somali envoy to the United States of America" and that he is a columnist on Huff-and-Pose. We know where he is, so let's keep an eye on this guy and confront him wherever and whenever he engages in the taqiyya and diversions about the RoP that HuP apparently brought him aboard for. (Better make sure you've got a flame suit available when you post over there - The PC MC crowd doesn't respond kindly to criticism, mostly I think because they're not used to receiving it. They are especially taken aback and enraged when you call them out on their methods of argumentation and excessive usage of stereotypes, since they believe they own the narrative of stereotyping and it doesn't apply to them.)
What say you, Hesp?
FWIW, the Somali news site http://somaliweyn.org/ is interesting to peruse. The offices are in Goteburg, Sweden, but the middle column in the main page has headlines and links to stories in English. Fascinating stuff about internal affairs in Somalia, apparently written from the point of view of the Islamists, I haven't seen elsewhere. If added this site to my "Newspapers of the World - Africa" bookmarks.
"If added..." should read "I've added..."
"Be polite and respectful - it drives them crazy."
As Sun Tzu said:
"Always be civil, it confuses the enemy."
I got some good news for good ol Spencey!
http://www.cinema.com/news/item/3790/rodriguez-turned-down-muslim-marriage.phtml
The main (non-CGI) female actress in Avatar almost married a Muslim man. However, he was far too demanding and wanted her to be submissive and wear a burqa. Lucky for us- and Avatar fans- she refused to abandon her values to become his love slave!
Please do an article on this soon, that Mr. T punch article has me scared and you need some nice victories to report every now and then on your site.
(btw, how do I submit stuff to the God of Islamic Studies, Spencer? I'm only posting this here cause I don't know where else to)
Tim, on the JihadWatch home page scroll down to the very bottom of the left-hand panel. There's a link for sending a note to Robert.
I wondered what was going on over at HP. I posted some anti-islam comments but then I got banned and all of my old stuff was taken down. I'm sure it was the first time that most of HP audience had heard that Muhammed married a six year old girl and that he advocated jihad violnece against non-muslims. The dhimmis sure didn't like it.
Thanks Eastview and gravenimage,
The same link you both provided looks rather like a Third World yellow journalism website. It would be nice to have a US government source for this, since he's claimed as being an envoy to the US.
awake,
Your link is not much better than Eastview's and gravenimage's.
As for my motivations -- I am only seeking high quality from the anti-Islam movement. You can continue to try to defend low quality all you want, but it seems to be a losing battle. (P.S.: My former site dedicated to constructive criticism of Jihad Watch is not "defunct": I voluntarily retired it mainly because I got tired of repeating myself, since many of Jihad Watch's faults have tended to keep repeating themselves.)
I'm completely unfamiliar with your site or history w/ JW.
Is it in internet archives? What's the link?
Also, to sum it up, what's your beef with JW anyway? Until Christians enjoy equal rights in all Muslims countries.... Allah (Arabic word for "God", not Arabic name like "Zeus" contrary to what Muzzy Malaysians believe) bless Mr. Spencer. Allahspeed good sir, Allahspeed.
"I wondered what was going on over at HP. I posted some anti-islam comments but then I got banned and all of my old stuff was taken down."
That's why you have to be polite and respectful. Comments that are outright un-PC and obvious Islam bashing that would pass muster here tend to get you banned at HuffPo. But it's possible to score points by avoiding inflammatory rhetoric and ad hominems, even though that's what most posters over there engage in, in a more or less nonstop orgy of Leftist bigotry against Conservatives and folks like us. The trick is not to allow yourself to become baited into a flame war - remember, they control who gets to talk over there in the same way that Robert and Marisol do over here. I've not been banned, which is not to say I won't be in the future if I get too rambunctious in my comments, but I use standard English and try to be factual, and avoid being overly witty and caustic, which tends to invite attack. Not as much fun as a yelling match, to be sure, but less likely to incur the wrath of the HP gatekeepers.
I have about a dozen separate gmail/hotmail accounts under different names that I shuffle between whenever the need arises. Remember, gmail/hotmail do not require personal information to set up accounts, so you're free to supply any information you like. Some would consider this sneaky or unethical; I consider it prudent not to make it easy for some wacko to trace me back to where I live and work. So, consider setting up a new HP account under a new name and handle, and jump back into the fray. Good luck.
Hesperado, the link gravenimage and I provided is, indeed, a third world yellow journalism site. But it was this site that made the announcement that Abukar Arman was appointed a special envoy from Somalia to the U.S., and it appeared to reflect the position of the Somali government, such as it is. If he accepts this appointment as some sort of official position he then uses to burnish his authority in the U.S. to speak about Somali matters, then it matters little whether there is any sort of U.S. government recognition. I can rather imagine, in fact, that the U.S. government would rather like to ignore this completely.
But I can see your point, which appears to be that if it isn't a regular diplomatic appointment requiring presentation of official credentials etc. then it is misleading to imply that it is. But I took the thrust of story to be that one of HuffPo's regular writers has an official, or quasiofficial, or semiofficial, whatever, connection to the Somali government, which is certainly noteworthy in its own right.
I don't know if this will work this time but I'm trying to respond to "Eastview"
I also post on "Huff" under a different handle & let me tell you it's hell over there if you're not a lefty.
I'm always polite but can't resist a tiff if provoked. I try not to name-call but the same can't be said of the majority. I have been attacked more on that site than when I posted on an unmoderated site that was rife with trolls. Many of my posts go missing, never get posted or disappear after being posted.
So,to sum up, most of them carry a big 'Bigot" club & they like to use it on you if you say something they don't like. One fellow likes to call me Hasbara for which I have thanked him.
Since we are greatly outnumbered it would be wonderful to have some supporters join the fray.
"Allah (Arabic word for "God", not Arabic name like "Zeus" contrary to what Muzzy Malaysians believe) bless Mr. Spencer. Allahspeed good sir, Allahspeed."
I must disagree.
"Al-ilah" was the pre-Islamic pagan Arabians' moon deity. The chief god, just as Zeus/Jupiter is in Greek and Roman mythology. Mohamet was born a pagan and grew up worshipping the moon deity, Al-ilah.
In addition, have you read what Allah (Al-ilah) says in the Koran? That's not a God - that's Warlord Mohamet. Al-ilah/Allah, don't exist.
Your wishes to RS up above are like wishing him "Satanspeed." I wouldn't do that if I were you. "Allah" is not "God."
Jesus is God.
allah is Not.
How do I know that "Allah" is not God? Read what "allah" says in the Koran.
Glad to see you fighting the good fight, too. There are a few sane voices sprinkled among what otherwise seems to be a very large and noisy frat party with much high-fiving going on among what seems to be an in-crowd vying to see who can issue the longest string of Leftist platitudes. I assume you're among the same voices, which rather tend to stand out on those pages.
Oops, big typo there...I obviously meant to say "...you're among the SANE voices..." Sorry 'bout that.
Eastview,
Can I ask if your different gmail accounts require different gmail/email addresses? TIA
No. As far as gmail knows they're set up by completely different people. They have different names, passwords, etc. And the gmail accounts ARE the email addresses as far as anyone knows, so for example you could have the addresses arafat@gmail.com or buddy@gmail.com or joeblow@gmail.com, each with different data, including paswords, etc. (Of course, you have to keep track of all the logon info somewhere so you can sign in.)
Tim,
That former blog of mine was called Jihad Watch Watch. I wrote a total of 136 essays on various permutations of the subject, before I retired the blog in May of '08. The critiques were written in a spirit of constructive criticism: I was sometimes tough and even harsh, but for the most part I tried to remain mature and reasonable in my comportment.
Here's one essay I published there that attempted to provide a laundry list of various aspects of my "beef":
http://jihadswatch.blogspot.com/2008/03/overview-of-my-critiques-of-jihad-watch_17.html
One particular point I probably spent the most time on in my blog is what I perceived to be a tendency -- on the part of Spencer as reflected in his various editorial and commentary formulations that form important part of his bulletins here as well as formerly in his comments in comment threads (he used to be, for years, much more active in the general comment threads, but has reduced that activity over the past year to virtually nil) -- to present a fundamentally incoherent analysis of the problem of Islam basically constituted by two irreconcilable positions:
a) saying things like I am not 'anti'-Islam / Islam is not evil / many Muslims are good people, etc.
yet at the same time
b) noting things like the fact that we have no reliable way to tell the difference between the moderate Muslim and the dangerous jihadist, or the fact that mainstream Islam according to its canonical texts and traditions advocates repellent and evil teachings such as wife-beating, extremely underage marriage, and sex slavery, among many other repellant and evil things, not to mention the supremacist expansion that requires physical violence (and has for centuries involved horrific violence, right up to our own present); as well as spending the bulk of his time amassing here on Jihad Watch a mountain of data reporting the horrible evil things Muslims are doing around the world.
One essay that particularly explores this aspect (though there were at least a dozen more, noted on my laundry list linked above under the category "soft on Islam") was this one --
Warning Labels on Islam: which label would Spencer support?
(The comments section to that article are important to read, as I engaged in a debate about the article with a couple of commenters.)