What does Nobel Prize candidate al Sistani think about this one?

Posted by: Infidel Pride at May 15, 2006 5:05 PM

A prophecy from 50 years ago about the rise and danger of Moslemism, with a ray of hope provided.

The Power of Islam
by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen (1952)

Misunderstanding the notion of the Trinity, Mohammed made Christ a prophet, announcing Him just as to Christians Isaiah and John the Baptist are prophets announcing Christ.

The Christian European West barely escaped destruction at the hands of the Moslems. At one point they were stopped near Tours and at another point, later on in time, outside the gates of Vienna. The Church throughout northern Africa ws practically destroyed by Moslem power, and at the present hour, the Moslems are beginning to rise again. If Moslemism is a heresy, as Hilaire Belloc believes it to be, it is the only heresy that has never declined. Others have had a moment of vigor, then gone into doctrinal decay at the death of the leader, and finally evaporated in a vague social movement. Moslemism, on the contrary, has only had its first phase. There was never a time in which it declined, either in numbers, or in the devotion of its followers.

The missionary effort of the Church toward this group has been at least on the surface, a failure, for the Moslems are so far almost unconvertible. The reason is that for a follower of Mohammed to become a Christian is much like a Christian becoming a Jew. The Moslems believe that they have the final and definitive revelation of God to the world and that Christ was only a prophet announcing Mohammed, the last of Gods real prophets.

At the present time, the hatred of the Moslem countries against the West is becoming a hatred against Christianity itself. Although the statesmen have not yet taken it into account, there is still grave danger that the temporal power of Islam may return and, with it, the menace that it may shake off a West which has ceased to be Christian, and affirm itself as a great anti-Christian world power. Moslem writers say, When the locust swarms darken countries, they bear on their wings these Arabic words: We are Gods host, each of us has ninety-nine eggs, and if we had a hundred, we should lay waste the world, with all that is in it.

The problem is, how shall we prevent the hatching of the hundredth egg? It is our firm belief that the fears some entertain concerning the Moslems are not to be realized, but that Moslemism, instead, will eventually be converted to Christianity - and in a way that even some of our missionaries never suspect. It is our belief that this will happen not through the direct teachings of Christianity, but through a summoning of the Moslems to a veneration of the Mother of God. This is the line of argument:

Mary, Mother of God
The Koran, which is the Bible of the Moslems, has many passages concerning the Blessed Virgin. First of all, the Koran believes in her Immaculate Conception, and also, in her Virgin Birth. The third chapter of the Koran places the history of Marys family in a genealogy which goes back through Abraham, Noah, and Adam. When one compares the Korans description of the birth of Mary with the aprocryphal Gospel of the birth of Mary, one is tempted to believe tht Mohammed very much depended upon the latter. Both books describe the old age and the definite sterility of the mother of Mary. When, however, she conceives, the mother of Mary is made to say in the Koran: O Lord, I vow and I consecrate to you what is already within me. Accept it from me.

When Mary is born, the mother says: And I consecrate her with all of her posterity under thy protection, O Lord, against Satan! The Koran passes over Joseph in the life of Mary, but the Moslem tradition knows his name and has some familiarity with him. In this tradition, Joseph is made to speak to Mary, who is a virgin. As he inquired how she conceived Jesus without a father, Mary answered: Do you not know that God, when He created the wheat had no need of seed, and that God by His power made the trees grow without the help of rain? All that God had to do was to say, So be it, and it was done. The Koran has also verses on the Annunciation, Visitation, and Nativity. Angels are pictured as accompanying the Blessed Mother and saying: Oh Mary, God has chosen you and purified you, and elected you above all the women of the earth.

In the nineteenth chapter of the Koran there are 41 verses on Jesus and Mary. There is such a strong defense of the virginity of Mary here that the Koran, in the fourth book, attributed the condemnation of the Jews to their monstrous calumny against the Virgin Mary.

The Significance of Fatima

Mary, then, is for the Moslems the true Sayyida, or Lady. The only possible serious rival to her in their creed would be Fatima, the daughter of Mohammed himself. But after the death of Fatima, Mohammed wrote: Thou shalt be the most blessed of all the women in Paradise, after Mary. In a variant of the text, Fatima is made to say, I surpass all the women, except Mary.

This brings us to our second point: namely, why the Blessed Mother, in the 20th century, should have revealed herself in the significant little village of Fatima, so that to all future generations she would be known as Our Lady of Fatima. Since nothing ever happens out of Heaven except with a finesse of all details, I believe that the Blessed Virgin chose to be known as Our Lady of Fatima as a pledge and a sign of hope to the Moslem people, and as an assurance that they, who show her so much respect, will one day accept her divine Son too. Evidence to suport these views is found in the historical fact that the Moslems occupied Portugal for centuries. At the time when they were finally driven out, the last Moslem chief had a beautiful daughter by the name of Fatima. A Catholic boy fell in love with her, and for him she not only stayed behind when the Moslems left, but even embraced the Faith. The young husband was so much in love with her that he changed the name of the town where he live to Fatima. Thus, the very place where our Lady apeared in 1917 bears a historical connection to Fatima, the daughter of Mohammed.

The final evidence of the relationship of Fatima to the Moslems is the enthusiastic reception which the Moslems in Africa and India and elsewhere gave to the Pilgrim statue of Our Lady of Fatima, as mentioned earlier. Moslems attended the church services in honor of our Lady, they allowed religious processions and even prayers before their mosques; and in Mozambique the Moslems who were unconverted, began to be Christian as soon as the statue of Our Lady of Fatima was erected.

A Missionary Strategy
Missionaries in the future will, more and more, see that their apostolate among the Moslems will be successful in the measure that they preach Our Lady of Fatima. Mary is the advent of Christ, bringing Christ to the people before Christ Himself is born. In an apologetic endeavor, it is always best to start with that which people already accept. Because the Moslems have a devotion to Mary, our missionaries should be satisfied merely to expand and to develop that devotion, with the full realization that Our Blessed Lady will carry the Moslems the rest of the way to her divine Son. She is forever a traitor, in the sense that she will not accept any devotion for herself, but will always bring anyone who is devoted to her to her divine Son. As those who lose devotion to her lose belief in the divinity of Christ, so those who intensify devotion to her gradually acquire that belief.

Many of our great missionaries in Africa have already broken down the bitter hatred and prejudices of the Moslems against the Christians through their acts of charity, their schools and hospitals. It now remains to use another approach, namely, that of taking the 41st chapter of the Koran and showing them that it was taken out of the Gospel of Luke, that Mary could not be, even in their own eyes, the most blessed of all the women of Heaven if she had not also borne the Savior of the world. If Judith and Esther of the Old Testament were pre-figures of Mary, then it may very well be that Fatima herself was a post-figure of Mary! The Moslems should be prepared to acknowledge that, if Fatima must give way in honor to the Blessed Mother, it is because she is different from all the other mothers of the world and that without Christ she would be nothing.

Posted by: Elendur at May 15, 2006 5:06 PM

With friends like these who needs enemies. Al-Baghdadi has room full of people listening to his speech without a murmur when he talks about the destruction of Paris, Moscow and Washington. Then they clap and cheer when he calls for the destruction of the United States.

What is it going to take for the governments to wake up? If it's just for the mineral wealth, there is every justification to go and take it. If not, then what is the reason we keep supporting this ilk?

We spent trillions trying to fight another country which taked like that. Now we do nothing...

Posted by: detocquevilledisciple at May 15, 2006 5:17 PM

"At the present time, the hatred of the Moslem countries against the West is becoming a hatred against Christianity itself. Although the statesmen have not yet taken it into account, there is still grave danger that the temporal power of Islam may return" -- Fulton Sheen in 1952.

It's 2006 now, 5 years after 911 and after a series of other mass-murders by Muslims. And the President of the United Fucking States still calls Islam a "great religion of peace". Enough already!!!

Posted by: Television at May 15, 2006 5:31 PM

One could dismiss Al-Sadr as slavishly resentful that he could never quite pass those Shi'a doctoral exams, so he remains slavishly ABD -- All But Disseration -- Al-Sadr. But Al-Baghdadi is an ayatollah. Whole lot of rote learning went into that. He is exactly the kind of Shi'a cleric whom Saddam Hussein especially enjoyed executing, and he enjoyed executing so many different kinds of people.

So even if one did not entirely accept, as Bush and Cheney did, Bernard Lewis's 2002 prediction that the "liberation of Baghdad would make the liberation of Kabul seem like a funeral procession" nonetheless, they failed to understand Islam, failed to understand that there are many more sharing, or close to, the attitudes of Ayatollah Baghdadi, than there ar those who share the attitudes of Chalabi, Allawi, Ambassador Rend al-Rahim Francke, and all the other entirley unrepresentative representaive Shi'a exiles from Iraq in whom those who made policy depended. And it is no different with other Muslim states. Think of Colin Powell's tennis partner, the smiling, affable, have some port-and-cigars-and-we-are-all-we-men-of-the-world-just-a-little-corrupt-aren't-we Prince Bandar -- what did Powell, what did Baker, what did a series of American national security advisors, and secretaries of state, and presidents know, by meeting and even, horribly, socializing with someone like Prince Bandar, understand about the nature of Saudi Arabia, its people, its belief-system, its permanent malevolence toward Infidels everywhere?

Posted by: Hugh at May 15, 2006 5:37 PM

Television, "United F-----n States"?

your point could have been equally well made using CAPS to indicate shouting, italics, whatever. You make a point, though very crassly. Please upgrade

Posted by: OneEyedJack at May 15, 2006 5:38 PM

Arabic is very hard to translate. Here is what he really said:

Jihad initiated by the Muslims, which means raiding the world in order to spread the word that "there is no Devil but allah, and muhammad is a Demon of allah" throughout the world.

I hope that clears up the misunderstanding.

Imam Ronin

Posted by: Ronin at May 15, 2006 5:46 PM

Where did he speak? Were American troops guarding the roads he had to travel along from possible attack by Sunnis? After all, everywhere the Americans are protecting the Shi'a from the Sunnis and the Sunnis from the Shi'a. Ayatollah al-Baghdadi knows that. But that doesn't modify his stated views in the slightest. And he also knows that there are 140,000 American troops, with planes and helicopters and tanks, all over Iraq. Ayatollah al-Baghdadi knows that too. But it doesn't cause him to hesitate a second in declaring, for broadcast, the need and duty to conduct the Jihad world-wide, against all Infidels, including those local representatives of the "barbaric American capitalistic globalism."

The Ayatollah al-Baghdadi says that "everyone must fight - children, women, the elderly, the youth in order to liberate man, to liberate mankind, in order to liberate Palestine in its entirety, in order to liberate Iraq from the American-Zionist-British presence." Let's help him out. Let's liberate Iraq from that "American-Zionist-British presence right now." And let's hope that some Rafidite-dog-hating Sunnis deal with the Ayatollah al-Baghdadi as the Americans never would.

Those who think that the Ayatollah al-Baghdadi, or most of the people in Iraq (not "Iraqi people" for they do not exist) are grateful to the Americans, or ever could be if we pacify the country, and cotinue to act as first midwife and then permanent nursemaid, to this mewling pseudo-democracy-in-diapers, and if the Americans stay to spend more money, and build more schools, and more hospitals, and more roads and bridges, and more airfields, and dredge the sole port of Umm al-Qasr still depper, and expand more power grids, and repair more oilfields, and do more of everything, including continuing to work on preposterous $595 million dollar 21-building "embassy complex" that is emblematic of all that is wrong, all that is silly, in the naive plans for Iraq and for some kind of "victory" (what, exactly?) for America.

Imagine a Sunni raiding party taking care of this Ayatollah, and then Shi'a, in revenge, going on the rampage in Fallujah or Ramadi. Does this prospect disturb you? Did the Iran-Iraq War keep you up nights? No? Why not?

Posted by: Hugh at May 15, 2006 6:18 PM

I'm with Television on that one. Even the US is going dhimmi. It's not that George Bush doesn't know who the enemy is, it's just that he can't get away with blaming anything on a religion, especially an angry religion like islam. If Bush was to come out and say "Islam is the enemy" he would be impeached, even by his own GOP party members. America, like Europe, is not ready to go to war with a religion. They may never be. That is why I am not optimistic about the future.

The war against islam can not be won because it must be initiated by the president. A politician. But no politician in a western democracy will declare war on a religion. It won't happen. This is why he coined the phrase "war on terror". Which is also why we can't win unless we target the enemy, not just his tactics. Since the president, any president, will never target islam, we can never go to war with it, like we did with the Japanese and the Nazis.

Consequentely, this war can never be fought from our side. As much as we would like to fight it, and we do so from our keyboards, I believe it to be already lost.

Even if a terrorist was to nuke New York, what would the response be? Most likely an investigation to determine who did it. As with 9/11. Then what if it is found out that Al Qaeda did it? What happens then? Who do we bomb now? Afhanistan again? Pakistan, our "ally"? Saudi Arabia, another stalwart "ally"? Good luck hoping for that. Bomb Iran? Won't happen. No president will order the bombing of a civilian city with several million inhabitants. Won't happen.

What will happen is that the president will declare that we will bring "the criminals to justice" just as after 9/11.. That means more "war on terror". That will be the response. Islam will never be targeted as an enemy. Islamics will never be deported, only the clerics and trouble makers. The rest will get to stay. Guaranteed. The mosques will never be shut down. Can't be done under the constitution except under a provision of the War Powers Act. No president will shut down mosques under that act. Won't happen. If they are, they will reopen in a week. Kind of like the air transport system after 9/11.

What happens if the terorists nuke a second city? Nothing much more than what happened after the first city. No president will condemn 8 million people to die in a retalitory strike. If it was Russia, yes, the ICBMs would fly. That was the agreement. But in an act of terrorism, no ICBMs will leave their silos on their way to any islamic country. The loss will be absorbed, like 9/11 was absorbed, and America will go on. Just that much weaker.

All of this because it is not possible, politcally, socially, to name islam as the enemy. This is why I predict that our neo-modern, western liberal democracy is doomed. Doomed because it created a protocol that prohibits it from doing what is required to protect itself. A fatal flaw in the programming. This passivity will lead to its being eliminated from the eco system. Islam has many fundamental flaws, but not from an evolutionary point of view, only moral. Like a shark, islam is a perfect predator. Unchanged for 600 million years, like islam, the shark has a system that allows it to dominate other life forms in the sea. It eats. It does not get eaten. It has no mercy, no compassion. It is just a well-oiled, simplistic, killing machine.

Conversely, politically correct liberal democracy has teeth, but not the temperment to bite. Over time, it has become passive. It no longer attacks, like Islam, it only defends. And even in defence mode, it defends weakly, perfering to run, than fight. Ultimately, if the dynamics of Darwin's natural selection hold true, liberal democracy will die out. Militant ideologies will take over. Either the Marxist Chinese or militant islam. They will be poor and backward, but they will survive on the planet. We will not.

While many may say, "But I'm ready to fight." I say, good for you. But what about everybody else? What about your mother? Or your sister? Your wife? Your children? How many of them will fight a religion? I surmise, not many. Indeed, I believe that most westerners will submit to Allah before dying in the name of their freedom. Put a gun to someone's head, and 99% will do as they are told. They will not fight and die.

I would. Perhaps some here would. But we are the small minority, not because we know the score about islam, but because it is in our nature to be fighters. Most people will give up freedom for peace and life. Even if it is life under an oppressive regime. History testifies to this. Indeed, almost all of human history is one long story of oppression under corrupt and cruel despots. Liberal democracy in the west in the last 200 years has been an historic aberration. It would be only logical to conclude that oppression is the nature order of man. And in that nature, in that jungle, the predators always win, the passive get eaten.

We have all identified islam as the predator. And we have all identified the west as the passive vegetarian. I don't subscribe to the notion that our society is on the verge of fighting back. That we are all somehow on the brink of discovering jihadwatch.com and soon the war will be fought from this side. I doubt it. Nobody in my family is a fighter. If they even knew I had an anti-islam site they would frown. They are typical westerners. More interested in SUVs, American Idol, and McDonalds than in any politics.

In short, I see no tipping point in the future. I can't see any president or European leader figthing islam as a religion, even if a city goes up in a mushroom cloud. It will be branded terrorism by a few bad men, and the same fight in Iraw will continue. Security will be tightened. Freedoms will be lost. Immigration will be narrowed. But a city will be lost and the terrorists of islam will be assemblying the next bomb. This cycle will continue until the western economy is so destroyed by terrorism, that our society as we knew it will be gone.

Posted by: somethingaboutislam at May 15, 2006 6:36 PM

Robert has stated this many times and it is the heart of the problem: "...you can't fight an enemy that you are unwilling to name."

Why else do you see me create this identity to protect myself from timely retaliation and come out and slam Islam the way I do.

It is the simple, hard, cold truth that I will continue to present each and every damn day until they kill me:

ISLAM IS THE ENEMY.

And I'm starting to believe that we either need to talk a lot louder about this issue or we might as well stop talking altogether.

This really isn't a complicated matter at all. That's why so many people refuse to look at it!!

The truth is vile, disgusting, frightening and infuriating. The truth is going to cost thousands of lives in an upheaval one way or another. Do we go down fighting for our culture and civilization? Or do we go like lambs to the slaughter when the United States and the Western world are reduced to a series of Dhimmi states awaiting complete Islamization at the hands of the New Caliphate?

Me? I'm going to fight these cultists with every fiber of my being.

Posted by: Foehammer at May 15, 2006 6:56 PM

"It's not that George Bush doesn't know who the enemy is, it's just that he can't get away with blaming anything on a religion, especially an angry religion like islam. If Bush was to come out and say "Islam is the enemy"...
-- from a posting above

You are too kind to Bush. There are many ways to say what needs to be said without using the word "Islam." Talk about "the Jihad." Talk about opposing only those who believe it is their duty to conduct Jihad -- that is,the struggle to spread Islam until it dominates everywhere. Pretend that is not a duty incumbent on all Muslims. Use a little disingenuous ingenuousness. Bush is known to be stupid; he should put that reputation to work.

What will Muslims do? Will they sputter -- "but, but, all Muslims have to participate, collectively and sometimes individually, in Jihad. All Muslims must make sure that there are no obstacles to the spread of Islam until Muslims rule, and Islamic law prevails." They would have a hard time replying.

And one could leave Iraq making all the right sounds - "We wish the Iraqi people well, we've done our job, our presence now is a hindrance to their making the necessary compromises, etc."

Can't anyone in the government understand this? Are people afraid of losing their jobs? Is that what they put above everything else? Those officers and men who risk their lives, cannot risk their jobs to tell the truth, based on their new understanding of Islam? Not a single Democrat can criticize the President for being inarticulate, for not stating the problem correctly, because the only kind of criticism is not that directed at the ineffectiveness of this inarticulate, confused, incoherent, and dreamy policy, but that which demands no policy at all except that of appeasement?

In all of Washington? In the whole country?

Posted by: Hugh at May 15, 2006 7:51 PM

Foehammer you will not stand-alone. The muslims might think they are experts at urban warfare but they lose every battle. They think they understand unconditional warfare environments but they have yet to learn. We are a culture who knows how to shoot; we protect our own against all odds. We know the roads, trails, waterways etc. The people will support us when the fight comes here and for the most part we are well armed and unlike arabs we hit what we shoot at (except for my cousin Ike but he is an idiot). I almost feel sorry for anyone stupid to fight Americans on their home turf. Haven’t they paid attention to what we did on theirs? We are slow to anger not impossible. Thanks to net I know every mosque, meeting hall and most home address near me. If WWIII (some argue about the number but you get the idea) is coming, I say, “bring it ”. I don’t like war, seen my share but if I have to cut up a sheet and paint a big red cross on it just to scare some superstitious, backwards third world nut job, I’ll grab my scissors. Heck, I’ll even make one for Naseem she is not a real muslim and like our own dhimmis someone has to save her.

Posted by: Ronin at May 15, 2006 7:52 PM

"Sistani got a Nobel price...!"

Are you kidding me? When & where by whom?

Posted by: sheik yer'mami at May 15, 2006 8:53 PM

Mohammad (pb&j) said the same thing 1350 years ago.

But all in power in the West prefer to play the game of: if we pretend hard enough that it is a 'religion of peace', maybe it will turn into one by subconscious civilizing osmosis.

And porcupines will become pillows and skunks will spray eau de cologne.

The jellyfish rule and they pussyfoot, they pussyfoot.

While the enemies of the free world speak plainly:

"Submit or die."

They'll find, once the status quo clowns are swept out of office -by tragic events- that our answer will ultimately be:

"Predator Drone or Cruise missile?"

Or worse. Far worse.

They are confronting a Civilization that prefers peace, but understands that survival trumps law, morality, "innocent civilians" and even 'religion'.

Maybe they rot in hell for wishing it on the world.

Posted by: profitsbeard at May 15, 2006 10:05 PM

Ronin:

I hear you.

It haven't fired a gun since I was probably 18, but I was a crack shot then with my long rifle and I'm quite sure that I can keep that American tradition of hitting a target, going strong. I surely hope it never comes to that, not ever, but if it does have to come I do hope it is in my lifetime because I know there are still millions of Americans like me that would face the challenge.

Would we still have this kind of metal in, say, 30 years? 50?

Islam is like a glacier -- it creeps up very, very, very slowly and swallows everything in its path. Well, unfortunately for Islam, I am NOT a glacier. I am quite impatient when I'm angry, and I am going to make such a stink about this issue for so many years that I can guarantee you all that with our combined efforts, this WILL become a truth that will be heard and dealt with.

We must all just be as stubborn as Sir Winston. Badger the hell out of your Representatives. Give copies of books away as gifts to your family and friends. It all helps. Every last bit of it.

For several weeks now I have, in fact, sensed a change in radio and even television (i.e. South Park) and I'm starting to believe that the quiet masses are quietly picking up more than the government would care to believe.

And then there's the Sandy Berger with secret documents stuffed in his pants affair...that's going to have some new light shed on it soon from what I heard tonight on the Savage Nation, from Congressman Curth Weldon.

http://curtweldon.house.gov/

Apparently he's going to be a whistle-blower and it will turn out that the Clinton Administration is in for a bath when it comes to what they hid about their absolute bumbling of Osama Bin Laden.

It just never ends, does it? Washington, DC is almost our worst enemy.

Posted by: Foehammer at May 15, 2006 10:31 PM

Sharia is (now) inevitable in Iraq, and for THIS we've let 2500 Soldiers and Marines be killed?

And then there's the Sandy Berger with secret documents stuffed in his pants affair...that's going to have some new light shed on it soon from what I heard tonight on the Savage Nation, from Congressman Curth Weldon.

Yes, the Savage Weiner and the rest of the Bush Cult of Personality are going to be dredging up alllll kinds of imaginary feces to fling. But the Sandy Berger case is over; it's Rove that's going to prison.

Posted by: kj at May 15, 2006 10:54 PM

Hugh, I don't think that using the word JIHAD as a euphemism for ISLAM would fly. If the president said this was a war on jihad, islamics in America would not confess to being apart of any violent jihad. Hell, they can even denounce it. We all know islam says it is okay to lie about your faith to deceive the enemy.

The fact is that the fundamental tenets of islam are the problem. So to really fight the problem you have to target islam as an ideology, like the West targeted communism in the '50s. Communism was a bad word, still it. So that was politically correct. But islam is a religion, practiced by a visible minority, so targeting it is not acceptable by the political, media, and academic elite. And our views as a people are formed by our political leadership, the media we watch, and the teachers that instruct our children. As long as these institutions are run by the Left, targeting islam will be impossible.

Even as the dust was falling on 9/11 streets, there were those calling for "restraint" and "understanding". While they condemned the terrorists, they could not bring themselves to accept the reasoning behind their actions. Indeed, I remember one young New Yorker woman arguing hysterically in tears that no political conclusions should be drawn from the calamity that was now forcing her to wear a dust mask. So to ask such a woman to draw a religious conclusion would make her even more hysterical.

So I repeat. Even in the aftermath of a nuclear blast, the elite in America will still refrain from targeting islam. As such, no president will be able to do so either. This means that the West can not defend itself. Only the president, supported by congress, supported by the people, can wage a war on an enemy. Bloggers can not. We can take a certain amount of satisfaction knowing that we have done more than the average Joe, and that we know the score, that we can say, I told you so. But saying I told you so will mean little to me when my neice is wearing a burka.

I know, that nobody in my family would die to protect freedoms. My father is too old, my mother to apathetic, except for her disdain for Americans, my brother has a family to care for and has always spoken out against war, and my sister is more concerned with late night TV than with politics beyond her neighborhood. Put a knife to each of their throats, and each would bow down. This is how islam plans to win. And my fear is that that I see no reason why they won't.

Guys like me and Ronin, Profitsbeard, Foehammer, and many others here would gladly fight in the streets. But we are a small minority. Maybe 1%. The only way to field an army big enough to repel this foe is for the president to husband the troops. Only the leader of a country can name the enemy and get the ball rolling. Anyone else who does anything on their own is a vigilante, a rogue, a criminal, and will be swiftly punished.

So the future of the West lays with the leaders of the free world, especially the US president. But I can not see any circumstances under which the president will say, "Islam is the problem. Islam is attacking our civilization. Islam, and those that practice islam, need to be stopped." In a liberal democracy, that announcement will never come.

Posted by: somethingaboutislam at May 15, 2006 11:38 PM

Yea Hugh, you know islam, but you don't know war.

In the contestation between the free world and islam, we aren't going to just be able to withdraw our military from the region, and allow the shiites and the sunni to fall out amongst themselves, while we pull up a chair ringside, open a beer, and just enjoy the spectacle.

EVERY single major war we've been in since the Civil War, we got into because our enemies deemed us soft and weak. The Southerner was apt to brag that one of them was worth ten yankees. The Kaiser was convinced that he could polish off the French and the British before we became a genuine factor along the Western Front. And he too, along with the Prussian leadership, thought that we had gone soft. Hitler notoriously condemned us as weak, which was why he wasn't particularly worried by declaring war upon us PRIOR TO OUR DECLARATION upon him. As for the Japanese, 2,000 years, and they had never known defeat, and their code of bushido was thought more than sufficient to overwhelm us.

Even the leadership in North Vietnam thought that we would ultimately display a glass jaw, and out withdraw was but a matter of time.

And we all know that Osama, dirtball at large, thought that we were weak. That we were given over to materialism and hedonism.

And you Hugh SERIOUSLY SUGGEST CONFIRMING, RATIFYING, the aforelisted takes on America's character.

Perhaps you would like to explain to your readers how the pullout from 'Nam, and the abandonment of our ally, worked upon the overall morale of this country? The pullout from 'Nam led America from a policy of confrontation, to one of accomodationist detente, to ultimately the puerile policies of that Georgian peanut farmer.

But this time I suppose, we can pull out, no one will say it has anything to do with defeat, because you will have provided the diplomatic cover, and of course, your take on our pullout, would be the one that prevails throughout the world.

Are you serious?

Here's the deal. We pull out, regardless of reason, it will be spun as defeat, even if it isn't defeat.

We intercepted recently a letter from the Al Qaeda network in Iraq. The letter indicated that the coalition forces are winning, and that the only thing they are left to do is pull a bombing for the cameras. And they themselves admitted that other than public relations gestures, they're incapable of altering the movement of iraq.

Why are you ignoring that?

The worst mistake a commander can make is to form a picture of his enemy. Have you formed such a picture? Are you determined that the strategic landscape in iraq is of a certain character, and that you refuse to countenance the suggestion that it might be otherwise, in short, that you might be wrong.

Why aren't you even willing to give the effort to establish a consensual government in iraq, at least the ole college try?

You say that we spent 500 billion dollars so far. I say so what. That's chump change to an economy that has a GDP over SEVEN TRILLION, that is SEVEN THOUSAND BILLION DOLLARS, per annum.

If we spent five trillion dollars, over the next decade, but at the end of the day, iraq was a stable, consensual economy and polity, and spreading democratic sparks throughout the length of islam, that would be cheap. For it would be the FIRST real chance that islam has had of genuinely changing, since the death of the great warlord Mohammed himself.

If we can get out of this looming showdown between the United States, leader of the free world, champion in arms of the West, and a very pathological islam, if we can get out of delivering to islam the tutorial we delivered to Japan and Germany, then our efforts will be well worth it.

And if iraq proves a failure, say it proves as much a failure as even you dismally project, then at the end of the day we've acquired the hard won knowledge that islam is irremedial, and an enemy entirely implacable.

And sometimes in war, you have to battle for knowledge, you have to battle through screens, because in war, information and knowledge about the enemy, about his intent, about his disposition, is crucial, and can oft be decisive.

We haven't anything to be ashamed of in our efforts to alter islam, through creating a functioning democracy in the busom of the caliphate, in iraq, in Baghdad.

We might fail, sure, it's possible. Nothing like it has been tried in history. But, being mindful of who we are, being mindful of all we've been and meant in history, BEING MINDFUL OF OUR GREAT FRIENDS IN AUSTRALIA AND GREAT BRITAIN, let us not fail, let us impose our will despite any and all difficulties, and let us continue to kill terrorists and their sympathizers BY THE THOUSANDS in iraq.

The very thought of withdraw from the battle space makes my stomach turn.

Posted by: Dan at May 16, 2006 1:21 AM

KJ: "Yes, the Savage Weiner and the rest of the Bush Cult of Personality are going to be dredging up alllll kinds of imaginary feces to fling. But the Sandy Berger case is over; it's Rove that's going to prison."

Weren't you the one whining all the time about the political partisanship of the posters here?

Posted by: Cornelius at May 16, 2006 8:05 AM

A bit off topic, but very important.

Jihadi and Islamist Activities on MySpace.com
By Laura Mansfield.com
http://www.lauramansfield.com

You’ve heard about MySpace.com, the social networking site that is commonly used by American teenagers. You’ve heard about the dangers of MySpace, as one news network after another reported on the prevalence of sexual predators on the system who prey on young teens who give out too much personal information.

But MySpace.com isn’t just popular with sexual predators.

Teens and young adults on MySpace may very well be planning the next terror attacks on America.

Let’s take a look at what our investigator’s found as they began to investigate the Jihadi community on MySpace.com. You’ll be surprised at what we found once we eliminate the obvious jokesters like the one at http://myspace.com/MahmoudAhmadinejad perporting to belong to the Iranian president.

One young man from Seattle, who gives his name as Amin Al-Mujaahid As-Salafi, has a blog that is very disturbing. The blog, located at http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=57660577 contains disturbing audio links. One at http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=59191340 called Du’a by Abdul Rahman, and in English, sounds absolutely Hitleresque. The imagery on the blog includes tributes to Bin Laden, Zarqawi, Abu Hamza, and the 19 hijackers from September 11, who it refers to as the “Magnificent 19”.

There are 78 “friends” listed in Amin Al-Mujaahid As-Salafi’s “social network”.

As we began to visit these “friends”, a disturbing pattern emerged.

His friend Rashid Ali, (photo from his blog shown above) describes himself as a 31 year old currently living in Seattle. He voices similar views to that of Amin Al Mujahid. Rashid describes his activities on his blog at http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=41974211 as follows:

Reading Quran & hadith,Training Hui(Chinese-Muslim)kung-fu, Makoto-Ryu aki-jujitsu, & muay-thai-kick-boxing,NiNjitsu,Penjat-Silat,escrima:Kali/JKD.Target shooting ect. And hanging out with. My Big Bro Imam Rahim

Like his “friend” Amin, Rashid includes jihadi tribute imagery as well as the black flag of jihad on his page. With over 173 “friends” in his social network, Rashid appears to be part of a wide network of people who share similar sentiments.

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=17197309

The blogger “Soldiers of Allah” (logo shown above) describes the group at http://www.myspace.com/soldiersofallah as follows:

What are we all about?
Soldier of Allah is not a jihad group...
instead we are reminders for those who forgotten
We by no means are using rap to present Islam or promote Islam
We have witness the impact of music on youth today
We are not rap stars and we refuse to be
We are Muslim and only Muslim
We realize this is not the way to revive the omaa but just a tool to motivate Muslim to go to the real source which is Islam
It is Islam that organize our lifes and Islam which shows us the method to revive
We encourage and invite you to listen and think about the ideas that was presented in this CD
Remember we are the next generation of Muslims
and it's an obligation and responsibility of each and every Muslim
to implement as Allah commanded

Soldiers of Allah has 258 people in its “social network”.

Among those is 19 year old Salafi Mujahid, from Chicago. Salafi Mujahid boasts the following image on his page:

The site also has images glorifying jihadi leader Abu Musa’b al Zarqawi, Salafi Mujahid claims to be an Architecture major at College Of Dupage,
Glen Ellyn, IL, who is active in the Muslim Students Association.His MySpace blog is located at http://www.myspace.com/nabeelsiddiqui

Some of these youth, such as seventeen-year old “Yaqub”, shown above posting under the name of Abu Mujahid (father of the freedom fighter), seem to simply echo Islamist propaganda they’ve heard. Yaqub, from Plainfield, NJ, proclaims “"**Denmark Is messin with the wrong people!!**" on his blog at http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=23480938

Others, such as 17-year old Aaron Moore, from West Haven, Connecticut, seem to have developed profound anti-American feelings, as expessed in his blog at http://www.myspace.com/aaron_moore

white ppl(or americans) killed most of the native americansthey caused the trail of tears(deals with the native americans, mostly of the Cherokee nation) then they continue pushing them back on the western front, giving them less and less land so that they eventually had to take refuge on reservations or fight umongst themselves and they in turn called the native americans "savages" and "wild animals" (like the way the do the arabs and muslims, take note)

Americans(or white ppl) didn't just stop there they also brought thousands and thousands(nobody knows the real number cuz the white ppl took so many) of Africans and not only Africans but also native americans and I know I left out other ppl cuz I haven't been properly tought in the american schooling system. And for that I am sorry for the ppl that I missed. The americans not only enslaved the Africans but also said that slaves weren't humans but only property in the Dred Scott vs. Sanford case.

americans say "all muslims are saveges, or animal beasts" (as they did to the native americans, [see a cycle?]) or the americans also say "ohh, arabs and muslims are almost humans". Well incase you forgot you also said the same thing about black ppl in the 3/5 clause. Slaves were only considered 3/5 of a human being(i.e. "almost human")

and the cruel behavior didn't stop there after the slaves were set free(and also before) there were lynchings(lynch- To execute without due process of law, especially to hang, as by a mob[dictionary.com])of black ppl all over the south and sometimes the north, and these lynchings haven't stopped they still continue even today.

the americans(knowingly or not) support the Israelis, which these Isrealis kill the arabs of Palestine and the american government even created a "fake"(not so fake) 9-11 event, that caused the american ppl to think that it was caused by terrorist, "in the middle east". but what the american ppl forget is that there is terrorism in our own country that doesn't even deal with muslims or middle easterners.

now the inhumanitary behavior still continued after that, they even went so low as to use there racism against spanish ppl and that was in the 1900's. and they racism still continues today

even women didn't have any writes in america until the 1900's

take notice to all these things and take notice to all the things that I forgot to mention, notice how these americans(white ppl) treat other ppl of diferent cultures, religions, genders, and ppl of a different race, and sexual preference. americans(white ppl) treak gays like they would any other person of another race, or religion or gender, they always discriminate anyone that is different from them or what they're used to.

Others, such as nineteen year old “Islamakazi”, are more explicit, posting at
http://www.myspace.com/islamakazi has a countdown clock, counting down the days, hours, and minutes until what it describes as “Iran war (world war iii)”

Along with the “countdown clock” are a wide variety of other images glorifying various jihadi and terrorist leaders, including Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinezhad.

Disturbing jihadi imagery, video, and audio are easily found on MySpace.com on the websites of young girls as well as of older male youth.

A young California woman, this one claiming to be eighteen years old and posting under the screenname Islam4Ever, is listed in “3rabiah’s” circle of friends. Her blog, at http://www.myspace.com/islam4ever looks like this:

Recruits for Martyrdom?

Are these kids all talk? There’s no way of knowing.

But MySpace is certainly providing fertile ground for jihadi recruitment, if the words of some of these youth are any example.

Nineteen year old Hemadah from Brooklyn is like many of the other teenagers on MySpace.com. He tells us he’s 190 pounds, 5’8” tall and a Gemeni of Middle Eastern descent. He tells us his sexual orientation (Hemadah is straight) that he doesn’t drink, he has no children, and he is a college student. We know his birthday (June 17, 1986), and that he has a special love for everything bagels.

Hemadeh even shares his career aspirations:

“I’m goin to college to become a cop, hopefully work my way up as a detective.”

But a look at his Myspace blog (http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=43247150) tells he’s anything but ordinary – at least we hope that his aspiration isn’t the norm for most teenagers in this country.

Hemadeh tells us in his blog how he wants to die:

“AS A MARTYR, IF NOT THAT WAY, THEN WHILE IM PRAYING AND MY HEADS ON THE FLOOR”

He has cute photos of beautiful children, in this case his niece and nephew, along with a photo of himself and of one of “Allah’s soldiers”.

Hemadah is one of a growing number of Muslim youth who are expressing openly their sympathy with martyrdom and jihad.

Twenty-one year old Isa from Fort Worth, TX, also says he wants to die as a martyr on his blog at http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=45458527

Twenty-three year old Kareemwazwaz, posting at www.myspace.com/kareemwazwaz, is even more explicit in his wishes. Kareem, who posts a photo of Izz el din Qassam on his webpage, tells us the following:

How do you want to Die: a martyr for palestine
What do you want to be when you Grow Up: a martyr for palestine

Mahmoud, a student from University Of California-Santa Cruz, expresses similar sentiments on his MySpace blog at
http://www.myspace.com/machdarazor. How does Mahmoud want to die?

“defending something...either my family, my religion, or my country...basically i wanna die a martyr”

Mahmoud apparently enjoys protests, as the following photos show. (The photo of the “body” with the rock in hand is actually from the UCSC Palestinian Die-In and is dated May 9, 2006).

A seventeen year old girl from California, posting on her blog at http://www.myspace.com/3rabiah echos the opinions of these two young men. She says she wants to die “as a Martyr (Shahid)insha'a Allah...”

Eighteen year old Fayyad (aka Fiody) from Oviedo, FL, shown above in an image from his blog, has even bolder aspirations. The images of half-clothed women on his page might lead one to believe that Fayyad does not hold extremist views. But how does this young Lebanese-American want to die? According to his blog at http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=4095468, this University of Central Florida student wants to die as a martyr for God or in a huge nuclear explosion

Such beliefs are not rare among MySpace.com users. We’ve identified blogs belonging to over seventy young people who have similar aspirations: to die as a martyr,

Is one of these seventy young people, who openly aspire to be a martyr in the name of Allah, one of the next wave of terrorists who will attack America?

It appears that there is a lot more to be concerned about than sexual predators on MySpace.com, which has emerged as the most popular social networking site for teens.

By the way, when we contacted the FBI regarding the findings presented in this story, we were told all of the above material was “protected free speech”.

Copyright 2006 Laura Mansfield
All rights reserved

http://www.lauramansfield.com

Posted by: johnconnor at May 16, 2006 2:35 PM