Leave it to the government to screw up anything they touch. DHS:
Department of Hopeless Suckers

Posted by: jewdog at September 26, 2007 5:09 PM

Georgetown Univ. no doubt makes the Society of Jesus very proud. Esposito & Co. - obedient poodles of the House of Saud.

Posted by: MP at September 26, 2007 5:12 PM

Here is Steven Emerson's piece for The Investigative Project:

Worst Approach to Counter-terrorism Yet
by Steven Emerson
IPT News
September 18, 2007

On Wednesday, October 3rd, the New Jersey Department of Homeland Security is hosting its "5th Annual Counter-Terrorism Conference" titled, "Radicalization: Global Trend, Local Concern?" The conference is part of the agency's "First Responder Training" and speakers and experts are brought in to instruct department employees on various topics related to security and counter-terrorism.

In a decision that defies reason, slated to speak on a panel called "To What Extent is Radicalization a Concern in the U.S.?," is none other than Georgetown University's John Esposito, a man who has never met a radical Muslim he didn't like.

At a banquet held by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Dallas in August of this year, Esposito stated:

I've got to tell you, you know, I mean, Sami Al-Arian's a very good friend of mine. I remember that when his kids told me that he was supporting a Republican I just said, ‘Tell your dad, as a lifelong Democrat, even though I don't always vote Democrat, he's ‘gonna regret voting for a Republican. And you know, God help Sami Al-Arian in terms of this administration and any others who have to live through this.

Esposito finished his speech, telling the crowd, "One of the most impressive people I have met under fire is Sami Al-Arian." Incidentally, the banquet was in large part held to support the defendants in the current trial against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief in Development (HLF), in which the closing arguments are underway. The charity stands accused of diverting over $12 million to the terrorist group Hamas. And Esposito told the audience that his appearance at the banquet was intended to "show solidarity not only with the Holy Land Fund, but also with CAIR," and started his speech by saying, "let me begin by saying that CAIR is a phenomenal organization."

At the banquet, CAIR Chairman Parvez Ahmed unleashed the following corker, in a typical effort to conflate his organization and his favored causes as representative of all American Muslims:

It is not the Holy Land Foundation that is under fire, but it is the entire American Muslim community is under fire.

CAIR is, of course, an unindicted co-conspirator in the trial, and if nothing else, the HLF trial has officially and publicly exposed CAIR's numerous links to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

But back to Esposito: His good friend Sami pled guilty in 2006 to a "conspiracy to make or receive contributions of funds, goods or services to or for the benefit of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a Specially Designated Terrorist."

A notorious firebrand when speaking to perceived supporters, Esposito's buddy told a crowd of Muslim supporters both "Let us damn America, let us damn Israel, let us damn their allies until death" and "The Koran is our constitution… Jihad is our path … Victory to Islam… Death to Israel… Revolution… revolution till the victory" at meetings held in support of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Esposito knows this, as these videos were entered into evidence into Sami's trial. Yet as recently as last month he still refers to Sami, in front of a crowd of American Muslims at a conference held by a Muslim Brotherhood/Hamas-front group, as his "very good friend."

Additionally, Esposito has praised Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Yusuf al-Qaradawi as a "reformer," interested in the relationship between Islam and "democracy, pluralism and human rights." The very same Qaradawi who has sanctioned suicide bombings against American troops in Iraq, calling those who die fighting U.S. forces "martyrs," and civilians in Israel, referring to such terrorist acts as "just" and a "divine destiny."

In a perfect world, such praise and associations would be as damaging as they are damning, yet Esposito has profited tremendously from such views, endorsements and friends. In December 2005, Saudi "philanthropist" Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal donated $20 million to Georgetown University to "teach about the Islamic world to the United States." According to the Washington Post, this is what the Prince got for his money:

The Georgetown center, part of the university's School of Foreign Service, will be renamed the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. The $20 million will endow three faculty chairs, expand programs and academic outreach, provide scholarships for students and expand library facilities, Alwaleed said.

Center director John L. Esposito said in an interview that "a significant part of the money will be used to beef up the think tank part of what the center does."

Famously, money from Alwaleed Bin Talal comes with strings attached, not that Esposito would be bothered by such preconditions. After 9/11, then-NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani turned down a check for $10 million from the prince, after Alwaleed Bin Talal issued a press release stating that America had to "re-examine its policies in the Middle East and adopt a more balanced stance towards the Palestinian cause." Despite the prince's "generous" gift to Georgetown, his money is probably better spent elsewhere, as anyone who knows anything about Esposito would understand he hardly has to be bribed to parrot the radical Islamist/Saudi worldview.

And for those who insist that voicing skepticism and concern about the influx of Saudi money on institutions of higher learning is nothing more than "Islamophobia," not every one is fooled, including various leaders of the Australian Muslim community, as reported yesterday in The Australian, "Muslims attack $1m Saudi gift to uni":

UP to $1 million will be pumped by Saudi Arabia into an Australian university, sparking fears the money will skew its research and create sympathy for an extremist Muslim ideology espoused by al-Qai'da.

Muslim leaders and academics have attacked Queensland's Griffith University for accepting an initial $100,000 grant from the Saudi embassy, which they accused of having given cash in the past to educational institutions to improve the perception of Wahhabism - a hardline interpretation of Islam.

The Australian understands the Griffith Islamic Research Unit will in coming years receive up to $1 million from Saudi Arabia, which has injected more than $120 million into Australia's Islamic community since the 1970s for mosques, schools, scholarships and clerical salaries.

A former member of John Howard's Muslim reference board, Mustapha Kara-Ali, accused the Saudis of using their financial power to transform the landscape of Australia's Islamic community and silence criticism of Wahhabism. "They want to silence criticism of the Wahhabi establishment and its link to global terrorism and national security issues," he said.

Esposito does not share Kara-Ali's fears and wholeheartedly embraced his Saudi gift horse. But the New Jersey Department of Homeland Security should know better. During his August 2007 CAIR speech, Esposito stated, "The reality of it is there is no major significant threat in the mosques in America," and no one should expect anything other than his continued downplaying of the threat posed to the U.S. by radical Islam and its adherents. Inviting the self-described "good friend" of a convicted terrorist operative, a man who praises as a "reformer" the pro-suicide bombing spiritual head of the Muslim Brotherhood, a bought and paid for spokesman for the Wahhabist, Saudi worldview, to discuss the issues and problems associated with Islamic radicalization in the U.S. is very likely the most counter productive and wrongheaded approach yet devised by a government agency dedicated to protecting the United States.

Posted by: Hugh at September 26, 2007 5:13 PM

Esposito and Armstrong should walk into the DHS address hand-in-hand, for they surely are thick as thieves.

Posted by: awake at September 26, 2007 5:18 PM

People like Esposito just make me sick.
It's because people like him that Muslims feel more confident in spreading their 7th century religion into the Western World. If it hadn't been for the intelectuals giving some sort of legitimacy to this barbaric religion, Islam would be in bad shape here in the Western World.

Posted by: Crusader at September 26, 2007 5:38 PM

Of all the lobbyists, Esposito is the biggest whore of them all for his whoring amounts to treason. And Georgetown gave him a chairmanship. Still more evidence that the "American" "Intellectual" "Elite" are none, nada, neither.

Posted by: JohnAdams at September 26, 2007 5:42 PM

How I feel for my American brethren in Jersey...wow.

Posted by: jcom972 at September 26, 2007 6:17 PM

Growing up in the shadow of old time labor organizers, hippies (*not* the same breed), and other anti-establishment folks, I came to believe McCarthyism, the House Un-American Activities Committee, black lists, and so forth, were a black mark on our country's recent domestic policy history.

Now, however, I completely understand and support the approach. Without a standard for treason, traitors can operate with impunity up until the point of actually triggering weapons. Without a blacklist, there's no way for organizations who want to avoid hiring traitors (let's pretend that there are some), from knowing with a high degree of certainty whether or not a potential candidate is on it.

We need a black list, with clearly defined criteria for inclusion, along with process for removal, publicly available, available to every hiring manager throughout government, academia, and industry.

For each person on the list, provide specifics: they take money from Saudis and parrot propaganda, they raise funds for Hamas, and so on.

Posted by: Hyman Roth at September 26, 2007 6:19 PM

The charity stands accused of diverting over $12 million to the terrorist group Hamas.

I thought that was Condi's job.

Posted by: Alarmed Pig Farmer at September 26, 2007 6:32 PM

The charity stands accused of diverting over $12 million to the terrorist group Hamas.

I thought that was Condi's job.

Posted by: Alarmed Pig Farmer at September 26, 2007 6:32 PM

The charity stands accused of diverting over $12 million to the terrorist group Hamas.

I thought that was Condi's job.

Posted by: Alarmed Pig Farmer at September 26, 2007 6:33 PM

Re: John Adams on Esposito
"Of all the lobbyists, Esposito is the biggest whore of them all for his whoring amounts to treason."

Yup, treason for Sodomy Arabia.

Re: Hyman Roth on McCarthyism
"Growing up in the shadow of old time labor organizers, hippies (*not* the same breed), and other anti-establishment folks, I came to believe McCarthyism, the House Un-American Activities Committee, black lists, and so forth, were a black mark on our country's recent domestic policy history. Now, however, I completely understand and support the approach. "

I think you may be right. It is ironic that the people who scream the loudest about those days seem to be doing their best to make them a necessity again. I always thought being "liberal" had something to do with cherishing "liberty", not giving it away without a fight. I'm sure there are more liberals that feel the same way.

Posted by: RalphInfidel at September 26, 2007 7:09 PM

There's no more harmful fool than a well educated fool. John Esposito fits this type perfectly. He is arguably the single most useful idiot for Muslim propaganda in America today. By any standard, he's in the top ten of such a disreputable list. He's the American version of Karen Armstrong.

Posted by: Wellington at September 26, 2007 7:13 PM

Fellow Australians lurking or posting here - in light of what Hugh has said, above, about Saudi money in our Universities, etc, as per the article in The Australian - we should be watching those universities, and everything else, very very carefully.

If you are currently a faculty member student or administrative or support staff person, or Christian or Jewish chaplain, at an Australian university...please, watch those Islamic Centres, and watch out for the propaganda, watch the names, and the faces, and the reading lists, and do a little quiet googling. If you are a chaplain, take a long, long spoon whenever some 'Interfaith' event with Muslims is organised.

If you belong to, say, a Christian group on campus - please, find out if there is a Jewish student group on campus, find out where they are at, and be prepared to support them (as also any Jewish faculty members) if you discover that they are copping anti-semitism or the virulent anti-Israel junk that is merely anti-semitism in disguise.

If you are an alumnus of an Australian university - find out what Islam is doing on the campus of your alma mater. And write and let the Chancellor, and the Vice-Chancellor, know that you expect your university to uphold and defend Freedom of Speech, and Freedom of Religion, in the strongest possible terms, in the classroom, on the grounds, among the faculty and among the students. Explain what Islam does, and has always done, to Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, and Intellectual Freedom.

Posted by: dumbledoresarmy at September 26, 2007 7:16 PM

Here is an email address for NJ DHS.

My letter liberally borrowed from the Post article above.

ohsp@ohsp.state.nj.us

Tell them about Esposito and
let 'em know what flaming idiots they are.

Posted by: USorThem at September 26, 2007 8:02 PM

Here is an email address for NJ DHS.

My letter liberally borrowed from the Post article above.

ohsp@ohsp.state.nj.us

Tell them about Esposito and
let 'em know what flaming idiots they are.

Posted by: USorThem at September 26, 2007 8:06 PM

"S.J." used to mean "Society of Jesus".

I see that for the Jesuits at Georgetown it actually means "Society of Judas".

Posted by: atheling at September 26, 2007 9:17 PM

Possibly the scandal of Esposito can be brought to the attention of the Vatican. Possibly the Vatican can persuade the administration at Georgetown to sever all ties with the "Al-Waleed Center for Muslim-Christian Relations." Esposito woudl still have his Saudi money and his lecture fees. He would still be lean, mean, jogging about, the man who seldom even puts in an appearance any more at the office. But at least the Georgetown prestige would no longer rub, wrongly, off onto him. He would simply be alone, with his "Center" and his ill-gotten gains.

Surely someone on the Georgetown faculty, or in the Catholic hierarchy, or among powerful lay Catholics, can get the ball rolling on this.

Posted by: Hugh at September 26, 2007 9:38 PM

Ralphinfidel:

I always thought being "liberal" had something to do with cherishing "liberty", not giving it away without a fight. I'm sure there are more liberals that feel the same way.

------------------

Anybody who attempts to put a burkha on my wife will die by her hands, regardless of race, gender, sexual preference, national origin, age, handicap, shoe size, or income level.

Posted by: Hyman Roth at September 26, 2007 11:05 PM

More than two years ago I suggested what I repeat above: that the connection of Georgetown with Esposito's operation gives him a reflected prestige he exploits, and damages Georgetown. No matter how much money he may bring in -- and how much of it does he share with Georgetown, anyway? -- it cannot possibly outweigh the damage he does to the institution.

Here is what I put up before:

"That the Administration at Georgetown, that the Georgetown alumni, have not yet realized what damage an institutional connection between Esposito's "Center" and Georgetown is doing to the the image, and name, of the latter, is a pity. When the Administration, and other faculty, perhaps prompted by expressions of alumni displeasure, do come to their senses, one hopes that all institutional ties between Georgetown and Esposito's Center, which benefits so much from the legitimacy confeered by the name "Georgetown," will be severed.

Perhaps a good place to begin is for the President and Trustees and alumni of Georgetown to educate themselves by reading, and assimilating, the articles on Islam by a real scholar at Georgetown -- Professor James V. Schall, S. J.

Professor Schall is neither an Arab hireling, nor an apologist for Islam, nor a sycophantic supporter of Muslim causes, nor a recipient of Arab Muslim support, and lionizing. For James V. Schall, S. J. answers to a Higher Authority, and has no truck with an Arab tycoon in Beirut, a Hamas-supporter in London, or a gaggle of Saudi princelings, all daggers-and-dishdashas, with their sneers of cold command, performing some celebratory dance in Riyadh and Jeddah.

[Posted by: Hugh at January 10, 2005 1:24 PM]

I hope that James V. Schall, S.J. is thinking about this, and that John Allen is thinking about this, and Sandro Magister, and others who can get, somehow, to the upper regions of the Vatican, to call attention to this agent of Islam -- for what else should we call him? -- who is battening on the Georgetown name.

Posted by: Hugh at September 26, 2007 11:08 PM

Thanks, Robert and Hugh for all the great work, been meaning to forward this to you for awhile, but, hey,life gets busy! A friend of mine send me this a while back. He did some research on Faruqi, one of Esposito's mentors. This might all be old news to you guys, but it was a surprise to me! I knew Esposito was bad news, but not THIS bad! Faruqi was involved in the founding of the IIIT with Mirza, Barzinji, and others! But wait, there's more...

"Search Wikipedia for International Institute of Islamic Thought, and you will find that it was co-founded by Ismail Faruqi ,Yakub Mirza and Jamal al Barzinji, as well as Sheikh Taha Jabir al-Alwani, Dr. Abdul Hamid Sulayman, former Rector of the International Islamic University, Malaysia (IIUM) and Anwar Ibrahim, in 1980 and 1981.

Also, according to a Washington Post article:

The IIIT network was set up in the 1980s largely by onetime Brotherhood sympathizers with money from wealthy Saudis, Muslim activists said. A number of its members ended their Brotherhood ties years ago after concluding it was too inflexible but still advocate some of its principles, the activists said. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12823-2004Sep10_4.html

Twenty two years later:

The Institute's Herndon, VA, headquarters, located at 555 Grove St., were subject of a March 20, 2002 raid, along with 19 other business and non-profit entities allegedly related to an umbrella corporation known as the SAAR Foundation, as part of a joint FBI-Customs Service program known as Operation Green Quest. No arrests were made, and neither the Institute, nor any of the other entities were shut down, but numerous documents, computers, and electronic storage were seized. In the aftermath, Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, with the help of Grover Norquist, arranged a meeting[3] with representatives of the Muslim-American community, including Talat M. Othman and Khaled Saffuri.

Ok. So, we know who they are – so, who’s Faruqi?

I think he is best known for attempting to synthesize aspects of Islam with Western culture. I have read him state that Christianity has more in common with Islam than with Judaism. Indeed, Judaism is a rudimentary religion that Christianity rebelled against, and Islam is a further refinement of Christianity. He could talk the talk because he had PhD’s in western philosophy and theology.

He was John Esposito’s mentor, he was very popular, he thought Zionism was a disease, a member of the Farooqi clan of Palestine , seemed a little Jesuitical, and was brutally murdered with a 15 in. survival knife in 1987, for no apparent reason.

The conviction yesterday of Joseph L. Young for the grisly murders of Dr. Isma'il Raji al-Faruqi and his wife, Lois, brought little solace to the former friends and colleagues of the slain couple. Nor did it allay uneasy feelings that, perhaps, there is more to the crime than the irrational act of one man.

Paper: Philadelphia Daily News (PA)

Title: FRIENDS OF SLAIN COUPLE UNEASY DESPITE VERDICT

Author: RON AVERY, Daily News Staff Writer

Date: July 11, 1987
It was in the wee hours of the morning a little more than a year ago that a man crept through the pantry window of the Cheltenham home of Islamic scholars Isma'il Raji and Lois al Faruqi and stabbed the couple to death with a 15- inch survival knife.

Anmar Zein, the couple's 27-year-old daughter, who was six months pregnant at the time, was stabbed six times in the arms and chest, but she and the baby survived. Left on a windowsill was a bloody surgical glove, the major piece of evidence in what was to be an intense seven-month investigation involving local and county police and the FBI. But the big break in the case was an anonymous tip - a phone call to a national hot line that led police to the cell of Joseph Louis Young, then an inmate at the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center .

TRIAL TO OPEN IN SLAY1NGS OF FARUQIS

By Bridget! M. Davis, Inquirer Staff Writer Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA); 804 words Published: 1987-06-28

Young was in the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center at the time of his arrest, awaiting sentencing in

the shooting of his ex-wife. He is still considered a suspect in the March 1982 slaying of Mohammad Aslam,

a former major in the Pakistani army, Philadelphia police said.

SUSPECT IN FARUQI SLAYINGS IS HELD FOR TRIAL

By Amy S. Rosenberg, Inquirer Staff Writer

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA); 486 words

Published: 1987-02-21

Joseph Louis Young stabbed Islamic scholars Isma'il and Lois al-Faruqi to death with a 15-inch knife in their Cheltenham Township home because he suspected them of having homosexual relationships with Malaysian students, according to a confession read at Young's trial yesterday.

In the first day of testimony in Montgomery County Court, Philadelphia Police Detective Carol Keenan read an eight-page, typewritten confession signed by Young when he was arrested Jan. 16.

According to his confession, Young, also known as YusufAli, killed the Faruqis because he "found out that Dr. Faruqi and his wife were having homosexual relations with the Malaysian students."

Defense attorney Stephen G. Heckman said that as a child, Young, 40, of North Philadelphia , had been
sexually molested by a man. Homosexuality is "a very degrading act for Muslims," Young said in the
confession.

Young's statement said he was prompted to commit the slayings by Ghulam Nabi Fai, acting president of the Muslim Student Association, a national organization. According to the statement, Young said he and Nabi Fai were "very close friends.... He never came right out and said it, but I knew he wished Dr. Faruqi and his wife were dead by the way he joked about him (Isma'il al-Faruqi) and called him Big Bubba."

DEFENDANT'S CONFESSION READ AT FARUQI TRIAL

By Bridgett M. Davis, Inquirer Staff Writer

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA); 1285 words

Published: 1987-07-08

Section: LOCAL | PageAOl | Edition: FINAL

John Esposito’s “mentor” was a big time player in the Muslim Brotherhood.

Maybe Faruqi was murdered by the Brotherhood. Why?

Were they pederasts?

Did his murder have anything to do with the acceleration of global jihad that occurred in the late 80’s?

Posted by: Abu Lahab at September 26, 2007 11:17 PM

John Esposito has called the murdered Al-Faruqi his "istadh" or "teacher." He has collaborated with, and calls a "friend," Azzam Tamimi, the well-known supporter of Hamas whose hysterical harangue of a crowd in London can, I think, be seen on-line. He describes Sami al-Arian, now serving a long sentence in a Federal prison for his active support, in this country, of terrorism. as a "friend" and, indeed, he hired Sami al-Arian's daughter to work at his "Center."

In World War II, anyone who had the kind of connections and "friends" among Nazis or Nazi sympathizers that Esposito does among the supporters of terrorist groups would have lost his job and likely been arrested for treasonous activities.

John Esposito, however, has not been stripped of his Saudi-supplied wealth and put behind bars for supporting the enemy. No, instead he has been invited by the Department of Homeland Security to address one of the meetings it has organized in New Jersey. One's worst suspicions about the DHS, and about who is doing what in our government, suspicions not allayed by reports from within the Pentagon about Muslim officers and aides swaggering about, or Pentagon officials who continue to be taken for "briefings" on Islam with John Esposito, appear to be justified. We will have to find those who are just as alarmed, but are capable --in Congress or the Executive branch -- of doing something about it. The Saudi lobby is very powerful; there is nothing else like it.

Posted by: Hugh at September 26, 2007 11:28 PM

From Hugh above:

We will have to find those who are just as alarmed, but are capable --in Congress or the Executive branch -- of doing something about it. The Saudi lobby is very powerful; there is nothing else like it.

Amen to that. Thre are some heroes and heroines in the HR for example I am thinking of Virgil Goode and Sue Myrick. On the other hand there is Bush's myopic lovefest with the Saudis and Grover Norquist's network of Islamists apparently with Bush's blessing. Formidable handicaps.

The espionage rings of Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany were amateurs compared to these guys - they are swimming around the Beltway like smelt in Lake Michigan.

Posted by: Jimmy Bones at September 27, 2007 1:31 AM

Can someone clarify? Which entity is sponsoring this seminar?

There is the Federal Department of Homeland Security and there is the New Jersey Department of Homeland Security. Which one of these is sponsoring this seminar?

Posted by: USorThem at September 27, 2007 8:18 AM

Here is a new twist on Islamist infiltration: the Muslim (American) Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, who helped elect Senator Webb and defeat George Allen in 2006 under the auspices of the Muslim American Society:

http://www.investigativeproject.org/article/484

Mahdi Bray's arrogant quotations in this article are chilling. "...In getting young people to become politically active, Bray added, "In the years to com, you ain't seen nothing yet." ..."

This guy is as bad as Al Arian.

Evidently we are not all that far behind Europe in Islamitization. Next they will be in the Catholic seminaries!

Posted by: Jimmy Bones at September 27, 2007 8:34 AM

Hyman Roth, you wrote:

Anybody who attempts to put a burkha on my wife will die by her hands, regardless of race, gender, sexual preference, national origin, age, handicap, shoe size, or income level.

There you go!! It's not only fair; it's just plain common sense. I hope she has many, many friends who feel the same way.

I've been trying to get my friends who are liberal and/or atheist to realize that the Islamic threat isn't conservative propaganda or hysteria... that Sharia is more of a danger to liberals and atheists than to people who identify themselves as religious. It is work to try to convince people to look past irrational hatred of George Bush to see the real threat, but it well worth the effort. Being pacifistic about this will guarantee nothing but being a victim… and a lot of violence in our own streets sometime in the future. The more of a consensus we can get on the threat to freedom, the less chance there will be of anyone, ever, trying to put a burkha on your wife. (But keep up the target practice, just in case.)

Posted by: RalphInfidel at September 27, 2007 2:35 PM

I have strong reason to suspect that Prof. Esposito (whom I met many years ago when he was teaching at The College of The Holy Cross at Worcester, MA)and a colleague of his, Prof. John Voll (at the time, teaching at my alma mater, the University of New Hampshire), are the type of people who make fast friends with almost anyone who is an enemy of the United States of America. Both of those guys have been known, and I have seen it, to keep easy company with Leftists. And because the Left now has a tacit alliance of convenience with the Islamists, both Esposito and Voll have no problem with this. These New Left academics make me sick, because they have no problems in alliances with the resurgent, recrudescent Islamic jihad. After all, their original heroes, the socialist bloc, has since fallen, and now they pin their hopes on the new muscular bad boys of the planet. And if they can rake in some bucks along the way, well, all the better!

How do I have this privileged view of these men? I used to be a Leftist and met them personally at functions. Even struck up some conversations with them, as touching Third World insurgencies against the West.

It's one thing to be an ideologue of totalitarian inclinations. Quite another to be both an ideologue and a whore.

Posted by: FredIsinglass at September 27, 2007 5:02 PM

"There's no more harmful fool than a well educated fool. John Esposito fits this type perfectly."
-- from a posting above

No, he is not well-educated. Western art, Western literature, anything aside from his dilatory studies of a dull subject, enlivened however by the fun of assembling those propagandistic tools, especially the coffee-table books with the pictures of mosques, Iznik tiles, and turbaned Turks, the exotica that keeps the Infidel reader from asking too many questions, in his own mind, about the texts and tenets of Islam.

And he is not a fool. Karen Armstrong is a fool. John Esposito is venal, conscienceless, and making out like gangbusters. And here he started out at Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, with no particular talent, no particular anything, but a gift, apparently, of making rich Arabs, including the islamochristian Lebanese contractor who gave him his first big check and hence his first big break, and just look at him now. He has to pinch himself to make sure he isn't dreaming.

Venal and conscienceless: how else would you describe someone who calls Al-Faruqi his "ustadh" and both Azzam Tamimi and Sami al-Arian his "friends"? This is not mere stupidity. None dare call it treason? Well, those returns are not yet in. We'll see.

Posted by: Hugh at September 27, 2007 9:45 PM