• Why Jihad Watch?
  • About Robert Spencer and Staff Writers
  • FAQ
  • Books
  • Muhammad
  • Islam 101
  • Privacy

Jihad Watch

Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

Robert Spencer, PJM: Obama: Climate Change Causes Jihad

May 25, 2015 7:49 pm By Robert Spencer

OBAMA-STONED-NBCOver at PJ Media I discuss the recent appalling and fact-free statements by Obama:

State Department deputy spokesperson Marie Harf was widely ridiculed in February for saying of the Islamic State (ISIS):

We cannot win this war by killing them, we cannot kill our way out of this war. We need, in the longer term, medium and longer term, to go after the root causes that leads people to join these groups, whether it’s lack of opportunity for jobs.

On Wednesday, Barack Obama made it clear that Harf’s ridiculous analysis did not originate with her; rather, she was reflecting the company line. Said Obama:

Climate change constitutes a serious threat to global security, an immediate threat to our national security. It will impact how our military defends our country. We need to act and we need to act now. Denying it or refusing to deal with it endangers our national security. It undermines the readiness of our forces.

This was just a slightly more sophisticated restatement of Harf’s argument, for Obama went on to explain exactly how climate change threatened America’s national security:

I understand climate change did not cause the conflicts we see around the world, yet what we also know is that severe drought helped to create the instability in Nigeria that was exploited by the terrorist group Boko Haram.

And not just in Nigeria:

It’s now believed that drought and crop failures and high food prices helped fuel the early unrest in Syria, which descended into civil war in the heart of the Middle East.

Obama’s claims here are based on his fundamental assumption that poverty causes terrorism. Drought led to jihad in Nigeria, and drought, crop failures, and high food prices led to jihad in Syria. These claims are entirely in keeping with his steadfast refusal to acknowledge that jihad terror has anything to do with Islam.

He has to fill the vacuum created by his denial with something, and he has chosen what he (and Harf) no doubt believe is a nuanced and complex analysis: global warming causes poverty, poverty causes terrorism.

The problem with this is not simply that climate change is politically correct junk science in the service of authoritarianism and forcible income redistribution: Obama is wrong because poverty doesn’t really cause terrorism at all. The Economist reported in 2010:

Social scientists have collected a large amount of data on the socioeconomic background of terrorists. According to a 2008 survey of such studies by Alan Krueger of Princeton University, they have found little evidence that the typical terrorist is unusually poor or badly schooled.

In the same vein, CNS News noted in September 2013:

According to a Rand Corporation report on counterterrorism, prepared for the Office of the Secretary of Defense in 2009, “Terrorists are not particularly impoverished, uneducated, or afflicted by mental disease. Demographically, their most important characteristic is normalcy (within their environment). Terrorist leaders actually tend to come from relatively privileged backgrounds.” One of the authors of the RAND report, Darcy Noricks, also found that according to a number of academic studies, “Terrorists turn out to be more rather than less educated than the general population.”

The Times Online reported the following as far back as April 2005:

Three-quarters of the Al-Qaeda members were from upper middle-class homes and many were married with children; 60% were college educated, often in Europe or the United States.

There are innumerable examples of affluent Muslims becoming jihad terrorists. One was Maher “Mike” Hawash of Portland, Oregon, a well-regarded Intel executive who made $360,000 a year at the crest of a highly successful career. Around the year 2000, Hawash began to become more religious, growing his beard long, rejecting the nickname “Mike,” and attending the supremacist Islamic Center of Portland. Ultimately he served a seven-year prison term for conspiring to aid the Taliban….

Read the rest here.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Follow me on Facebook

Filed Under: Barack Obama, Featured, willful ignorance Tagged With: climate change, Marie Harf


Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Comments

  1. Champ says

    May 25, 2015 at 7:58 pm

    obama asleep at the helm, lol!! 😀

    • Joseph says

      May 25, 2015 at 8:14 pm

      @ Champ
      I thought that this was his “intelligent and sophisticated” look.

    • abad says

      May 25, 2015 at 8:49 pm

      Thought that was his retarded look LOLOL

      • Joseph says

        May 25, 2015 at 9:34 pm

        Maybe it is his drunken “baby wanna come home with me?” look.

    • Angemon says

      May 25, 2015 at 9:53 pm

      That photo must have been taken around 4:20 p.m. on April, 20

      If you catch my drift 😉

      • Angemon says

        May 25, 2015 at 9:55 pm

        And if you don’t catch my drift:

        http://cdn.ebaumsworld.com/mediaFiles/picture/274564/80818443.jpg

        • Joseph says

          May 25, 2015 at 10:13 pm

          C L A S S I C ! ! !

    • Shane says

      May 26, 2015 at 9:57 am

      If drought causes jihad, then why are not all the Muslims in CA rising up and killing their neighbors. Neither global warming nor poverty causes Muslims to engage in jihad, devotion to Islam and the desire to be like Muhammad causes Muslims to join in holy war against the infidels, apostates, and blasphemers.

      An Historical Critique of Islam’s Beginnings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd9lIuUjPs0

      • underbed cat says

        May 26, 2015 at 10:45 am

        In regards to the statement that global warming causes terrorism, my first thought was, finally a fib that no one will find credibly…well we can hope anyway.”What did he just say?”

      • Angemon says

        May 26, 2015 at 5:06 pm

        Jay Smith is a terrific, knowledgeable, captivating speaker, and well worth looking into if you’re learning about islam, regardless of your religious afiliation:

  2. Wellington says

    May 25, 2015 at 8:01 pm

    The West is drifting as of present and the West’s most powerful country, actually (and easily) the most powerful in the world, is now led by a complete fool. Aeschylus, Sophocles or Euripides probably couldn’t have come up with such a scenario, though I believe Aristophenes could have. After all, when most accurately trying to describe reality via literature, look not to the tragedians ordinarily but rather to the comics. In any case, how can anyone but fools by now doubt that America is led by a fool?

  3. William Lucas Harvey Jr. says

    May 25, 2015 at 8:13 pm

    “Obama: Climate Change Causes Jihad”.

    America’s very apparent Pro Islam, Pro Muslim, very seemingly Anti America, Anti Constitution, Anti Christian, and Anti Israel (through HIS OWN DOCUMENTED Words, Actions and Deeds), “Imperial” Potus, WILL Incessantly come up with EVERY EXCUSE in the Book, to BLAME EVERY Occurrence in the World on something else, to draw the attention away from the “Jihad” of HIS Islamist Muslim “Friends”, and protect HIS “Legacy”, which IS Rapidly going down the Tubes.

    • Bukkdem Jizheads says

      May 26, 2015 at 12:51 pm

      If that Global Warming get’s too bad, we can use some Nuclear Winter.

  4. celtic warriarcanada says

    May 25, 2015 at 8:26 pm

    Marie Harf Equals Justin Trudeau In Drag ! Justin Trudeau said the same thing in an Interview with Peter Mansbridge following the atrocity at the Boston Marathon before the Tsarneav Jihades were pursued . Ya heard one lefty , ya heard them all ? Well most of the time ! But then there’s Bill Maher !

    • Don McKellar says

      May 25, 2015 at 8:53 pm

      That’s because Bill Maher is a LIBERAL while retards like Justin Trudeau are LEFTISTS or, more correctly, LEFT-FASCISTS. There is an enormous difference between a liberal and and a leftist. It is actually quite easy to spot the difference: a liberal will speak out against Islam which is directly opposed to everything a liberal person stands for. A leftist will speak out for Islam, make excuses for it, without having any clue whatsoever about what they’re talking about, resorting to name calling and trying to shut down the conversation if they have to. A lot of this stems from the leftist’s racist view of the world, and they equate Islam with brown people, whom they view as a protected class because they are “minorities”. Of course, in the context of the actual world, this is not the case at all. The liberal = educated and intellectually honest. The leftist = willfully ignorant and intellectually dishonest.

      • Wellington says

        May 25, 2015 at 9:29 pm

        Your distinction between liberal and leftist is strained. Maher in most respects thinks exactly like leftists aplenty do. Just because he and some other leftists (not many to date) stumble into the truth at times does not validate your distinction between liberal and leftist. Modern liberals and modern leftists are essentially the same.

        The real difference is between old-style liberals, who are almost no more, and modern liberals. As Daniel Patrick Moynihan observed (and he was an old-style liberal in the mold of Truman and Attlee), the greatest failing of modern liberalism is its inability to properly identify evil and deal with it. Just because a few leftists here and there today still have enough sense to see the iniquity of Islam does not add up to distinguishing between leftists and liberals as you have done many times.

        • Don McKellar says

          May 26, 2015 at 1:05 am

          Hence Bill Maher’s series of talks on college campuses to encourage people to return to actual liberalism and liberal ideals. Something largely lost after the 1960’s drug-fueled counter culture revolution took over universities.

          In what way does Bill Maher “thinks exactly like leftists aplenty do”? Is it because he skewers the silliness and hypocrisy of religion that hurts your feelings and somehow makes him just like leftists in you mind? Is that what you’re getting at?

        • Wellington says

          May 26, 2015 at 11:17 am

          I grant you Bill Maher is not as bad as some fellow leftists but on matters of religion, distribution of the wealth, the military, demonization of conservatives and several other “topics,” he comes across as your typical modern liberal, which is to say a leftist. But put Maher aside and consider the larger matter I addressed which is that the great difference isn’t, as you have posited, between liberals and leftists, a distinction which I find to be a phantom one, but rather, as I already indicated, between old-fashion liberals and modern liberals, as Daniel Patrick Moynihan began to discern many decades ago.

  5. Bezelel says

    May 25, 2015 at 8:42 pm

    “Climate change(substitute-Hussein Obola) constitutes a serious threat to global security, an immediate threat to our national security. It will impact how our military defends our country. We need to act and we need to act now. Denying it or refusing to deal with it endangers our national security. It undermines the readiness of our forces.”
    And now it makes perfect sense.

  6. wildjew says

    May 25, 2015 at 8:53 pm

    Is Barack Obama loopy?

    • wildjew says

      May 25, 2015 at 8:55 pm

      Or, like William Lucas Harvey Jr indicates, is Obama a true believer?

    • Wellington says

      May 25, 2015 at 10:01 pm

      All leftists are loopy, wildjew. Only the degree of loopiness is a variable. As for Obama, I’d say he’s extra loopy though still not as loopy as some.

  7. Edward says

    May 25, 2015 at 9:43 pm

    “It undermines the readiness of our forces.” – POTUS

    What “forces” says he…..you notice how honest he is….knowingly telling us the truth.

    Yes we have the forces, but they are not ARMED. Yikes!

    This is what was written about America’s very dangerous situation Five Years ago by the:The Heritage Foundation (June 1, 2010) and now that condition is even worst.

    http://thf_media.s3.amazonaws.com/2010/pdf/AR10-06.pdf

    “A Treasonable Stance” and nobody has complained yet! All we hear are the; crickets…. et cetera, et cetera and et cetera……

    There’s something failsafe we can personally do…… by bending our knees to pray to our God of the 10 Commandments to erase the maligned mindsets of those here in America and those from foreign countries that want its demise! Amen

  8. somehistory says

    May 25, 2015 at 9:45 pm

    Then he must want jihad. He set the goal, years ago, to make fuel prices “skyrocket* by his “policies.”
    If the earth is heating up from *global warming* and people need more a/c to keep cool, and have to pay the *skyrocketing* prices….and the drought in CA…and his policies are making fuel prices skyrocket….
    If what he is saying is what he really believes (which he does not…he knows it is all lies), then he wants jihad by everyday Americans…esp those in CA where it gets hot every summer and where they are having a bad drought made worse by their state government policies. But then, the whole global warming thing is made-up and many…including obl…terrorists had/have a lot of money. Lies supported by pretend studies and junk theories.
    (Proverbs 6:16-19 says that God hates seven things and one of the things He hates is “a lying tongue.”)

  9. mortimer says

    May 25, 2015 at 9:47 pm

    The Ottomans used starvation to kill ethnic populations such as Armenians, Assyrians, Bulgarians, Thracians and Macedonians.

    The Syrians tried to starve out their ethnic Sunnite populations, but instead, ISIS grew out of their discontent and that of the former Baathites from Iraq.

    Hillary and Qatar and other Gulf states conspired to knock out Assad and build their pipeline through Iraq and Syria.

    The tribal hatreds behind the scenes is the true cause or causes, rather than climate change.

  10. thelmalou says

    May 25, 2015 at 9:50 pm

    Nigeria has one of the highest birthrates in the world (12th in 2014) and polygamy is allowed in much of that country. Does this seem like a country that is responding rationally to a food shortage? I also fail to see how kidnapping some innocent schoolgirl to add to one’s harem ameliorates any family’s economic situation.

    • Bukkdem Jizheads says

      May 26, 2015 at 12:42 pm

      We are on the same lonely wavelength re: polygamy fueling violence in Muslims. The extraneous males have been pillaging for woman since Satan established his killing machine of a “religion”. History of these atrocities has been very effectively erased by leaving no one remaining after they loot, pillage, burn and take away the young girls.

      From today’s Daily Mail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3097033/ISIS-burn-woman-alive-refusing-extreme-sex-act-reveals-official.html

      And a great cartoon by the Augusta Chronicle’s Rick McKee: http://chronicle.augusta.com/opinion/cartoons/2015-05-21/rick-mckee-editorial-cartoon-0

  11. Lee Hicks says

    May 25, 2015 at 10:07 pm

    The worst part of Obama’s false statements regarding Islam and Jihad is that he knows differently, and in willfully lying.

    Were it not for his background, I would chalk much up to basic ignorance and a naive outlook (both of which apply to many of his administration). However, regarding Obama, he is all-too-aware of what Islam is, and of the violent, brutal, and rage-inducing nature of Allah.

    Obama spent 5 years in Islamic schools, from ages 6-11, and was at the top of his class every year. In addition, his instructors described him as being “very religious”, which means that he was a practicing and knowledgable Muslim. Knowing this, the statements that he makes take on an entire new reality.

    He speaks of Islam as a religion of peace, knowing that the only “peace” that Allah will accept is that of subjugation or eradication of all non-Muslims. He speaks of the fiction of global warming as a cause for Jihad, knowing that the requirement for Jihad (whether it uses violence, politics, or cultural attacks) is a fundamental requirement of Allah, and that the Koran, Hadith and Sura are filled with statements to that effect.

    I believe him to be a committed Muslim, following the dictates of Allah in secret. In effect, he is using deception (Taqiyya) to promote his take on Jihad.

    There is one thing to know about Obama: He is a habitual and almost pathelogical liar, willing to say anything to further his own aims and his Jihad for Allah. One rule of thumb? Trust nothing that he says, for everything that he says and does are fueled by his own agenda, and nothing is out of bounds, from his perspective.

    • Judi says

      May 26, 2015 at 1:55 am

      Lee – you hit the nail on the head.

    • underbed cat says

      May 26, 2015 at 11:58 am

      I have come to the same conclusions Lee Hicks, you wrote about things I have also observed or learned. Besides his obvious muslim name, his youthful Islamic education he knows exactly what Islam and jihad are about but has the skills of a educated grifter and his skillful convictions nearly lull the most rational person. The information that would expose the agenda and deception are only found by reading articles written by those who follow his speeches and recognize his chosen audience, know about the agenda of the muslim organizations studied Islam’s writings and history. It is very huge problem when the media, (although it is now much more informed) clears the way. so his biggest future project will be to silence the accurate information by calling it “racist” or “hateful”….but as Pamela and Robert know free speech is under attack. Anyway I liked your comment…but I will also say that he knows when to back off a fib and retell it constantly shifting reality and announcing he is misunderstood. The military has suffered greatly and are put in impossible situations.

  12. Westman says

    May 25, 2015 at 10:14 pm

    There is a problem of correlating two trends without linking them by demonstable causation. The ME is the same hostile environment it has always been since the birth of Islam with the exception of improvements made by rich or technologically advanced industrious countries.

    If anything causes Muslim anger it is observing, through modern media and internet, that Allah did not bless them with the best of earth’s bounty and the most power, yet said it was their inheritance. There are only two solutions to that dischord, earn it, or take it.

    What we are witnessing is Islam’s handicapping of its adherents while blaming the results on non-Muslims. Winston Churchill saw the same improvident societies we see today; incapable of self rule and cooperative advancement.

    Islam created a style of poverty for which there is no sustainable solution. Pumping resources into Islam will only create a larger population of dependents and more Jihadists trying to take what is “theirs”.

    The Ideology of Islam is the cause of poverty and Jihadists in the poor Muslim countries.

  13. Edgar Allen says

    May 25, 2015 at 10:53 pm

    http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1915544,00.html

    The article above details the famine in Ethiopia from repeated droughts over the past many years.
    Ethopians (mostly Christians) don’t do terrorism. Their Muslim Somali neighbors surely do.
    What’s the difference between them? Islam.

  14. vlparker says

    May 25, 2015 at 11:11 pm

    If jihad is caused by global warming and, uh….., excuse me, I mean climate change and climate change is caused by increased CO2 in the atmosphere, and increased CO2 is caused by the Industrial Revolution, what caused Mo to go crazy in the early 600s, a thousand years before the Industrial Revolution?

    Since that elemental reasoning probably occurs to most third graders, or would if third graders were actually taught what and evil mass murderer Mo was, I wonder why it seems so elusive for politicians to grasp.

  15. marco says

    May 25, 2015 at 11:20 pm

    Climate changed caused obama!

  16. Dick Boas says

    May 26, 2015 at 1:08 am

    I don’t know who scares me more; the Muslim screwballs or the Washington screwballs.

  17. Matthieu Baudin says

    May 26, 2015 at 2:05 am

    That at least makes the whole task a lot simpler; Canadians, Russians, Scandinavians and the rest of you cold climate energy wasters will just have to put a few more rugs around your shoulders this winter and turn down the heaters in your homes, offices and factories. The crops of the worlds marginal lands will flourish and the global terrorist fraternity will again find kindness in their hearts, discover that others with differing beliefs are equal before god and leave the battlefields to spend time with their families and taste the fruits of peaceful coexistence.

  18. shoehorn of africa says

    May 26, 2015 at 5:54 am

    as I said on my fb:
    Climate Scientist Barack Obama blames Gobal Jihad on the weather.

  19. duh_swami says

    May 26, 2015 at 9:04 am

    ‘Climate jihad’…It’s hard to keep up with all these climate and rapid weather changes. Now the ‘weathermen’ on TV are talking about Texas style rains for California, starting late summer. I’m sure this will cause more jihad in Cal as the water will shut down businesses causing temporary poverty. Levee’s will break, rivers and streams will flood,with power outages. It will rival the great snow melt of 97, that had water 30 feet above normal flood stage in some major rivers…These are perfect conditions for poverty jihad. Then the pious can claim that infidels caused climate change and Allah fixed it. Maybe a little too well…

FacebookYoutubeTwitterLog in

Subscribe to the Jihad Watch Daily Digest

You will receive a daily mailing containing links to the stories posted at Jihad Watch in the last 24 hours.
Enter your email address to subscribe.

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up!
If you are forwarding to a friend, please remove the unsubscribe buttons first, as they my accidentally click it.

Subscribe to all Jihad Watch posts

You will receive immediate notification.
Enter your email address to subscribe.
Note: This may be up to 15 emails a day.

Donate to JihadWatch
FrontPage Mag

Search Site

Translate

The Team

Robert Spencer in FrontPageMag
Robert Spencer in PJ Media

Articles at Jihad Watch by
Robert Spencer
Hugh Fitzgerald
Christine Douglass-Williams
Andrew Harrod
Jamie Glazov
Daniel Greenfield

Contact Us

Terror Attacks Since 9/11

Archives

  • 2020
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2019
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2018
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2017
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2016
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2015
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2014
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2013
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2012
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2011
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2010
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2009
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2008
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2007
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2006
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2005
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2004
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2003
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • March

All Categories

You Might Like

Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Recent Comments

  • gravenimage on Erdogan: ‘Turks must defend the rights of Jerusalem, even with their lives’ for ‘the honor of the Islamic nation’
  • gravenimage on Erdogan: ‘Turks must defend the rights of Jerusalem, even with their lives’ for ‘the honor of the Islamic nation’
  • Walter Sieruk on Iranian Kurdistan: Muslim brothers behead their sister in honor killing over her romantic relationship
  • gravenimage on Uighur leader: ‘We’re actually quite worried’ about what Biden might let China get away with
  • James Lincoln on Iranian Kurdistan: Muslim brothers behead their sister in honor killing over her romantic relationship

Popular Categories

dhimmitude Sharia Jihad in the U.S ISIS / Islamic State / ISIL Iran Free Speech

Robert Spencer FaceBook Page

Robert Spencer Twitter

Robert Spencer twitter

Robert Spencer YouTube Channel

Books by Robert Spencer

Jihad Watch® is a registered trademark of Robert Spencer in the United States and/or other countries - Site Developed and Managed by Free Speech Defense

Content copyright Jihad Watch, Jihad Watch claims no credit for any images posted on this site unless otherwise noted. Images on this blog are copyright to their respective owners. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and you do not wish for it appear on this site, please E-mail with a link to said image and it will be promptly removed.

Our mailing address is: David Horowitz Freedom Center, P.O. Box 55089, Sherman Oaks, CA 91499-1964

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.