Instead of draining the swamp, this is taking a firehose or two and creating more wetlands.
“State Dept. Embraces Islamic Cleric Who OK’d Killing Americans in Iraq, Called for Israel’s Destruction,” by Patrick Poole, PJ Media, February 6, 2018:
Last Thursday, Sam Brownback was sworn in as the State Department’s new ambassador for religious liberty.
Today — in his first official speech as ambassador — Brownback openly embraced a hardline Islamic cleric who authorized a fatwa in 2004 justifying the killing of Americans in Iraq, and another fatwa in 2012 calling for the destruction of the state of Israel.
Sheikh Abdullah Bin Bayyah’s past is no mystery to the State Department. For example, the Obama administration’s State Department had to repeatedly apologize in May 2014 for promoting Bin Bayyah as a moderate. However, the Obama administration then implemented a full-court press with the U.S. media and the D.C. foreign policy “Smart Set” to rehabilitate the image of the Mauritanian cleric.
The presence of multiple senior Trump State Department officials at an “interfaith” event in Washington, D.C. in support of Bin Bayyah’s efforts appears to confirm there will be no change. The Trump administration is continuing the engagement with Bin Bayyah they inherited from Obama — despite the fact that Bin Bayyah’s views on Israel are directly contrary to those of President Trump.
There is also an inherent contradiction in the Trump State Department embracing the interfaith efforts of an Islamic cleric who openly states on his website that Christians are going to hell. Bin Bayyah has also said that interfaith outreach to Jews in Arab lands should only be done with extreme caution — and only with Jews who oppose Israel.
The State Department is promoting Brownback’s speech at Bin Bayyah’s event earlier today:
An Obama administration holdover, State Department Special Advisor for Religious Minorities Knox Thames, gushed his praise of Bin Bayyah during the cleric’s opening keynote last night:
The Obama administration’s attempts to rehabilitate Bin Bayyah were not without controversy. Most embarrassing for the Obama White House was Bin Bayyah’s approval of a 2004 fatwa authorizing the killing of Americans in Iraq and endorsing the Iraqi “resistance.” This information was raised in June 2013 after it was reported Bin Bayyah had been escorted into the White House to meet with senior members of Obama’s National Security Council….
Read the rest here.
Lynn says
The State Department is full of workers at all levels who support Islam. Apparently, President Trump just appointed another one. Too bad.
CRUSADER says
Which one?
Lydia Church says
The storm clouds are getting darker…
mgoldberg says
The President has a battle on his hands, and people forget just how entrenched the deep state is and what it portends. Just look at the memo this past weekend and see how dreadfully far it extends, and what they’re protecting themselves from. Not to sound conspiratorial but rather the muck and mire they’ve entrenched themselves in allows them to continue the appeasement of any muslim imam who will put on a smile and say a few comforting words for their cameras- even if they’ve been shown to be jihadists, as this one is as was and will be so many others.
And so Trump inherits these swamp dwelling appeasers… but, he’s no slouch, and he won’t simply make deals with them. Look what he’s done about Israel, and Iran, and wait, I think he’ll get rid of these weasels and their muslim stooge before too long.
StellaSaidSo says
+1
Eric jones says
Failure to drain the swamp is one of the areas of disappointment I have with Trump. I voted for him. Yet he leaves Obama, Bush and Clinton hold overs in sub cabinet post in every executive department.
How can trump complain about the swamp when he leaves it in place? If Trump continues to leave hold overs in place, then is Trump part of the swamp. I have the right to ask that question. Too much is at stake. If Trump will not keep his campaign promises then it is time to find someone who hold true to what Trump campaigned on. The needs of this nation bigger than Trump.
Eric
StellaSaidSo says
It took decades for the swamp to develop. To expect Trump to drain and dredge it in 12 months is unrealistic. There are literally thousands of Obama, Bush, and Clinton holdovers who occupy positions of influence in the machinery of gov’t. Trump’s task is massive, and there is no-one else who is willing to take it on. He deserves our support.
gravenimage says
True, Stella.
Carol says
While he has done some draining, he has also appointed some people in high positions that are part of the swamp. What was Sam Brownback thinking when he embraces a hard line Muslim cleric who has issued fatwas to kill Americans in Iraq, or has called for the destruction of Israel etc.? Do they think they will reform Sheikh Abdullah Bin Bayyah? It seems Trump is needs to get the memo. I do applaud most of what he is doing but every now and then, things in this administration get shaky.
StellaSaidSo says
Sometimes you have to send a thief to catch a thief.
I’m not saying that Trump gets it right every time, but he does play a long game.
Roderick MacUalraig says
You’re right. It’s easy to get discouraged. Keeping the faith is what we have to do.
Gjallarhornet says
Give me your battle tried moor,
Your hooded masses yearning to breathe fire,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, who will make us homeless, to me,
I extinguish my lamp, right beside the former golden door!
gravenimage says
+1
gravenimage says
State Department embraces Islamic cleric who OK’d killing Americans in Iraq, called for Israel’s destruction
…………………………
What the hell? Suicidal insanity.
Besides his issuing Fatwas on the murder of Americans and the destruction of Israel, here are some of his other ugly rulings:
He has ruled that all man-made laws are sinful, and only Shari’ah is valid. He has said that no Muslim can work for intelligence in a non-Muslim nation, because it will “naturally cause harm to his brothers”–i.e., he would have to oppose Jihad terror.
He wants all cartoons of the “prophet” banned. He is against freedom of speech and equal rights for women. He says that a husband has the right to prevent his wife from working. He has affired that women have to pray behind men. He issued a Fatwa saying that Christians belong in hell.
And yet, there are Westerners who fawn over this Muslim thug.
Bud says
Maybe Bin Bayyah was there to give an update on his tireless efforts to finally abolish slavery in his country, Mauritania, allowing that the ‘Prophet’ would never condone such a barbaric practice. Wait…I’m sorry…my bad…I was forgetting all of those verses from the Koran and the hadiths promoting slavery, as well as Mo’s owning slaves…and heck, didn’t Jonathan A.C. Brown, professor of Islamic Studies at Georgetown University, recently clarify all of that? (I’m guessing he was present at this State Department event.).
‘Professor’ Brown noted, regarding slavery and rape: “I don’t think it’s morally evil to own somebody,” and”[f]or most of human history, human beings have not thought of consent as the essential feature of morally correct sexual activity.” (Lecture delivered on Feb. 7th, 2017 at the International Institute of Islamic Thought in Herndon, VA, titled “Islam and the Problem of Slavery”).
Slavery, human trafficking of women and children, FGM — our State Department has NO interest in addressing these urgent, pressing issues of universal concern and outrage? Instead, it would laud someone such as Sheikh Bin Bayyah, who can give justification for all of these atrocities from the Koran and the hadiths?
mortimer says
Why would ibn Bayyah want to ABOLISH SLAVERY?
Slavery is NORATIVE ISLAM, rather than an aberration. Slavery is eternal in Islam. Muslim males are rewarded with 70,000 slaves in paradise as well as with 70 virgin SLAVE-BEING who do everything they are told.
Abdallah bin Mahfudh ibn Bayyah (born 1935) is a Mauritanian professor of Islamic studies at the King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
This man knows that SLAVERY IS PART OF ISLAM and the name ISLAM means submission. No one is as submitted as a slave.
LR says
“Abdallah bin Mahfudh ibn Bayyah (born 1935) is a Mauritanian professor of Islamic studies at the King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia”…
Born in ’35?…Sheesh…I suppose all we can do is hope he croaks soon…God, I hate these old fartheads stuck in the 7th century…..But, guess what’s worse…That people give them any power at all!
This old fart, like all the other one’s should be living in some hovel, with maybe ten idiotic people in his cult…Instead, he is promoted by idiots in our gov’t…
HE is not the problem….It’s ‘our own’ acknowledging idiots like him!..
Bud says
Was trying to be facetious, Mortimer. Of course, slavery is normative Islam. Wanted to highlight that the Sheikh is from Mauritania where slavery is still widely practiced and entrenched.
If I might mention, I always appreciate your well thought out and researched responses.
Thank you.
gravenimage says
True, Bud and Mortimer. Estimates are that a full 17% of people in Mautitania are slaves.
Matthieu Baudin says
This must be terribly disappointing for you all.
CRUSADER says
Here is something pertinent and germane:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-qcN2NY4PQ&t=2815s
Sharyl Attkisson talked about her book :
“The Smear: How Shady Political Operatives and Fake News Control What You See, What You Think, and How You Vote”
— in which she reports on how smear tactics are used to influence public opinion. Ms. Attkisson was interviewed by Erik Wemple.
Terry Gain says
Thank you Crusader. The invasion of Ms Atkinson’s security and privacy by Obama for daring to criticize him should be common knowledge and she should be a household name, but the media does not want the public to know the truth about Obama.
Thomas Kimball says
Walk softly and carry a big stick! Before everyone gets to upset about this try to remember that the Trump administration has beat the hell out of Isis and has placed travel restrictions on these animals! If you remember obama said stopping Isis was going to take multiple generations to defeat and Trump beat the hell out of them in less than a year! The silence about this from the lame stream media is deafening !
gravenimage says
Yes–we’ve made some definite gains in a year, and can’t allow ourselves to get frustrated.
Terry Gain says
Brownback has always struck me as a bit slow, so this is disappointing but not surprising. Draining the swamp is a massive project. It will require at the very least 2 Trump terms to be followed by 2 Pence terms.
MFritz says
“Religious liberty”… Next the State Department is funding research about tolerance in islamic countries. They hope to find prove of it within the next 20 to 30 years. Or was that 200 to 300 years? Well, something about a lot of zeros being completely wrong….
Guy Forester says
Based upon some rather interesting people that I have met, things that I have read that were first hand accounts, and what I have witnessed happening over my lifetime, I have concluded the following:
1. The State Department was filled with left leaning, career and non-career appointees a long time ago, especially during the FDR years.
2. The State Department (as have some other departments) has become a power unto itself as a result of generations of liberal/leftist/progressive (whatever you call them) employees and appointees running the show. Some of these civil servants cannot easily be removed unless they commit some very, very serious crime.
Based upon my observations, this news comes as no surprise to me. I think we will see much worse, as the PTB try to embarrass, frustrate, and evict DJT.
StellaSaidSo says
I agree, Guy Forester. Ever since the ‘progressive’ FDR appointed the communist Harry Hopkins as his chief advisor, State has been riddled with leftists.
LR says
Ah, wetlands are full of life, creatures, birds, etc., so are swamps. We were able to grow civilization because of them. (Tigris, Euphrates).
This is more like quicksand. People are so enamored of being ‘inclusive’, they willingly promote potential self/culture oblivion.
What if a Christian preacher were preaching these things. Normal people would have a fit, and he would be shunned. So, why is it ‘cool, when an Imam preaches this stuff?
Brownback needs to continue to be called out and pestered, reminding him he is fawning over someone who is very anti-American with his attitude against free speech. Letters highlighted in red would be a start.
LR says
Or, is it all just about votes?
FYI says
So who would be foolish enough to want to destroy Israel?
The Iranians:They appear to have no wise men in their shite country:any attempt to destroy Israel is an attack on God’s Holy Land.
Since Muslims follow allah(who is NOT the Biblical God of Moses)they don’t get this at all.A declaration of War on the God of Israel will not end well for any nation stupid enough to pick a fight with the actual God.
Anyone dumb enough to want to attack The Holy Land [=Israel}is very definitely an enemy of God and God has kindly given numerous prophecies in the OT explaining that He{Personally,not the Israelis..} will bring catastrophe on the enemies of Israel.
{Zechariah etc}
Just think for a moment about the utter idiocy of attacking the Holy Land:Only the shite Iranians and muslim supremacists would be so blind and stupid as to fail to see that in doing so,that makes them and their allah the ENEMY of the True Biblical God{Of Moses,of Israel}
God has kindly explained the future history of Israel….
The book of Joel Chapter 3
Israel’s future survival is guaranteed.
{The survival of the enemies of Israel is NOT guaranteed}
bodega says
“What if a Christian preacher were preaching these things. Normal people would have a fit, and he would be shunned. So, why is it ‘cool, when an Imam preaches this stuff?”
Is someone intentionally sidetracking Trump and not giving him information he needs to know? I thought Ivanka was a little too close to Trudeau when they “visited”. I hope to heaven Trump does NOT think Brownback is on ‘his’ side. Brownback should be fired tout suit.
We must not keep putting Muslims in positions of religious or political power . We should stop this crap of inclusiveness with the minions of Islam. That is the path to failure and loss of this country and its unique form of governnance. I know Trump is smart enough to underrstand this Is Ivanka?
UNCLE VLADDI says
It’s habitual government treason: To go along to get along + There’s no money in solutions!
Whee.
J D S says
Time to “swear out” any State Department people who are following Obama’s policies concerning Inter Faith operations.. One just can’t
keep doing the same old things when it comes to our country..
Any Muslim who is against America and the Jews has no business being “approved” by our State Dept. Don’t the State Dept. represent America and the President? “Rotting meat in the smoke house”
Johan Elzinga says
Flabberghasted!! I must have missed something. When exactly did ISIS take over the US?
Should Europe be preparing to free your country and return the favor?
Hogdude says
What’s wrong with this headline? Everything.
Ray Jarman says
This is why I was so hoping that Bolton would have been chosen as SECSTATE. He is one of the few who knows just how to clean the anti-Semitic slime from the sixth floor at Foggy Bottom. I worked at State for more than twenty years and I have seen and had to listen to the islamist apologists condemn the state of Israel. It is also the most far left organization other than maybe the EPA in the federal government. These people openly defied many of President Bush’s policies and unfortunately Secretary Tillerson does not seem to understand the deep rooted attitudes there.