Daniel Benjamin argues in Politico that it’s a good thing that people are forgetting about terrorism, because the threat was exaggerated, to the extent that “inhabitants in the tiny towns and villages” of New Hampshire had “fears about imminent attack,” which he says is “a scenario of almost indescribable preposterousness.”
Is it, really? We have seen jihad attacks in Columbus, Ohio; Burlington, Washington; St. Cloud, Minnesota: Little Rock, Arkansas; Chattanooga, Tennessee; and other U.S. cities. Why is it “preposterous” that such an attack could take place in New Hampshire, or anywhere else in the U.S.?
Benjamin is confident that the jihad threat will be all over within a few decades at most. He manifests a total ignorance of the fourteen-hundred-year history of jihad, which I detail in my book The History of Jihad From Muhammad to ISIS. Unfortunately, it is people like Benjamin, with all their historical ignorance and acceptance of the smear propaganda term “Islamophobia,” who are firmly ensconced today among the political and media elites — which is one key reason why, 17 years after 9/11, there is still so much complacency regarding the nature and the magnitude of the jihad threat.
I hope Benjamin doesn’t come to regret this Politico piece. But I think it is likely that he will, as the jihad advances and places his blasé attitude regarding it in the harshest possible light.
“17 Years After 9/11, People Are Finally Forgetting About Terrorism,” by Daniel Benjamin, Politico, September 11, 2018:
Consider this sign of the times: In late August, U.S. officials expressed confidence they had finally killed Ibrahim al-Asiri, the most fabled Al Qaeda bombmaker of the post-9/11 period. Asiri was reported to have created undetectable bombs and experimented with implanting them inside operatives’ bodies. He had been involved in the near-miss of the “Underwear Bomber” in 2009 and had nearly succeeded in killing former Saudi counterterrorism chief Muhammad bin Nayef. Asiri had haunted the sleep of counterterrorism officials, including me, for years.
Yet his apparent death, which might once have been a Page 1 story, got scant coverage, with no news stories appearing in the New York Times or the Washington Post. In the lede of an op–ed he penned to note this “major counterterrorism success,” former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell wrote, “Amid all the controversies and scandals from Washington dominating our news cycle. … [Asiri’s death] did not get the attention it deserved.”
Of all the unexpected developments of Donald Trump’s presidency, surely one of the more unlikely ones has been the slow but steady ebbing of the nation’s profound, at times almost boundless, fixation on the threat of terrorism….
No wonder, then, that despite the absence of any event resembling 9/11 for all those years, the sense of peril could easily be inflamed by Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign—a year-and-a-half-long carnival of fearmongering and Islamophobia. Candidate Trump promised to shut the nation’s doors to Muslims and create a national registry of those in the country, disparaged Islam for being sick at heart, and vowed to wipe out terrorists everywhere and kill their families for good measure….
Though partisans on both sides of the aisle take the terrorist threat seriously, Republicans tend to rate it as substantially greater concern, typically by a margin of 20 or more percentage points. In New Hampshire, where I work, 2016 Republican presidential primary candidates such as Chris Christie and Marco Rubio spoke about their determination to allay the fears about imminent attack they heard from the inhabitants in the tiny towns and villages of the state—a scenario of almost indescribable preposterousness. All of this took place in an America where the chances of being killed by a foreign terrorist were infinitesimal….
None of this is to suggest that the terrorist threat is over and won’t come back. Although ISIS has been defeated in Iraq, many analysts believe the group still has plenty of fighters in the field who went to ground instead of trying to combat a vastly more powerful foe, and that the group will mount an offensive sometime soon. Terrorist groups thrive in conflict zones, and the continuing chaos in Yemen is a perfect setting for Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to grow its forces. The challenge of dealing with foreign fighters returning from Iraq and Syria continues to occupy governments around the world. While the level of terrorist violence globally has been declining for the past couple of years, it is nonetheless at a historically high level and isn’t likely to fall off sharply anytime in the foreseeable future.
And these are just the challenges of the moment. Jihadism will remain a potent force for years, and probably decades to come, for several reasons: With a few exceptions, especially among the oil monarchies, the Middle East and such Muslim majority countries as Pakistan remain in poor, sometimes disastrous shape. Economic stagnation is endemic, with job creation a shadow of what it should be. Most people in the region lack real political voice or representative institutions. In the West, especially in Europe, integration of Muslim minority communities is uneven at best, leaving many frustrated at their limited prospects. These big structural facts aren’t going to change quickly. The United States will need to continue investing in counterterrorism for a long time to come.
At the same time, it’s worth recognizing the America is well protected by excellent border controls, capable law enforcement and remarkable intelligence and military capabilities—as the targeting of Asiri underscores. With barely more than 100 people killed in the United States by jihadist operatives since 9/11, the record is a strong one that argues for taking this moment to revise our collective thinking about the terrorist threat. That is, the time has come to absorb the notion that jihadist terrorism is a fact of the contemporary world, that it can be managed but not eradicated and that we have developed excellent though not perfect tools for that task. That understanding, it seems to me, is the precondition for avoiding the kind of overreaction that helped lead us into Iraq and created near hysteria in 2014 when ISIS appeared on the scene….
Greg Murphy says
Bull fuckin’ shit!
Andy says
+1
Judge Jeanine: You’re the reason Trump is president, Obama
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeK-t3o_xu8
Flavius Claudius Iulianus says
“Watch: Saudi Arabia Arrests ‘Offensive’ Man Who Shared Breakfast with Co-Worker”
https://www.breitbart.com/jerusalem/2018/09/11/watch-saudi-arabia-arrests-offensive-man-who-shared-breakfast-with-co-worker/
Andy says
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAzlkC6tItU
Wisconsin College 9/11 Memorial Ban
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSOeYz5MYVM
Andy says
U.S. civil war: The globalist elites vs. the deplorables
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=335&v=xI6nI2l9C3E
Flavius Claudius Iulianus says
“Filming of staged chemical attack in Syrian Idlib begins – Russian MoD”
https://www.rt.com/news/438158-staged-chemical-attack-idlib/
christianblood says
Flavius Claudius Iulianus
The same jihadists that attacked US on 9/11 and murdered 3000 of its citizens are the same jihadists that the US and West are ready going to war to protect from defeat in Syria! You will never understand the true nature of these evil satanists! Watch the type of people the US and the West are giving billions of dollars and are ready to go to war to protect!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwQvinmry5U
christianblood says
Flavius Claudius Iulianus
I think Russia and Syria should offer to transport all the Al-Qaeda terrorists in Idlib to America, if the US is so worried about saving their lives. I think that would be a reasonable good deal!
US also worried about the imprisonment of islamic jihadists in China
and is threatening to sanction China unless these terrorists are freed in China! Read more of this below:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/10/world/asia/us-china-sanctions-muslim-camps.html
christianblood says
US and their close (Saudi=ISIS) allies are also in the first stages of preparation to eventually airlift hundreds of their islamic jihadist proxies defeated in Syria over to Myanmar so that they start a bloody jihadist wars against the government Myanmar and its majority Buddhist population! One wonders why is the satanic, pro-ISIS and Anti-Christ US and the West are ALWAYS backing, arming, funding and supporting islamic jihadists across the world???
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-28/rohingya-militant-group-warns-of-war-against-myanmar/8850406
christianblood says
Whether the US, UK, France, Sweden or others, the satanic, Anti-Christ and EVIL, immoral Western governments and the majority of their societies are always the same. They are deeply in love with islamic jihadists. It has just been reported today that the Dutch Government invested 25 million Euros supporting murderous Jihadist groups in Syria. Read more of this below:
https://www.defendevropa.org/2018/islam/dutch-government-invested-25-million-euros-supporting-jihadist-groups-syria/
Andy says
Super-rich Jim Carrey LOVES socialism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pf_K9Calpg
StellaSaidSo says
Indeed, Andy, the super-rich LOVE socialism – but only for us ordinary folks. THEY will continue to live like kings, and we serfs will exist in uniform poverty.
Andy says
+1
Flavius Claudius Iulianus says
“Salvini Hits Back at UN as New Human Rights Chief Orders Probe into Italy ‘Racism’”
https://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/09/11/salvini-un-human-rights-italy-racism/
Flavius Claudius Iulianus says
“China installing QR codes on Uighur Muslim homes as part of mass security crackdown”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/china-uighur-muslims-xinjiang-province-qr-codes-security-crackdown-hrw-a8532156.html
christianblood says
There are reports that US and Saudi Arabia are planning to transport thousands of their jihadist proxies like ISIS and Al-Qaeda from the ME and beyond to Xinjiang province in China so they start a bloody jihadist war against the Chinese government there. They know very little that the Chinese army will completely annihilate these US-backed jihadists as soon as their set foot in Xinjiang!
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/10/world/asia/us-china-sanctions-muslim-camps.html
gravenimage says
christianblood wrote:
There are reports that US and Saudi Arabia are planning to transport thousands of their jihadist proxies like ISIS and Al-Qaeda from the ME and beyond to Xinjiang province in China so they start a bloody jihadist war against the Chinese government there.
……………………..
christianblood has made this grotesque claim–now with the added reference to China–many times, that the US (and Israel) are behind Al-Qaeda and ISIS (I guess we did 9/11 against ourselves to throw off the scent…sarc/off).
He has never said where these “reports” come from. You can’t find these claims *anywhere* on line–not even at conspiracy sites–so one must assume these “reports” come from inside his own head.
And his pretending that the story at the New York Times confirm his ridiculous claims is obviously false.
J D S says
Leftist Socalist professors like the one above from Dartmouth are sprinkled…well poured out…throughout our universities and are filling our young people, who will be the future leaders in America, with this kind of garbage…that he is spouting….and the people who pay these professors salaries are just turning a deaf ear to what they are doing to our children.
StellaSaidSo says
‘…you can’t find these “reports” *anywhere* (sic) online…so one must assume that these “reports” come from inside his head…’
Not necessarily. Given the level of online censorship these days, I would not expect such a report to be easily found. The fact that I have no contradictory information on an issue does not mean that the other guy is imagining things.
Flavius Claudius Iulianus says
“[Far-Left Globalist] Bono uses ‘devil clown alter ego’ to mock Sweden with Nazi salutes during U2 concert after the country saw surge in support for anti-immigrant party in elections”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6154295/Swedish-election-Anti-immigrant-Sweden-Democrats-votes-party-male-voters.html
gravenimage says
Disgusting, Flavius.
Andy says
BONO THE BONEHEAD RACIST!
Bono Declares His Racist Hatred
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=220&v=TjIORAjYWng
StellaSaidSo says
Succinctly put, Sir!
christianblood says
17 years after 9/11 jihadist attacks carried out by 19 Arab jihadists, 15 of them Saudis, US leaders are still (literally) dancing with (Saudi=ISIS) head-choppers, shitting on the graves of 3000 Americans murdered on that day!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f35TUFmCtYY
Ray Sears says
DITTO !
Richard L Anthony says
Well… I live in NH but worked in Boston when the Boston Marathon attacks happened. I could see the action from my sixth story office building two blocks away. I walked out of the Boston Back Bay area because me and my co-workers didn’t want to take the T(Light Rail) for fear of a follow on attack. This guy is a jerk and works in the middle of nowhere (Northern NH…….)
gravenimage says
+1
Joe says
And he is stupid. He strongly implies that jihad is caused by poverty and ignorance. But the jihadists have a tendency to be richer and more educated which blows his theory out of the water.
FYI says
Definitely not a Professor of Logic then…
Perhaps more suited to being a professor of.. History for Supersensitive Snowflakes
{There’s a crying demand in many of our Leftie Liberal colleges for such virtue-signalling courses..}
Paul eliot says
He was a special instructor, never a professor.
Giacomo Latta says
”tiny towns and villages of the state”
What this knob doesn’t seem to realize is the new modus operandi of warmongers. They do not have to be physically present in the above locations. Thanks to the internet, warmongers can put hateful ideas into the heads of the bored, the nobodies, those with guns searching for a use for them, etc
Tom says
The professor is correct, at least on one point, that we have developed better intelligence and surveillance tools, which have resulted in MANY Islamic terror plans being thwarted before they could come to fruition.
He is totally incorrect in his assumption that the number of threats have diminished. They have been, and continue to be, an existential threat to the safety of Americans and Canadians, and it is only through diligent and prudent intelligence gathering and action that the number of attacks that the public hear of are so few.
Attempting to mimimize the threat of Islamic Jihad is extremely dangerous and builds complacency in the general population and when lone wolf attacks occur, such as have in both the US and Canada recently, it is much easier for the police, government, and the left wing MSM, to have the public think that it is not Jihad but simply “mental illness” that prompted the attack.
The thought process of these leftists leaves one speechless.
gravenimage says
In fact, the threat has *grown* since 9/11, as those 33,000+ Jihad terror attacks show.
Mary says
What rock is this guy living under? Has he not heard of all the attacks since 9/11?
gravenimage says
+1
eduardo odraude says
What an f-ing bunch of clueless morons inhabit the academy these days.
Moron, go here: https://www.thereligionofpeace.com/
Look at the jihad report just for the first week of September, it’s in a little box on the left side of the site. Then check out some of the 33K plus deadly attacks in the name of Islam that have been carried out around the world just since 9/11/2001. All documented at that link. Dartmouth dipsh**.
eduardo odraude says
To avoid misunderstanding, Mary, my comment was not directed at you, but at this Dartmouth dummy.
Westman says
The prof essentially said, “so 100 or so have died in terror attacks on the US since 9/11 – no big deal.” Must be a cousin of Sadiq Khan.
Maybe he’s forgetting because he has dementia and a rancid heart….
We have not forgotten and our flags are flying half-mast.
Lydia Church says
Just what I was going to say!
Ostriches think if they bury their heads and can’t see the trouble, it doesn’t exist.
Which is why…. there aren’t so many of them left around anymore!
SJ says
I have realized, although it took a few years- that people’s opinions should not be taken for their subjects that they may write about or talk about . They should be taken that people are fallible and just plain ignorant. I do not say this freely. This man is a perfect example of someone who SHOULD KNOW BETTER – BUT DOES NOT.
This man needs to face reality. Plain and simple these are the opinions from complete idiots that we should not take to heart and be able to not feel guilty for saying so.
Peter says
Yes, they should be forgetting about ‘terrorism,” a tactic or means to an end, and focused on the political end: the global Jihad and Islamic supremacism inherent to orthodox and fundamental Islam.
gravenimage says
Dartmouth prof: It’s good that 17 years after 9/11, people are finally forgetting about terrorism
………………………….
What a moron. I am glad to see that the 9/11 memorials have actually been well attended, including by the president. This was covered here in San Francisco on news radio.
More:
Daniel Benjamin argues in Politico that it’s a good thing that people are forgetting about terrorism, because the threat was exaggerated, to the extent that “inhabitants in the tiny towns and villages” of New Hampshire had “fears about imminent attack,” which he says is “a scenario of almost indescribable preposterousness.”
Is it, really? We have seen jihad attacks in Columbus, Ohio; Burlington, Washington; St. Cloud, Minnesota: Little Rock, Arkansas; Chattanooga, Tennessee; and other U.S. cities. Why is it “preposterous” that such an attack could take place in New Hampshire, or anywhere else in the U.S.?
………………………….
There have also been Jihad terror attacks in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Orlando, Florida, and Merced and San Bernardino, California. The ones in Orlando and San Bernardino were particularly horrifying. Yet, many in the US have no idea where these places are, and few outside the states have ever even heard of them.
It is the same in the rest of the world–I have heard about numerous Jihad terror attacks in France, Germany, and even the UK where I had to look the town up–and I am pretty knowledgeable about geography.
Yes–high profile spots in internationally famous cities–London, Paris, New York–will always be targets. But more and more, Jihadists are waging terror in small and comparatively obscure places, where security is low.
There may be security barriers and armed guards around the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Houses of Parliament in London, but there are no phalanxes of guards around places like the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando and the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino–or random train stations and street corners throughout the West, where more and more Jihad attacks are taking place.
If small valley towns in California and obscure villages in France are targets, why not New Hampshire? I wish these concerns *were* preposterous–but they are not.
Larry Singleton says
Woke up on the anniversary of 9/11 to find I was blocked on Fakebook and sentenced to their “30 days” gulag…..AGAIN!
Apparently I’m guilty of “anti-Muslim racism” or “hate speech”.
They’ve blocked the “let us know” feature in comments after I used it to alert as many Zuckerberg psychophants as possible that their master is a Self-hating Jewish Kapo.
So I mass mailed a letter in another venue “Help Center”:
Letter to Mark Zuckerberg and His Fellow Nazi Kapos 9-11-2018
Woke up on the anniversary of 9/11 and found this:
“This post goes against our Community Standards: Only you can see this post because it goes against our standards on hate speech: Letter to the Gilroy Unified School District 9-6-18”
Then this:
“You’re Temporarily Blocked From Posting. This temporary block will last 30 days, and you won’t be able to post on Facebook until it’s finished. If you post something that goes against our standards again, your account will be blocked for another 30 days. Please keep in mind that people who repeatedly post things that aren’t allowed on Facebook may have their accounts permanently disabled.”
Muslim/Islamic Jew hatred or “Islamic Antisemitism” is a FACT!
Muslims were kicking the Nazis ass to exterminate as many Jews as possible is a FACT!
Muslim/Islamic hatred of Jews is written in the Qur’an and Hadiths is a FACT!
That Muslims persecuted, murdered, enslaved and reduced Jews to second class “dhimmi” status for 1,400 years is an historical FACT! (Where are all the Jews in “Muslim lands”?)
That Mark Zuckerberg is a self-hating Jew and modern day Kapo who boasts about his “Jewish roots” and who aids & abets Jew murdering Muslims and “Palestinians” is a documented FACT!
That Mark Zuckerberg uses his “Community Standards” as his personal Thought Police and inflicts an almost sadistic “30 days” gulag on people and the Communist/Fascist “disappearing” them from family and “Friends” is a FACT!
That by blocking people for thirty days Mark Zuckerberg aids and abets those Islamic terrorists who murdered almost three thousand Americans on 9/11 is a FACT! (Read Michael Cutler’s articles at FrontPage Magazine)
That Mark Zuckerberg is a sadistic moral degenerate and “social” predator is a FACT!
That this “hate speech” is a construct of leftist-fascists to shut down FREE speech is a FACT!
To repeat: That Mark Zuckerberg is a modern day Kapo like the Jewish Kapos in Nazi concentration camps in Poland who brutally, sadistically and happily carried out the orders of their Nazi masters on their own people is a FACT!
That “Community Standards” is a psychological beat down of Fakebook users that creates the atmosphere of a constant state of FEAR, INTIMIDATION and PARANOIA about what to write and express freely is a FACT!
That Mark Zuckerberg is a seditious traitor who pisses on everything our U.S. Constitution stands for and what our Founding Fathers sacrificed and died for is a documented FACT!
That Mark Zuckerberg encourages a “community” of snitches to “report” the “hate speech” of anyone telling the least little truth about Islam or Muslims is a FACT!
That Mark Zuckerberg aids and abets, (and is probably directly responsible for), the Police State that is the United Kingdom/Britain where police agencies like the South Yorkshire Police department encourage citizens to “report non-crime hate incidents” like “offensive or insulting comments online, i.e. Fakebook, that is reporting their fellow citizens for Thought Crimes.
Cuba took a page out of the Communist playbook and set up offices in neighborhoods where citizens could go to report on their neighbors.
Zuckerberg’s “Community Standards” online definition, in the spirit of full disclosure, should include: “Don’t just suspect your neighbor. Turn him in”. (Read Humberto Fontova’s books and articles about Cuba, Fidel Castro and “Che” Guevara.
Larry Singleton says
Letter to the Gilroy Unified School District 9-6-18
Printed out an article I’ll read tomorrow in my “Morning Reading”:
FCDF Demands Emails from Bay-Area School District over “Great Partnerships” with Islamic Groups by the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund.
It mentions how yet another of our schools is submitting to a terrorist front group’s campaign of propaganda and intimidation and “lawfare”.
The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) is a a terrorist front group directly connected to Hamas. I’ll post some information below.
I’m going to submit a letter I just wrote to Campus Watch illustrating how our education system has been subverted and destroyed by leftists teachers, their teachers unions and other “social” predators.
Our “education” is now all about “social justice” and turning our kids into good “activists”. Our children in elementary schools are even given “textbooks” titled “A is for Activist”.
Even worse, these “Tranny” freaks and cross dressers are being allowed into our children’s classrooms!!!
This isn’t just an anomaly in our education system. It’s part of the CURRICULUM!!!!
And unbelievably and depressingly, it’s much, much worse than that.
Go read the utterly heart breaking articles at Campus Reform, Campus Watch and the series of articles on our universities at FrontPage Magazine. Particularly those articles exposing how the Islamic versions of the Hitler Youth, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and the Muslim Student Association (MSA) are spreading their Jew hatred and Nazi styled “BDS” or boycott against Jews propaganda throughout our “education” system…..with impunity.
I’m reminded of our society now where these Audio Terrorist thugs also operate with impunity in our society. In their “boomer cars” with the obscenely LOUD car stereos they have destroyed the quality of life and traditional peace and quiet of whole neighborhoods. You can thank the city council “leaders” and police who at one time surrounded me after I complained about these thugs at a city council meeting and proceeded to bully, intimidate and threaten me.
I was the only person who spoke out about “Islamic terrorism” at a city council meeting in San Bernardino after those husband and wife jihadis slaughtered 14 of their co-workers. Even before this meeting and before the bodies were cold both the city council and police crawled on their bellies to the terrorists mosque and our local rags The Riverside Press Enterprise and San Bernardino Sun trotted out the terrorist front group CAIR to shove their “Islamophobia” propaganda down our throats.
Our schools are now under the full control of those with Marxist ideologies who in turn are facilitating the indoctrination and brainwashing of our kids by radical Islamists.
But of course, this had already been going on for years.
Textbooks and history books have been rewritten to praise “Islam” to the skies and bash America. Particularly when it comes to “American colonialism” and “imperialism”.
Not taught is that Muslims practically wrote the book on imperialism and colonialism wiping out whole cultures and societies replacing them with “Islam”. And all you have to do to know this is to simply READ.
Larry Singleton says
Reading over this. Maybe I was blocked for the “Tranny freaks and cross dressers” comment.
Wellington says
I have a home in New Hampshire. So, this makes it more personal like when yet another egghead intellectual, teaching at the New Hampshire representative of the eight Ivy League schools, i.e., Dartmouth in the town of Hanover, Grafton County, reveals how foolish and uninformed he is. Oh yeah, too close for comfort.
Meanwhile, the 1400 year-old jihad against the world by the worst religion of all time continues. No end in sight. No end in sight either, it seems, of people who should know better by now but don’t.
And now I am going to relate a personal story.
Just this past Sunday, the 9th of September, I spoke to a politician running for the state legislature in New Hampshire. He is a Democrat. Our conversation was very civil but when I brought up the matter of Islam (after conveying to him that the Democratic Party seems increasingly to be going into Far Left world with such people as Cortez and Waters), letting him know what people like John Quincy Adams, Bertrand Russell and Winston Churchill thought of Islam, he admitted that he did not know that they thought of Islam as they did. I then asked him if he has ever read the Koran. He admitted that he had not. When I told him that over 60% of the Koran is either about waging war upon non-Muslims “until all religion is with Allah” {Sura 8:39} or despising non-Muslims (e.g., Suras 60:4 and 98:6), I could see that he was, to say the least, surprised by what I said. He admitted as much.
Then I asked him if he knew what the hadiths were. He did not know. So, I then proceeded to cite a few choice hadith passages such as Bukhari hadith 4.52.220 and 9.84.57, which, respectively, has Mohammed saying that “he has been made victorious with terror” and “those who leave the Islamic faith, kill them.” When I told this person that every major school of Islamic theology, Sunni and Shiite, still upholds death for apostasy (as evidenced by the Koran itself in Sura 4:89) and this completely runs counter to the freedom of religion provision of the First Amendment to the American Constitution, he agreed with me.
Well, by this time I could see the glaze in the eyes of someone ignorant of Islam who has just been provided several examples of just how awful Islam really is and just can’t digest it all. He did stumble to say something to the effect that Christians have also done bad things but I immediately countered by pointing out that when Christians did kill in the name of their faith they were violating the tenets of their creed, contra Muslims big time. After all, 109 passages in the Koran calling upon Muslims to wage war upon non-believers in order to spread Islam versus 0 passages in the New Testament calling upon Christians to wage war upon non-believers in order to spread Christianity is, to put it mildly, a very striking contrast.
We left on friendly terms. He did tell me that he would get a copy of the Koran and read it. I don’t know if he will but I certainly hope he does because if one can stand to read the entire 114 chapters (Suras) of the Koran (immensely boring as it is), and assuming such a person is intelligent and not too inclined to moral relativistic thinking, then this alone can be a game-changer. I certainly hope it will be for this decent, but uninformed, candidate for political office that I spoke to just two days ago. Here concludes my “personal story.”
gravenimage says
Good for you, Wellington. Your knowledgeable and measured words may indeed have done some good here. At the very least, they gave him food for thought.
eduardo odraude says
Wellington, that is what everyone who thinks as you do needs to do — have a personal, polite, informed conversation with a politician. If it’s not possible to meet face to face, then by phone (not not not email).
Alarmed Pig Farmer says
Meanwhile, the 1400 year-old jihad against the world by the worst religion of all time continues. No end in sight. No end in sight either, it seems, of people who should know better by now but don’t.
The end won’t come into sight until the Infidels decide the problem is unsustainable and take direct action to remove Islam from civilized culture, which is to say Western Culture. Boy, you’re right. The idea of openly talking about the reality of Islam is unimaginable, that just won’t happen. To paraphrase Diana West, there’s a force field around the media places where content is set. I all ’em Fictive Realities, made up of separate bubbles of fictive and quarter-true realities, so called by so many people accept an untruth as true that the falsehood may as well be true, it’s widely accepted enough.
The other way the end will come into sight is, should it come to pass, the Moslems are in their penultimate stage before implementing Sharia Law here in the good old U.S. of A. Could happen, that’s more imaginable that publicly speaking the factual truth about Islam.
James Lincoln says
We all need to take Wellington’s lead and help to educate influential people – sometimes even one at a time.
johnjjj says
Excellent.
The willful ignorance about Islam is astounding. Also a lot of people are afraid and prefer not to know. “if we are nice to them, they will be nice to us”.
Wellington, you are a patient man.
Indiana Tom says
I spoke to a politician running for the state legislature in New Hampshire. He is a Democrat.
Talk to the wall, about the same level of intelligence.
StellaSaidSo says
Well done, Wellington.
I have had exactly this conversation (with minor variations) many times with politicians and other ‘community leaders’ during the past several years.
Without exception, they have been spectacularly uninformed about Islam. If they learned nothing else from our encounters, they at least understood, finally, that Islam does NOT mean ‘peace’.
I have met only one politician who has read the Koran. I have yet to meet a local councillor or govt official who has read it.
dumbledoresarmy says
Excellent!
Because a concerted pushback against hijra and jihad needs to become, in the end, an all-party thing; a simple *given*, something upon which all or most persons entering politics agree.
I doubt that you’d get politicians seriously arguing that there’s nothing wrong with the Mafia or the Camorra and that we ought to allow unlimited numbers of mafiosi and similar members of crime syndicates to enter and settle in the country and set up shop.
We need to reach that point with Islam: recognise that it’s a disaster, a menace, and that signed-up identifying members of that cult ought not to be let into the country, no matter what.
Kessler says
Oh dear…..
Terror in Muslim majority countries exist because of “poverty” and terror exist in the West due our “failed integration” – you complete, utter imbecile leftard
gravenimage says
Yes–absolute stupidity. Interesting that others in poverty around the world or immigrants trying to integrate in the West are not waging Jihad.
Alarmed Pig Farmer says
Daniel Benjamin argues in Politico that it’s a good thing that people are forgetting about terrorism…
That’s a stupid thing to say. Real stupid. Does the professor think 9/11 was a one-off, has he not noticed the ongoing mass murder of Infidels over the last 17 yrs?
But remember the 80/20 Rule when it comes to the Ivy League: 20% smart thinking educated people, 80% ignorant dumbasses. Take for example Barack Hussein’s musings on what caused the economic boom and what constitutes normalcy. Like Professor Benjamin, the former president is 80% all the way.
Put another way, having just plowed through Spencer’s latest book, it paid when the Infidels kept their attention on the threat of Islam. Especially in Byzantium. Take your eye off the ball and boom they come in, mass murder, and kidnap little girls and boys as sex slaves. Forget about that, professor. I know the former president has.
gravenimage says
The frightening thing is that Daniel Benjamin was the Coordinator for Counterterrorism at the United States Department of State from 2009 to 2012. He was–no surprise–appointed by Hillary Clinton.
He is not just some random academic spouting these inanities.
And he has–or claims to have–studied Islamic thought in depth.
He is coauthor of “The Age of Sacred Terror” (2002), which documents the rise of al Qaeda and religiously motivated terrorism, as well as America’s efforts to combat that threat. It reviews the history of Islamist political thought from ibn Taymiyya in the 13th century, to al-Wahhab (the 18th century founder of Wahabbism) down to bin Laden. The danger, as they see it, is that “al Qaeda’s belief system cannot be separated neatly from Islamic teachings, because it has — selectively and perniciously — built on fundamental Islamic ideas and principles.” The second half of the book outlines the West’s response.
They then wrote “The Next Attack: The Globalization of Jihad” (2005).
So how can he *not* understand that this is mainstream Islam, and is not going to go away, especially with more and more Muslims flooding into the West–including in places like New Hampshire?
Kilfincelt says
Let’s see, based on my calculations, we have had more than 5 Islamic terrorist attacks per day worldwide since 9/11 and this idiot thinks that it’s a good thing that people are forgetting about terrorist? This prof should never have been granted a bachelor’s degree let alone a PhD. He’s too stupid to be teaching anyone anything especially at an Ivy League school. Of course, most of the Ivy League schools, like many American colleges and universities, are full of left wing idiots who speak inanities because they are totally ignorant about Islam. Our educational system is a very sorry state because all these teachers are just too stupid to learn anything and kept comprehend the truth.
Kilfincelt says
I wrote my comment when I was very tired so here are some corrections: End of first sentence should read “about terrorism” not “about terrorist” and ” is in a very sorry state because all these teachers are just too stupid to learn anything and can’t comprehend the truth.” I should add that they are so used to learning propaganda from their profs and regurgitating it to their students that they are unable to think critically and, thus, can’t teach their students critical skills either.
Warmac9999 says
Obama imported these Muslim thugs and spread them around to towns and villages where they abuse and sometimes kill the villagers. Am betting New Hampshire has its quota of thugs.
kouldb says
The Zionist’s WOMD against Christianity — Islam. Is already backfiring. It’s just a matter of time before everyone is ‘woke’ to both of them. Which is why imbeciles like this will ultimately pay for their propaganda with their lives. History always repeats itself. They’ve flooded our nations with two of the most toxic & deadly ideologies known to humanity. And the only solution now is a mass cleansing of entire continents. Both Zionists & Muslims must be sent back to whence they originated. And that’s precisely what will happen. Mark my words. Deus vult!
gravenimage says
I see the foul kouldb is ranting about the Joooooooooos again. *Ugh*.
Ray Sears says
(+1)
JDow says
I suspect, being a modern professor, that he would not bother to find the good old Ali, Pickthall, and Shakir and discover that at least one of the translations used the word “terror” in some 30 different verses of the Qur’an. I guess it’s a very piecefull book about how to take pieces of your enemy until he gives up or dies.
{o.o}.
Sam says
Daniel Benjamin, how would define the ubiquitous stabbing , raping and honour killings in Europe? Is this mere crime? Is it perhaps not motivated by something other than criminal impulses? The fact that there are those with heightened awareness of the Muslim sense superiority and its inclination to do things differently than Westerners, do you call them negative because they would highlight the Muslim threat to society? There is a difference between Muslim violence, and, social and political violence or do you confound these two? Daniel Benjamin chooses to live in America and express himself there. My guess is that he would never live in the Dar-Al Islam. Yet, he avers to bring hordes of them to his homeland so that they can increasingly transplant their believes and culture there. Does America not hold that its influence culture is of a high standard? So, Benjamin why do you downgrade American way of life to something that is disrespectful to all of humanity?
Ann Marie says
I live in NH.. That man is an idiot. So he worked for Clinton’s “counter-terrorism’ division? Figures… Obviously he doesn’t remember the first attack on the Twin Towers in 1993, does he? He didn’t do that good a job, now, did he?
Benjamin knows nothing of Islam..Muslims will leave no stone un-turned in establishing their caliphate throughout the world. Small towns in New Hampshire will not be left alone.. They won’t use just violence to achieve their goal: changing local laws, changing school curriculum, enacting parts of Sharia law: that is all part of their agenda. And yes, that can be considered terrorism..
He is either ignorant or a willing fool complicit with the Islamists…
Another lib who thinks he knows all the answers.
duh swami says
” What??? Me worry’? This guy looks a lot like Alfred E Newman…” Don’t worry, be happy’,,,Meher Baba 1928…
Dave says
Boston is 2 hours from Dartmouth College and has multiple major attacks and many minor ones. Augusta Maine has experienced Somali unrest in the form of street attacks. Portland Maine has seen welfare fraud also from Somalis. To the North its also a short 2 hrs drive to Quebce which has also had multiple attacks. To the west in Vermont a 19 year old Muslim was arrested for attempted rape of a 12 year old girl in July: https://madworldnews.com/vermont-escapes-muslim-rapist/
So its the professor who isn’t aware of that the world around him is changing. The more immigrants and refugees then the more attacks… .
Bill says
Another leftist elitist academic sequestered in the hills of New Hampshire, comfortable in his liberal echo chamber and so far removed from reality, he cannot see the light of day.
Dave says
To the South of NH is Boston just a 2 hr drive from Dartmouth College and certainly Boston has experienced multiple major islamic attacks and many minor ones. To the East is Maine and the Federal Gov has settled Somali refugees there in Augusta. Recently there have been street confrontations from Somalis in Augusta. Lesser crimes like Welfare fraud committed by Somalis have occurred in Portland. To the West in Bernies Vermont a Muslim was arrested in July for attempted Rape of a 12 year old girl, https://madworldnews.com/vermont-escapes-muslim-rapist/. To the North, Quebec Canada a 2 hour drive has suffered under attacks in both Montreal and Quebec City.
So its the college Prof in his little Ivy Tower that can’t perceive that the world around him is changing. The more Islamic Hijra occurs the more related crime and attacks occur.
Norger says
He will regret these words. The good professor should do some research on some of the jihadist attacks that have been foiled over the last 17 years. There are many examples of “large scale” plots being stopped by law enforcement.
The motivation/inspiration for these plots won’t end, it’s rooted in Islamic theology. (What an ignorant fool!)
The jihadists only need to “succeed” once. The day is coming when a “lone wolf” or small group of jihadists unleashes a nuclear, chemical, biological or radiological attack in a major western city. It’s a question of when, not if.
Dave Mathews says
It’s the responsibility of the righteous to educate the wicked. Share this website with everyone you know. God bless Americans. Support the NRA. It’s not about hunting.
Stanny1 says
As usual, another professor living in the Ivy Tower of unreality. They live in isolation along with their belief systems. Intellectuals in a Fascist Islamic Society will be the first to go.
Jedothek says
We might also note that Benjamin’s credentials are the reverse of impressive. He was the principal advisor to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on counterterrorism.
Walter Sieruk says
After the seventeenth anniversary of that murderous jihad affront against humankind as well as vicious attacks against the United States which occurred on September 11, 2001 has come and gone it’s actually something that is still well worth remembering . So in spite of the “higher education” of that so called “scholarly professor” is a exposing t what an ignorant man he really is by saying such a fool statement. Does he feel then we should “forget all about it’ and then likewise let our guard down ? If that would be the case, then we would be just letting ourselves open for another murderous jihad attack. We should not listen to the foolishness of that ignorant man but instead heed the wisdom of two of America’s founding Fathers. This is because all those jihadist/Muslims who were al Qaeda operatives and who created such awful mass murder. For those malicious and murderous jihadists on 9/11 were not open to either logic of reason. Those jihadists of al Qaeda only possessed blind unquestioning faith in Islam with all its bogus promise o fa houris- filled paradise for them if they died fighting for the cause of Islam as “martyrs.” Which that evil and deluded madness Islamic mindset they had, they were dangerous to self and others by engaging in that 9/11 jihad suicide/homicide attacks . So concerning the subject of all al Qaeda, ISIS, and other likeminded Muslim suicide/homicide – bombers /attackers. They are so thoroughly brainwashed and deluded that they actually think of their murderous actions as “martyrdom operations.” This jihad evil and madness is based on the Koranic doctrine, 9:111. , of a far-fetched and nonsensical doctrine of a sex- filled paradise with many virgins, hours, in it for the use only the jihadist/Muslim male who dies as a “martyr” fighting for the cause of Islam. This weird religious/Islamic teaching is found contained the Koran in 44:56. .55:56. 78:31. This bizarre and odd, irrational Koranic doctrine is not open, to the jihadist, to inquiry, questioning. logic or reason. So this blind unreasoning kind of “faith” in the Koran is a reminder that Thomas Jefferson had written. “Man, once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without a rudder, is the sport of every wind. With such persons, gullibility, which they call faith, takes helm from the hand of reason and the mind becomes a wreck.” Likewise, Benjamin Franklin had printed in POOR RICHARD’S ALMANACK something which may apply to this topic. For Mr. Franklin had printed “The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.”
Walter Sieruk says
First , that collage professor in not only a very ignorant man ,he revealed by this by words of folly, but he must be a very callous man to come out with that heartless statement . He should tell the family members who lost loved one who were murdered in those 9/11 jihad attack to “Forget about it ” It might interesting to see the reaction of those surviving family members towards him if he would say the statement to them.
Second, we as Americans must not and should not forget about those murderous jihad affronts against humankind and vicious attack against United States which occurred on September 11, 2001 So we should therefore remember that for the United States to continue as a great power in the world in spite of the current threats of the Islamic terrorism by jihadist /Muslim terrorists who are operatives of ISIS, Al Qaeda and other jihadists of other similar jihad terror entities. Americans then should have Vigilance, Conviction and, of course, Fortitude. As one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, had declared “Let the eye of vigilance never be closed.” and “A conviction that we are right accomplishes half the difficulty of correcting wrong.” Likewise, Mr. Jefferson had also stated “Fortitude…teaches us to meet and surmount difficulties; not to fly from them.” So in other words we, as Americans, should have learned keep moving on strongly with Vigilance, Conviction and Fortitude.
Indiana Tom says
Daniel Benjamin argues in Politico that it’s a good thing that people are forgetting about terrorism…
Well the liberal institutions need to simply write 9-11 out of the history books.
Make it a non-event.