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HISTORY

‘Islam: The Essays,’ Bruce Bawer’s Magnum Opus on ‘The Religion of Peace’ By Thom Nickels

https://pjmedia.com/trending/islam-the-essays-bruce-bawers-magnum-opus-on-the-religion-of-peace/

It is perhaps fitting that on the day I was to begin my review of Bruce Bawer’s magnum opus on Islam, Islam: the Essays, that Facebook would send me a notice stating that my “Free Tommy Robinson Philadelphia” page had been deleted because of “hate speech.” My Robinson page criticized Islam as an ideology but it did not attack individual Muslims at all. Still, why should I have been surprised at the censorship? We’re living in a new world where criticizing a group — in this case, Islam — is tantamount to the worst obscenity. For me it was an epiphanous moment that brought Bawer’s new book of essays to life. It also got me thinking about other brave writers who aren’t afraid to tell the truth about Islam: Oriana Fallaci in The Rage and The Pride; Pat Buchanan; and James V. Schall, S.J., whose little book, On Islam, published by Ignatius Press, was released last year.

“The first is that the West insists on seeing Islam through the lenses of its own modern, liberal theories about religion, freedom, and human motivation. Islam is just another religion; we are told that it acts like other religions, even when it does not,” Schall writes.

Salman Rushdie, author of Satanic Verses, which got the Ayatollah Khomeini to put a fatwa on his head in 1989, not long ago told France’s L’Express, “We are living in the darkest time I have ever known. I’ve since had the feeling that, if the attacks against Satanic Verses had taken place today, these people would not have defended me, and would have used the same arguments against me, accusing me of insulting an ethnic and cultural minority.”

Anti-Zionism Is Koranic Jew-Hatred: Sunni Islam’s Pope Has Proudly Affirmed This Andrew Bostom

https://pjmedia.com/trending/anti-zionism-is-koranic-jew-hatred-sunni-islams-pope-has-proudly-affirmed-this/

Perusing the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) conference schedule for this week, I noticed a session entitled, “Why Anti-Zionism is a Form of Anti-Semitism and a Threat to National Security.” Unfortunately, this rather glaring truth remains obfuscated by many as a socially and politically acceptable form of Jew-hatred, hence the panel.

Ironically, purveyor of the most virulent and widespread global Jew-hatred—authoritative, institutional Islam—is quite candid that Zionists/Zionism, are to be equated with Jews/Judaism. None other than the Papal equivalent of Sunni Islam’s Vatican, Ahmed al-Tayeb, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar University, has made these connections explicit, and moreover, rooted in the Koran’s central verse defining “Muslim-Jewish relations.”

During an interview which aired on Channel 1, Egyptian TV, October 25, 2013, al-Tayeb publicly reiterated Islam’s sacralized, Jew-hating bigotry, with deliberate and equal reference of Zionists/Zionism, and Jews/Judaism, to Koran 5:82. He gave a brief analysis of the ongoing relevance of Koran 5:82, which as the good Grand Imam put it, “explains Muslims’ relations with Jews,” and has been invoked—successfully—to inspire Muslim hatred of Jews since the advent of Islam.

A verse in the Koran explains the Muslims relations with Jews…This is an historical perspective, which has not changed to this day. See how we suffer today from global Zionism and Judaism…Since the inception of Islam 1400 years ago, we have been suffering from Jews and Zionistinterference in Muslim affairs. This is a cause of great distress for the Muslims. The Koran said it, and history has proven it: “You shall find the strongest among men in enmity to the believers {Muslims] to be the Jews…”

BERNIE POWER: ALLAH MADE ME DO IT-DIVINELY INSPIRED MURDER

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2019/02/allah-made-

Every human action, positive or negative, can ultimately be attributed to Allah, with the faithful believing a person’s eternal destiny is decreed forty days before that person is born. When a jihadi rampages, he sees himself having no more agency nor free will than the bloody knife in his hand.

A FEW days before Christmas in 2017, Saeed Noori, an Afghani refugee who came to Australia on a humanitarian visa in 2004, ploughed his mother’s car into a crowd on Flinders Street in Melbourne. As a result, sixteen pedestrians were injured and 83-year-old grandfather Antonio Crocaris later died in hospital. As he drove, Noori was shouting “Allah akbar” (Allah is great), according to the off-duty policeman who arrested him. In an interview with the police, he explained his action by saying “Allah made me do it.”

This same exclamation was used by Adel Amastaibou, a French-Moroccan, who stabbed Jewish disc jockey Sebastien Selam to death in Paris in 2003.[1] It was also the justification given by Gulchekhra Bobokulova, an Uzbek nanny, who decapitated a four-year-old girl left in her care in Moscow in 2016.[2]As Quadrant reported in its December, 2018, edition, foreign student Momena Shoma also invoked Allah’s alleged greatness as she repeatedly plunged a carving knife into the man who had taken her into his family home.

The Three Amigas by Gerald A. Honigman

You know, the duplicitous, taqiyya (deliberate lying for the cause)-spouting rock stars, Linda Sarsour, Ilhan Omar, Farakhan’s good gal pal, Rashida Tlaib, and members of their dhimmi cheer leading squad–like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. As a preliminary, you might want to first check out that “d-word” above http://dhimmitude.org/.

Years ago, there was a good comedy, The Three Amigos, starring Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Chevy Chase. Unlike the film, however, there’s no humor in what follows…

It’s become common, even popular–especially with younger generations having little historical perspective—for people to accept the one-sided vilification of Israel and Zionism (among other things, the national liberation movement of the Jewish people) often presented to them.

Truth turned on its head…

David is transformed into Goliath, Jews become the new Nazis, Hamas’ Gaza is the Jews’ Warsaw Ghetto, and Arabs (with almosttwo dozen states carved out of mostly non-Arab peoples’ lands) are now the allegedly new, “stateless” Jews.

Much of this can be traced to the higher indoctrination, not education, served on numerous “Progressive” campuses these days. Now, add to this many millions of dollars donated to support courses related to the Middle East (and even other seemingly non-related areas) by Arab oil potentates and international petro-connected businesses (ARAMCO, Bechtel Corporation, etc.) to fund scholars, programs, scholarships, travel, and so forth, and you can better understand why some subjects are not discussed and don’t appear on course reading lists, while others never seem to leave center stage.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY-FEBURARY 16, 2019

On this date in 1943, the following 3/4-page ad appeared in the New York Times:

FOR SALE TO HUMANITY
70,000 JEWS
GUARANTEED HUMAN BEINGS AT $50 APIECE

The ad was placed by the Committee for a Jewish Army of Stateless and
Palestinian Jews (CJA), a pressure group founded by Peter Bergson
(Hillel Kook), showman Billy Rose, and Hecht, among others, and was in
response to an offer that had been made to the Allies by upper-echelon
members of the Romanian government to assist in the transfer of some
70,000 Jews from their fascist state to Palestine or elsewhere.

CJA was denounced by mainstream Jewish organizations as alarmist,
unethical, and overly militant, but the campaign did prompt the
American Jewish Congress, with the backing of AFL-CIO unions, to
create a public protest at Madison Square Garden on March 1, demanding
American action to rescue the Jews.

Eight days later, also at Madison Square Garden, the CJA presented a pageant, “We Will Never Die,” with
a script by Ben Hecht, a score by Kurt Weil, direction by Moss Hart, and performers that included Paul Muni and Edward G. Robinson. The pageant was performed all over the U.S. and was viewed by Eleanor
Roosevelt, Supreme Court justices, and many other people of influence.
Still, no rescue plan was forthcoming from the State Department.

“The corpse of a people lies on the steps of civilization. Behold it.
Here it is! And no voice is heard to cry halt to the slaughter, no
government speaks to bid the murder of human millions end.” —Ben
Hecht, “We Will Never Die”

http://archive.jewishcurrents.org/february-16-for-sale-to-humanity/

When Will the World’s Largest Sunni Religious Institution Disavow Colonization? by Saied Shoaaib

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13538/al-azhar-islam-colonialism

It is difficult to find today Christian clergy proud of their colonial past. In contrast, many Muslims consider Islamic colonialism and imperialism sacred and part of their religion.
To be sure, the West has committed sins, but it has apologized for them. Meanwhile, Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayeb, the current Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, says that Islam and Muslims are completely innocent, and that the sole culprit is the West. His position totally ignores the Islamic colonial empire that occupied many countries, looting their wealth and committing massacres.
Sheikh Al-Tayeb not only failed to apologize for the atrocities listed above, but here are a few examples of what is being taught at the university he heads…

In Cairo, Egypt, in October, at an international symposium entitled, “Islam and the West: Diversity and Integration,” Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayeb — the current Grand Imam of Al-Azhar University, the world’s largest Sunni religious institution — pointed to Andalusia (Muslim-ruled Spain) as a model for the peaceful coexistence between Islam, Christianity and Judaism. It was a peculiar choice: Andalusia is not an example of cooperation; it is an example of the Arab colonization of Europe.

Those who occupied Andalusia were the Umayyad branch of the Quraysh tribe (the tribe of the Prophet Muhammad) from the Arabian Peninsula. They initiated the invasion; the Ottoman Turks followed to conquer European lands, including Bulgaria, Serbia, Macedonia, Greece, Montenegro, Croatia, Kosovo, Hungary, Albania, Georgia and the Balkans. They nearly occupied Paris and Vienna, as well.

During the symposium, Sheikh Al-Tayeb, who delivered the keynote address, said that his goal was to build bridges between Islam and the West.

Not Quite the Religion of PeaceBernie Power

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2019/02/not-quite-the-religion-of-peace/

When sentencing a pair of jihadis, a NSW judge observed that the Islamic community needs to work out if Koranic exortations to violence are to be taken seriously or not. Predictably, there followed immediate denials that anything needs to change or, indeed, could be changed. It seems Islamic leaders could use a refresher course in their creed’s most sacred text.

NSW Supreme Court Justice Des Fagan recently incurred the wrath of Muslim leaders for suggesting that Muslims need to disavow the “belligerent” verses in the Koran. Sentencing a young couple who had planned a terrorist attack, Fagan noted:

“Terrorists’ reliance on verses of the Koran to support an Islamic duty of religious violence has been seen with more or less clarity in a number of NSW and Victorian cases. If the verses upon which the terrorists rely are not binding commands of Allah, it is Muslims who would have to say so.”[1]

The Muslim reaction has been predictable. The Grand Mufti of Australia, Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohamed, insisted there only two verses of the Koran talk about pre-emptive fighting.[2] In a classic red-herring strategy, Australian Muslim Women’s Association president Ms Silmi Ihram weighed in: “There are very few verses in the Koran that can be twisted for violent purposes, there are a lot more in other scriptures.”

One wonders if these two have been reading the same book as their jihadist co-religionists.

Admittedly the Koran is a hard read. It is not in chronological order, nor is it organized by content or theme. The text jumps from one topic to another without notice or explanation. The absence of background markers is remarkable. There are no dates or times at all. Few places are identified: Mecca and Yathrib (the earlier name for Medina ‘the city’) are mentioned only once each. Muhammad’s name occurs only four times. The Koran is, overall, a chaotic jumble of a book without context. In the absence of a commentary or the hadith, it is difficult to make sense of it.

Austria Must Recognize Alevism as Distinct from Islam by Uzay Bulut

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13647/austria-alevis-religion

“Anyone who studies and researches our faith a little bit would understand that. Alevism is a distinct faith. Alevism has been affected by Christianity, as well. Does that make [it] a branch of Christianity? And Islam has been affected by Judaism. Is Islam a branch of Judaism?” — Zeynep Arslan, Vice-President of the Austrian Federation of Alevi Unions.

“Although the officials of the lands where we live have signed agreements of international law, they never implement what is required by the law. Our religious rights and freedoms are guaranteed by international law, but our places of worship, cem houses, are not recognized [by the government]; our taxes are collected without our consent to be used to pay the salaries of imams who reject or insult us… Alevi school children still have to enroll in compulsory Islamic courses, in spite of rulings by the European Court of Human Rights.” – Public statement by Alevi leaders in Turkey, in support of the Austrian Federation of Alevi Unions, January 3, 2019.

Alevis have been suffering from Islamic intolerance in their home country, Turkey, for a century. They are now struggling against rising Islamic supremacism in Europe. Let us hope that Austria’s high court does the right thing this week and accepts their petition to be recognized as a distinct faith.

The Austrian Supreme Administrative Court is set to issue a ruling on a petition by the Austrian Federation of Alevi Unions to have their religion officially recognized as separate from Islam — and not part of the updated version of the 1912 Islam Law, which went into effect in 2015. The new law recognizes two “Islamic religious societies” — the Islamic Community in Austria, which represents Islam’s Sunni sects, and the Islamic Alevi Community in Austria, which is defined as an “Islamic sect.”

Austrian Federation of Alevi Unions president, Özgür Turak, told Gatestone about the legal struggle for official recognition of Alevism as distinct from Islam:

“The 1912 law granted the ‘Islamic Community of Austria’ the right to teach courses at schools and to choose their own teachers, whose salaries would be paid by the state. In 2007, researchers discovered that the ‘Islamic Community’ teachers who came to Austria from abroad supported sharia law and opposed the European values of human rights and democracy. The Austrian public was outraged by this, and the Austrian Office of Religious Affairs took it upon itself to amend the country’s Islam law.

Robert Spencer “Scholar of Religions” Says Allah is “More Merciful” Than the God of the Bible The Western intelligentsia just can’t get enough of hating Western civilization.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272685/scholar-religions-says-allah-more-merciful-god-robert-spencer

The Western intelligentsia’s capacity for self-flagellation and self-hatred seems to be endless. Jack Miles, Religion News Service tell us, is “author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning ‘God: A Biography’ and a retired professor of religion at the University of California Irvine, now offers an erudite and highly readable close reading of Allah’s real nature.”

Miles’ “erudite” take on Allah is that the god of the Qur’an is “more merciful” and “more moral” than the God of the Bible. Miles is, of course, being feted and celebrated for this in all the right places by all the right people, those who know that teaching the people of Western Europe and North America to despise their own culture and heritage, and to love that of Islam, is a good and noble endeavor.

Miles’ claims, however, are completely wrong. In the first place, there is the evidence of present-day reality. There have been well over 30,000 jihad terror attacks worldwide since 9/11; virtually all of them carried out by Muslims acting upon Qur’anic dictates, many of them screaming “Allahu akbar.” There have been no terror attacks committed by Jews screaming the Shema or Christians screaming “Jesus is Lord.” No doubt Christians have behaved violently in the name of Christ throughout the history of Christianity, but in doing so they never invoked the violent passages of the Bible as justification for their acts.

Is Jerusalem a sacred Islamic City? There is a big difference between a city being sacred in the eyes of God and it being a sacred Islamic city. By Imam Tawhidi

https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Is-Jerusalem-a-sacred-Islamic-City-578560

Jerusalem is home to around 400,000 Muslims, but is it a sacred city according to Islam?

This is a question the majority of Muslims within the political and academic world try to avoid, simply because it opens a rather uncomfortable discussion. In fact, a Muslim asking such a question could face serious consequences; such as society doubting in his/her faith.Until 2014, I was an Islamist who abhorred Jewish people and was open to waging war against them. Today, however, I am friends with many Jewish faith leaders. This transition wasn’t political, it was rather theological. In brief, I started to question certain claims taught to me by my teachers and Muslim community. I began by asking myself the question, does Jerusalem really belong to Islam and Muslims?

To answer this vitally important question, we need to inquire how cities become sacred according to Islam.

Sacred cities in Islam
Throughout human history, every religion has been associated with an area that has been sanctified, respected and revered. Islam is no different. There are tens of sacred cities in Islam, such as Mecca, Medina, Qum, Karbala and Najaf – due to clear verses of the Koran acknowledging their glory or sayings of Prophet Mohammad assuring Muslims of their exaltation.