This popular post was first published here on May 9, 2011.

It is easier to believe a lie that one has heard a thousand times than to believe a fact that no one has heard before.

Revelations that rock the status quo are hard to take.  And sometimes people rather lie about the messenger than listen to truth. People didn’t want to hear the earth wasn’t flat, cigarettes weren’t healthy, or pro-wrestling was fake. I still don’t believe the last one! People don’t want to be challenged. And those who challenge are often gagged. That was true this week when the University of California Santa Barbara student council had to vote on allowing David Horowitz to speak on their campus.

Earlier this week the Associated Students Legislative Council of UCSB met to discuss giving student money so that Horowitz could give a speech. The College Republicans scheduled Horowitz as a guest speaker, and the school is supposedly obligated to help pay for security and technology needs to pull off the event.

Last Monday, the board denied any money for the speech. One problem: the board is not allowed to deny the funding simply because they find the speech offensive. On Wednesday, the Republican group went back to the board and asked for the minutes to be reopened and the issue to be reconsidered. The groups asked again for around $1500 to help put on the event. The council meeting lasted six hours as free speech was discussed and while Horowitz was made out to be the anti-Christ.

In the end the board would vote to give the College Republicans only about half the money needed.  Even worse, the all night session was a disturbing battle that consisted of a barrage of lies about Horowitz. Not only was his character questioned, but angry student Leftist groups did a hatchet job on Horowitz using a doctored Youtube tape. Both the board and one of the reporters covering the meeting fell for these lies.

During Public Forum…(they) played a YouTube video to the audience and Leg Council depicting Horowitz giving a speech filled with racial slurs and accusations at Brooklyn College December 2010…  In the video, Horowitz is heard to say the following statements such as “no other people have sunk themselves so low as the Palestinians” as well as “Arabs are racists, Jew haters, and can’t live peacefully with others.

I’m not sure why Amanda Garcia, the student author of this article, would misrepresent the Horowitz Youtube video this way.  Anyone can go watch it themselves and see how the video only shows clips of Horowitz out of context.  And anyone who watches it can see that Garcia has misquoted and misrepresented Horowitz’s statements in the video.  (Go see the video for yourself, or better yet, see the whole unedited video.  And for a serious rebuttal of the chopped up video, check out this blog which features pictures and video of the event.)

The Youtube video shown at UCSB gives only snippets of a speech (given this March – not last December) where Horowitz is discussing Palestinians who have acted out in terror against Israel and are demanding the removal or destruction of Jews.  It is specifically these people who Horowitz calls “racist, Jew haters” who have “sunk themselves so low morally” (Garcia removed the word morally when she quoted Horowitz).  Yet the Leftist students at the UCSB meeting (along with the Garcia article) portray Horowitz as saying all Arabs are racists and all Palestinians are the dregs of society.

The edited version of Horowitz’s speech was reportedly made by Philip Weiss, a known anti-Israel activist and Horowitz hater.  It appears student Sophia Armen, the person showing the Youtube propaganda piece, did not disclose that information.  In fact, Armen is the head of Human Rights Group at UCSB, which is a division of Human Rights Watch (a group known for being anti-Israel).  This isn’t Armen’s first dip into attempting to silence speakers.

Last year she helped lead a campus walk-out on Karl Rove and went so far as to call him a “war criminal” to the press.

Others at the meeting claimed Horowitz was hate-filled and dangerous.  One Muslim student (a member of the student council no less) proclaimed having Horowitz come to campus would make him feel unsafe, though he never detailed why.

As a marginalized individual, I feel my safety is somewhat threatened by bringing this individual to campus.  I don’t want to subject anyone else to the hate that I’ve experienced. – Ahmed Mostafa

The Left has learned that the best way to gag someone is call them racist.  But if that doesn’t work, the last straw is to say that someone’s speech will somehow endanger you physically.  It doesn’t matter that there are zero reports of someone harming people based on hearing Horowitz speak.  You say whatever lie works to keep people from listening to the truth.

Even though UCSB isn’t giving the College Republicans all the money that is due them for the Horowitz event, the good news is that the speech will still happen.  The next question will be how will the anti-Israel, Horowitz haters react when it’s time for the actual speech.  Will freedom win out or will there be more lies to try to silence truth?

They called it ugly man’s paradise. In parts of the Muslim world you will find unattractive and usually older foreign white men married to beautiful, young Muslim women. All they have to do to get the family’s approval is convert to Islam.  Now that may sound tough, but it’s easier than you think. The ugly Caucasian must merely make a declaration of faith which Muslims call the Shahada. In Indonesia, where I have traveled, the Shahada is often simply stating, “There is no God but Allah, and Mohammad is his prophet.”  Say it, pretend you mean it, and voila you are Muslim and can marry that young hotty in the hijab.

Most people don’t have a problem with some non-believing Euro-trash fake converting to Islam for marriage purposes. But when the marriage involves a real Christian and a Muslim (or two Christians where people believe one wants to convert to Islam), the picture changes. Suddenly you are talking fire bombing churches and Muslims killing Christians. Such a violent reaction took place this past weekend in Egypt, offering us yet another example of the error in thinking Mubarak was the only problem in that country.

The news coverage has varied, but we know that last Saturday Muslims attacked and firebombed two churches in Cairo, Egypt and at least twelve people were killed while hundreds were injured. Reports say that an ultraconservative Muslim group known as Salafists attacked one of the churches because they believed a Christian woman who was married to a Muslim man was being held hostage. The local Muslims believed (for some unknown reason) that the Christian woman decided to convert to Islam, so the Christians had kidnapped her to stop her from doing so.

No evidence has been offered by the Salafists to back up their story. It is common in many parts of the Muslim world for people to spread lies as a reason to kill more Christians. Anyone who follows such news has read how Muslims have accused Christians of burning Korans, saying offensive things about Mohammad (like he was a child rapist – oh wait, that’s true) or not wearing Muslim attire as reasons to burn buildings, beat or even kill women. Well, add mixed marriages to the list of excuses to act out in terror against non-Muslims.

A Washington Post editorial summarized this Islamic worldwide problem well:

Pressure on Christian minorities, violent and otherwise, has been a chronic feature of the Arab and Muslim political landscape in recent years. In Pakistan, gunmen murdered two high-profile opponents of laws that impose the death penalty for insulting Islam; one victim was a Christian, the other the son of a Muslim father and a Christian mother. Iraq was home to more than 1 million Christians before the 2003 U.S. invasion; roughly half have fled, largely because of radical Islamist attacks.

This Saturday’s attacks were fierce and frightening.

This is not the first time since Mubarak was booted that we have seen Islamic violence against Christians.  Just last March I reported on another church burning where Muslims killed Christians just outside of Cairo.  Witnesses claimed during that attack that the military did not help the Christians and may have even been part of the violence. Some have said the same thing about last week’s violence.

My son attends this church. How can we ever feel safe?  This is religious strife facilitated by the army and police. Let’s just face the truth. – Nashaat Boshra

Clearly the Left was wrong about what Egypt would be post-Mubarak. But there is another lesson the Left needs to learn: the spread of Sharia means the spread of at least a thread of ultraconservative Islamists who will find any reason to bring violence towards non-Muslims, especially Christians. Egypt is not alone in such activity. Find me one dominant Muslim nation where this activity doesn’t take place. They may be ugly man’s paradise, but for the rest of us, these places are just plain nightmares.

It is easier to believe a lie that one has heard a thousand times than to believe a fact that no one has heard before.

Revelations that rock the status quo are hard to take.  And sometimes people rather lie about the messenger than listen to truth. People didn’t want to hear the earth wasn’t flat, cigarettes weren’t healthy, or pro-wrestling was fake. I still don’t believe the last one! People don’t want to be challenged. And those who challenge are often gagged. That was true this week when the University of California Santa Barbara student council had to vote on allowing David Horowitz to speak on their campus.

Earlier this week the Associated Students Legislative Council of UCSB met to discuss giving student money so that Horowitz could give a speech. The College Republicans scheduled Horowitz as a guest speaker, and the school is supposedly obligated to help pay for security and technology needs to pull off the event.

Last Monday, the board denied any money for the speech. One problem: the board is not allowed to deny the funding simply because they find the speech offensive. On Wednesday, the Republican group went back to the board and asked for the minutes to be reopened and the issue to be reconsidered. The groups asked again for around $1500 to help put on the event. The council meeting lasted six hours as free speech was discussed and while Horowitz was made out to be the anti-Christ.

In the end the board would vote to give the College Republicans only about half the money needed.  Even worse, the all night session was a disturbing battle that consisted of a barrage of lies about Horowitz. Not only was his character questioned, but angry student Leftist groups did a hatchet job on Horowitz using a doctored Youtube tape. Both the board and one of the reporters covering the meeting fell for these lies.

During Public Forum…(they) played a YouTube video to the audience and Leg Council depicting Horowitz giving a speech filled with racial slurs and accusations at Brooklyn College December 2010…  In the video, Horowitz is heard to say the following statements such as “no other people have sunk themselves so low as the Palestinians” as well as “Arabs are racists, Jew haters, and can’t live peacefully with others.

I’m not sure why Amanda Garcia, the student author of this article, would misrepresent the Horowitz Youtube video this way.  Anyone can go watch it themselves and see how the video only shows clips of Horowitz out of context.  And anyone who watches it can see that Garcia has misquoted and misrepresented Horowitz’s statements in the video.  (Go see the video for yourself, or better yet, see the whole unedited video.  And for a serious rebuttal of the chopped up video, check out this blog which features pictures and video of the event.)

The Youtube video shown at UCSB gives only snippets of a speech (given this March – not last December) where Horowitz is discussing Palestinians who have acted out in terror against Israel and are demanding the removal or destruction of Jews.  It is specifically these people who Horowitz calls “racist, Jew haters” who have “sunk themselves so low morally” (Garcia removed the word morally when she quoted Horowitz).  Yet the Leftist students at the UCSB meeting (along with the Garcia article) portray Horowitz as saying all Arabs are racists and all Palestinians are the dregs of society.

The edited version of Horowitz’s speech was reportedly made by Philip Weiss, a known anti-Israel activist and Horowitz hater.  It appears student Sophia Armen, the person showing the Youtube propaganda piece, did not disclose that information.  In fact, Armen is the head of Human Rights Group at UCSB, which is a division of Human Rights Watch (a group known for being anti-Israel).  This isn’t Armen’s first dip into attempting to silence speakers.

Last year she helped lead a campus walk-out on Karl Rove and went so far as to call him a “war criminal” to the press.

Others at the meeting claimed Horowitz was hate-filled and dangerous.  One Muslim student (a member of the student council no less) proclaimed having Horowitz come to campus would make him feel unsafe, though he never detailed why.

As a marginalized individual, I feel my safety is somewhat threatened by bringing this individual to campus.  I don’t want to subject anyone else to the hate that I’ve experienced. – Ahmed Mostafa

The Left has learned that the best way to gag someone is call them racist.  But if that doesn’t work, the last straw is to say that someone’s speech will somehow endanger you physically.  It doesn’t matter that there are zero reports of someone harming people based on hearing Horowitz speak.  You say whatever lie works to keep people from listening to the truth.

Even though UCSB isn’t giving the College Republicans all the money that is due them for the Horowitz event, the good news is that the speech will still happen.  The next question will be how will the anti-Israel, Horowitz haters react when it’s time for the actual speech.  Will freedom win out or will there be more lies to try to silence truth?

This popular post was first published here on April 23, 2011.

Our mainstream media  and political leaders rolled the dice on Egypt and the Middle East by backing the overthrow of the Mubarak government.  They didn’t gamble with their own money though, they gambled with the lives of innocent people throughout the region.  Now their recklessness  has proven dangerous as the Muslim Brotherhood has finally admitted they are aiming to bring violent extremes of Sharia to the people of Egypt and a sure destruction to relations with Israel.

How many times were we told not to worry about Egypt?  How many times were we told that the Muslim Brotherhood wasn’t so bad?  How many times were we told we were watching a pro-democracy movement in Egypt that had nothing to do with the spread of radical Islam?  How many times were we told that Israel and America had nothing to fear by an Egyptian leadership change?  Well the mainstream media, the Left, and the like were all wrong.  They were dead wrong and now we know it.

The independent news source Al-Masry al-Youm reported last week that Muslim Brotherhood leaders have finally admitted to wanting Egyptian government to be based on Sharia law:

Mahmoud Ezzat, the Muslim Brotherhood’s deputy Supreme Guide, said in a forum held in the Cairo district of Imbaba on Thursday that the group wants to establish an Islamic state after it achieves widespread popularity through its Freedom and Justice Party. Meanwhile, Brotherhood leader Saad al-Husseiny, said at the forum that the group aims to apply Islamic legislation and establish Islamic rule.

The reaction by moderates and Coptic Christians is near panic.  Even some of them had been convinced or at least hoped that the Brotherhood had changed its ways.  With these recent revelations, Christian groups in Cairo are canceling Easter service invitations to Brotherhood members.  Abdel Maseeh Baseet, the pastor of the Church of Saint Marie in Mostorod, Egypt said we now know the true plans of the Brotherhood and it’s time for the rest of us to realize it:

This way of thinking is rejected both locally and internationally. The world is not ready for a Taliban-style state.

Maybe not surprisingly, but sadly, some on the Left continue to defend the Brotherhood regardless of recent revelations.  They are ignoring moderate and Coptic Egyptians and blaming America instead.

The Brotherhood is more likely to remain moderate if the U.S. takes what is perceived in Egypt as a reasonable stance on the Israel-Palestine question.  We push the Egyptian public toward fundamentalism with actions like our recent veto in the U.N. Security Council of a draft resolution that would have criticized Israel for its civilian settlements in the Palestinian territory… – John Quigley, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

So the Brotherhood, according to the Left, is actually moderate, but if they become radical it is because America has pushed them to it.  Why?  Because we have the audacity to support Israel.  Exactly how different are such views from Jeremiah Wright claiming that 9-11 was America’s chickens coming home to roost?  I guess when the true Left discovers they are wrong they just double down on anti-America and anti-Israel speech.

The Brotherhood’s deputy Supreme Guide Ezzat also said that “enforcement of Sharia punishments will need time and will only come after Islam is planted in every heart and masters the life of the people.”  Such comments should awaken all in the so-called liberal and progressive world to the real mindset of Islamists.  They don’t simply want freedom of religion.  Devout and committed Muslims want Islam to be “planted in every heart” and for us to accept our slavery to Allah.  (That goal is not limited to Egypt or the Middle East, that is the Islamists’ desire for the entire world – including America.)

The good news is that these statements by the Brotherhood are waking up some in Egypt who previously thought the organization should get at least some power in government.  If enough people find out about the Brotherhood’s comments then they may lose a chance at power (which is why the Brotherhood now claims the press misrepresented their comments).  Of course, the problem is that these statements are being ignored by much of the press.  So our media and leaders’ silence could actually help the Brotherhood take power and implement Sharia.

Brotherhood leadership could mean the destruction of Egypt’s relations with Israel and even the death of moderate voices in a once moderate Egypt.  So why doesn’t the media and government shout this news from the mountain tops?  Because they don’t want to  be shown for being wrong – even if it means being dead wrong.

I do career mentoring in my town with high school kids.  It’s kind of like Big Brother, Big Sister. A year ago I let my 16-year-old mentee, who had a driver’s permit, drive my car from the school to my house while I was in the passenger seat.  He was doing great until it was time to park in the garage.  As he pulled in he suddenly hit the gas and was head toward a wall that would lead into my living room.  Not wanting him to put a car through my house, I screamed for the kid to slam on the brakes and he did at the last possible second.  We avoided near disaster but the car had wicked damage along the side from him scraping up against an A/C unit in the garage.  That was the last day I let him drive my car.

I was dumb enough to let someone unskilled drive my car.  The Obama administration is insane enough to let someone unskilled drive a war in Libya. And the damage is getting worse and worse.  The latest wreck in the battle against Qaddafi involves airstrike last Saturday morning on a completely non-military target.

Early in the morning, thankfully before disabled children showed up for school at the Libyan Down Syndrome Society, NATO pilots sent missiles into the school building.  The attack destroyed a much-needed facility for disabled kids.  The founder of the school, and a parent of a disabled teenager were shocked.

I felt sad, really. I kept thinking, what are we going to do with these children?  This is not the place we left on Thursday afternoon.

NATO has not explained who their actual target was.  The Libyan government claims NATO planes were trying to hit Qaddafi who was doing a nearby interview at a television station that morning.

‘They maybe wanted to hit the television. This is a non-military, non-governmental building.’ -Mohammed al-Mehdi, head of the civil societies council.

Imagine what the press would have been if this building had been filled with children.  Around 60 kids could have been killed and everyone involved, including our government, would have held responsibility.  I can’t guarantee it, but I tend to think if U.S. military forces were allowed to take charge, this mistake would have never happened.

I know President Obama appears to be untouchable right now after killing Osama bin Laden, but Libya is still a serious problem that needs a serious change of policy.  We cannot be in a war but then refuse to lead it and refuse to even call it a war.  (Recently the administration rejected the word “war” for “kinetic military action”.)  We simply do not have all three of the familiar options of lead, follow, or get out of the way.  We either need to lead or get out of the way.  Following the lead of others gets schools for disabled children blown up.

The school is for kids up to age 6.  How can we say we are in Libya to protect citizens but supporting military action that almost killed 60 preschoolers with disabilities?  I understand collateral damage, but that is ridiculous.  If we aren’t in the driver seat on this thing, we need to jump out of the car and take the keys with us.

So far we’ve only scraped the side of the vehicle.  I’m afraid any day now the car is going right through the garage wall and into the living room.

This popular post was first published here on April 27, 2011.

I was in the middle of nowhere.  I found myself loaded up in an SUV with about 8 other American seminary students as we entered a village in the middle of some woods outside of Jakarta, Indonesia.  I tensed up as we passed a Muslim training facility where we were told they train children in two things: the Koran and terror.  The ethnic group in that part of Indonesia rejects all education but the Koran and radical Islam.

It makes their children ripe pickings for terrorist organizations.

That day was probably the scariest in my life. But I was more than just scared, I was also sad.  I was heartbroken that the children of that village and in that area were getting no education but the Koran. None of them even understood Arabic, but they could mindlessly read the Koran.  And the children grew up with radicals telling them what it means to truly follow God.

Most thoughtful people would have a similar reaction to the scene I witnessed. But not the political Left. They are so convinced of the beauty of the spread of Islam, that they are now applauding Koran-only education. I know we always thought progressives were pro liberal education, but that has now been proven wrong with the reaction by many on the Left to a new documentary film called “Koran by Heart.”

Esteemed documentary filmmaker Greg Baker premiered his film last week at the Tribeca Film Festival to standing ovations and joyful applause. The film follows young Muslim children in the annual 2009 International Holy Quran Festival held in Cairo, Egypt.  The competition pits 110 contestants ranging in age from 7 to 20 against each other in the ability to memorize all 600 pages of the Koran.

The movie reveals that most of these kids have devoted their lives to this memorization. Surprisingly, the pro-Muslim film doesn’t hide the fact that some of these children learn nothing else, and most of these children don’t understand any of the words they are reciting.  Salon.com, in a glowing review, points out:

One of our stars is a 10-year-old kid from Tajikistan named Nabiollah, an angelic, big-eyed moppet who can recite the entire Quran from memory in an astonishingly pure boyish soprano, with remarkable command of melody and intonation. He’s like the Justin Bieber of Quran recitation, and judges at the Cairo event seize on him as an amazing gift from Allah. But memorizing the Quran (in Arabic, which he does not otherwise speak or read) at a rural madrassa has nearly been Nabiollah’s entire education; he is functionally illiterate in Tajik, his own language.

How does the Left respond to clear anti-education?  They are a bit uncomfortable, but still manage to rise to their feet and applause this pro-Islam film.  In the conflict of education versus Islamic propaganda – Mohammad wins every time.

Salon.com summarzied the film this way:

It’s “Spellbound” plus a poetry slam. Plus Islamic fundamentalism…but if you’re open to the possibility that Islam in practice is an incredibly diverse spiritual and social movement that embraces 1.6 billion human beings and a lot of internal discussion and disagreement, and that the more we know about it the better, then “Koran by Heart” is a movie you’ve got to see.

This popular post was first published here on April 29, 2011.

In Turkey last week, police wanted to check to see how gullible their citizens were.  So they tested them by knocking on doors and screaming: “I’m a thief who has come to rob you. Now open your door.” The police were shocked to find that the vast majority of people actually opened their doors anyway. The police then warned the foolish people to be more cautious.

Ron Paul would have opened his door and invited the thief in. Paul wouldn’t have called the police, instead he’d invite the thief in to have a verbal battle over ideas. That’s basically what Ron Paul told Sean Hannity this Wednesday on Fox News. Except Paul said if he were President, and Sharia enforcers came knocking, he’d open the doors of America for a friendly debate over ideals. Opening your door to a thief is stupid and dangerous for one house. Opening America to Sharia is stupid and dangerous for an entire nation.

When Hannity asked Paul about the spread of Sharia in America, Paul initially downplayed the possibility but then said America is to blame if it happens. (Video here):

Hannity: Do you not agree there is a desire among Islamic extremists to have an Islamic Caliphate, Sharia Law and conquering the world?  ‘Cause that’s their stated goal. I mean that’s what they say they want.

Paul: I think it would mean this many (hold up fingers to show small amount) but because we’re over there their numbers grow. You have radicals in all religions. And if there is some way to incite them, their numbers will grow. So their numbers have grown, but they use us to do that…

So Ron Paul says Sharia won’t spread but then blames America if it does. I’m not sure if he realizes he is contradicting himself with such a response.  Not only that, but Paul sounds like the lunatic Left when he infers all religions have equal amounts of radicals in them who do equal harm to societies. But what other world religion has standard teachings that allow beating your wife, raping young girls you claim as your wives, death to homosexuals, and killing family members who convert to other faiths? These aren’t views of a small percentage of radicals, such views are proclaimed in the Koran and other parts of Sharia law. These ideals are widely held by devout Muslims in much of the Islamic world.

Later Hannity asked about the Ground Zero Mosque issue (video here):

Hannity: The Imam…wants America to be Sharia compliant. That is the antithesis of everything we believe in…

Paul:  But that’s not coming here. We have to defend our principles…That goes on in Saudia Arabia.

Hannity: Isn’t that opening the door for somebody who wants to overthrow America into a system that is contrary to our fundamental beliefs?

Paul: No, I think you are closing the door to what makes America great.

Again, Paul sounds like the blind Left in our country who ignore the clear spread of Sharia all throughout Europe and now making inroads in America.  He  purposefully closes his eyes to the facts on the growth of Sharia, and admits he is willing to open the door to it.

Not that a President Paul would want America to be an Islamic nation. Of course he doesn’t. But Paul thinks America should foolishly allow Sharia to slip in to our culture, so it can compete with more classic Judeo-Christian principles.

Does Sharia deserve an equal chance to take hold of America as our principles of liberty once had? Does freedom of religion mean equal opportunity for people to push laws that would kill homosexuals and allow the beating of wives?  Or is Sharia law so anti-American that we should immediately shut Sharia down anywhere it sticks out its ugly head? A President Ron Paul would say let it grow and spread but try to defend against it simply by putting forward American ideals.

I know Ron Paul is beloved by a passionate minority in the Republican party and by some independents. His views on the economy are strong and conservative for the most part. But if you have any regard for the safety of America, as we are being attacked on multiple fronts in this war on Terror, you have to realize a President Ron Paul would unwittingly harm America by opening doors to Sharia.

Let’s shut those doors – nail them shut even.  And if Ron Paul doesn’t change his tune, let’s shut the door on the idea of Ron Paul as our next president.

In Turkey last week, police wanted to check to see how gullible their citizens were.  So they tested them by knocking on doors and screaming: “I’m a thief who has come to rob you. Now open your door.” The police were shocked to find that the vast majority of people actually opened their doors anyway. The police then warned the foolish people to be more cautious.

Ron Paul would have opened his door and invited the thief in. Paul wouldn’t have called the police, instead he’d invite the thief in to have a verbal battle over ideas. That’s basically what Ron Paul told Sean Hannity this Wednesday on Fox News. Except Paul said if he were President, and Sharia enforcers came knocking, he’d open the doors of America for a friendly debate over ideals. Opening your door to a thief is stupid and dangerous for one house. Opening America to Sharia is stupid and dangerous for an entire nation.

When Hannity asked Paul about the spread of Sharia in America, Paul initially downplayed the possibility but then said America is to blame if it happens. (Video here):

Hannity: Do you not agree there is a desire among Islamic extremists to have an Islamic Caliphate, Sharia Law and conquering the world?  ‘Cause that’s their stated goal. I mean that’s what they say they want.

Paul: I think it would mean this many (hold up fingers to show small amount) but because we’re over there their numbers grow. You have radicals in all religions. And if there is some way to incite them, their numbers will grow. So their numbers have grown, but they use us to do that…

So Ron Paul says Sharia won’t spread but then blames America if it does. I’m not sure if he realizes he is contradicting himself with such a response.  Not only that, but Paul sounds like the lunatic Left when he infers all religions have equal amounts of radicals in them who do equal harm to societies. But what other world religion has standard teachings that allow beating your wife, raping young girls you claim as your wives, death to homosexuals, and killing family members who convert to other faiths? These aren’t views of a small percentage of radicals, such views are proclaimed in the Koran and other parts of Sharia law. These ideals are widely held by devout Muslims in much of the Islamic world.

Later Hannity asked about the Ground Zero Mosque issue (video here):

Hannity: The Imam…wants America to be Sharia compliant. That is the antithesis of everything we believe in…

Paul:  But that’s not coming here. We have to defend our principles…That goes on in Saudia Arabia.

Hannity: Isn’t that opening the door for somebody who wants to overthrow America into a system that is contrary to our fundamental beliefs?

Paul: No, I think you are closing the door to what makes America great.

Again, Paul sounds like the blind Left in our country who ignore the clear spread of Sharia all throughout Europe and now making inroads in America.  He  purposefully closes his eyes to the facts on the growth of Sharia, and admits he is willing to open the door to it.

Not that a President Paul would want America to be an Islamic nation. Of course he doesn’t. But Paul thinks America should foolishly allow Sharia to slip in to our culture, so it can compete with more classic Judeo-Christian principles.

Does Sharia deserve an equal chance to take hold of America as our principles of liberty once had? Does freedom of religion mean equal opportunity for people to push laws that would kill homosexuals and allow the beating of wives?  Or is Sharia law so anti-American that we should immediately shut Sharia down anywhere it sticks out its ugly head? A President Ron Paul would say let it grow and spread but try to defend against it simply by putting forward American ideals.

I know Ron Paul is beloved by a passionate minority in the Republican party and by some independents. His views on the economy are strong and conservative for the most part. But if you have any regard for the safety of America, as we are being attacked on multiple fronts in this war on Terror, you have to realize a President Ron Paul would unwittingly harm America by opening doors to Sharia.

Let’s shut those doors – nail them shut even.  And if Ron Paul doesn’t change his tune, let’s shut the door on the idea of Ron Paul as our next president.

I was in the middle of nowhere.  I found myself loaded up in an SUV with about 8 other American seminary students as we entered a village in the middle of some woods outside of Jakarta, Indonesia.  I tensed up as we passed a Muslim training facility where we were told they train children in two things: the Koran and terror.  The ethnic group in that part of Indonesia rejects all education but the Koran and radial Islam.

It makes their children ripe pickings for terrorist organizations.

That day was probably the scariest in my life. But I was more than just scared, I was also sad.  I was heartbroken that the children of that village and in that area were getting no education but the Koran. None of them even understood Arabic, but they could mindlessly read the Koran.  And the children grew up with radicals telling them what it means to truly follow God.

Most thoughtful people would have a similar reaction to the scene I witnessed. But not the political Left. They are so convinced of the beauty of the spread of Islam, that they are now applauding Koran-only education. I know we always thought progressives were pro liberal education, but that has now been proven wrong with the reaction by many on the Left to a new documentary film called “Koran by Heart.”

Esteemed documentary filmmaker Greg Baker premiered his film last week at the Tribeca Film Festival to standing ovations and joyful applause. The film follows young Muslim children in the annual 2009 International Holy Quran Festival held in Cairo, Egypt.  The competition pits 110 contestants ranging in age from 7 to 20 against each other in the ability to memorize all 600 pages of the Koran.

The movie reveals that most of these kids have devoted their lives to this memorization. Surprisingly, the pro-Muslim film doesn’t hide the fact that some of these children learn nothing else, and most of these children don’t understand any of the words they are reciting.  Salon.com, in a glowing review, points out:

One of our stars is a 10-year-old kid from Tajikistan named Nabiollah, an angelic, big-eyed moppet who can recite the entire Quran from memory in an astonishingly pure boyish soprano, with remarkable command of melody and intonation. He’s like the Justin Bieber of Quran recitation, and judges at the Cairo event seize on him as an amazing gift from Allah. But memorizing the Quran (in Arabic, which he does not otherwise speak or read) at a rural madrassa has nearly been Nabiollah’s entire education; he is functionally illiterate in Tajik, his own language.

How does the Left respond to clear anti-education?  They are a bit uncomfortable, but still manage to rise to their feet and applause this pro-Islam film.  In the conflict of education versus Islamic propaganda – Mohammad wins every time.

Salon.com summarzied the film this way:

It’s “Spellbound” plus a poetry slam. Plus Islamic fundamentalism…but if you’re open to the possibility that Islam in practice is an incredibly diverse spiritual and social movement that embraces 1.6 billion human beings and a lot of internal discussion and disagreement, and that the more we know about it the better, then “Koran by Heart” is a movie you’ve got to see.

Our mainstream media  and political leaders rolled the dice on Egypt and the Middle East by backing the overthrow of the Mubarak government.  They didn’t gamble with their own money though, they gambled with the lives of innocent people throughout the region.  Now their recklessness  has proven dangerous as the Muslim Brotherhood has finally admitted they are aiming to bring violent extremes of Sharia to the people of Egypt and a sure destruction to relations with Israel.

How many times were we told not to worry about Egypt?  How many times were we told that the Muslim Brotherhood wasn’t so bad?  How many times were we told we were watching a pro-democracy movement in Egypt that had nothing to do with the spread of radical Islam?  How many times were we told that Israel and America had nothing to fear by an Egyptian leadership change?  Well the mainstream media, the Left, and the like were all wrong.  They were dead wrong and now we know it.

The independent news source Al-Masry al-Youm reported last week that Muslim Brotherhood leaders have finally admitted to wanting Egyptian government to be based on Sharia law:

Mahmoud Ezzat, the Muslim Brotherhood’s deputy Supreme Guide, said in a forum held in the Cairo district of Imbaba on Thursday that the group wants to establish an Islamic state after it achieves widespread popularity through its Freedom and Justice Party. Meanwhile, Brotherhood leader Saad al-Husseiny, said at the forum that the group aims to apply Islamic legislation and establish Islamic rule.

The reaction by moderates and Coptic Christians is near panic.  Even some of them had been convinced or at least hoped that the Brotherhood had changed its ways.  With these recent revelations, Christian groups in Cairo are canceling Easter service invitations to Brotherhood members.  Abdel Maseeh Baseet, the pastor of the Church of Saint Marie in Mostorod, Egypt said we now know the true plans of the Brotherhood and it’s time for the rest of us to realize it:

This way of thinking is rejected both locally and internationally. The world is not ready for a Taliban-style state.

Maybe not surprisingly, but sadly, some on the Left continue to defend the Brotherhood regardless of recent revelations.  They are ignoring moderate and Coptic Egyptians and blaming America instead.

The Brotherhood is more likely to remain moderate if the U.S. takes what is perceived in Egypt as a reasonable stance on the Israel-Palestine question.  We push the Egyptian public toward fundamentalism with actions like our recent veto in the U.N. Security Council of a draft resolution that would have criticized Israel for its civilian settlements in the Palestinian territory… – John Quigley, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

So the Brotherhood, according to the Left, is actually moderate, but if they become radical it is because America has pushed them to it.  Why?  Because we have the audacity to support Israel.  Exactly how different are such views from Jeremiah Wright claiming that 9-11 was America’s chickens coming home to roost?  I guess when the true Left discovers they are wrong they just double down on anti-America and anti-Israel speech.

The Brotherhood’s deputy Supreme Guide Ezzat also said that “enforcement of Sharia punishments will need time and will only come after Islam is planted in every heart and masters the life of the people.”  Such comments should awaken all in the so-called liberal and progressive world to the real mindset of Islamists.  They don’t simply want freedom of religion.  Devout and committed Muslims want Islam to be “planted in every heart” and for us to accept our slavery to Allah.  (That goal is not limited to Egypt or the Middle East, that is the Islamists’ desire for the entire world – including America.)

The good news is that these statements by the Brotherhood are waking up some in Egypt who previously thought the organization should get at least some power in government.  If enough people find out about the Brotherhood’s comments then they may lose a chance at power (which is why the Brotherhood now claims the press misrepresented their comments).  Of course, the problem is that these statements are being ignored by much of the press.  So our media and leaders’ silence could actually help the Brotherhood take power and implement Sharia.

Brotherhood leadership could mean the destruction of Egypt’s relations with Israel and even the death of moderate voices in a once moderate Egypt.  So why doesn’t the media and government shout this news from the mountain tops?  Because they don’t want to  be shown for being wrong – even if it means being dead wrong.

Every speaker knows there will be critics.  Perhaps you’ve heard of the guy who gave his first speech in a public speaking class.  His teacher said, “The speech has three major problems.  1. You read your speech.  2. You didn’t read it well.  And number 3: It wasn’t worth reading.”

That teacher’s critique is probably similar to what most conservatives would say about President Obama’s deficit speech he gave on Wednesday afternoon.  But what about the Left?  Last week the Left came unglued when Obama made the 2011 budget deal with congressional Republicans that cut spending $38 billion.  They feared Obama was moving to the middle like Clinton did before his reelection campaign in 1996.

Obama’s speech relieved some of the fears of so-called liberals, but there was still a lot they weren’t happy about.

Before we hit the things the Left hated about the speech we should first admit there is one big thing in it that the tax and spenders loved:  Massive tax increases.

Rachel Maddow spoke for some on the Left when she kicked off her Wednesday show with gushing joy over Obama’s tax hikes on the wealthy.  Maddow’s past worrisome whining about Obama going moderate melted away into celebration that Obama will stay on the wealth redistribution course.  She ended her comments with guarded optimism by saying:

Today…if this is how Obama is gonna run for reelection…then, as a liberal, I am less worried then I was.

But aside from the tax increases, the angry Left did find many other problems with Obama’s speech.  Here are the five biggest ones that keep them worrying about Obama.

5. The debt fail-safe trigger is dumb.

One of the odder parts of Obama’s plan was his push for some unexplained fail-safe debt trigger.

Just to hold Washington – and me – accountable and make sure that the debt burden continues to decline, my plan includes a debt fail-safe. If, by 2014, our debt is not projected to fall as a share of the economy – or if Congress has failed to act – my plan will require us to come together and make up the additional savings with more spending cuts and more spending reductions in the tax code.

Basically Obama is saying I promise that if we don’t do what we promise now, we’ll make sure we do it in the future. Of course that means he’s kind of promising to do nothing.  The president has given himself an out.  Moreover, he can’t possibly hold future congresses accountable in 2014.  Hopefully he won’t even be president in 2014.

Some on the Left caught how empty and clueless this part of Obama’s plan was.

This debt failsafe is pretty silly…You can’t bind future Congresses. But the idea that you should is pretty stupid. You can’t talk about 2014 and forced spending cuts unless you know what the economy looks like in 2014. – David Dayden, firedoglake

Another blogger simply pointed out: “It’s all just so ridiculous.”

The Washington Post editorial staff found the debt-fail idea “intriguing” but then said,

the president threatens to undermine the effectiveness of his own trigger by exempting Medicare and Social Security from any cuts. The history of such enterprises suggests that the more holes are carved out, the less effective the trigger becomes.

Basically Obama threw out an idea only the uninformed believes has any real value.  It gives the facade that the President is holding himself accountable, which of course, he really isn’t.  At least a few on the Left were smart enough to call him out on it.

Number Four: Evil is going unchecked…

This may come as a shock to many of you, but when I was about 13 years old I became fascinated by Malcolm X.  I read every page of his autobiography that he wrote with Alex Haley.  I loved Spike Lee’s film with Denzel Washington’s stirring portrayal of the Nation of Islam leader.  I was ready to take some kind of action when I heard Malcolm’s speeches.  His favorite phrase, without a doubt, was “by any means necessary.”  It became the phrase of Black Power and the rest of the Left would later adopt it.

Actually the true King of “any means necessary” is Saul Alinksy.  Every effective leftist has devoted himself to Alinsky’s philosophy of doing whatever it takes to gain political power.  The media and so-called liberal blogosphere championed Alinskyite tactics to get Obama elected in 2008 and they are already getting started for reelection in 2012.

The Republicans are far from choosing their candidate to run against Obama for the presidency. But one of the consistent front runners in polling is former Governor Mike Huckabee.  Huckabee won Iowa in 2008 and was the last Republican primary contender to bow out before McCain took the party’s nomination. Huckabee has not only polled well among 2012 Republican Primary hopefuls, but he even ties or beats Obama in many recent polls.  That makes him a prime target of the Left.  He must be destroyed by any means necessary.

Leftist blogs exploded on Friday with reports of a recent Mike Huckabee speech where he supposedly promoted the idea that Americans should be indoctrinated at gun point.  One blog even went so far as to compare the former Arkansas governor to Pol Pot, the socialist Cambodian mass murderer.  Look at these shocking blog titles.

Firedoglake: “Your Republican Front Runner, Mike “Pol Pot” Huckabee”

Alternet: “Mike Huckabee Says He Wants Americans To Be Indoctrinated at Gunpoint”

Think Progress: “Mike Huckabee Wants Every American To Be ‘Forced At Gun Point’ To Learn From Radical Historian”

Huffington Post: “Huckabee: All Americans Should Be Forced at Gunpoint to Listen to David Barton”

What could Huckabee have said to garner such a widespread attack?  Well his real crime is polling well against Obama.  But the crime the Left wants to claim was a portion of a speech he gave this past week in Iowa at the Rediscover God in America conference.  Huckabee was introduced by David Barton, a man loved by Glenn Beck and others on the Right for introducing Americans to some of our nation’s Judeo-Christian roots.  Huckabee started his speech with a humorous compliment to Barton’s work.

“I just wish that every single young person in America would be able to be under his [Barton's] tutelage and understand something about who we really are as a nation. I almost wish that there would be like a simultaneous telecast and all Americans would be forced, forced — at gun point no less — to listen to every David Barton message. And I think our country would be better for it. I wish it’d happen.” – Huckabee

Now if you were a clueless individual and didn’t know an obvious joke when you hear it, that might be a scary statement.  However, anyone watching the video would know that Huckabee was making a joke.  He obviously does not want to hold anyone at gun point.  Yet lefty after lefty treated the statement like it was a declaration of future policy by Huckabee and a slam dunk on the man who could dethrone Obama.

“Did Mike Huckabee just flush his presidential aspirations down the proverbial toilet? Well, if American mainstream media has an ounce of journalistic gumption remaining the answer most certainly would be “yes”. Huckabee has just been caught on video, at a Christian supremacist conference, stating that Americans should be forcibly indoctrinated at gunpoint.” – Alternet

This attack on Huckabee is a warning shot to all Republican hopefuls (the Huffpo article threw Gingrich and Bachmann in with Huckabee in their attack).  If you come up against Obama, we will seek to destroy you by any means necessary.  We will turn your jokes into serious proclamations.  We will link conferences you speak at to supremacy groups without an ounce of proof.  We will even claim you are genocidal.

If the ends justifies the means there are no rules.  As 2012 approaches Americans need to be ready to do research.  You simply cannot depend on the mainstream media to report the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.  There is too much at stake for the Left to waste their time with honesty and factual reporting.

As a college student I started studying the Bible and got prideful about my Bible knowledge.  I once told a friend who had a Bible with commentary in it that I disagreed with that he should just throw his Bible in the trash.  That was a horrible thing to say, but now MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell thinks Glenn Beck and really all Christians should throw away their Bibles.  To O’Donnell, only a fool would take Glenn Beck and the Good Gook seriously.

O’Donnell, the broke screenwriter turned hack Democrat political adviser, turned Olbermann low-rating replacement, now thinks he is a master theologian and knows what Scripture should be rejected. O’Donnell has picked a fight with Glenn Beck in order to get some attention for himself. Sadly for him, his hubris has taken him too far.

While Beck is part of the Mormon church, he will often talk about general biblical terms that won’t turn off his evangelical viewers.  One of the areas Beck focuses on is the Christian belief in the end times where things on earth move toward more destruction and natural disasters before Christ returns.  O’Donnell believes this is an area he can attack Beck on.  In an attempt to embarrass the popular Fox News host for talking about end time destruction, O’Donnell ends up trying to destroy the Bible.

This past week O’Donnell shifted from taking shots at Beck and his Mormonism to a full-on assault on core beliefs of orthodox Christianity.  The leftist pundit prides himself in being anti-capitalist, but this past Wednesday he looked more anti-Christian than anything else.

O’Donnell claims twelve years of formal education gives him the right to attack Christianity.  What formal education does he have?  He went to an elementary and secondary school that happened to be Catholic. That’s right, the man thinks going to a Catholic school makes you a theologian. Somehow a liberal arts education in math, English, and science makes you a religious expert if a nun happened to teach the class.  However, the MSNBC host has no scholarly theological or seminary training.

The pundit uses his weak qualifications to attack Christian beliefs and the Bible. You would think he would have limited his attack to Mormon theology (since Beck is a Mormon), but instead of focusing on the views of Joseph Smith, he turns to the traditional teachings of Christianity.

Good and thoughtful Christians do not believe the book of Revelation just as no good and thoughtful Christian literally believes everything in the Bible…Christianity has matured into a selective process where Christians take what makes sense to them in the Old and New Testament and ignore the rest.

O’Donnell argues that the Bible is not trustworthy since the Old Testament is filled with laws (like adultery or breaking the sabbath) that if broken could be punishable by death. And since no one thinks some of those laws should be punishable by death today, that means the Bible is a book that simply has some good advice.  Christians can pick their own truths to follow out of the mess of lies in Scripture.

If O’Donnell had biblical training he would know that the Old Testament has 3 types of laws listed by scholars as: Moral, civil, and ceremonial.  Moral laws are biblical statutes that are for all people for all time.  Ceremonial laws were specifically for Old Testament Jews in keeping certain ancient religious ceremonies.  And civil laws were only for Israel in the Old Testament where they had a theocratic government.  The only kind of Bible laws that applies to Christians are moral laws.

Christians don’t reject those civil and ceremonial laws because they don’t believe them or have matured (as O’Donnell claims), they simply understand their context.  The Bible is not false simply because certain laws were only meant for certain times and certain situations.

Father Lawrence closes his argument claiming that real and good Christianity had to reject most of the Bible in order for it to survive. Of course, O’Donnell must not have studied the last 100 years of church history or he would know that a small and dying breed of Christianity agrees with him, while the Bible-believers Beck is trying to reach are filling rapidly growing churches.

O’Donnell may have gotten himself some temporary attention with picking this fight, but it’s one he can’t win.  Beck has a theology different than many of his viewers, but he is smart enough to focus on the areas on which most can agree.  O’Donnell’s attack on faith is empty and it won’t hurt Beck. No, all it will do is offend the average American. And that’s precisely what MSNBC excels at these days.  In trying to trash Beck and the Bible, MSNBC has shown themselves to be the ones full of garbage.

This popular post was first published here on March 9, 2011.

The media sold us all on the Egyptian so-called democracy protests.  It would bring peace and a secular government. Christians would not have to fear. All would be well. Those same newsmen might want to revisit Cairo today where a mob of violent Muslims attacked a Christian protest.  So far we know at least 13 people were killed and around 150 have been wounded.

Why were the Christians protesting? Last Friday in the village of Sole, just outside of Cairo, local Muslims decided they now had the freedom to burn down the town’s Coptic church. Without a strong Mubarak police force, they had nothing and no one stopping them. After torching the sacred place, the Muslims promised to build a mosque on that very spot (Are you listening Cordoba House/Park 51 supporters?).

On Tuesday thousands of Coptic Christians protested in front of the state-ran television building in Cairo. They carried large wooden crosses and hoped to get the media’s attention of the burning down of their church (the Church of the Two Martyrs). Sadly, soon after, many of the protesters became martyrs.

We were staging a peaceful demonstration for the church, but they attacked us with firearms, stones and Molotov cocktails. -Samia, a Christian protester.

There was a small military force on the scene. Some reports said the military fired into the air in hopes of stopping the violence. But there are Christians who were there claiming the military aided the Muslims in attack by getting out of the way of the Muslims and even firing on the Christians. Most of the Coptics are part of a local trash collectors’ settlement, and the Muslim attackers were apparently allowed by the military to start burning down the homes of the Christians.

The tanks made way for the thugs to come in. There was shooting until two o’clock in the morning. After that they burnt the houses and stole from them. They broke whatever they could not carry away. No fire engines or ambulances came. We had to take the injured to hospital in garbage trucks. – Samia

In the early morning hours of Wednesday the fighting finally stopped as more military moved in.

Much of the mainstream media, possibly as a way to save face for themselves and Muslims, are presenting the story as generic “sectarian violence” or an equal clash between Christians and Muslims.  Just read a couple of the headlines:

New York Times: Christians and Muslims in Fatal clash Near Cairo

Financial Times: Sectarian Clashes Kill 13 Near Cairo

Somehow if Christians are ruthlessly attacked and some of them try to defend themselves, our press thinks it is equal violence.  It would take a lot more than this ruthless attack for the Left to admit they might have been wrong on Egypt.  But how much more innocent blood will be spilled?  Such violence will sadly spark more violence. Moreover, this new temporary government doesn’t seem too concerned.

Maybe they’re just following our lead.

Is blackmail okay if you do it for a cause you believe in? Lady Gaga seems to think so. The eccentric entertainer is making headlines after breaking a lucrative deal with Target. She made political demands that Target support the gay Left’s political agenda if they are going to work with her. They balked and she walked. I guess it was a bad romance, but I wonder if Gaga is making enemies with the wrong crowd?  It may just be that conservative Christians are better allies to the gay community than her friends in the gay marriage Left.

Gaga had a deal with Target to release an exclusive, deluxe version CD of her upcoming album in May. Many in the LGBT community got upset, because Target had given money to pro-family (as I call it) or anti-gay (as others call it) Republican candidates. Gaga decided that if you want to work with her, then you must align with her politically.

Last month, in an interview with Billboard Magazine, Gaga laid down her demands:

Part of my deal with Target is that they have to start affiliating themselves with LGTB charity groups, and begin to reform and make amends for the mistakes they’ve made in the past…I don’t want to say too much, but I can say that our relationship is hinged upon their reforming the company to support the gay community and to redeem the mistakes they’ve made in the past in supporting those groups.

It has been reported that Target had the audacity to give various Republican candidates campaign money. And since many weren’t pro-gay marriage that meant Target was anti-gay. Of course, when you consider that Target has already given LGBT charity groups over 500k in 2011 alone, Gaga’s demands seem silly. Furthermore, Target claims they give to both political parties fairly equally.

We split almost equally between Democrats and Republicans. For 2010, it skews higher towards Democrats, for a number of reasons. But there were more Democrats in office so we skewed at … I believe it’s 51% Democrat to 49% Republican. We as a company strive to be right in the middle of that. It’s important to us to represent the various perspectives of the team. – Target executive, Dustee Tucker Jenkins

So Gaga not only held her deal hostage for pro-gay agenda money but she was expecting Target to no longer support a single Republican, especially if they were not pro-gay marriage. High demands for the woman with a poker face.

Gaga might want to consider if the gay marriage Left are really her friends.  Why?  Sharia law.  You may wonder what Sharia has to do with Gaga.  You’d be surprised to know how vital the topic should be to those who claim to support gay rights.

The political Left are vehement defenders of the spread of Islam and Sharia.  They fight harder for Islamic rights than gay rights every day.  And what does Sharia and Islam have to say about homosexuality?

Here a quote from the hadith (sayings of Mohammad):

“Whoever you find committing the sin of the people of Lut (sodomy), kill them, both the one who does it and the one to whom it is done.”

You see it’s not just gay marriage that is frowned upon in Sharia countries.  Homosexuality is completely illegal.  In fact, most Sharia-based nations give it the death penalty.  If Gaga’s gay friends were to enter Iran, Nigeria, Saudia Arabia, or Somalia they would be killed for any act of homosexuality.  Did you get that?  How many conservative Christian politicians think homosexuality should be illegal and lawbreakers given the death penalty?  None.

So Gaga thinks Target should not give money to politicians who are anti-Sharia and anti-gay marriage.  But she wants all their money to go to candidates who claim they are pro-gay marriage but defend Sharia.  That means they are supposedly pro-gay marriage while ignoring laws that make being gay a crime punishable by death.  Doesn’t really make sense does it?

Gaga might want to consider that Islamic law preaches hate to homosexuals, while Christianity may be against gay marriage yet loves homosexuals as people who were created by God.  That means Christians are more pro-gay than those who are pro-Sharia, and that includes the pro-gay marriage Left she wants Target to support.

The media sold us all on the Egyptian so-called democracy protests.  It would bring peace and a secular government. Christians would not have to fear. All would be well. Those same newsmen might want to revisit Cairo today where a mob of violent Muslims attacked a Christian protest.  So far we know at least 13 people were killed and around 150 have been wounded.

Why were the Christians protesting? Last Friday in the village of Sole, just outside of Cairo, local Muslims decided they now had the freedom to burn down the town’s Coptic church. Without a strong Mubarak police force, they had nothing and no one stopping them. After torching the sacred place, the Muslims promised to build a mosque on that very spot (Are you listening Cordoba House/Park 51 supporters?).

On Tuesday thousands of Coptic Christians protested in front of the state-ran television building in Cairo. They carried large wooden crosses and hoped to get the media’s attention of the burning down of their church (the Church of the Two Martyrs). Sadly, soon after, many of the protesters became martyrs.

We were staging a peaceful demonstration for the church, but they attacked us with firearms, stones and Molotov cocktails. -Samia, a Christian protester.

There was a small military force on the scene. Some reports said the military fired into the air in hopes of stopping the violence. But there are Christians who were there claiming the military aided the Muslims in attack by getting out of the way of the Muslims and even firing on the Christians. Most of the Coptics are part of a local trash collectors’ settlement, and the Muslim attackers were apparently allowed by the military to start burning down the homes of the Christians.

The tanks made way for the thugs to come in. There was shooting until two o’clock in the morning. After that they burnt the houses and stole from them. They broke whatever they could not carry away. No fire engines or ambulances came. We had to take the injured to hospital in garbage trucks. – Samia

In the early morning hours of Wednesday the fighting finally stopped as more military moved in.

Much of the mainstream media, possibly as a way to save face for themselves and Muslims, are presenting the story as generic “sectarian violence” or an equal clash between Christians and Muslims.  Just read a couple of the headlines:

New York Times: Christians and Muslims in Fatal clash Near Cairo

Financial Times: Sectarian Clashes Kill 13 Near Cairo

Somehow if Christians are ruthlessly attacked and some of them try to defend themselves, our press thinks it is equal violence.  It would take a lot more than this ruthless attack for the Left to admit they might have been wrong on Egypt.  But how much more innocent blood will be spilled?  Such violence will sadly spark more violence. Moreover, this new temporary government doesn’t seem too concerned.

Maybe they’re just following our lead.

This popular post was first published here on February 16, 2011.

In some parts of Europe it appears you can abuse Muslim women, but you can’t speak out against the Muslim men doing it.  This week Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff actually stood trial in a Austrian court for speaking out against the dangers of Sharia.  It appears when Sharia moves in to a multicultural society, free speech must be pushed out.

Last September Wolff was informed that she — like the Netherland’s Geert Wilders and Canadian Ezra Levant — had been charged with “incitement to hatred” and “denigration of religious beliefs of a legally recognized religion”.  The first charge means jail time and the second is a heavy fine. The second charge was added by the judge, apparently understanding that it would be easier to prove than the original charge of incitement to hatred.

Wolff’s great crime is that she gives accurate and informative Islam-critical seminars. She is charged with “hate speech” for quoting the Koran and saying things like: “Sharia is a definite no-no. We want no gender apartheid, no ghettoes, no social and cultural discrimination, no polygamy, no theocracy, no hate…”

Our sister blog FrontpageMag featured a speech Wolff gave in her own defense less than two weeks ago.

“My “crime,” ladies and gentlemen, was to tell the truth about Islam. To quote the Koran and the hadith. To cite the official texts of Sharia. To explain that Islam tells men to beat their wives, and that Sharia requires the amputation of limbs for theft…In short, my “crime” was to educate my fellow Austrians about what Islam really means, as prescribed by Islam itself.  Telling the plain truth about Islam in its own words insults Muslims. How bizarre is that?” – Wolff

Wolff’s trial lasted three days this week and was covered on a blog in detail here.  I have yet to find any American news agencies who have covered the story and only one International news story (seen below) on Wolff’s trial.

Wolff’s trial ended this Tuesday.  She was found not guilty on “incitement to hatred” but guilty on the second charge of “denigration of religious beliefs of a legally recognized religion”.  It appears Wolff will not have to face imprisonment but a stiff fine, at least this time.

How did Wolff get in the crosshairs of the speech police?  An Austrian left-wing magazine recorded and published one of Wolff’s speeches.  Once again we see the unholy alliance between the Left and Radical Islam.  The Left has decided to play anti-Sharia witch hunters to silence the Right (sounds like America).

Ironically, just this week news reports came out revealing some top European leaders were speaking out against multiculturalism in a Jihad world (Read that story here).  So Wolff goes to court for saying the same things as the leaders of Germany, France, and England.  I hope those world leaders aren’t planning on any trips to Vienna.

The final ruling of guilty centered on Wolff calling the so-called Prophet Mohammad a pedophile.  Wolff had factually pointed out that Mohammad had married Aisha when she was a little girl.  The judge ruled it wasn’t pedophilia since Mohammad stayed married to Aisha after she turned 18.  I guess it’s okay to molest little girls as long as you marry them and stay with them into adulthood.  So Wolff ended up being convicted for speaking out against sex with minors.

Will America follow in the footsteps of Austria or realize, like leaders of Germany, France, and England are beginning to, that we must not bow to Sharia in the name of multiculturalism?

(If you’d like to support Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, join her support Facebook page here.)

The Muslim Brotherhood isn’t so bad, and couldn’t lead Egypt against Israel even if they wanted to.  Sound crazy?  I agree, but that is what the Left is trying to argue.  And their latest attempt comes from a Muslim teacher seen as a Middle East expert by our mainstream media.

We have to have the facts to debunk the pro-Brotherhood propaganda that grows each day.

Haroon Moghul recently wrote an article for Religion Dispatches Magazine called “5 Reasons the Muslim Brotherhood Won’t Turn on Israel”.  Moghul also writes for The Huffington Post and has been interviewed as a Middle East expert by CNN, NPR, the New Yorker, Time, and The History Channel.  The young Muslim professor is also known for his sermons held online by NYU’s Islamic center, and supposedly has a large international following.

I’m not sure if Moghul is merely a fool or attempting to push propaganda with his pro-Brotherhood article.  I sense it is some mixture of both.  He is highly educated, so he must know what is truly happening in the Middle East, but he ignores the truth either because he hopes for the best or supports the worst.

Regardless of Moghul’s real intentions, his five reasons the MB won’t turn against Israel are presented here.  Under each reason (which I have given my own titles), I provide a quote from Moghul’s short article.  After each quote I completely debunk his arguments.

First up: The Muslim Brotherhood loves a thriving tourism industry?

19 year old girl stabbed to death by brother in 'honor killing'.

If you Google News “sharia” right now you will find a lot of leftist and mainstream media writing about Tennessee being ignorant for considering anti-sharia laws.  However, if you change “sharia” to “honor killing” in your search you will quickly realize that as Sharia spreads, so do honor killings.  We’ve seen more cases in America lately, and there is a near genocide of women going on in Turkey involving honor killings in pro-sharia communities.

As Turkey tries to gain entry into the European Union, new stats reveal a frightening trend in the treatment of women in the Islamic majority nation.  From 2002-2009, which is the most recent data available, cases of women being murdered in Turkey has grown 1,400%.  There were 66 known cases in 2002 and 953 in 2009.  And the vast majority of these cases are related to Muslim men punishing their wives, daughters, or sisters for shaming their religion. Even worse, other research shows up to 40% of Turkish women have been abused physically or sexually.

Every day there are more horror stories, Hatice Firat is just one of the latest examples.  The 19 year old girl ran away from home with her boyfriend about a month ago.  Her family eventually located her and convinced her to come home.  Shortly after, Firat’s brother took her for a walk on the beach, and then he plunged a knife into his sister’s chest 40 times.  He was following the will of their family and what they believed was the will of Allah.

Firat’s family would not bury their daughter or go to the funeral.  Around fifty women paid for it and marched chanting for the end of such violence against women:

“We are not going to be anyone’s honor,” “End honor killings,” “Hands that hurt women should be broken.”

Stories like Firat’s are more than daily occurrences in Turkey,Pakistan, and many other parts of the Muslim world.  And recent cases in the United States show it is a growing problem here too.  But while women’s groups are becoming more outspoken in Turkey, feminist organizations are silent in America.  And to make matters worse, our media continues to argue there is nothing to fear with the spread of Sharia.

Europe is looking at Turkey and their own problems and our finally starting to see the dangers.  When will America do the same?  How many women will be abused or killed before we do?

The Muslim Brotherhood isn’t so bad, and couldn’t lead Egypt against Israel even if they wanted to.  Sound crazy?  I agree, but that is what the Left is trying to argue.  And their latest attempt comes from a Muslim teacher seen as a Middle East expert by our mainstream media.

We have to have the facts to debunk the pro-Brotherhood propaganda that grows each day.

Haroon Moghul recently wrote an article for Religion Dispatches Magazine called “5 Reasons the Muslim Brotherhood Won’t Turn on Israel”.  Moghul also writes for The Huffington Post and has been interviewed as a Middle East expert by CNN, NPR, the New Yorker, Time, and The History Channel.  The young Muslim professor is also known for his sermons held online by NYU’s Islamic center, and supposedly has a large international following.

I’m not sure if Moghul is merely a fool or attempting to push propaganda with his pro-Brotherhood article.  I sense it is some mixture of both.  He is highly educated, so he must know what is truly happening in the Middle East, but he ignores the truth either because he hopes for the best or supports the worst.

Regardless of Moghul’s real intentions, his five reasons the MB won’t turn against Israel are presented here.  Under each reason (which I have given my own titles), I provide a quote from Moghul’s short article.  After each quote I completely debunk his arguments.

First up: The Muslim Brotherhood loves a thriving tourism industry?