Atlas Shrugs

Laughing on an Open Thread

Bee Gees, Live at Festival Hall in Melbourne, Australia in 1971

This one is for Awlaki and Samir. A toast to Predator drones and Hellfire missiles. Speaking of hellfire .....

Egypt: St George's Church attacked and burned by Muslims

More of Obama's glorious post-American era.

 

St George's Church in Al Marinab, Edfu, attacked and burned by Muslim fanatics Coptic World

St George's Church in the village of Al Marinab of the province of Edfu was attacked and burned by Muslim fanatics from the same and neighboring villages. This church was attacked several weeks ago by the same mob of Muslims who demanded to remove its cross. Today, they succeeded in doing so as they have been threatening for several days. They prayed their Friday prayers in front of the burned church. The fanatics numbered approximately 150. Three adjacent homes, a store as well as a building, all of which are owned by Copts, have also been burned.

No arrests were made. Muslim fanatics have prevented fire trucks from coming on the scene. No protection or justice has been promised for the Copts of the village has been pledged by authorities. Copts fear these acts will continue to increase as the government continues to allow these criminal acts to go unchecked. This is the fourth Coptic church to be destroyed by Muslims this year following the revolution.

NY Post: "Israel-ad gal sues"

The MTA was served yesterday. Your taxpayer dollars at work to censor pro-freedom, pro-Israel ads.

Israel-ad gal sues Jennifer Fermino, NY Post

A blogger whose subway ad — calling enemies of Israel “savage” — was rejected by the MTA said yesterday she has filed a lawsuit against the agency.
Pamela Geller — head of the American Freedom Defense Initiative — claims it violated her First Amendment rights, according to the Manhattan federal court complaint.
The MTA said it rejected the ad because it violates its policy prohibiting language that demeans another group.

The MTA afraid to offend terrorists. Now that's rich.

This is a war on the truth. And very much what I address in my book, Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance. The restriction of free speech is the sharia in America, the blasphemy laws under Islam: "do not offend Islam," even if it is true.

Previously:

WPIX News: Pamela Geller Files Free Speech Lawsuit Against MTA

FILED! AFDI/SIOA Free Speech Lawsuit Against the MTA

The Free Speech Battle Begins: Pro-Freedom Geller Vs. Pro-Sharia MTA

It's Official: Pro-Jihad MTA Bans Pro-Israel Ads, Runs Anti-Israel Ads

Check out my column in today's WND: The battle for free speech and against the savages

UPDATE:  Remco Kimber left this a comment:

Local 666 of the Brotherhood Alliance of Savages International is upset with Geller for demeaning the good name of "savages." "We've worked hard, and, yes, we've killed many," states spokes-savage Rachman Habib from the local's headquarters in Ramallah, "and we don't take the tarnishing of our reputation lightly, especially from a Jewess. Such an insult will not be tolerated and we have given our American MTA surrogates instructions on how to deal with such blashemy."

Hamas-linked CAIR "concerned" over killing of jihad mastermind al-Awlaki "without due process of law"

buh bye

Hamas US affiliate, CAIR, has once again showed its true face, unmosqued. The killing of Anwar al-Awlaki is one of the great victories in jihad's war in America. Show them some love today!

The enemy within is agitating against this victory in defense of freedom. Hamas-linked CAIR is agitating for jihad: "While a voice of hate has been eliminated, we urge our nation's leaders to address the constitutional issues raised by the assassination of American citizens without due process of law."

Anwar Al-Awlaki was the imam to jihad. Anwar al-Awlaki provided for spiritual guidance for the 911 Muslim terrorists at the Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Va. (the subject of a Congressional probe). Al-Awlaki inspired the Fort Hood jihadi, Maj. Nidal Hasan, who is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder, and the devout Muslim who pled guilty to the Times Square bombing attempt. Al-Awlaki was also said to have been involved in mail bombs addressed to Chicago-area synagogues, packages intercepted in Dubai and Europe in October 2010.

So slick was al-Awlaki that he was invited to dine at the Pentagon as a guest of the Department of Defense, more than once. We see this repeatedly. The violent jihad and the stealth jihad, deceiving to advance Islam. The NY Times loved this killer.

And this is the same deception that unindicted co-conspirator CAIR engages in to advance Islamic supremcism and destroy our infidel freedoms.

By their fruits we shall know them, and so we know CAIR. The US Department of Justice scuttled the prosecution of Muslim Brotherhood groups named in the largest Hamas terror funding trial in our nation's history. CAIR was one of them. GOP candidates must campaign on the promise to pursue those prosecutions.

Hamas-linked CAIR "concerned" over killing of jihad mastermind al-Awlaki Jihadwatch

This just went out in the "American Muslim News Briefs" email from the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR):

CAIR: Al-Awlaki's Calls to Violence Rejected by U.S. Muslims Civil rights group concerned about constitutional issues raised by assassination of American citizen

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 9/30/11) -- A prominent national Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization today reiterated that the calls to violence made by Anwar al-Awlaki, who has reportedly been killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen, have been firmly rejected by American Muslims.

In a statement reacting to al-Awlaki's death, the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said:

"As we have stated repeatedly in the past, the American Muslim community firmly repudiated Anwar al-Awlaki's incitement to violence, which occurred after he left the United States. While a voice of hate has been eliminated, we urge our nation's leaders to address the constitutional issues raised by the assassination of American citizens without due process of law." [MEDIA NOTE: Because of the sensitivity of the issue, please use the statement in full.]...

[Get the propaganda right, tools]

You got it, Ibe. But once again Hamas-linked CAIR reveals its true colors. It denounces al-Awlaki as a "voice of hate" (note that that is the same language it uses of anti-jihadists who, unlike al-Awlaki, never conspired with anyone to commit mass murder or approved of any kind of violence), but is "concerned" that "constitutional issues" have been "raised by the assassination of American citizens without due process of law."

Anwar al-Awlaki was an American citizen, yes. He was also a traitor. He was waging war against his native country. He was an enemy combatant. If an American citizen had gone to Germany and joined the Wehrmacht in 1942, and was killed in battle against American forces, would anyone have been raising "constitutional issues" over the killing?

Hamas-linked CAIR: this century's German-American Bund.

UPDATE: Steve Emerson here:

American-born al-Qaida cleric Anwar al-Awlaki was killed Friday by a U.S. airstrike in Yemen, administration officials say.

Awlaki, 40, was among the terrorist group's most charismatic figures, expanding al-Qaida's violent theology to a new pool of potential recruits by speaking and writing in English. He also was tied to a series of attacks, including the Fort Hood massacre and the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day 2009. An Associated Press dispatch calls the strike "the biggest U.S. success in hitting al-Qaida's leadership since the May killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan."

He was the most visible figure in al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, an al-Qaida affiliate considered the most dangerous and capable of carrying out terrorist attacks.

The strike hit a convoy carrying Awlaki and his bodyguards and may have been the result of cooperation from elements within Awlaki's own tribe.

"This is an extraordinary victory, a great moment for the United States. Al-Awlaki, has become more dangerous than bin Laden," U.S. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y. and chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, told Politico. "Over the last year, he's become the No. 1 terrorist in the world."

Another AP report indicates the attack killed a second American; former North Carolina resident Samir Khan, dealing a crushing blow to the al-Qaida affiliate's global recruiting operation. Khan published seven issues of Inspire magazine, the latest earlier this week. A slick publication with high quality graphics, Inspire offered a mix of articles glorifying jihad, offering religious justification for attacks and providing detailed instructions for "lone wolf" terrorists to wage attacks inside the United States.

A similar report of Awlaki's death in late 2009 turned out to be false. In this case, senior government officials have confirmed the attack and briefed congressional leaders like King. Officials also are hoping to match Awlaki's DNA with relatives still living in Virginia.

Before leaving America in 2002, Awlaki was considered a moderate voice. After the 9/11 attacks, National Public Radio cast him as someone who could "build bridges between Islam and the West," and a voice for moderation. He was even invited to give a presentation at the Pentagon in February 2002. But, as the Investigative Project on Terrorism reported last year, recorded sermons from that era show he already was spreading a radical message inside the United States.

For more on Awlaki's role as an inspiration to terrorists click here.

Read more at: http://www.investigativeproject.org/3209/breaking-news-awlaki-samir-khan-reportedly-dead

Major US-Born Muslim Leaders Killed in CIA-US Op: Imam Anwar al-Awlaki and Cultural Jihadist Samir Khan

This is fantastic news! Two major influential figures in the jihad's war on the West have been killed in a CIA-US operation by the same exceptional SEAL team that killed Osama Bin Laden. Oorah! G-d bless our military. 

Anwar Awlaki, imam to jihadi war criminals the world over, is dead.

Imam Anwar Awlaki was the go-to imam that the media went to (the "moderate" imam) for all things Islam right after 911. And so did the 911 hijackers. Awlaki provided spiritual guidance for the 911 Muslim terrorists at the Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Va..

Awlaki inspired the Fort Hood jihadi Maj. Nidal Hasan, who is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder, and Faisal Shahzad, the devout Muslim who pled guilty to the Times Square bombing attempt. Al-Awlaki was also said to have been involved in mail bombs addressed to Chicago-area synagogues, packages intercepted in Dubai and Europe in October 2010.

So slick was Awlaki that he was invited to dine at the Pentagon as a guest of the Department of Defense, more than once. We see this repeatedly. The violent jihad and the stealth jihad, deceiving to advance Islam. The NY Times loved this killer. 

“Jihad is becoming as American as apple pie and as British as afternoon tea”  Anwar al-Alwaki, Imam

Samir Khan, cultural jihadist, published silck issues of Inspire Magazine, offering advice on how to make bombs and the use of weapons. The magazine was widely read.

Samir Khan befriended members of the Islamic Thinkers Society, a tiny group that promotes radical, violent Islam by leafleting in Times Square and Jackson Heights, Queens, before moving to North Carolina. More on this enemy in our midst here. The NY Times profiled him here in 2007.

"I am a traitor to America because my religion requires me to be. We pledge to wage jihad for the rest of our lives until either we implant Islam all over the world or meet our Lord as bearers of Islam." Samir Khan

US officials: US attack in Yemen kills al-Awlaki Yahoo

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a devastating double-blow to al-Qaida's most dangerous franchise, U.S. counterterrorism forces killed two American citizens who played key roles in inspiring attacks against the U.S., U.S. and Yemeni officials said Friday.

U.S-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan, who edited the slick Jihadi Internet magazine, were killed in an air strike on their convoy in Yemen by a joint CIA-U.S. military operation, according to counterterrorism officials. Al-Awlaki was targeted in the killing, but Khan apparently was not targeted directly.

After three weeks of tracking the targets, U.S. armed drones and fighter jets shadowed the al-Qaida convoy before armed drones launched their lethal strike early Friday. The strike killed four operatives in all, officials said. All U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss matters of intelligence.

Al-Awlaki played a "significant operational role" in plotting and inspiring attacks on the United States, U.S. officials said Friday, as they disclosed detailed intelligence to justify the killing of a U.S. citizen. Khan, who was from North Carolina, wasn't considered operational but had published seven issues of Inspire Magazine, offering advice on how to make bombs and the use of weapons. The magazine was widely read.

Following the strike, a U.S. official outlined new details of al-Awlaki's involvement in anti-U.S. operations, including the attempted 2009 Christmas Day bombing of a U.S.-bound aircraft. The official said that al-Awlaki specifically directed the men accused of trying to bomb the Detroit-bound plane to detonate an explosive device over U.S. airspace to maximize casualties.

The official also said al-Awlaki had a direct role in supervising and directing a failed attempt to bring down two U.S. cargo aircraft by detonating explosives concealed inside two packages mailed to the U.S. The U.S. also believes Awlaki had sought to use poisons, including cyanide and ricin, to attack Westerners.

The U.S. and counterterrorism officials all spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss intelligence matters.

Al-Awlaki was killed by the same U.S. military unit that got Osama bin Laden. Al-Awlaki is the most prominent al-Qaida figure to be killed since bin Laden's death in May.

U.S. word of al-Awlaki's death came after the government of Yemen reported that he had been killed Friday about five miles from the town of Khashef, some 87 miles from the capital Sanaa.

The air strike was carried out more openly than the covert operation that sent Navy SEALs into bin Laden's Pakistani compound, U.S. officials said.

Counterterrorism cooperation between the United States and Yemen has improved in recent weeks, allowing better intelligence-gathering on al-Awlaki's movements, U.S. officials said. The ability to better track him was a key factor in the success of the strike, U.S. officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.

Al-Awlaki's death is the latest in a run of high-profile kills for Washington under President Barack Obama. But the killing raises questions that the death of other al-Qaida leaders, including bin Laden, did not.

Al-Awlaki is a U.S. citizen, born in New Mexico to Yemeni parents, who had not been charged with any crime. Civil liberties groups have questioned the government's authority to kill an American without trial.

U.S. officials have said they believe al-Awlaki inspired the actions of Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan, who is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder in the attack at Fort Hood, Texas.

In New York, the Pakistani-American man who pleaded guilty to the May 2010 Times Square car bombing attempt said he was "inspired" by al-Awlaki after making contact over the Internet.

Al-Awlaki also is believed to have had a hand in mail bombs addressed to Chicago-area synagogues, packages intercepted in Dubai and Europe in October 2010.

Al-Awlaki's death "will especially impact the group's ability to recruit, inspire and raise funds as al-Awlaki's influence and ability to connect to a broad demographic of potential supporters was unprecedented," said terrorist analyst Ben Venzke of the private intelligence monitoring firm, the IntelCenter.

But Venzke said the terror group al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula will remain the most dangerous regional arm "both in its region and for the direct threat it poses to the U.S. following three recent failed attacks," with its leader Nasir al-Wahayshi still at large.

Al-Awlaki wrote an article in the latest issue of the terror group's magazine justifying attacking civilians in the West. It's titled "Targeting the Populations of Countries that Are at War with the Muslims."

Al-Awlaki served as imam at the Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Va., a Washington suburb, for about a year in 2001.

The mosque's outreach director, Imam Johari Abdul-Malik, has said that mosque members never saw al-Awlaki espousing radical ideology while he was there and that he believes Awlaki's views changed after he left the U.S.

Big. fat. lie.

Islamizing Journalism School: “Covering Islam in America"

Judith Miller at FOX has picked up on my coverage of islamizing journalism: "Islam on Main Street" for reporters – and aspiring reporters – covering Muslim communities in America. and this back in January,The Society of Professional Journalists: Why We Never Get the Straight Story on Islamic Jihad

Miler signed up for a journalism class, “Covering Islam in America," and was shocked, (shocked, I tell ya) to find the whitewashing of jihad. Miller calls out Poynter Institute and the professors teaching the course. And while Miller believes that "there are excellent individuals in CAIR" (who?) at least she is covering this critical issue and calling out the propagandists.

Journalism Class That Urges 'Context' in Reporting on Jihad Misses Point: Motive Matter by Judith Miller

The respected Florida-based Poynter Institute, whose mission is to improve journalism in support of democracy, is trying to help journalists cover Islam more effectively by offering a new on-line course free of charge. So I registered.

And I learned, among other fairly uncontroversial facts about what has been among the world’s fastest growing religions, that while approximately 3,000 people were killed on 9/11, approximately 15,000 people in the U.S. are murdered each year. 

I also learned that in most years, “jihad organizations” have accounted for “well under 1 percent” of the half million people who are murdered annually. At its “peak” – of what, Poynter.news University doesn’t tell us– the jihad groups have accounted for under 2 percent of the toll.

Poynter’s professors – Lawrence Pintak and Stephen Franklin, both former foreign correspondents – also tell me that 500,000 individuals die each year from “nutritional deficiencies,” (I suppose in layman’s English, they mean hunger and related causes) “more than 800,000 from malaria, and two million from HIV/AIDS.”

So “jihad is not a leading cause of death in the world,” the course states, “even in the three countries that account for the bulk of the casualties: Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan.”

The professors offer these helpful comparative death tolls to give the 9/11 death toll “some context,” they say. But the implicit message of the course seems obvious enough: 3,000 dead Americans, (and they might have looked up the actual death toll) have been over-covered. Why don’t journalists spend more time covering malaria, or hunger, or especially HIV/AIDS, which the last time I checked, was hardly being ignored by the nation’s media? 

For that matter, why aren’t the media investigating bathtub deaths, since according to “Overblown,” John Mueller’s attack on what he regards as the government’s obsessive focus on terrorism, more Americans die in bathtub accidents each year than in terrorist attacks?

The answer should be fairly obvious to such an august institution as Poynter: just as the press covers murders rather than traffic fatalities, which far outnumber killings in America each year, it covers terrorism intensively because motive matters. “If it bleeds it leads,” may be a rule-of-thumb in journalism, but how and why the person died still determine the importance of the story. Terrorism is not just run-of-the-mill murder; It attempts to strike at the heart of who and what we are as a nation. And to compare the numbers who died in the deadliest terror strike in our nation’s history with the annual homicides, which occur in all countries and cultures, is to miss the point of what happened in and to America on that fateful day.

Just what kind of journalism is Poynter promoting?

Terrorism was legitimately “the” story of the past decade. And we need only look at today’s newspapers – though no longer on the front pages of most of them – to appreciate the potential threat it still poses, despite America’s impressive gains against this intractable scourge. 

As Poynter was recruiting journalism students for its mediocre course on Islam, real journalists were reporting that a “26-year-old man” from “a town west of Boston,” as The New York Times described him in its first graf, was being charged with plotting not only to blow up the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol using remote-controlled aircraft filled with plastic explosives, but also to supply Al Qaeda with detonation devices and weapons to kill American soldiers overseas. The suspect, Rezwan Ferdaus, the Times continues, is “an American citizen” with “a physics degree from Northeastern University in Boston.” 

Are those facts about him more important than something that is never reported in the story – the fact that he is a Muslim? The story dances all around religion, of course. It quotes the FBI affidavit as saying that Ferdaus considered Americans “enemies of Allah,” for instance. But nowhere does it say that he is part of a tiny, but growing, worrisome trend among Muslim Americans – those who are being radicalized here at home by real-life and on-line radical Islamist clerics and by myriad other factors that are still poorly understood.

The Poynter course, “Covering Islam in America,” barely mentions the proliferation of such “home-grown” Islamist terrorism in its discussion of important trends and facts about Islam. Its omissions – documented in detail by the conservative Media Research Center – are legion. Among them are the death fatwas issued by militants Muslims against Salman Rushdie (perhaps that is by now too ancient an outrage to include) or the more modern day threats against Kurt Westergaard, whose cartoon about the Muslim prophet Mohammed sparked riots around the world. 

Although just this week Saudi women were just promised the right to vote – albeit in a municipal election four years from now – the new course gives short shrift to the Wahabism in the kingdom which makes women unable to make basic decisions about their lives – to travel, work, get educated, or open a business – without the permission of a male guardian. It says nothing, as MRC notes, about the fact that the Saudis executed a Sudanese worker last week for the Islamic crime of “sorcery.”

Its list of individuals and organizations for journalists to consult include such groups as CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which the FBI has shunned for a time, and other dubious, self-appointed “spokespersons” for Islam. While there are excellent individuals in CAIR and at several of the other organizations the course lists, there are also some extremely radical voices. But Poynter’s free, on-line tutorial on Islam offers few such caveats. (You get what you pay for, I suppose.)

Read the rest.

Pamela Geller, Human Events: Victory for Truth and Free Speech Over Islamic Supremacism

 

Victory for Truth and Free Speech Over Islamic Supremacism Human Events, Pamela Geller

A years-long battle is over, and Islamic supremacism has suffered a stunning and well-deserved defeat in its ongoing war against free speech and those who dare to tell the truth about Islam.  Omar Tarazi, a lawyer linked to the Hamas front group the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), has dismissed his frivolous, harassing $10 million libel lawsuit against me with prejudice, which means that it cannot be refiled.
 
This case was about much more than just Tarazi’s false charge that I libeled him.  His dismissal of the case is a huge victory for the First Amendment, truth and the anti-Sharia movement in this country, which is exposing an insidious cancer that brings progressives and Islamic supremacists together in the common cause of attacking anyone who criticizes Islamic supremacism with the threat of lawsuits, actual lawsuits, or even worse, violence.
 
Tarazi is a lawyer based in Columbus, Ohio.  He represented the parents of Rifqa Bary​, the teenage girl who fled from her home in fear for her life in 2009 after converting from Islam to Christianity.  He sued me for $10 million after I criticized him in a series of blog posts at my website, AtlasShrugs.com, pointing out his ties to Hamas-linked CAIR and his efforts to harass and demoralize Rifqa by, among other initiatives, denying her the Christmas cards that I had encouraged my readers to send to her.
 
The larger implications of Tarazi’s lawsuit were clear from the outset.  His lawsuit was filed as part of the Islamic supremacist “lawfare” campaign against critics of Sharia, jihad, Islam’s death penalty for apostates, and honor killings, and I refused to capitulate.  And at the end of the day, Tarazi blinked and folded.
 
Tarazi claimed that I had libeled him by linking him to CAIR, the Muslim Brotherhood​/Hamas front group that the Department of Justice named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation Hamas terror funding case.  But during discovery, my ace legal team, David Yerushalmi and Robert Muise, who works with the Thomas More Law Center, established that Tarazi did in fact have personal and professional links to CAIR, and that my statements therefore could not be defamatory, because they were true.
 
I had also reported information from other sources that were critical of Tarazi’s actions—including allegations that he had perjured himself in court filings in the Ohio juvenile proceedings on the Bary case.  Here again, however, my lawyers explained how Tarazi had indeed not been completely honest with the juvenile court, and that my statements were true.
 
Yerushalmi and Muise (who absorbed six-figure legal costs as they represented me pro bono, because of the important free-speech implications of the case) were steadfast when I held firm that no settlement would be reached in this attempt to enforce the blasphemy laws under Sharia and restrict free speech and truth.  They asked the court to dismiss Tarazi’s lawsuit entirely, and Tarazi, seeing that nothing was going his way, folded soon after.

Read the rest here:

Non-Muslims Living Under Muslim Rule ........

UPDATE:  Iranian pastor Youcef Nadarkhani refuses to recant, faces execution

2011-09-29 Christian Girl, Family In Pakistan Expelled Over Misspelling

2011-09-29 Iranian Christian Pastor Death Sentence may be Overturned

2011-09-29 Iranian Pastor Stands Firm in Faith, Faces Execution

2011-09-29 USCIRF Concerned about Fate of Iranian Pastor and Deteriorating Conditions for all Religious Minorities

2011-09-28 Muslim Extremists in Nigeria Kill Christians in Two States

And this from the moderate Muslim country, Algeria:

Algerian Christian to be Given Five Year Prison Sentence for Blasphemy

Algerian Christians are requesting our prayers on behalf of Siagh Krimo, an Algerian Christian who is scheduled to appear in court today to see if his five year prison sentence for blasphemy will be upheld.
 
Krimo was arrested on April 14, 2011 and held for three days for giving a CD about Christianity to his neighbor. He was later summoned to the Criminal Court in the Djamel district of Oran on May 4 and charged with blasphemy. The court tried Krimo based solely on the neighbor's accusation that Krimo attempted to convert him to Christianity even though the neighbor himself failed to appear at the hearing. The prosecutor, losing his lone witness and the bulk of his evidence, reportedly asked the judge to have Krimo's sentence reduced to two years imprisonment. However, to the surprise of many, the judge sentenced Krimo beyond the prosecutor's recommendation, giving him a five year prison sentence, the maximum punishment one can receive for blasphemy.
 
Krimo's conviction was in accordance with Article 144 bis 2 of Algeria's Penal Code which criminalizes acts that "insult the prophet and any of the messengers of God, or denigrate the creed and precepts of Islam, whether by writing, drawing, declaration, or any other means."
 
"Brother Krimo is in stress and anxiety over his wife and their beautiful baby girl," an Algerian church leader and a friend of Krimo's told ICC. "Their whole life was turned upside down overnight just for preaching the gospel to a Muslim. But in all this, we are more than conquerors in Christ who is our hope and our strength. Psalms 135:6 says, 'All that the Lord wants, he does, in heaven and on earth, the seas and in the abyss.' They need prayer and support so they don't feel alone and abandoned."

Islamized Turkey: Cartoonist to be Tried for Insulting Islam

    "Let me be clear: the United States strongly supports Turkey's bid to become a member of the European Union," Obama pledged in a speech at the Turkish parliament.

More of Obama's anti-American, anti-freedom foreign policy. Insane. Should the increasingly devout Muslim country ever gain entry into the EU under current membership regulations, it would,

due to its high population, put it in a similar position in the decision making process as the leading countries in Europe. It would be represented in all European institutions at the same level as Germany, the United Kingdom and France, and would take up a dominant position in institutions and decision making processes.

In other words, the European Union would be part of the universal caliphate. Turkey has reverted (no pun intended), and dreams Ottoman domination and Islamic imperialism.

Cartoonist to be Tried for Insulting Islam Contentions

If free speech and religious tolerance–even tolerance toward those who renounce religion–is the mark of a liberal, free society, then Turkey is moving headlong into Islamic Republic of Iran territory. A cartoonist who questioned religious devotion and the existence of God in a cartoon will be tried in Turkey.  According to Hurriyet, “The Istanbul chief public prosecutor’s office charged cartoonist Bahadır Baruter with ”insulting the religious values adopted by a part of the population’ and requested his imprisonment for up to one year.”

If Turkey’s Jews were the canary in the coal mine, then Turkey today has become the  Centralia mine fire. No longer can Turkey be said to enjoy freedom of religion, a free press, or the trappings of any other modern, European society.

Tea in Florida with Atlas: Pamela Geller in Fort Lauderdale, Oct. 1

Huge props to Johana Von Hohenzollern at AnyStreet.org and Jack and Danita of the Tea Party Patriots for putting this wonderful event together.

 

AFDI v. SMART Again: Fight Sharia, Taking Dearborn Back to Court, "Let Freedom Roll!"

"The Constitution does not permit government to decide which types of otherwise protected speech are sufficiently offensive to require protection for the unwilling listener or viewer." AFDI/SIOA motion previously filed and won

Well over a year ago, we filed a lawsuit in Michigan against the transit authority, SMART, for the egregious violation of free speech in their banning of our bus ads for Muslims in need of help and resources. Despite the crying need for resources for Muslims under threat for leaving Islam, the city of Detroit refused to run our freedom campaign on the Dearborn and Detroit buses. Instead they caved to Islamic supremacism and violated their own ad guidelines of freedom of speech. Muslims of conscience strongly supported the outreach to Muslims. Sharia advocates, Muslim Brotherhood groups and Islamic supremacists did not.

Back on April 2, I happily announced that we had won in our year-long struggle against the violation of our first amendment rights in Detroit, Michigan. It took a year, but we won our free speech lawsuit in Detroit for their refusal to post our Freedom ads on Dearborn buses. And the week our ad was scheduled to run, SMART Transit still refused to post it, and another young Muslim girl was honor killed in the very town our ads were scheduled to run. We could have helped her. We could have gotten her to a safehouse. But our political and media elites are crippled by the fear of offending Muslims more than they are concerned with equal protection under the law; in gross negligence, they refused to comply with the Judge's ruling. They are more concerned with offending Muslims than protecting freedom of speech. They are more concerned with adhering to sharia law than upholding American law.

Perhaps 20-year-old Jessica Mokdad would be alive today in a safe house. Free. Breathing.

Our "Leaving Islam?" bus campaign was designed for girls like Rifqa Bary and Jessica Mokdad and Noor Almaleki and Amina and Sarah Said and any one of these individuals...

We have an obligation to protect and defend our cherished freedoms. And this is a real and terrible threat for Muslims yearning to be free. Let our freedom buses roll!

On July 13, 2011, our freedom fighting legal team submitted a request for ruling on our freedom buses in Dearborn. Robert Muise of Thomas More Law Center and David Yerushalmi filed this -- Download Motion to Request Ruling--FDI v SMART-ECF Filed

On July 13, 2010—more than a year ago—this court held a hearing on Plaintiffs’ motion for preliminary injunction. On March 31, 2011, this court entered its order granting Plaintiffs’ motion based upon the fact that Defendants’ refusal to run Plaintiffs’ advertising on their buses was a violation of Plaintiffs’ right to freedom of speech. (Doc. No. 24).

The judge has remained silent, never upholding her own ruling.

So today, yet again, we are back in court. Below is the appellees’ brief (our response to SMART’s brief) and a motion to expedite the appeal that Robert Muise of the Thomas More Law Center and David Yerushalmi (the nation's foremost defenders of our constitutional freedoms) filed today on my behalf in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.  SMART now has 17 days to file a reply. Hopefully, the court will grant the motion and we can get the injunction enforced sooner, rather than later.  As I believe you will see when you read our brief and motion, our position is incredibly strong.

Tom Tancredo Bashes Rick Perry's Islamic Propaganda/Proslytizing Program in Public Schools

It is good to see other influential voices on the political landscape calling out Rick Perry on the Islamic propaganda and whitewash curriculum he instituted in Texas. Props to Tom Tancredo for calling Rick Perry out on his proselytizing program in the public schools.

Perry never answered for it. He never did a mea culpa on the brainwashing of tens of thousands of Texas children. He certainly did a 180 on the Gardasil-HPV vaccine. This is even more dangerous to our young.

Tom Tancredo Picks Up Jihad Watch/Atlas Shrugs Expose on Rick Perry’s Dhimmitude I Own The World's BigFurHat

- Tom Tancredo for the Daily Caller

What is not yet as widely known about Perry is that he extends his taxpayer-funded compassion not only to illegal aliens but also to Muslim groups seeking to whitewash the violent history of that religion. Perry endorsed and facilitated the adoption in Texas public schools of a pro-Muslim curriculum unit developed by Muslim clerics in Pakistan.

Perry’s connections to Muslim groups in Texas are well documented. A recent Christian Science Monitor story said, “Perry has attended a number of Ismaili events in Texas, brokered a few agreements between the state and Ismailis (including the legislation introducing Islamic curricula into Texas schools), and even laid the first brick at the groundbreaking ceremony for an Ismaili worship center in Plano in 2005.”

The Muslim Histories and Cultures (MHC) project was formalized in 2004 in a signed agreement between the University of Texas at Austin and Aga Khan University in Pakistan. The announcement of the MHC project credited Gov. Perry by name with being “instrumental” in its launch.

The agreement calls for an extensive program of bi-cultural teacher training funded jointly by both parties. More than 200 Texas teachers have been trained in the program, which is ongoing. The project’s curriculum units were initially available for viewing on the university’s website, but have since been scrubbed from the Internet. It appears Texas officials do not want the curriculum examined by Texas taxpayers.

Islam scholar Robert Spencer, head of Jihad Watch, examined the program and concluded, “The curriculum is a complete whitewash and it’s got the endorsement of Perry. It’s not going to give you any idea why people are waging jihad against the West — it’s only going to make you think that the real problem is ‘Islamophobia.’”

Perhaps Spencer exaggerates the curriculum’s bias? Examine it for yourself here.

Perry’s close ties to Muslim groups led the political blog Salon to headline a recent story: “Rick Perry: The pro-Sharia candidate?” Evidence in support of that theme comes from Gov. Perry’s refusal to support legislation sponsored by Texas Republican legislators to outlaw Sharia law in Texas.

Pamela Geller, American Thinker: Islamizing the Curriculum in Georgia

Check out my latest at the American Thinker. More news on the dawah being "taught" in our schools.

Islamizing the Curriculum in Georgia Pamela Geller, American Thinker

Many of us have been calling out and exposing the destructive propaganda war that is being waged in our nation's classrooms.  Time and time again, we find extensive lessons on Islam in the public schools, extolling Islamic misogyny and waxing poetic on sharia and the brutal oppression of non-Muslims and apostates.

Last week, we found that schools across Georgia were Islamizing the curriculum by selling misogyny to children.  They were using a lesson plan that glorifies the cloth coffin that Muslims dress women in, as well as polygamy:

My name is Ahlima and I live in Saudi Arabia. ... Perhaps two differences Westerners would notice are that women here do not drive cars and they wear abuyah. An abuyah is a loose-fitting black cloth that covers a woman from head to toe. I like wearing the abuyah since it is very comfortable, and I am protected from blowing sand. ... I have seen pictures of women in the West and find their dress to be horribly immodest. ... Women in the West do not have the protection of the Sharia as we do here. If our marriage has problems, my husband can take another wife rather than divorce me, and I would still be cared for. ... I feel very fortunate that we have the Sharia.

A parent, Hal Medlin, complained: "I thought this was absurd.  [The teacher] was trying to compare Islamic rules of dress and how they compared to school uniforms, which I thought was a stretch.  The principal and the [superintendent] agreed with me ... but they wouldn't agree with my premise that it put Islam in a positive light because of the [statements]."

Of course it put Islam in a positive light.  This is not education; this is proselytizing.  Bear in mind that these letters are fictitious -- propaganda created to soft sell misogyny.  It is time our children were taught about the 270 million victims of over a millennium of jihadi wars, land appropriations, cultural annihilations, and enslavements.  And the systematic dehumanization of women: honor killings, clitorectomies, and so much more.  Where is the caning?  Where is the prohibition of women leaving the house without a male family member?  Where is the prohibition of women driving?

This document was hosted on a public school district's official website.  When we called attention to it, the lesson was quickly pulled and scrubbed from the web.  But I have screenshots of everything, because I knew that as soon as I exposed this dawah (Islamic proselytizing), the school official quislings would scrub this material.  And they did -- so they know that what they are promoting is wrong.

We are watching the situation closely.  We found more ugly lessons. And the school is copping a plea to local media.

Laura Armstrong, a columnist for the Marietta (Georgia) Daily Journal, informed me that Hal Medlin is in Cobb County, a northern suburb of Atlanta, while the lesson plan was on the website of Henry County, a southern suburb of Atlanta.  So this lesson is or was being used in at least two of the most populous suburban counties in Georgia.

Then there was another incident at another school in Georgia just last week.  Armstrong wrote me:

According to parents, a coach from a nearby high school, a Muslim American, was invited to at least one class to talk about his trip to Mecca. A parent complained to the principal and a school board member with no result. The excuse is "we're studying the culture of the Middle East."  But the visitor/lecturer is an American high school coach. His culture is obviously American. So the argument that it's a "cultural study" and not a religious study holds no water. He was obviously there in the public school classroom to promote and teach about his religion.

This is dawah, a religious mandate in Islam.  It is proselytizing. 

VIDEO SUN TV: Pamela Geller on the The Michael Coren Show

The delicious Michael Coren interviewed me on his cutting-edge television show, The Arena, today on SUN TV. He pulls no punches. We love that.

Can an author and an intellectual be controversial and provocative? Michael Coren proves it to be the case on The Arena, where all ideas, opinions, and issues are considered, and the only people not invited to the debate are the boring ones. Politics, foreign affairs, religion, social and moral issues, arts and culture, are all analyzed by someone who refuses to be limited by establishment thinking and the usual, tired television.

It was refreshing to talk to a high-profile media personality about Islamic supremacism, sharia in America and Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance.

UPDATE: Blazing!

UPDATE: The lefty lapdogs are rabid. Check out Canadian blog Moose and Squirrel.

American Muslim Arrested in Plot to Blow up, Destroy Pentagon and U.S. Capitol, “Because that’s the target to eliminate and terrify all enemies of Allah. This is what we have to do. This is the righteous way"

What's it going to take, America? How many have to die in a jihadi attack for people to understand that it's the ideology, stupid? Has the media and the O-minstration blamed the Islamophobes yet?

Ashland man arrested for terror plot WHDH (hat tip Johana)

ASHLAND, Mass -- A 26-year-old man from Massachusetts was arrested on terrorism charges.

Federal agents say he was plotting to bomb buildings in Washington, D.C. Two of the suspect’s apparent targets were the Capitol and the Pentagon.

Authorities say he was using a storage unit in Framingham to build his weapons.

The Department of Justice took Rezwan Ferdaus, a Northeastern University graduate into custody. They say he was planning to destroy the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol using a remote controlled aircraft filled with plastic explosives.

Authorities say he had rented a storage facility in Framingham under a false name where he planned to use the unit to build his attack plan and maintain all his equipment.

In recorded conversations with the government’s cooperating witness that began in January 2011, Ferdaus said he planned to attack the Pentagon using a small drone aircraft filled with explosives and guided by GPS equipment.

In April he allegedly expanded his attack to include the U.S. Capitol. In the affidavit, Ferdaus is quoted as looking for, “…A connection that would be able to gather, ah, some material where we can build some of the explosive enough to take out a target that’s like three football fields, say a radius of one or two blocks?”

He also made his goal clear to the cooperating witness saying, “Because that, that’s the target to eliminate and terrify all enemies of Allah. We have this project started…This is, this is what we have to do. This is the righteous way… [to] terrorize enemies of Allah.”

Authorities say Ferdaus was upset at the death of Osama Bin Laden in May. He was recorded as referring to the terrorist leader as “our boss.”

Ferdaus is also accused of trying to work with Al-Qaeda to carry out attacks on U.S. soldiers stationed overseas.

Read more: the rest here.

5772 שנה טובה

L'shana tova, may you & your family be inscribed and sealed in the Book of Life in this the Jewish new year, 5772.

As we gather to celebrate Rosh Hashana tonight, I want to wish all of my readers a sweet and happy new year. May G-d watch over and protect the Jewish homeland in these dark and dangerous days. My friend Roy sent me these inspiring words for the new year, hoping for "a new beginning that calls on Jews everywhere to rekindle our solidarity with Israel and all fellow Jews to be true to Isaiah's admonition, read this week in synagogues throughout the world: 'For Zion's sake, I will not hold my peace; and for Jerusalem's sake, I will not rest.'"

                Above: Jewish New Year’s Card sent from the Lodz Ghetto in 1940. Everyone happy, laughing, jumping, frolicking....... 5 years later, practically everyone in that ghetto was dead.

The message on the card reads: “May you be inscribed for a good year."

On September 8, 1939, the Germans occupied Lodz and renamed the city Litzmannstadt (after the German general Karl Litzmann, who had conquered it in World War I); most of the German documents concerning the Lodz Ghetto refer to it as the "Litzmannstadt Ghetto." Brutal persecution of the Jews began as soon as the city was occupied. Lodz was home to 223,000 Jews on the eve of World War II. At the war’s end, no more than 7,000 Jews from the Lodz Ghetto had survived the camps. Photo: Yad Vashem

The Real Interviews: Statement from 911 Family Member on PBS Mosque Mockumentary

Last night, PBS ran the grotesque and dishonest mockumentary I described here on Ground Zero mosque grifter Sharif El-Gamal.

Rosaleen Tallon, brave voice and sister to hero, firefighter and 911 murder victim, Sean Tallon, had this to say about the PBS propaganda piece:

Nothing El-Gamal said throughout this whole documentary could erase how Mr. Hanson described that he can still sometimes feel his little granddaughter sitting into the crook of his elbow on his lap, although she was murdered ten years ago, along with his son and daughter-in-law on one of the hijacked planes.  No matter what El-Gamal said, those faces of the murdered that smiled out from those family pictures in the beginning, kept coming back into my mind.  I could not get the picture of my brother out of my mind as I watched El Gamal feeling sorry for himself. 

El-Gamal can turn on and off those fake tears.  But yesterday, September 27, 2011 was my brother's birthday and he would have turned 37.  Yesterday, my mom shed a tear for Sean and all the possibilities that died with him 10 years ago.  Her tears are real. 

It is still so painfully obvious that building a giant mosque and islamic cultural center at Ground Zero is like forcing a square peg into a round hole.    You may have the right to do it, but it is not the right thing to do.  That is why, Mr. El Gamal, it is all so hard for you.  It is just plain "not right".

Here is the real story. PBS posted some real interviews:

We spoke with Rosaleen Tallon, Charles Wolfe and Lee Hanson about their views on the project. Click on the name of each individual to read more about their loss and their perspective on the controversy.

She is the sister of firefighter Sean Tallon, who died on duty in the north tower.

“Don’t they realize that this is a very sensitive thing, that Sean was murdered down here by Islamic terrorists? He was murdered because some Islamic terrorists felt that Sean was an infidel. … I think that the people proposing to build this are being very intolerant of American traditions, the American tradition of honoring her hero dead.”

Read the rest here.

WPIX News: Pamela Geller Files Free Speech Lawsuit Against MTA

Early morning NY news today. On the eve of Rosh Hashanah, we have to file a lawsuit against the MTA (Metropolitan Transit Authority) to combat Jew-hatred in the city's subways. Jew-haters can run ads suggesting that Israel’s self-defense is the obstacle to "peace," and that U.S. military aid to Israel also acts as an impediment to peace between the Israelis and Palestinians. The Anti-Israel ad blames Israel, its military, and U.S. military aid to Israel as the cause of Palestinian terror directed against innocent civilians in Israel and abroad.

But call terrorism against innocent civilians "savage" and that's banned, deemed "demeaning" and "insulting" to savages.

This is a war on the truth. And very much what I address in my book, Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance. The restriction of free speech is the sharia in America, the blasphemy laws under Islam: "do not offend Islam," even if it is true.

FILED! AFDI/SIOA Free Speech Lawsuit Against the MTA

The Free Speech Battle Begins: Pro-Freedom Geller Vs. Pro-Sharia MTA

It's Official: Pro-Jihad MTA Bans Pro-Israel Ads, Runs Anti-Israel Ads

Check out my column in today's WND: The battle for free speech and against the savages

The battle for free speech begins yet again in New York City. Last week, CBS Outdoor and the New York City Transit Authority approved an anti-Semitic ad campaign to run in over 1,000 subway cars. The ad calls for cutting off support for the Jewish state. Freedom lovers and the human-rights organization the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), of which I am executive director, submitted a pro-Israel campaign to counter this Jew-hatred and historical revisionism. But CBS Outdoor and the NYC Transit Authority banned our pro-Israel subway ads – while continuing to run the repulsive anti-Semitic, anti-Israel ads.

The anti-Semitic ad campaign has been bouncing from city to city. We successfully fought back against racism and Judeophobia in Seattle, when Clear Channel also caved in to Jew haters, running their hateful ad while refusing our pro-Israel ads. After AFDI protested, Clear Channel canceled the Jew-hating campaign and took their billboards down. While I would have preferred to see our magnificent ads up, that was an excellent second best. But the anti-Israel ads have run in San Francisco and Washington, D.C., while our pro-Israel ads have been rejected in those cities also. The minimum buy for such ads runs between $20,000 and $36,000; who is funding the racist haters?

Howard Marcus of the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) told me that our ad "contains language that, in our view, does not conform with the MTA's advertising standards regarding ads that demean an individual or group of individuals." The AFDI ad says, "In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel, Defeat Jihad."

The MTA's problem is with the word "savage," and mainstream media news reports have stated falsely that the ads are "anti-Muslim," calling every Muslim a savage. Of course New York Daily News reporter Pete Donahue resorted to Muslim Brotherhood smears like "anti-Muslim" and "anti-Islam" when referring to me. It seems that the leftist media are unable to accurately report anything. I am, in fact, counter-jihad. The New York Post started out a bit more even handed, calling me merely "controversial," although it described my ad as inflammatory. Truth is inflammatory.

Then in a follow-up piece the next day, I went from controversial to radical. Who is spiking Post reporter Jennifer Fermino's Kool-Aid? Lay off the Muslim Brotherhood sources, Jen. I am a "radical"? Truth is radical. Morality is radical. But a genocidal ideology is not radical or savage. The media are utterly corrupt, and the culture is subsumed by evil and the inability or unwillingness to distinguish between right and wrong. In my new book, "Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance," I show just how bad things have gotten, and what we must do to stop this now.

Read the rest here

Iran to Send Warships into US Waters

"The Navy of the Iranian Army will have a powerful presence near the United States borders"

More of Obama's brilliant! sagacious! hope! change! post-American foreign policy. The man is a disaster. And America is in trouble.

Our enemies know they have a friend in the White House. He will do nothing in response to this unequivocal act of Islamic imperialsim and aggression.

Iran planning to send ships near U.S. waters CNN International

(CNN) -- Iran plans to send ships near the Atlantic coast of the United States, state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported Tuesday, quoting a commander.

"The Navy of the Iranian Army will have a powerful presence near the United States borders," read the headline of the story, in Farsi.

"Commander of the Navy of the Army of the Islamic Republic of Iran broke the news about the plans for the presence of this force in the Atlantic Ocean and said that the same way that the world arrogant power is present near our marine borders, we, with the help of our sailors who follow the concept of the supreme jurisprudence, shall also establish a powerful presence near the marine borders of the United States," the story said. The reference to the "world arrogant power" was presumably intended to refer to the United States.

IRNA cited the force's website as saying that the announcement was made by Adm. Habibollah Sayari on the 31st anniversary of the Iran-Iraq war.

Iran's president goes on offensive

NY Times clown Nick Kristof: Ahmadinejad lacks charisma

U.S. Defense Department officials had no immediate reaction to Tuesday's announcement.

Jewish Father and Baby Stoned to Death by Muslims in Israel

IDF: Palestinian Authority Paid Muslims to Riot INN
The Palestinian Authority paid many of the Arabs who rioted after last week’s UN session, in violation of PA agreements not to incite.

The Palestinian Authority and international groups paid many of the Arabs who rioted after last week’s United Nations session where a motion was submitted for recognizing the PA as a country, the IDF reports.

The rock throwing and rioting led to the death of this father and his baby.

And the judeophobic MTA says this is not savage.

Israeli Father, Baby Killed After Palestinians Threw Rocks at Their Car, Causing it to Overturn Blaze

Israeli police said Sunday that 25-year-old Asher Palmer and his infant son Yonatan were killed in a terrorist attack after Palestinians threw rocks at their car, causing it to overturn on a highway.

It happened Friday near the Israeli settlement Kiryat Arba. Authorities originally said the wreck was due to driver error, not stone throwing, prompting accusations of a police cover up so as not to “fan the flames” of a potential Palestinian protest.

Police re-labeled it a terror attack after further investigation and an autopsy on Asher Palmer’s body revealed injuries consistent with a rock hurling, including fractures to his skull.

Arutz Sheva reported:

Among the evidence that at first failed, for unknown reasons, to convince police that terrorists may have been involved: a hole in the front windshield of the car, a massive rock found in the front seat with human blood on it, a tear in fabric of the steeling wheel cover and dust indicating a blow from the rock, and damage to Asher Palmer’s face suggesting an impact unrelated to the crash.

Asher Palmer's car overturned, killing him and his infant son. (Media credit: Y Net News)

“It was clearly a terrorist attack, Asher’s gun had been stolen, there were rocks inside the vehicle and it was clear Asher was hit by a rock,” Aharon Peretz, Palmer’s brother-in-law, told Y Net News. “It’s very grave that [a possible cover up] comes at the expense of a grieving family.”

FILED! AFDI/SIOA Free Speech Lawsuit Against the MTA

Our lawsuit against the MTA has been filed by free speech warriors and sharia opponents Robert Muise of the Thomas More Law Center and David Yerushalmi. Case No. 11-civ-6774. Download No. 11-civ-6774_Complaint_Filed and Download No. 11-civ-6774_Complaint_Filed.

CIVIL COMPLAINT
American Freedom Defense Initiative; Pamela Geller; & Robert Spencer v. Metropolitan Transportation Authority (“MTA”); and Jay H. Walder, in his official capacity as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of MTA

INDEX OF EXHIBITS
“Muslims for Peace” Advertisement “Jesus for Jews” Advertisement “Million New Yorkers Without God” Advertisement Religious Freedom Advertisement Anti-Israel Advertisement Pro-Israel Advertisement MTA’s Initial Rejection Plaintiffs’ Response to MTA’s Initial Rejection MTA’s Final Rejection Additional MTA-approved Advertisements

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK
------------------------------------------------------------------X
AMERICAN FREEDOM DEFENSE INITIATIVE; PAMELA GELLER; and ROBERT SPENCER,
Plaintiffs, - against -
METROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY (“MTA”); and JAY H. WALDER, in his official capacity as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of MTA,
Defendants. -----------------------------------------------------------------X

Case No. 11-civ-6774-PAE-THK ECF Case COMPLAINT

Plaintiffs American Freedom Defense Initiative (hereinafter referred to as “AFDI”), Pamela Geller, and Robert Spencer (collectively referred to as “Plaintiffs”), by and through their undersigned counsel, bring this Complaint against the above-named Defendants (also collectively referred to as “MTA”), their employees, agents, and successors in office, and in support thereof allege the following upon information and belief:
INTRODUCTION
1.    This case seeks to protect and vindicate fundamental constitutional rights. It is a civil rights action brought under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and 42 U.S.C. § 1983, challenging Defendants’ restriction on Plaintiffs’ right to engage in protected speech in a public forum created by Defendants based on the content and viewpoint of Plaintiffs’ message (hereinafter “Free Speech Restriction”). Defendants’ Free Speech Restriction prohibited Plaintiffs from displaying advertisements on MTA buses that travel throughout the City of New York.
2.    Plaintiffs seek a declaration that Defendants violated their clearly established constitutional rights as set forth in this Complaint; a declaration that Defendants’ Free Speech
Restriction violates the United States Constitution and 42 U.S.C. § 1983 as set forth in this Complaint; a preliminary and permanent injunction enjoining the enforcement of Defendants’ Free Speech Restriction as set forth in this Complaint; and nominal damages for the past loss of Plaintiffs’ constitutional rights. Plaintiffs also seek an award of reasonable costs of litigation, including attorneys’ fees and expenses, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1988 and other applicable law. JURISDICTION AND VENUE
3.    This action arises under the Constitution and laws of the United States. Jurisdiction is conferred on this Court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331 and 1343.
4.    Plaintiffs’ claims for declaratory and injunctive relief are authorized by 28 U.S.C. §§ 2201 and 2202, by Rules 57 and 65 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and by the general legal and equitable powers of this Court. Plaintiffs’ claim for nominal damages is authorized by 42 U.S.C. § 1983.
5.    Venue is proper under 28 U.S.C. § 1391(b) because a substantial part of the events or omissions giving rise to Plaintiffs’ claims occurred in this district.
PLAINTIFFS
6.    Plaintiff AFDI is an organization that is incorporated under the laws of the State of New Hampshire. AFDI’s specific objective is to go on the public relations offensive when legal, academic, legislative, cultural, sociological, and political actions are taken to dismantle our basic freedoms and values.
7.    AFDI achieves its objective through a variety of lawful means, including through the exercise of its right to freedom of speech under the U.S. Constitution.
8.    AFDI exercises its right to freedom of speech and promotes its objectives by, inter alia, sponsoring religious freedom and political speech bus and billboard campaigns. To
that end, AFDI purchases advertising space on bus lines operated in cities throughout the United States, including MTA vehicles operating in New York City, to express itself on public and religious issues.
9.    Plaintiff Pamela Geller is the Executive Director of AFDI, and she engages in protected speech through AFDI’s activities, including AFDI’s religious freedom bus and billboard campaigns.
10.    Plaintiff Robert Spencer is the Associate Director of AFDI, and he engages in protected speech through AFDI’s activities, including AFDI’s religious freedom bus and billboard campaigns.
DEFENDANTS
11.    Defendant MTA is a public benefit corporation created by New York state law. MTA and its officials are responsible for the acts, rules, regulations, standards, policies, practices, procedures, and/or customs of MTA, including the challenged restriction on Plaintiffs’ speech (Free Speech Restriction).
12.    Defendant Jay H. Walder, at all times relevant herein, was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of MTA. As Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Defendant Walder is responsible for creating, adopting, and enforcing the rules, regulations, standards, policies, practices, procedures, and/or customs of MTA, including the challenged restriction on Plaintiffs’ speech (Free Speech Restriction). Defendant Walder is sued in his official capacity.
STATEMENT OF FACTS
13.    As a governmental agency, MTA is mandated to comply with federal and state laws, including the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.
14.    By policy and practice, MTA has intentionally dedicated its advertising space on its vehicles, including its public buses, to expressive conduct (hereinafter “Free Speech Policy”).
15.    Pursuant to its Free Speech Policy, MTA permits a wide variety of commercial, noncommercial, public-service, public-issue, political, and religious advertisements on the outside of its vehicles.
16.    For example, pursuant to its Free Speech Policy, MTA permitted a religious group, Muslims for Peace, to run an advertisement on 90 public buses. The advertisement stated, “Muslims for Peace, Love for All, Hatred for None, 1-800-WHY-ISLAM.” A true and accurate photograph of this advertisement is attached to this Complaint as Exhibit 1.

17.    Pursuant to its Free Speech Policy, MTA permitted the display of “Jesus for Jews” posters on the interior advertising space of MTA subways and on MTA’s advertising space in Times Square Station in Manhattan. A true and accurate photograph of this advertisement is attached to this Complaint as Exhibit 2. And the MTA permitted an atheist group, the Big Apple Coalition of Reason, to display an advertisement stating, “A million New Yorkers are good without God. Are you?” A true and accurate photograph of this advertisement is attached to this Complaint as Exhibit 3.

18.    In fact, pursuant to its Free Speech Policy, MTA permitted Plaintiffs to display a religious freedom advertisement on its vehicles that stated the following: “Fatwa on your head? Is your family or community threatening you? Leaving Islam? Got questions? Get answers!” The advertisement also included the following website address: RefugeFromIslam.com. (hereinafter “Religious Freedom Advertisement”). A true and accurate copy of the Religious Freedom Advertisement is attached to this Complaint as Exhibit 4. This advertisement was displayed on MTA buses from approximately May 17, 2010, to approximately June 13, 2010.

19.    Recently, MTA permitted the display of “End U.S. military aid to Israel” posters at MTA subway stations (hereinafter referred to as the “Anti-Israel Advertisement”). A true and accurate photograph of the Anti-Israel Advertisement is attached to this Complaint as Exhibit
20.    On or about September 12, 2011, AFDI submitted its proposed advertisement to CBS Outdoor, which acts as the advertising agent for MTA, to place a new advertisement on MTA buses in New York City (hereinafter referred to as “Pro-Israel Advertisement”). A true and accurate photograph of the Pro-Israel Advertisement is attached to this Complaint as Exhibit 5.

21.    Plaintiffs’ Pro-Israel Advertisement is political speech in direct response to the Anti-Israel Advertisement. The Anti-Israeli Advertisement suggests that Israel’s military is the impediment to peace between the Israelis and Palestinians and that U.S. military aid to Israel also acts as an impediment to peace between the Israelis and Palestinians. In other words, the Anti- Israel Advertisement blames Israel, its military, and U.S. military aid to Israel as the cause of Palestinian terror directed against innocent civilians in Israel and abroad.

22.    Plaintiffs’ Pro-Israel Advertisement presents the message that there is no comparison or equivalence between savage civilian-targeting violence and Israel’s civilized struggle for survival in a part of the world where civilized behavior is overshadowed by terrorism and despotism.

23.    On September 21, 2011, CBS Outdoor, acting on behalf of MTA, informed Plaintiffs by email that MTA had rejected the advertisement copy on the grounds that it violated § 5.05(B)(11) of the MTA’s Advertising Standards (“MTA’s Initial Rejection”). The MTA’s Initial Rejection concluded with an invitation to Plaintiffs to modify their speech in some way so
as to be acceptable to MTA. A true and accurate copy of the MTA’s Initial Rejection is attached to this Complaint as Exhibit 7.
24.    The relevant portions of Section 5.05 read as follows:
5.05 – Advertising Standards A.    The License Administrator [MTA] reserves the right to
establish standards for the display of advertising on its properties and may amend such standards from time to time; provided, however, if such amendments are determined by the License Administrator to have a material impact on Gross Receipts and such amendments are not required by law, the License Administrator will negotiate in good faith a modification in the Minimum Annual Guarantee and Section 15.15 will apply. The current standards are set forth in Section 5.05(b). The Contractor [CBS Outdoor] shall review each advertisement prior to any installation work and agrees that whenever a question arises as to the propriety of an advertisement, in that it may be considered objectionable or controversial, the Contractor shall notify the License Administrator.
B.    The Contractor shall neither accept for display, install, display nor maintain any advertisement that falls within one or more of the
following categories:
** * 11. The advertisement contains images or information that
demean an individual or group of individuals on account of race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, gender, age, disability or sexual orientation.
25.    By email on September 22, 2011, Plaintiffs, through legal counsel, rejected MTA’s invitation to modify their speech and requested a “formal and final determination” (“Response to MTA’s Initial Rejection”). Plaintiffs’ Response to the MTA’s Initial Rejection made clear that the Pro-Israel Advertisement copy did not violate MTA’s Advertising Standards (hereinafter “Demeaning Speech Standard”) and that MTA’s use of the Demeaning Speech Standard to prohibit Plaintiffs’ speech was a Free Speech Restriction. A true and accurate copy of the Response to MTA’s Initial Rejection is attached to this Complaint as Exhibit 8.
26.    By email on September 23, 2011, CBS Outdoor, acting on behalf of MTA, informed Plaintiffs by email that MTA had formally and finally rejected Plaintiffs’ Pro-Israel
Advertisement on the grounds that it violated § 5.05(B)(11) of MTA’s Advertising Standards. (“MTA’s Final Rejection”). A true and accurate copy of the MTA’s Final Rejection is attached to this Complaint as Exhibit 9.
27.    AFDI objects to Defendants’ censorship, which is effectively editing and thus suppressing the viewpoint AFDI is attempting to express in its message. That viewpoint is that U.S. foreign policy supporting Israel in the face of savage violence is the correct moral, political, and strategic choice for the leader of the Free World.
28.    A true and accurate copy of additional advertisements approved by MTA are attached to this Complaint as Exhibit 10.

FIRST CLAIM FOR RELIEF
Freedom of Speech—First Amendment (42 U.S.C. § 1983)
29.    Plaintiffs hereby incorporate by reference all stated paragraphs.
30.    By reason of the aforementioned Free Speech Restriction, created, adopted, and enforced under color of state law, Defendants have deprived Plaintiffs of their right to engage in protected speech in a public forum in violation of the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment as applied to the states and their political subdivisions under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and 42 U.S.C. § 1983.
31.    Defendants’ Free Speech Restriction is content- and viewpoint-based in violation of the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment.
32.    Defendants’ Free Speech Restriction operates as a prior restraint on Plaintiffs’ protected speech in violation of the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment.
33.    Defendants’ Free Speech Restriction is unreasonable, arbitrary, and capricious in violation of the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment.
34.    Defendants’ Free Speech Restriction, which includes the Demeaning Speech Standard, lacks clear standards to guide the discretion of the public officials vested with the authority to enforce this restriction, thereby enabling the officials to administer the restriction on the basis of impermissible factors in violation of the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment.
35.    As a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ violation of the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment, Plaintiffs have suffered irreparable harm, including the loss of their constitutional rights, entitling them to declaratory and injunctive relief and nominal damages.
SECOND CLAIM FOR RELIEF
Equal Protection—Fourteenth Amendment (42 U.S.C. § 1983)
Plaintiffs hereby incorporate by reference all stated paragraphs.
36.
37. enforced under color of state law, Defendants have unconstitutionally deprived Plaintiffs of the equal protection of the law guaranteed under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and 42 U.S.C. § 1983, in that Defendants, through their acts, rules, regulations, standards, policies, practices, procedures, and/or customs, including their Free Speech Restriction, prevented Plaintiffs from expressing a message based on its content and viewpoint, thereby denying the use of a public forum to those whose views Defendants find unacceptable.
38.    As a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, Plaintiffs have suffered irreparable harm, including the loss of their constitutional rights, entitling them to declaratory and injunctive relief and nominal damages.

THIRD CLAIM FOR RELIEF
Due Process Clause—Fourteenth Amendment (42 U.S.C. § 1983)

39.    Plaintiffs hereby incorporate by reference all stated paragraphs.
40.    By reason of the aforementioned Free Speech Restriction, created, adopted, and enforced under color of state law, Defendants have violated the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution as applied to the states and their political subdivisions under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and 42 U.S.C. § 1983, in that Defendants’ Demeaning Speech Standard is unconstitutionally vague.
41.    Defendants’ Free Speech Restriction, which includes the Demeaning Speech Standard, lacks clear standards to guide the discretion of the public officials vested with the authority to enforce this restriction, thereby enabling the officials to administer the restriction on the basis of impermissible factors in violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
42.    As a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, Plaintiffs have suffered irreparable harm, including the loss of their constitutional rights, entitling them to declaratory and injunctive relief and nominal damages.

PRAYER FOR RELIEF
WHEREFORE, Plaintiffs ask this Court:
A)    to declare that Defendants’ Free Speech Restriction violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution as set forth in this Complaint;
B)    to temporarily, preliminarily, and permanently enjoin Defendants’ Free Speech Restriction and its application to Plaintiffs’ speech as set forth in this Complaint;
C)    to award Plaintiffs nominal damages for the past loss of their constitutional rights as set forth in this Complaint;
D)    to award Plaintiffs their reasonable attorney fees, costs, and expenses pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1988 and other applicable law; and
E) to grant such other and further relief as this Court should find just and proper.

LAW OFFICES OF DAVID YERUSHALMI, P.C.

THOMAS MORE LAW CENTER Robert J. Muise, Esq.*

For other ads that the MTA ran insulting Jews, Republicans, Tea partiers, etc., without exception -- go here.

 

Sharia Vigilante Street Justice in America

Where are the "moderate" Muslims rallying around this Muslim of conscience? Support for the Jewish people (or any Jew) is an attack on the ummah. Islamic Jew-hatred is a basic tenet of Islam.

Nonie Darwish,  former Muslim and daughter of a shaheed, has this at Frontpage Magazine: Sharia Vigilante Street Justice in America. This is the very definition of a "hate crime." (hat tip Armaros)

About a year ago, I posted an Arabic language poem titled “Tears at the Heart of the Holocaust” on my website, ArabsForIsrael.com. The poem expressed its Arab author’s love for the Jewish people and his mourning over what happened to them in the Holocaust. The brave poet, Mr. Alaa Alsaegh, is an immigrant to the US from Iraq, who now lives in Missouri. Such poems did not sit well with the Muslim community, which caused Mr. Alsaegh to be alienated from it. He received threats because of his support for the Jewish people, was called an infidel and a traitor to Islam, but he continued with his writing of poems and did not take the threats too seriously.

Mr. Alsaegh, as well as Muslim critics and former Muslims who are accused of apostasy, are living under threats, but, lo and behold, if we dare to speak about our fears, we are immediately silenced and accused of being Islamophobes. The mainstream media insist that there is no need to fear Sharia or its enforcers in America and that we are exaggerating our plight from Islam. We are told that what happens in the Arab streets can never happen in the streets of America.

Tell that to Alsaegh, after the unthinkable happened to him, when on August 14, 2011 and in broad daylight and heavy traffic, he was viciously attacked on the streets of St. Louis, Missouri. According to Mr. Alsaegh, as he was driving at 10:30 in the morning on Compton St. near Park Ave., a small white car cut him off and hit his car, while another car stopped behind him. The occupants of the cars, some of whom wore security guard-type uniforms, quickly entered Alsaegh’s car, pointing a gun at him. They pushed his upper body down against the steering wheel, stabbed him and pulled off his shirt to expose his back. Then, with a knife, they carved the Star of David on his back while laughing as they recited his pro-Jewish poem. Mr. Alsaegh believes that the attackers could be Somalis, but he was not sure. After the attackers fled the scene, Mr. Alsaegh was surrounded by witnesses to the crime and was taken to the hospital. The photo representing this story was taken at the hospital.

Who Won, Cain or Able?

Robert Spencer asks, "Is Cain's campaign bio entitled The Three Faces of Herman Cain?"

Herman Cain's multiple personalities

Presidential candidate Herman Cain won the Florida Straw Poll the other day, and my only question is, Which Herman Cain won it?

Was it the Herman Cain who, as Pamela Geller reported yesterday, promised that he would "aggressively pursue a criminal investigation of CAIR and all Muslim Brotherhood groups named as co-conspirators in the largest Hamas funding trial in our nation's history"? Cain also avowed that he would prosecute the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), another group linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.

Or was it the Herman Cain who, as Geller reported in August, "met with Mohamed Magid, who is also the head of the Islamic Society of North America" and other Islamic supremacist leaders, and told them that he was "humble and contrite for any statements I have made that might have caused offense to Muslim Americans and their friends"?

Is Cain's campaign bio entitled The Three Faces of Herman Cain? Or are two faces enough?

PBS Ground Zero Mosque Mockumentary: Bootlicking Propaganda

 

Tonight, PBS is running a bootlicking puff piece on Ground Zero mosqueteer, Sharif El-Gamal, by a dhimmi Brit "documentary filmmaker," Daniel Reed. His country has been destroyed by hostile invaders; perhaps he wishes the same thing for America. Pay back 1776.

Despite all the media mosque promotion and the overwhelming smear campaign of Ground Zero mega mosque opponents, the Ground Zero mosque was defeated. The 15-story triumphal mosque on burial ground, site of the largest attack ever on American soil in the name of Islam, will not be built.

"Mosque falls short," by Andrea Peyser in the New York Post, September 26:

“We don’t know what they’re really going to do. They’ve said they wanted to do a lot of things,’’ said a board member who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation. Still, he confessed to being weary of the fight.

“It’s been emotionally and physically draining. After the anniversary [of 9/11] passed, I have to distance myself from it.’’

“I don’t trust this guy as far as I can throw him,’’ said another board member, concerned about El-Gamal’s long rap sheet, another thing you’ll never read about in the Times.

El-Gamal has been busted at least seven times since 1990 for DWI and disorderly conduct, and charged with failing to pay more than $200,000 in taxes. Most recently, in 2005, El-Gamal was arrested for assaulting a man who sublet an apartment from his brother, punching the guy and breaking his nose and cheekbone. El-Gamal at first said he didn’t hit the man, but WCBS/Channel 2 discovered records that show El-Gamal conceded “his face could have run into my hand.’’

I tried to talk to El-Gamal and give him a chance to turn me around to the sunny face of Islam. He refused. Can you blame him?...

We won. But the media refuses to accept this reality. They want this mosque. Hence, they try to make this slob a hero. Robert Spencer writes:

The other night I watched a British documentary about the Ground Zero mosque controversy (for which I was interviewed, and in which I appear) that portrayed Sharif El-Gamal as a good-hearted schlub who was trying to do a good deed and ended up getting beset by cynical sharpies like Pamela Geller and me. Anything about his criminal past, his glorification of physical violence, his numerous shady financial dealings? Of course not! That wouldn't fit the narrative! But in reality, the man behind the Islamic supremacist Ground Zero Mosque is an Islamic supremacist thug...

In tonight's PBS documentary, Ole Grifter El-Gamal is portrayed as a victim. Daniel Reed openly and shamelessly shills for El-Gamal and victimizes the 911 family members. Spencer and I are evil puppet masters with extraordinary powers of seduction. No mention is made of the over 70% of Americans who fiercely opposed the mosque.

Worse, Reed fails to mention what a two-bit gangster El-Gamal is. Sharif El-Gamal thinks that beating people up is a great "stress reliever." He threatened Muslims who think that the triumphal mosque is offensive.

He is a deadbeat who didn't pay his taxes -- to the tune of a quarter of a million dollars. He defaulted on not one bank loan, but two. And he was evicted from his Soho properties offices. But none of this is even mentioned in Reed's ridiculous cartoon.

El-Gamal's partner and the money man behind the Ground Zero mosque, Hisham Elzanaty, was involved in a $5.1 million insurance scam. Elzanaty, who was the man who provided most of the funding for the Cordoba Mosque (newly named "Prayer Space") building, was a large contributor to Hamas.

Hisham Elzanaty donated thousands to the Holy Land Foundation, later shuttered by the feds because of its Hamas ties. Muslim Brotherhood fronts CAIR, ISNA, ICNA, MAS, et al, were named un-indicted co-conspirators and Muslim Brotherhood fronts in the Holy Land trial (the largest terror funding trial in history).

Criminals, crooks, fraudsters, thugs and terrorist apologists. Nothing suspicious ......   

Mosque man robbed us: insurer NY Post (hat tip Celia)

The self-proclaimed leading moneyman behind the Ground Zero mosque ran a  $5.1 million insurance scam that cashed in on car-accident injuries, a lawsuit alleges.

Hisham Elzanaty, 52, ran the "highly developed and sophisticated kickback scheme" for years, Allstate Insurance claims in a federal suit on Long Island.

The scheme routinely submitted inflated medical bills to Allstate and involved illegal fee-splitting, court papers say.

Allstate claimed that Elzanaty fraudulently incorporated medical professional corporations in The Bronx -- which were then used to bill the company for care of patients involved in wrecks.

The operations were fraudulent because Elzanaty is not a licensed medical professional, as required by law, court papers say.

That five million was used to purchased the building that was to house the Ground Zero mosque. It's dirty money, and the building should be seized and made into a war memorial to the victims of jihad.

Sharif El-Gamal's other partner is Nour Mousa, another guiding figure in the Ground Zero mosque effort and the nephew of Amr Moussa, head of the Arab League. Amr Moussa was the first major Arab leader to go to Gaza and affirm support for Hamas. (More here.)

And the media loves this motley supremacist crew of jihadists.

UPDATE: Demand equal time. Write PBS and request that they run the accurate telling of the Ground Zero mosque story, The Ground Zero Mosque: The Second Wave of the 911 Attacks.

Infidel Victory! Hamas-Linked CAIR Hamze Denied Membership in Broward Republican Executive Committee

BREAKING: The people have spoken. Johana Von Hohenzollern of AnyStreet.org just called me to report that Broward Republican Executive Committee has denied the infiltration fifth column membership application of Hamas-tied CAIR Nezar Hamze.

Muslim Brotherhood tied CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terror funding case. CAIR operatives have repeatedly refused to denounceHamas and Hizballah as terrorist groups. Several of its former officials have been convicted of various crimes related to jihad terror. Two of its other officials have made Islamic supremacist statements. CAIR also was involved in the Flying Imams' intimidation suit against the passengers who reported their suspicious behavior.

Hamas-linked CAIR rep insists that Sharia is not a threat, neglects to mention the bloody bits Jihadwatch

Nezar Hamze is executive director of the South Florida chapter of the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). So it should come as no surprise that he leaves out of his explanation of why Sharia is not a threat all the aspects of Sharia that make people believe it is a threat. "Sharia law is not a threat," by Nezar Hamze in the Miami Herald, June 17 (thanks to all who sent this in):

You can’t turn on the news these days or pick up a newspaper without seeing or reading about Islam, Muslims or Sharia law. Unfortunately, most of what you hear is from politicians with a religious viewpoint or media outlets creating an illusion of an enemy.

They sensationalize Arabic words to feed on society’s fear. The hottest topic these days is the Sharia. They claim that “Moozlims” are trying to replace the U.S. Constitution with the Sharia. Before we all run out with pitchforks and protest signs, let’s understand what Islam is, and then we can understand the Sharia.

"'Moozlims.'" "Pitchforks." Hamze is semaphoring that the only people who could possibly be concerned about Sharia are ignorant racist yahoos. This is just a smear tactic, but it works insofar as it warns unreflective and uninformed Leftists (i.e., virtually all Leftists) not to dare to oppose Sharia: we wouldn't want to align with rednecks, now, would we?

Islam is an Arabic term deriving from two words: Salam, which means peace, and Tasleem meaning submit to the will of God. So the textbook definition for Islam is peace acquired through the submission to the will of God. Therefore, Islam conveys a practical application of God’s word to all aspects of one’s life.

Islam teaches humanity how to believe, worship and maintain their relationship with God. Islam teaches humanity the significance of family values and how to honor: mothers, fathers, children, grandparents, husbands, wives, aunts, uncles and cousins. Islam also teaches humanity how to deal with society, commerce, education, friends, neighbors, the poor, orphans, government, justice, property and, most important, the sanctity of human life.

Islam also teaches humanity how to deal with the kuffar, including the "unbelievers among the People of the Book," who are the "most vile of created beings" (Qur'an 98:6).

The Sharia is Islamic rulings from Muslim scholars and jurists that keep Muslims on the path toward abiding faith. The source of the Sharia is the Quran and teachings of the Prophet Mohammed. The Sharia covers all aspects of a Muslim’s life and explains what is prohibited and permissible.

Think of Islam as an instruction manual (the Quran and prophetic traditions) on how to live your life according to the will of God. The Sharia is the path of faith regarding those instructions.

Is Sharia a threat? According to Adam Hasner, a Republican candidate for the Senate from Florida and former state legislator, “Today there is an enemy, and that enemy is Sharia-compliant Islam.”

This statement is ridiculous. When I wash before praying, this is Sharia-compliant Islam. When I offer a greeting to someone, this is Sharia- compliant Islam. What in the world is Hasner talking about?

When I cut out a woman's clitoris, this is Sharia-compliant Islam. When I forbid non-Muslims to practice their faith openly, this is Sharia-compliant Islam. When I count a non-Muslim's life as less valuable than a Muslim's, that is Sharia-compliant Islam. When I brutally lash a woman, that is Sharia-compliant Islam. When I smash musicians' instruments and threaten them that they better not play music again or else, that is Sharia-compliant Islam. When I wage war against and subjugate unbelievers, that is Sharia-compliant Islam. What in the world is Hamze talking about? Does he really expect us to believe that Hasner is upset about washing before prayers and greeting people?

Some politicians, groups and individuals commonly reduce the totality of the Sharia to its penal code. The penal code within the Sharia is not unique to the teachings of the Quran and the Prophet Mohammed. It is also in the Torah and Talmud and part of the teachings of Prophet Moses. Having said that, it is important to recognize that regardless of the contrast, the penal codes within these texts are not the totality of the teachings of any religion and never explained as such. Why the double standard?

Well, for one thing, because even if it were true, which it isn't, that the penal code within the Sharia is identical to that of Judaism, Jews aren't stoning people to death and Muslims are. Jews aren't doing so because of age-old exegetical traditions that reinterpret the passages enjoining stoning and hold them inapplicable while there is no Temple; Muslims continue to do so because there is simply nothing within Islamic tradition mitigating the literal interpretation of the Qur'an.

It’s quite simple really — an election strategy.

What is Hamze doing? It's quite simple really — a deception strategy.

Politicians who emphasize religion in over 20 states have introduced some sort of legislation regarding Islam, Sharia or “Foreign Law.” They claim that the “Moozlims” are trying to infiltrate our court systems and replace our Constitution. The fact of the matter is, not one Muslim has introduced anything to any legislative body calling for Sharia to replace the Constitution or for the Sharia to replace the law of the land. This claim is absolutely baseless and really shows how disconnected these politicians are from the real problems on the ground.

In reality, Sharia has been involved in court cases in 23 states. And while "not one Muslim has introduced anything to any legislative body calling for Sharia to replace the Constitution or for the Sharia to replace the law of the land," that is only because they are not fools: to do such a thing would be very close to open sedition, and would draw upon the Muslims involved a torrent of popular disapproval and law enforcement scrutiny. Better to work behind the scenes. Remember Imam Musa, the Washington, D.C. imam who wants to establish an "Islamic State of North America no later than 2050." Remember the Muslim Brotherhood's program in the U.S. of "eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and 'sabotaging' its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah's religion is made victorious over all other religions."

In some cases, unfortunately, this strategy is effective.

We can look at U.S. Rep. Allen West’s campaign as proof of its effectiveness. West routinely bashed Islam during his campaign, with statements such as,. “We are at war with Islam” and “Islam is not a religion.” He said that the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 were doing exactly what the Quran told them. He won in 2010.

Many Muslims say that Islam is at war with us. I believe Islam is a religion, but also more than a religion: a political system, and one that is repressive and authoritarian. The terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 stated explicitly that they were doing exactly what the Quran told them. We ignore or deny this at our own peril.

All we can do — must do — is try to stop this kind of rhetoric. Listening to it is a waste of your time. Those who espouse such views could not care less about the innocent Americans they hurt. The most effective way to deal with this situation is through education and action.

"Don't believe your lying eyes..."

Educate yourself on Islam. If you don’t know any Muslims, try to meet one. Say “Salam” (peace), and ask questions. Get to know them. Go to a ballgame, or go fishing. Be American together.

And when election time rolls around, send a clear message: I don’t discriminate.

I am all for people educating themselves on Islam. I strongly recommend it, in fact.

Huge props to Johana Von Hohenzollern at AnyStreet.org and Jack and Danita of the Tea Party Patriots for putting this wonderful event together.

UPDATE: Sharks eating their own?

AFDI/SIOA To Take Legal Action Against NYC Transit Authority's Violation of Free Speech

Our lawsuit will be filed first thing in the morning. This action arises under the Constitution and laws of the United States. As a governmental agency, MTA (Metropolitan Transit Authority) is mandated to comply with federal and state laws, including the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. By policy and practice, MTA has intentionally dedicated its advertising space on its vehicles, including its public buses, to expressive conduct (“Free Speech Policy”).

Note the description of me in this NY Daily News report as "anti-Muslim." The media has to lie in order to advance their pro-Islamic agenda. I am counter jihad. I oppose the most extreme and brutal ideology on the face of the earth. No matter how many times I correct the media in emails or phone calls etc, it remains "anti-Muslim." So are we to take away that the media is pro-jihad? Yes.

Vote for free speech in the Daily News poll here.

The MTA has rejected a proposed bus and subway ad calling Israel's enemies "savage" NY Daily News

Anti-Muslim firebrand Pamela Geller earlier this month submitted the poster in response to ads in 18 stations urging the US end military support to Israel.

Geller's proposed advertisement states: "In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat jihad."

CBS Outdoor, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's media management company, wrote Geller her proposed ad violates authority standards.

It's unacceptable because it "demeans an individual or group of individuals," a CBS executive wrote Geller.

CBS Outdoor is willing to discuss possible revisions to the text, or Geller can request a "formal and final determination," the executive wrote last week.

Geller previously said she would sue, claiming a failure to run the piece would violate the First Amendment.

Our lawsuit will hit tomorrow. The MTA has run many controversial ads. If they are anti-Jew, they better keep it to themselves. They don't get to decide what is good and what is forbidden speech.

 

The ad from Pamela Geller rejected by the MTA.

SO the jihadists slaughtering Jewish babies in cold blood, hacking Jewish families up in the middle of the night, holding Gilad Shilat in a Hamas torture chamber for six years, and 64 years of relentess Islamic jihad against the tiny Jewish state cannot be referred to as savage ,because "demeans an individual or group of individuals."

Anti-semitic

The anti-Israeli advertisement suggests that Israel’s military is the impediment to peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, and that U.S. military aid to Israel also acts as an impediment to peace between the Israelis and Palestinians. In other words, the anti-Israel advertisement blames Israel, its military, and U.S. military aid to Israel as the cause of Palestinian terror directed against innocent civilians in Israel and abroad.

Our pro-Israel advertisement presents the message that there is no comparison or equivalence between savage civilian-targeting violence and Israel’s civilized struggle for survival in a part of the world where civilized behavior is overshadowed by terrorism and despotism.

But the MTA had no problem running these ads demeaning tea partiers:

Or demeaning to Republicans:

Offensive to non-Muslims -- calling Moses and Jesus Muslims

Offending millions of New Yorkers

 

The MTA accepted these ads. Many Jews were particularly offended by the group's message, and they say their tactics are deceptive.

Our bus ads for Muslims leaving Islam ran in NYC.

 

The NYC MTA tried to keep these ads of ours off city buses. It seems no images of 911 are allowed; they are "embargoed." We sued on Friday. We won. These SIOA bus ads ran.

And the Ground Zero mosquestrosity is history. H-I-S-T-O-R-Y!

UPDATE: AM New York is reporting on MTA sharia compliant free speech restriction here.

SIX Muslims Charged with a Plot to Unleash devastating Homicide bomb Attacks in Britain

Islamic imperialism. A devastating act of jihadic war by devout Muslims was thwarted ...........

Six charged over suicide bomb plot Terror suspects in court The Sun

Charged ... Irfan Nasser, Rahim Ahmed, Irfan Khalid and Ashik Ali appeared in the dock today

SIX men have appeared in court today charged with a plot to unleash devastating suicide bomb attacks in Britain.

Three of them are accused of "stating an intention to be a suicide bomber" and planning to construct a homemade explosive device.

Two have been charged with making a martyrdom film and travelling to terror camps in Pakistan — where their training included how to make bombs, poison and weapons.

Mohammed Rizwan, 32, appeared before magistrates in London today charged with failing to disclose information about acts of terrorism between July 29 and September 19.

He was remanded in custody until later this month when he will appear before Westminster magistrates.

Bahader Ali, 28, was also accused of failing to disclose information and "arranging the availability of property for terrorist purposes".

Ali, who gave no indication of plea, was refused bail.

His brother, Ashik, 26, was also remanded in custody and will appear later this month with co-accused Irfan Nasser, 30, Irfan Khalid, 26, and Rahim Ahmed, 25.

They are accused of one count of "engaging in conduct in preparation for terrorist attacks".

Nasser, Khalid and Ali are accused of planning a bombing campaign, stating an intention to become a suicide bomber, collecting money for terrorism, making or helping to make a home-made bomb and recruiting people for terrorism.

Nasser and Khalid are also accused of travelling to Pakistan for terror training including bomb-making, weapons and poison-making as well as making a "martyrdom" film.

Ahmed is accused of helping others travel to Pakistan for terror training, collecting money for terrorism and investing and managing money for terrorist acts.

IRS tightens grip in CAIR Investigation: Solicited Funds From Qaddafi and Internationally Indicted War Criminal and Annihilationist, Sudanese President Omar Hassan Bashir

CAIR is a foreign agent, a fifth columnist for the Muslim Brotherhood in the USA. Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich have both promised that they would aggressively pursue a criminal investigation of CAIR and all Muslim Brotherhood groups named as co-conspirators in the largest Hamas funding trial in our nation's history.

Obama's Department of Justice has scuttled those prosecutions; that was part of Obama's war on America. Those prosecutions are the highest national security priority. Every GOP candidate must make this promise.

IRS tightens grip in CAIR probe WND.com

Lawmaker also refers complaint to FBI over foreign funding

The IRS has forwarded a congressional complaint lodged against the Council on American-Islamic Relations to its investigations unit for further review, WND has learned. The FBI also has been alerted to evidence the prominent Muslim group has solicited funds from state sponsors of terrorism.

The 8-page complaint originally was submitted by U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, the co-chairman of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, after the IRS stripped Washington-based CAIR of its nonprofit status for failure to file annual tax reports as required by federal law.

Wolf cited a 2009 letter in which CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad solicited funds from Libyan dictator Muammar Gadhafi. Referring to the brutal tyrant as "Your Excellency," Awad asked for donations toward a $15 million fundraising drive. He thanked Gadhafi for his "generous support."

According to a diplomatic cable, CAIR Chairman Larry Shaw, a black convert to Islam, followed up by praising Gadhafi's "leadership."

"We have felt for years pride and glory in your leadership," Shaw, a longtime North Carolina state senator, told the terrorist leader in 2009. "We want to assure you that Muslims in America are your brothers and supporters. They share with you your interests and aspirations."

Wolf noted that Gadhafi's "deplorable" human-rights record was well known to CAIR, long before he slaughtered his own people during the recent civil unrest. He also has a long history of supporting international terrorist attacks, including the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. Gadhafi personally ordered the attack, which killed 270.

CAIR's Awad also personally solicited funds from Sudanese President Omar Hassan Bashir, an internationally indicted war criminal, Wolf said in his June 24 letter to the IRS director.

"I request that the IRS investigate whether Awad and CAIR may have violated U.S. law in soliciting or accepting money from foreign governments or agents during the period that CAIR failed to file" its tax records, he said.

CAIR is not registered as a foreign agent.

CAIR repeatedly failed to file its annual disclosure report, IRS Form 990. CAIR blames a clerical error for the delinquency, and claims to have completed the forms. However, several news organizations, including Politico.com, have asked CAIR for the 2007-2010 documents, and CAIR has not been able to produce them.

"Compliance with this law is the only assurance the public has that an organization claiming tax-exempt status is not abusing this privilege," Wolf wrote. "Given CAIR's status as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror-financing case, this failure to comply with federal disclosure laws is all the more troubling."

In a July 14 letter obtained by WND, IRS official Lois G. Lerner, director of exempt organizations, wrote that information raising questions about the legality of a tax-exempt organization's activities is automatically forwarded to the IRS' Dallas office "to determine if it warrants an examination or other action."

Wolf, in turn, sent the IRS letter and several pages of evidence to FBI Director Robert Mueller for criminal investigation. The FBI in 2007 cut off all formal ties to CAIR after evidence emerged from the Holy Land trial that the group was fronting for Hamas, a federally designated terrorist group.

At a recent appearance in Florida, GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said he would pursue an aggressive criminal investigation of CAIR if elected to the White House. "Absolutely," Gingrich stated, when asked about it by a concerned citizen.

Critics say CAIR should, at a minimum, be subjected to disclosure requirements under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The law requires foreign agents to report funding from foreign governments and all lobbying activities on their behalf.

Read the rest.

VIDEO: Pamela Geller on the Sean Hannity Show on FOX News

If you were all torn up about missing me on Hannity TV, here's the segment of my appearance. We discuss Israel, the Palestinian bid for statehood,  the OIC, Iran and the UN. Must-see TV.

One Georgia School District Pulls Islamic Pro-Misogyny Lessons But What About The Antisemitic, Pro-Pali Curriculum, A "Martyr's" Story

UPDATE: The Georgia school teaching Islamic misogyny in a positive light is scrubbing the links from the web (like they did with the Rick Perry curriculum). Here is the lesson that was taken down. Here is the cache.

The Georgia lesson plan for children I reported on here, was hosted on a public school district's official website. http://schoolwires.henry.k12.ga.us/437720430143529100/lib/437720430143529100/My_Name_is_Ahlima.pdf has been removed. If you see something, screen grab it.

I have been exposing the grotesque lessons being taught statewide to Georgia school children. Misogyny, homicide bombing, Jew hatred, packaged in multi-culti tolerance of Islam, is being spoon fed to our young.

After I ran screen shots and text of the actual pro-misogynist lessons, many Atlas readers wrote to Henry County Schools about their agenda of "Islamizing the Curriculum: Selling Misogyny to Children." Here is a reply that Atlas reader Carmel received from their Communications Specialist.  It appears it's going to be pulled from their curriculum.

"...After a careful review, we can confirm that the item in question (brought forth by your email below Re: "Subject: This agenda is seditious") is not part of our approved system curriculum. We have identified the source of the item and are removing the item from the school site. Please be assured that our emphasis is ensuring academic success for our students using only appropriate academic resources..."

But what about the other school districts teaching this poison and the other www.inspirededucators.com lessons (see below)?

The pro-Islamic misogyny lesson of concern was also taught at Campbell Middle School in Cobb County.
Technically Campbell is located in Smyrna, Georgia and not Marietta. According to a teacher for 8 years in Cobb County from 2000 to 2007:

This matters because the majority of people in the Smyrna area are typically more connected to Atlanta instead of Marietta and probably do not subscribe to the Marietta Daily Journal.  I was personally astounded to read about Islamic propaganda in my school zone considering I had heard nothing about this in my area.  I am so thankful I read your post. Many concerned parents might not have read Armstrong's article and might not have known from their child that this curriculum is in circulation.  I was personally astounded to read about Islamic propaganda in my school zone considering I had heard nothing about this elsewhere.  I am so thankful I read your post concerning Laura Armstrong's column in the MDJ. 

Please keep encouraging Atlas readers to contact the school board here in Cobb County.

It helps when you write and send copies of the PDFs not just to the school board but to elected officials and members of the media. Here's a list of Cobb County elected officials. Do whatever it takes.

Laura Armstrong, Georgia newspaper columnist,  wrote yesterday that "parents must band together and say no to the ‘Islamizing’ of public schools" in the Marietta Daily Journal.

Here are other lessons shilling for jihad. It is more public school proselytizing for Islam in the Georgia school district currciulum here. Here's more "inspired education" from the same group that produced the "My Name is Ahlima" trash. What other school districts and states is this propaganda mill supplying with dawah? Can we get a list of schools from  http://inspirededucators.com/?

The title for this lesson says it all: "A Martyr's Story" (hat tip Kamala)

 

This lesson plan includes a horribly anti-Israel editorial called "A Palestinian's Plea" to justify terrorism and suicide bombing. The "Procedure" section of the handout reads:

Direct the class to “A Palestinian’s Plea” and have the student(s) read the  editorial.  Discuss what the frustrations are of groups like this in the Middle  East (People may feel powerless, victimized, feel like their land has been  taken, etc.) and what conditions could contribute to their anger and frustration  (deaths of loved ones, horrific conditions in refugee camps, etc.)

And what is this "plea?"

Life for Palestinians in the West Bank  is a struggle. Poverty  and an unfair Jewish government create a terrible situation. It is not hard to understand why people would take  their anger and frustration out on somebody, and it is understandable that person would be
Jewish. It is the Jews that take our land, it is the Jews that destroy our homes, and it is the Jews who have killed our children!     

It should go without saying that there are no other perspectives presented.

No context. Nothing about the 1,400 years of Islamic Jew-hatred. Or about Islam's role in the holocaust. The Mufti of Jerusalem. The relentless wars against the tiny Jewish state by Muslim countries since 1948. Are the children taught about Khaybar?

This lesson is on examining the Middle East. In response to the statement, "Islam is very different from Christianity and Judaism," the following is offered "to extend student answers and guide
discussion as needed." (hat tip Kamala)

There are many similarities between all three religions.  All three are monotheistic,  and perhaps most importantly, all three worship the same god, the God of Abraham.   All three have holy texts and worship in particular buildings.  There are of course  differences in beliefs and practices, but they are not fundamentally different at all.

Pure lies.

Plus this jewel:

The vast majority of Muslims are peaceful people who live their lives according to their interpretation of the Qur’an (which  forbids violence except to defend Islam).  Very few use violence and terrorism to further their goals.

More Georgia Islamic brainwashing of the children:

Georgia Public School Lesson: "Women in the West do not Have the Protection of the Sharia" "I feel very fortunate that we have the Sharia"

Islamizing the Curriculum: Selling Misogyny to Children

Islamizing the Public Schools: School’s curriculum on Islam adjusted after parent protests

The Constitution or Sharia: Preserving Freedom Conference

NGO report: 93,000 Coptic Christians left Egypt since Muslim Brotherhood "Spring"

Considering the bloody oppression of non-Muslims under Islamic rule, thank Gd these Christians got out alive. Let's work on getting the rest out before that country gets completely swallowed up by Islamic jihad.

Assad Elepty warns us,

"Do not let the head line deceive you. These copts did NOT LEAVE (left) Egypt, they ESCAPED, they FLED, they ABANDONED their home land, they RAN AWAY.....
WHY?
Where is the outcry from the international community?
Why does the world stand by and watch another GENOCIDE ("driven out or  be killed") take place?
Where are the past lessons the world has learned?
Every righteous person has a duty to scream out in his/her capacity,
"We will not remain silent and watch the persecution of the last surviving Christian minority in the Middle East."

NGO report: 93,000 Copts left Egypt since March Almasry Alyoum.com

Nearly 93,000 Coptic Christians have left Egypt since 19 March, a report by an Egypt-based Coptic NGO has said.

The number may increase to 250,000 by the end of 2011, according to Naguib Gabriel, the head of the Egyptian Federation of Human Rights, which released the report.

The current trend of Coptic immigration endangers the structure of Egypt's population, Gabriel told Al-Masry Al-Youm on Sunday. He urged the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and the Egyptian cabinet to work on curbing the phenomenon.

Gabriel based the data stated in the report on information from Coptic churches and communities abroad.

"Nearly 16,000 migrated to California, while 10,000 moved to New Jersey, 8000 to New York, and 8000 to other American states," according to Gabriel. "Around 14,000 left to Australia, 17,000 to Canada, and 20,000 settled in the Netherlands, Italy, England, Austria, Germany and France."

Gabriel attributed the Coptic emigration to hardline Salafi groups seeking to apply Islamic law, deny Copts senior government posts, and reduce incoming tourism. He also blamed attacks on Coptic churches and the government's failure to bring attackers to justice.

Palestinian Muslims Stone another Jewish baby in Jerusalem

This is savage.....

Palestinians stone another Jewish baby Jewish News in Jerusalem.

Less than 48 hours after murdering a man and his baby in a rock attack on Highway 60, Palestinian Authority Arabs showed the type of state they want to declare when they scored another “victory” over a child in another "Palestinian Spring" attack, this one in Jerusalem.
 
A young Jewish boy was wounded in a hail of sharp-edged rocks hurled by PA Arabs in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Maale Zeitim, on the Mount of Olives. The boy received medical care at the scene, while Israel Police began searching the area for the attackers.
 
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas returned to a hero's welcome in Ramallah earlier in the day Sunday after demanding the United Nations Security Council recognize the PA as a sovereign nation and grant the entity "full membership" in the international body. He announced to the thousands of cheering Arabs that he was launching the "Palestinian Spring" -- claiming it would be one of "non-violent means" -- a short-lived claim, it seems - to cement the PA's claims to all of Judea, Samaria and parts of Jerusalem restored to Israel's capital in the 1967 Six Day War.
 
On the same day Abbas was making his "demands" at the podium of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, terrorists in a car on Highway 60 hurled a large, deadly sharp-edged rock at the windshield of 25-year-old Asher Palmer, smashing the driver square in the face and sending his car careening out of control. He and his 10-month-old son Yonatan were killed in what police initially reported to be a "motor vehicle accident" -- but what settlers immediately and correctly suspected had been a terror attack.

Today's US Casualties in the Global Jihad and Defense of Freedom

They gave their lives in defense of freedom combating the jihad against the West. Please say a prayer for the moms -- today is Gold Star Mother's Day -- and the families.

It is appalling that this President, against the advice of his Generals, has made the reckless decision to leave 3000 Soldiers in Iraq by the end of this year. We have a President who refuses to identify the enemy. Those who support our troops have written a letter to the President pointing out the perilous position he is putting them in. Please join us in standing for the safety of our troops by signing the petition at this  website. Thanks to Bev Perlson, Band of Mothers. AND please, forward this to all your lists.  We need signatures and time is of the essence!

SGT Rafael E. Bigai Baez, 28, of San Juan, PR, died Sept. 23 in Wardak, province, Afghanistan, of injuries suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using an improvised explosive device.  He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Polk, LA.

SGT Andy C. Morales, 32, of Longwood, FL, died Sept. 22 in Baghdad, Iraq. He was assigned to the 143rd Sustainment Command (Expeditionary), Orlando, FL.

PFC Carlos A. Aparicio, 19, of San Bernadino, CA, died Sept. 23 in Wardak, province, Afghanistan, of injuries suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using an improvised explosive device.  He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Polk, LA.

LCPL Terry C. Wright, 21, of Scio, OH, died Sept. 21 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, NC.

SPC Robert E. Dyas, 21, of Nampa, ID, died Sep. 21, in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, of injuries suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with small arms fire.  He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 34th Armor Regiment, 1st Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, KS

SPC Ryan J. Cook, 29, of Fort Walton Beach, FL, died Sept. 18 in Takhar province, Afghanistan, of injuries suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Fort Wainwright, AK.

SSG Estevan Altamirano, 30, of Edcouch, TX, died Sep. 18 in Tikrit, Iraq. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, TX.

The other fallen heroes

UPDATE: SGT Tyler N. Holtz, 22, of Dana Point, CA, died Sept. 24 in Wardak province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire.  He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, WA.

Georgia Public School Lesson: "Women in the West do not Have the Protection of the Sharia" "I feel very fortunate that we have the Sharia"

Laura Armstrong is a keen observer of the American street. She writes an important weekly column in The Marietta Daily Journal. Armstrong is an unsung hero in the war in the information battle space. There are a good many Armstrongs out there fighting the great fight in small town newspapers in small cities and suburban towns. They will fight for our freedom. They will save the Republic. These unique individuals are doing the heavy lifting, not quislings who must walk in lock-step and tow the uber left/Islamic line in order to be in the big media club.

And big media is a big problem. This we have long known. They are a massive uber left/Islamic machine grinding out propaganda designed to cow the herd into submission, blindly and quietly. But it's the local columnists and reporters (along with bloggers) who can alert and educate the American people in their small towns and villages. This army of patriots and truth tellers wil pay a pivotal role in the long fight.

The nation's eyes have turned to Marietta, Georgia, where the public school is teaching (more like preaching) to seventh graders lessons advancing the dehumanization and diminishment of women under the sharia living in Saudi Arabia. The lesson includes a fictitious letter, "My name is Ahlima," that promotes that cloth prison (the burqa) as a "uniform" and a wonderful alternative to "the horribly immodestly" dressed women in the West. Forced marriage, multiple wives, subjugation is a "relief." Ahlima is "happy to obey because she knows she'll be cared for." Dawah in the public schools? You bet. "When the prophet Muhammad spoke in favor of polygamy, he intended to raise the position of women."

Indeed. Atlas reader Mickigal writes:

I will never understand the degree of intellectual duplicity that liberals must employ in order to insist that the West tolerate the most intolerant religion in the world.  Do the textbooks also put forth the practice of stoning a woman to death for adultery, the fact that most women are not permitted to drive nor even appear in public without the permission or escort of a male relative, etc?  In the likely-to-exist chapters of said textbooks extolling the equality of gay relationships and marriage, do the textbooks have a footnote alerting the young readers to the fact that Ahlima's gay brother would be executed if found out?

I wrote about it here and posted the actual lesson here. Here's the link to the e-mail addresses for their board. Atlas readers, your job for today is to explain to the school board politely what is wrong with using this material: http://www.cobbk12.org/board/

Also, write to Ms. Dingle, politely please, at 514 Glover Street, Marietta, GA 30060. If you have time, let Georgia senators Chambliss and Isakson, congressmen here, Governor Deal, etc. know what is happening. Atlas readers, it is up to you to root out this insidious subversion. You must shine the light on this inculcation and raise a ruckus. You are the freedom cop on the beat in your neighborhood. Where you see freedom threatened, fight back.

Laura Armstrong: Parents must band together and say no to the ‘Islamizing’ of public schools Marietta Daily Journal

 When I wrote last week about sheltering my young children from the twisted ideology behind the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, I never imagined less than a week later our own relatively conservative school system would be the focus of a major controversy centering on “Islamizing” America’s public school curriculum.

The controversy began last week, when the MDJ broke the story of a Campbell Middle School parent going public, questioning a lesson linking Middle Eastern culture with the school’s dress code. The seventh grade teacher involved used a portion of a lesson that seemed to promote Islam.

School officials responding to the parent’s complaint told education writer Lindsay Field that they had looked at the lesson and re-evaluated its appropriateness and context.

“The dad was correct,” Area Superintendent Dale Gaddis explained. “Since then, we’ve decided to select better materials. The issues that we had, we actually took care of. We worked with the teacher … and with our curriculum folks to verify the material and how it should be used.”

But instead of putting the issue to rest, the red flags did not stop unfurling around the blogosphere among people concerned about creeping shariah, stealth jihad and encroachment of Islamic tenets into America’s public schools.

The supplemental materials in question, created by Roswell-based InspirEd Educators, Inc., were copyrighted, and the MDJ reprinted some short excerpts with permission. But it was the intrepid freedom fighter Pamela Geller who found more on the Henry County school district’s website and re-posted for her national audience. Geller’s Atlas Shrugs (www.atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com) is a popular source of information for patriots and truth seekers since 9/11, and Geller’s new book is titled “Stop the Islamization of America: A practical guide to the resistance.” Geller’s a bulldog when it comes to shining the light on radical Islam’s tactics here at home, and she’s led in the fight against the NYC ground zero mega-mosque

Meanwhile, “My name is Ahlima” was the lesson our kids were assigned. Written in a narrative style reminiscent of the popular American Girl doll stories, Ahlima is a fictional, 20-year-old woman who loves life under the abuyah (black veil) and promotes a rosy and incomplete picture of life as an Islamic woman to our impressionable seventh-graders. Her words go far beyond fashion advice or culture. Ahlima feels safe under Shariah law and lectures well on its virtues — but forgets its evils.

To be sure, Ahlima’s disrespect for Western women is apparent to adults. The character brags about her upcoming marriage (she’ll be the second wife, as though seventh-graders really get that) and promotes Islamic polygamy “because the prophet was trying to raise women up. He was very loving to women when many other men in his day were not.”

There’s a lot more, and CCSD spokesman Jay Dillon did confirm that the lesson in question is being used in other districts around Georgia.

He also reminded me that Cobb parents had the opportunity to review the supplemental materials, the same way we can review textbooks. Which leads me back to our lone parent whistle blower.

What a service he’s done for us all.

Now that he’s put himself out there, it’s time for us to back him up if we agree with his concerns.

Dillon told me any curriculum materials identified as possibly inappropriate should be brought to the attention of the superintendent or his designee, in this case Pamela Dingle, director of K-12 Curriculum. The administrative rule says any material in question will be returned to the selection committee for re-consideration. He did not specify when that would happen. I hope that will be a question for you to ask.

To go on record against introducing Ahlima to students, you should write to Ms. Dingle, politely please, at 514 Glover Street, Marietta, GA 30060. Of course, I’m sure your elected officials wouldn’t mind hearing from you either.

If you do write, remember that our district’s not alone in dealing with such issues.

Just last week in Puyallup, Wash., a Muslim organization attempted to get special consideration and to gain access to students, to “ease fears” and teach about their religion.

Puyallup parents stood together and just said no, taking responsibility for their schools. I hope our community will stand up and do the same. And I hope those responsible for introducing Ahlima to our kids will go read Pamela Geller. Because they are absolutely clueless.

Read more: The Marietta Daily Journal - Laura Armstrong Parents must band together and say no to the ‘Islamizing’ of public schools

Previously: Islamizing the Curriculum: Selling Misogyny to Children

Islamizing the Public Schools: School’s curriculum on Islam adjusted after parent protests

The Constitution or Sharia: Preserving Freedom Conference

The Constitution or Sharia: Preserving Freedom Conference

Please join me at this historic conference in defense of freedom. This is a working conference, a workshop to meet, strategize and move forward with many of the action plans I lay out in battle plan for America, Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance. Sign up. Come on, let's work together on this. November 11th in Tennessee.

The Constitution or Sharia: Preserving Freedom Conference will be the first national conference on Sharia and the Islamization of America. Topics will include:

• Sharia and Jihad
• The European Experience
• The Dehumanization and Diminishment of Women in the West Under Sharia
• The Muslim Brotherhood In America
• Sharia and Legal Action
• Grassroots Organizing Against Sharia and Rabats (including Mega-Mosques)
• Defending Liberty In Legislatures
• Fighting Islamist Propaganda in the Media

This is not just another educational conference.  Speakers, such as Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, are action oriented and you will finish the day with an understanding of how to fight the advance of Sharia Law in the United States.

 

Confirmed Speakers include:

• Pamela Geller of Stop Islamization of America and Atlas Shrugs
• Robert Spencer of Stop Islamization of America and Jihad Watch
• Jay Sekulow of  American Center for Law and Justice
• Mathew Staver of Liberty Counsel
• William J. Murray of Religious Freedom Coalition and No 911 Mosque
• Frank Gaffney of Center for Security Policy
• Christopher Holton of Center for Security Policy
• Lou Ann Zelenik of Tennessee Freedom Coaltion
• Andrea Lafferty of Traditional Values Coalition
• James Lafferty of Virginia Anti-Sharia Task Force
• Barrister Paul Diamond, United Kingdom
• Father Keith Roderick
• Bishop Earl W. Jackson
• Fred Grandy - Actor and former congressman
• Wafa Sultan 
• Rev. Dr. Mark Durie, Australia

Invited Speakers/Panelists include: l 

• Stephen Gele
• Rep. Michele Bachmann

EVENING BANQUET: The day will be followed by a Banquet, which will be a completely separate event, requiring a separate ticket.  The banquet will include major national speakers including Pamela Geller. Sponsorships of tables of ten are available. Please call 202.742.8990

Another "Rabbi" Does the Bidding of Islamic Supremacist Sharia

We [the Jews], as a people, are cursed with enemies born of our womb.

The cries of tens of millions of Jews who have suffered under the sharia curse "Rabbi" Yanklowitz. This despicable apologist sells out his own people in order to get in good with this century's annihilationist movement, "the in crowd."You will answer to a higher authority, Rabbi.

Rabbi Yanklowitz evokes the memory of the Rambam, Maimonides. 

Maimonides made it clear not only that Islam is not an idolatrous faith, but rather that the Jewish people can learn a lot from Muslim thought (Maachalot 11:7). In addition to learning from our Muslim brethren we should commit to supporting their autonomy.

Is the rabbi clueless or complicit? Uh, Shmuley, allow me to quote the Rambam, Maimonides, on Islam.

Moses ben-Maimon called Maimonides (1135 – 1204) was a preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher and one of the greatest Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages.

Let Ye understand, my brothers, the Holy One Blessed HE through the trap created by our iniquities cast us amongst this nation, the people of Ishmael [Muslim Arabs] whose oppressiveness is firmly upon us and they connive to do us wrong and despicably downgrade us as the Almighty decreed against us (Deuteronomy 32:31, “Your enemies shall judge you”).

There never came against Israel a more antagonistic nation. They oppress us with the most oppressive measures to lessen our number, reduce us, and make us as despicable as they themselves are [Psalms 120:5].

Robert Spencer quoted Bat Ye'or here:

Indeed, although Maimonides is frequently referred to as a paragon of Jewish achievement facilitated by the enlightened rule of Andalusia, his own words debunk this utopian view of the Islamic treatment of Jews: "..the Arabs have persecuted us severely, and passed baneful and discriminatory legislation against us...Never did a nation molest, degrade, debase, and hate us as much as they.."

Yes, Rabbi Yanklowitz, shill for the sharia. 1,400 years of brutal oppression, subjugation and hate under the sharia. Islamic Jew-hatred.

The Rabbi has a fear because "American religious fanatics had succeeded at convincing me to be afraid." Really? It's not the daily calls for a second holocaust coming out of the Muslim world on the airwaves, in the Arab street, at the OIC-driven UN, in the media, the mosques and in the quran? Khaybar, Khaybar, Rabbi.

Such asshattery is without equal. Rabbi, read Sir Martin Gilbert's history of the Jews living under Muslim rule.

David Yerushalmi eviscerates the premise of Rabbi Shmuly's sharia fairy tale in The American Thinker:

A Response to Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz David Yerushalmi, American Thinker

Shmuly Yanklowitz, who wears the title of "Rabbi" and is a Hillel director at UCLA, has penned an essay in the Jewish Week against the anti-sharia movement.  He takes the time to mention me by name.  This is my response.

The sum and substance of Yanklowitz's essay is that it has zero substance, only polemics. Where it does make specific attempts to be substantive, or impliedly so, Yanklowitz's essay is simply wrong on the facts.

For example, the essay begins with two paragraphs of pure polemics using such descriptors as a "slight discomfort," which magically came over him while in a cab in Paris with a Muslim driver -- why?  Because "American religious fanatics had succeeded at convincing me to be afraid."  He goes on to tell us that "fear and hate" are a part of Jewish communal discourse as well.  So, the table is set.  Truth and peace on the one side versus hatred, fear, and religious bigotry on the other.

Then, in the third paragraph, we learn that we know of this ugly anti-sharia movement because the Orthodox Union and the Anti-Defamation League have told us about it.  But Yanklowitz does not tell how they know this.  Are the rabbis of the OU expert in sharia?  Do they understand its jurisprudential principles?  Do they understand its pedigree and the implications for jihad and national security?

Is Abe Foxman of the ADL such an expert?  Or, more tellingly, does Abe Foxman and the ADL have the character and integrity upon which to base such an argumentum ad verecundium reliably?  Was it not Abe Foxman's ADL that was successfully sued for over $10 million for defaming a Colorado couple accused of bigotry?  A judgment confirmed by every court that reviewed it, and a judgment ultimately but grudgingly paid by the ADL?  The largest defamation judgment in the history of the State of Colorado...paid by whom again? Yes, the Anti-Defamation League.

After my cameo appearance in the fourth paragraph as presumptively the paradigmatic Jewish religious bigot, Yanklowitz attempts a caveat by conceding a bit of concern over violence and extremism in the Muslim world.  But even here, another caveat: he assures us that this extremism is isolated, and moreover, he reminds us that we must not discriminate against sharia as the baby in the dirty bath water.  The problem in this caveat of a caveat is that Yanklowitz assures us that this concern over Islamic violence and intolerance is not really a threat.  But Yanklowitz's assurances are merely gestures in the air.  What are the facts?  The facts, not something you'll find in Yanklowitz's essay, are these: the World Public Opinion Survey in 2006 of Muslim attitudes in the Muslim world (where 98% of the global 1.2 billion Muslims live), found that between 50% to 70% (depending on the specific country) of Muslims surveyed desired a regional if not global caliphate and an al-Qaeda-like sharia.

In 2010, Pew conducted its own survey of Muslim attitudes in the Muslim world, and lo and behold, we learn that Muslims in the main approve of al-Qaeda, Islamic political order, and death for apostasy.  Yanklowitz knows what apostasy is, surely -- it is what we call in the West "freedom of religion."

Having argued that we ought not discriminate against political evil of the sort promulgated by the majorities in these surveys, Yanklowitz then attempts to drag Maimonides (the Rambam), the greatest Jewish legal codifier and philosopher since Moses, into his polemical diatribe.  We're informed by this "Rabbi" (I'm curious where Yanklowitz earned his rabbinical ordination) that the Rambam not only ruled that Islam was free of idol worship (one of the gravest sins in Jewish law), but also that we might learn much from Muslim thought.

Let's assume this is Yanklowitz's first real effort at substance -- Jewish law and philosophy, subjects a rabbi ought to know something about.  Unfortunately, Yanklowitz seems to know little more than what he might have picked up with a quick Google search.  Indeed, the citation to Maimonides' work (more properly set out as Mishne Torah, Sefer Kedusha, Hilchot Ma'achalot Asurot, ch. 11, halacha 7) does in fact rule that Islam is not idol-worship.  So what?  Islam was not unique in this regard; Rambam mentions it because it is the dominant religion in his world.  In that particular legal reference, the consequence of Islam's monotheism simply means that a Jew may enjoy a benefit from a Muslim's wine but not drink it, which is the case for the wine of any non-Jew who doesn't worship idols.

Nowhere in this reference or anywhere in Rambam's legal works is there praise for Islam or Muslims.  Indeed, in the uncensored penultimate chapter of this great legal work, Rambam points out that while Christianity and Islam were prophesized by Daniel to be tests for the Jewish people, they both had the benefit of spreading the belief in one G-d ([Hebrew] Rambam L'Am, Sefer Shoftim, Hilchot Melachim, ch. 11, halacha 4, pp. 415-416).  But beyond the correctness of monotheism, what does Rambam say of Islam and its founder, Mohammed?

One of Rambam's most well-known public letters is his letter to the Jews of Yemen (available in Hebrew at Rambam L'Am, Igrot, "Igeret Teiman [or] Petach Tikvah," pp. 103-193), who were suffering during the "Golden Age," as it is so often called, of Islam.  Just as Rambam had been chased out of Andalusia (Spain) by marauding Muslim armies from the Maghreb, the Jews of Yemen were being persecuted by the Muslim mujahideen in the Arabian Peninsula.  In this famous letter, Rambam terms Mohammed the psychopath (HaMeshugunnah) and describes the ugliness and the viciousness of the Muslims toward Jews as the worst the Jews had experienced since the Exile.  Indeed, Rambam, who most certainly understood the theology of Islam, points out in this letter that Islam was theologically corrupt as well, having taken the Jewish Torah and effectively rewritten it for its own purposes.

Presumably, Yanklowitz did not mean to cite Rambam's legal work or his epistle of encouragement to the Jews of Yemen, written in Rambam's role as a Jewish leader.  Maybe, when Yanklowitz tells us that Rambam thought we might gain something from Islamic thought, he was referring to Rambam as Jewish philosopher and, notably, as author of Moreh Nevuchim, or Guide to the Perplexed.  But even here, Rambam has no good words for Islam or Islamic philosophy.  What Rambam does appreciate and pay respect to are a handful of Muslim neo-Aristotelians, notably Alfarabi (especially as noted in Rambam's letter to Ibn Tibbon [see, e.g., Moses Maimonides, The Guide of the Perplexed, trans. by Shlomo Pines, v. 1, "Translator's Introduction," pp. lxxviii-cxxxii).  But the Muslim neo-Aristotelians -- those who sought to apply Reason to Revelation -- lost out.  Islam thoroughly rejected such innovations and never adopted Reason.  Thus the end of the "Golden Age."  Al Ghazili, Ibn Taymiyyah, and their progeny -- the Muslim Brotherhood, the Wahhabis, and the Deobandis, among the Sunni -- were the theological, legal, and social victors, especially as we scan the contemporary surveys noted above.

So it is that Yanklowitz appears to know little of Rambam's writings or Islamic history.  But his essay moves on to the area of the contemporary legal effort to "ban Islamic law" -- an effort I am presumptively leading (but cf. American Thinker).  Unfortunately, no one of substance in the anti-sharia movement is trying to ban Islamic law.  Yanklowitz is simply wrong on the facts once again.  What the anti-sharia movement is doing -- at least those elements which have passed the American Laws for American Courts draft legislation I crafted (Tennessee, Louisiana, and Arizona) and which have promoted ALAC in dozens of other states, where it is in the legislative process for enactment -- is prohibiting state courts from applying any foreign law or judgment (sharia being only one of many possible offending foreign laws) which violates fundamental constitutional liberties like due process and equal protection.

What part of due process and equal protection does Yanklowitz not like?  If two Muslims want to apply sharia to work out their personal problems, so be it.  But if you go into court afterward and ask the state to use its authority to enforce that sharia ruling, you'd better be certain that the law as applied does not violate fundamental constitutional liberties.  Specifically, you'd better be certain that a Muslim woman is not being treated as chattel, which is often the case.  For example, sharia allows a man to divorce his wife with but a verbal expression not permitted to the wife.  Further, after a young age, children are awarded to the Muslim father, irrespective of the best interests of the child.  A women's testimony is worth but half of a man's.  This list goes on, but you get the picture.

Egypt's Youths Vow to Attack US Embassy

More gangrene from Obama's anti-American foreign policy. How's that Muslim Brotherhood spring working out for you, President Hussein?

Obama invited the Muslim Brotherhood to his submission to Islam speech, given in Cairo to the leading sharia university in the  world, Al Azhar University, back in June 2009. At the time, the Muslim Brotherhood was rightly banned from Egypt, and their genocidal fuhrer, Sheik Qaradawi, was banished from Egypt (and lived in al jazeera's headquarters of Qatar).

So it is only fitting that the Islamic supremacists kick Obama in the ass. He betrayed America and her allies; he deserves to be humiliated.

Egypt's Youths Vow to Raid US Embassy if Palestine Bid at UN Vetoed  Fars News (hat tip Jack) TEHRAN (FNA)- A group of Egyptian youths in a call via an internet social network called for demonstrations in front of the US Embassy in Cairo to take over the US compound if Washington vetoes the Palestinian bid for UN membership.

According to a report by Palestine al-Yawm (Palestine Today) news network, the young Egyptians have posted a request on their Facebook webpage and blasted Barack Obama's speech after his presidency in Cairo in which the US President pledged a new approach towards Muslims.

They said that the threat by the Obama administration to veto the Palestinian bid for UN membership revealed the realities about Obama and the fact they "he is a liar and is no different with his predecessors in supporting Israel and blatant violation of the Arab nations' rights".

The Egyptian youths said the attack on the US embassy would serve as a strong message in response to the US hegemonic policies.

They further warned the US to refrain from vetoing the Palestinian bid, saying that such a move by the US would encourage violence in the world.

Acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmud Abbas has brought a Palestinian request for UN membership to New York, where top officials of all the member states of the world body have convened to attend an annual General Assembly sessions.

The future Palestinian state would include the West Bank and Gaza, with East al-Quds (Jerusalem) as its capital. The PA says it believes that more than 130 countries would recognize the state of Palestine based on the pre-1967 borders.

Israel and the US strongly oppose the Palestinian move. Washington, which supports Tel Aviv's position, claims that a Palestinian state can only be achieved through talks with Israel.

Gold Star Mother's Day

G-d bless these moms. Say a prayer for them.

Gold Star Mother’s Day is observed in the United States on the last Sunday of September each year. It is a day for people to recognize and honor those who have lost a son or daughter while serving the United States Armed Forces.

A gold star represents a son or daughter who died while serving the United States Armed Forces. ©iStockphoto.com/ bobbieo

What do people do?

Each year the United States president is requested to issue a proclamation to: call on US government officials to display the nation’s flag on all government buildings; and to call on people to display the flag and hold appropriate meetings at homes, churches, or other suitable places on Gold Star Mother’s Day to publicly express the love, sorrow, and reverence those who are Gold Star mothers and their families.

American Gold Star Mothers, Inc. is an organization of mothers whose sons or daughters served and died while serving their nation in times of war or conflict. It organizes major events that take place on or around Gold Star Mother’s Day each year. Previous activities included a Gold Star flower wreath laying service, as well as an afternoon tour of President Lincoln’s cottage in Washington DC.

The last Sunday in September is also Parents of Fallen Military Sons and Daughters Day in New Jersey. This day is a tribute to all parents whose children died as a result of their service with the United States Armed Forces. It commemorates the contributions, commitments and sacrifices made by those parents individually and through the American Gold Star Mothers, Inc.

Public life

Gold Star Mother’s Day is not a designated public holiday in the United States so public life is not affected.

Background

The name the Gold Star Mothers was derived from the custom of military families who put a service flag near their front window. The flag featured a star for each family member serving in their country – living members were denoted in blue but gold stars honored family members who were killed while in duty. In 1918 President Woodrow Wilson approved the wearing of black arm bands bearing a gilt star by those who had a family member who died in the military service to the United States. This distinguished them from the blue stars, representing a family member presently serving in the armed forces.

American Gold Star Mothers, Inc. was incorporated in 1929, obtaining a federal charter from the US Congress. It began with 25 mothers living in the Washington DC area and soon expanded to include affiliated groups throughout the nation. On June 23, 1936, a joint congressional resolution designated the last Sunday in September as Gold Star Mother's Day, a holiday that has been observed each year by a presidential proclamation.

Symbols

A gold star symbolizes a family member who died in the line of duty while serving the United States Armed Forces.  It may be seen on a service flag or in the form of a pin, which is worn by Gold Star mothers. The pin is not limited to mothers and it is awarded by the US Department of Defense.

UPDATE: OT but related: Beverly Perlson of Band of Mothers reminds us to please vote here for wounded warriors,  They have fallen to 14th place and they have just one more week to go. 

Saturday Night Cinema: The Killers

Tonight's Saturday Night Cinema is one of the great film noir classics, The Killers, starring Burt Lancaster (in his stunning debut) and Ava Gardner, who was never more beautiful, IMAO. Ava, Ava, Ava.

According to a comment on the Times website, John Huston, who practically invented the genre in Sam Spade's office, was an uncredited writer of The Killers. Yes, it is that good.

Nominated for four Oscars, "it's one of the great films of disenchantment."

The Killers (1946) NYT Critics' Pick

By BOSLEY CROWTHER

Published: August 29, 1946

Back in the gangster-glutted Twenties, Ernest Hemingway wrote a morbid tale about two gunmen waiting in a lunchroom for a man they were hired to kill. And while they relentlessly waited, the victim lay sweating in his room, knowing the gunmen were after him but too weary and resigned to move. That's all the story told you—that a man was going to be killed. What for was deliberately unstated. Quite a fearful and fatalistic tale.

Now, in a film called "The Killers," which was the title of the Hemingway piece, Mark Hellinger and Anthony Veiller are filling out the plot. That is, they are cleverly explaining, through a flashback reconstruction of the life of that man who lay sweating in his bedroom, why the gunmen were after him. And although it may not be precisely what Hemingway had in mind, it makes a taut and absorbing explanation as unreeled on the Winter Garden's screen.

[...]

With Robert Siodmak's restrained direction, a new actor, Burt Lancaster, gives a lanky and wistful imitation of a nice guy who's wooed to his ruin. And Ava Gardner is sultry and sardonic as the lady who crosses him up. Edmond O'Brien plays the shrewd investigator in the usual cool and clipped detective style, Sam Levene is very good as a policeman and Albert Dekker makes a thoroughly nasty thug. Several other characters are sharply and colorfully played. The tempo is slow and metronomic, which makes for less excitement than suspense.

'The Killers'
THE KILLERS, screen play by Anthony Veiller, based on a story by Ernest Hemingway; directed by Robert Siodmak; produced by Mark Hellinger for Universal. At the Winter Garden.
Swede . . . . . Burt Lancaster
Kitty Collins . . . . . Ava Gardner
Riordan . . . . . Edmond O'Brien
Colfax . . . . . Albert Dekker
Lieut. Lubinsky . . . . . Sam Levene
Dum Dum . . . . . Jack Lambert
Blinky . . . . . Jeff Corey
Kenyon . . . . . Donald McBride
Charleston . . . . . Vince Barnett
Packy . . . . . Charles D. Brown
Lilly . . . . . Virginia Christine
Nick Adams . . . . . Phil Brown
Jake . . . . . John Miljan
Queenie . . . . . Queenie Smith
Joe . . . . . Garry Owen
George . . . . . Harry Hayden
Sam . . . . . Bill Walker
The Killer . . . . . Charles McGraw
The Killer . . . . . William Conrad

Click link below for film:

Islamizing the Curriculum: Selling Misogyny to Children

UPDATE: Laura Armstrong, columnist for the Marietta (Georgia) Daily Journal, reminded me that Hal Medlin, the parent who exposed this outrage, is in Cobb County (north suburb of Atlanta), while the lesson plan (below) is on the Henry County website (south suburb of Atlanta). So the question of how widespread is this lesson is partially answered through our research. It's being used in at least two of the most populous suburban counties in Georgia.

Here's the link to the e-mail addresses for their board. Atlas readers, your job for today is to explain to the school board politely what is wrong with using this material.
 
http://www.cobbk12.org/board/

The last line: "I feel very fortunate that we have the Sharia." (Georgia public school lesson)

Have a look at the Georgia lesson plan for children I reported on here, This document  is hosted on a public school district's official website. http://schoolwires.henry.k12.ga.us/437720430143529100/lib/437720430143529100/My_Name_is_Ahlima.pdf
(thanks to Kamala)

The actual school district web site is here: http://schoolwires.henry.k12.ga.us/henry/site/default.asp
I have taken screenshots of everything, because as soon as I expose this dawah, the school official quislings take them down. So they know that what they are promoting is wrong.

Ahlima's story in all its glory. Is it any wonder that parents protested?

This should be sent to Georgia senators Chambliss and Isakson, congressmen here, Governor Deal, etc. Atlas readers, it is up to you to root out this insidious subversion. You must shine the light on this inculcation and raise a ruckus. You are the freedom cop on the beat in your neighborhood. Where you see freedom threatened, fight back. I will help you.

I suggest polite notes be sent to the superintendent here. This is not education, this is proselytizing. It is time our children were taught about the 270 million victims of over a millennium of jihadi wars, land appropriations, cultural annihilations and enslavements. And the systematic dehumanization of women, honor killings, clitorectomies .......

Bear in mind that these letters are fictitious. Propaganda created to softsell misogyny. Where is the caning? Where is the prohibition of women leaving the house without a male family member? Where is the prohibition of women driving?

Saudi Arabia has strict laws on male guardianship and sex segregation.  Male guardianship simply means that every female must have a male guardian who has authority over her on practically everything. In March this year, a court in Saudi Arabia sentenced a 75-year old widow from Syria now living in Saudi Arabia to 40 lashes of the cane, 4 months imprisonment, and deportation from Saudi Arabia for violating the sex segregation rule.

From my book, Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance:

Islamic supremacist groups have for quite some time consulted with public school textbook publishers and made sure that material presented on Islam was heavily slanted, even to the point of proselytizing. Combine that with the anti-Western multiculturalist bias of the publishers themselves, and the result is a large number of public school textbooks that denigrate Judeo-Christian Western civilization and portray Islam in a glowingly positive light.
The American Textbook Council, an independent national textbook monitoring organization, issued a report in 2008 that showed that many commonly used public school textbooks “present an incomplete and confected view of Islam that misrepresents its foundations and challenges to international security.” For example, the popular middle school text Across the Centuries defines jihad as a struggle “to do one’s best to resist temptation and overcome evil.”122 Another middle school text in common use, History Alive! The Medieval World and Beyond, is just as distorted: “Muslims should fulfill jihad with the heart, tongue, and hand. Muslims use the heart in their struggle to resist evil. The tongue may convince others to take up worthy causes, such as funding medical research. Hands may perform good works and correct wrongs.” Not a word about war, conquest, or subjugation.[....]

In May 2010, the Islamic Web site Sound Vision published a six- step plan by the founding director of the Council on Islamic Education, Shabbir Mansuri, on how to pressure public school authorities into allowing special accommodation for Muslims. These included “knowing what laws and regulations govern the issue of religious accommoda- tion”—Islamic groups make skillful use of government directives requiring reasonable accommodation of religious practices. Mansuri also directed Muslims to make friends with a teacher and enlist him or her as an ally, even inviting the teacher over for dinner; to “leave a paper trail, but first, be really nice” (at first!); and to repeat these steps as necessary with the school principal and even the district superintendent. The Muslim complainant is never to give up until the concessions are granted.
If this guide shows us anything, it’s what idiots they take us for. This is, of course, an outrage. None of this should be introduced into the public school. If this is what Muslim parents want, they should send their children to madrassah.
This Islamic supremacist was directing Muslims to make friends with teachers and education officials in order to use them, and to take advantage of procedures and practices instituted by short-sighted American multiculturalists to gain yet another advantage for Islam.
The freedom fighter need not and should not resort to such subter- fuges. But you can and should learn from the opposition. You should be no less informed, determined, and persistent.

Video: Pamela Geller's Speech at Freedom Center, Wednesday Morning Club

 

Front Page Magazine has posted the video of my remarks at the David Horowitz Freedom Center's Wednesday Morning Club at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

Islamizing the Hospitals: Muslima Cries "Religious Discrimination" after Hospital Refuses to Engage in Gender Discrimination

More demands and special accommodations for Islamic supremacism in the workplace -- this is nothing more than forcing, imposing Islam on the secular marketplace.

Muslim Convert Janice Brown Cries "Religious Discrimination" after Hospital Refuses to Engage in Gender Discrimination Answering Muslims

Muslims are trying really, really hard to be the victims, and the media are trying really, really hard to make their wish come true.

Janice Brown is a convert to Islam. Based on her reading of the Qur'an, she believes that it would be a sin to take off her clothes in the presence of a male doctor. Hence, when she needed treatment for hemorrhoidal bleeding, she requested a female doctor. The hospital, however, refused to discriminate based on gender. That is, they refused to seek out a female doctor for Brown when a perfectly capable male doctor was available. The result? Brown is now claiming that, by refusing to discriminate against a doctor based on gender, the hospital discriminated against a Muslim based on religion. The media are supporting her, and the hospital is launching an investigation.

Now for the hilarious part. In the video below, Brown quotes from the Mohsin Khan translation of Surah 24:31 to explain why she can't take off her clothes in front of a male doctor. Apparently, no one over at Fox News bothered to read the entire verse when they decided to take Brown's discrimination claim seriously. The verse reads:

And tell the believing women to lower their gaze (from looking at forbidden things), and protect their private parts (from illegal sexual acts, etc.) and not to show off their adornment except only that which is apparent (like palms of hands or one eye or both eyes for necessity to see the way, or outer dress like veil, gloves, head-cover, apron, etc.), and to draw their veils all over Juyubihinna (i.e. their bodies, faces, necks and bosoms, etc.) and not to reveal their adornment except to their husbands, their fathers, their husband's fathers, their sons, their husband's sons, their brothers or their brother's sons, or their sister's sons, or their (Muslim) women (i.e. their sisters in Islam), or the (female) slaves whom their right hands possess, or old male servants who lack vigour, or small children who have no sense of the shame of sex. And let them not stamp their feet so as to reveal what they hide of their adornment. And all of you beg Allah to forgive you all, O believers, that you may be successful.

Notice that this translation commands Brown to cover her face (except for one or both eyes). Yet when she's being interviewed for her anti-Muslim discrimination clip, she wears a simple hijab:

Notice also that the translation she quotes never says it's okay for female doctors to examine her. The Mohsin Khan translation only allows certain men, Muslim women, female slaves, and children to see Brown's "adornment." Hence, her request to the hospital should have gone something like this:

"I need to see a doctor. But I will only allow a doctor to examine me if the doctor is my husband, or my father, or my husband's father, or my son, or my husband's son, or my brother, or my brother's son, or my sister's son, or my sister in Islam, or my female slave, or an old male servant who lacks vigor, or a small child. And if you do not provide me with such a doctor, you are a hate-mongering, Islamophobic bigot who is discriminating against my religion!"

On a side note, I have to ask a question. What's more disturbing: (a) letting a trained male medical doctor treat your hemorrhoidal bleeding, or (b) letting your son, your stepson, your nephew, old men, and young children look at your vagina? According to Brown, (b) is perfectly acceptable, while (a) is an abomination.

Strange religion she converted to.

Muslim Woman: Hospital Mocked Her Faith: MyFoxPHILLY.com

FOXNEWS--A Muslim woman says she was forced to leave Abington Memorial Hospital without the care she needed, after a hospital staffer insulted her religion.

Janice Brown, 25, is a convert to the Islamic faith. And she suffers from periodic hemmoroidal bleeding, dating back to the birth of her daughter.

Late Thursday night, that bleeding led brown to the emergency room at Abington Memorial.

Brown says she'd called ahead, verifying that she'd be examined by a female doctor.

As a Muslim, it would be a sin for Janice to allow a non-related man to see her uncovered genital region.

But once inside the examination room, she was greeted by a man.

"The charge nurse came in- his name was James, though he went by Jim- and he told me that Abington Hospital does not discriminate and I'm not allowed to choose a preference whether i see a male doctor or a female doctor," says Brown.

The hospital's own web site includes a list of patients' rights that includes the right to medical and nursing services without discrimination based upon religion.

Janice's sister had joined her and confronted told the charge nurse.

"'You're asking her to go against her beliefs and commit sins because you don't want to find her a female doctor," she said.

And he said, 'I'm sure god will forgive her.'"

"I don't know if it was more of a mocking thing coming from the charge nurse- for him to tell me, 'oh, God's gonna forgive you.' You're not the one to make that decision in my life," says Janice Brown.

Brown says she stormed out and ultimately drove 45 minutes to another hospital, where she was treated without incident by a female physician.

She got home at 4 a.m.

"I think it's just a form of ignorance, basically. People not knowing or not taking the time to know or educate themselves about other religions so they can be sympathetic," said Brown.

Read the rest here.

Islamizing the Public Schools: School’s curriculum on Islam adjusted after parent protests

Kudos to the parents that opposed this dawah and subjugation of women. This is exactly one of the action points outlined in my book, "Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance."

Hal Medlin, American hero.

School’s curriculum on Mideast adjusted after parent protests Marietta Daily Journal September 22, 2011

MARIETTA – Campbell Middle School has adjusted its curriculum on the Middle East after a parent complained that material provided for one assignment “positively slants towards Islam.” The creator of the materials, though, said she doesn’t understand the objection.

Hal Medlin said the assignment, sent home with his seventh-grader in late August, was aimed at helping students outline the pros and cons of school uniforms. The material includes a letter from a woman who is explaining why she is “proud and happy” to be Muslim and a list of seven conditions for women’s dress in Islam.

Neither Medlin nor district officials would identify the teacher.

“I thought this was absurd,” said Medlin, who describes himself conservative. “(The teacher) was trying to compare Islamic rules of dress and how they compared to school uniforms, which I thought was a stretch. The principal and the (superintendent) agreed with me … but they wouldn’t agree with my premise that it put Islam in a positive light because of the (statements).”

Here are excerpts from some of the material Medlin objected to, titled “My Name is Ahlima” and copyright by InspirEd Educators Inc. It is printed here with permission:

“My name is Ahlima and I live in Saudi Arabia. … Perhaps two differences Westerners would notice are that women here do not drive cars and they wear abuyah. An abuyah is a loose-fitting black cloth that covers a woman from head to toe. I like wearing the abuyah since it is very comfortable, and I am protected from blowing sand. … I have seen pictures of women in the West and find their dress to be horribly immodest. … Women in the West do not have the protection of the Sharia as we do here. If our marriage has problems, my husband can take another wife rather than divorce me, and I would still be cared for. … I feel very fortunate that we have the Sharia.”

Said Medlin: “If you take these three pieces of paper at face value and stick them out there, how can you not say that it’s positively promoting religion, particularly Islam? I want them to agree that it should not go out.”

But Sharon Coletti, the founder of Roswell-based InspirEd Educators and the creator of the material at issue, said she does not see Medlin’s objection.

“This particular sequence is a two-day social studies lesson. They read this letter and then examine stereotyping. The next lesson is a compare and contrast on the role of women in the middle East. Yes, the Muslim girl stereotypes Western women, but are there ways we stereotype Muslims? I have no idea what the objection is,” she said.

All public middle school students in Georgia spend 12 weeks learning about the Middle East, and that includes religions in that region, including the dominant Islam, she said.

“It’s important for kids to have some empathy for other people in the world. Some people think we’re trying to teach their children to be Muslims, and that could not be more ridiculous,” Coletti said.

Read more: the rest here

Media Advisory: Pamela Geller on Sean Hannity's Show on Fox News, Tonight, 9PM

Hey Atlas readers, I will be appearing on Sean Hannity's show on the FOX news channel tonight at 9pm. We will be discussing my new book Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance, the "Palestinian" bid for a jihad terror state, and Israel caught in the crosshairs.

Tune in ......

O'Day on a Friday Night Open Thread

 

Anita O'Day, Stella by Starlight .....I hold O'Day in the same supreme regard as the other two giants of jazz, Billie and Sarah. Oh yes, O'Day is all that.

Full TEXT/VIDEO of Prime Minister Netanyahu: "The Truth is ........."

TEXT OF PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU'S SPEECH TO THE UN

Ladies and gentlemen, Israel has extended its hand in peace from the moment it was established 63 years ago. On behalf of Israel and the Jewish people, I extend that hand again today. I extend it to the people of Egypt and Jordan, with renewed friendship for neighbors with whom we have made peace. I extend it to the people of Turkey, with respect and good will. I extend it to the people of Libya and Tunisia, with admiration for those trying to build a democratic future. I extend it to the other peoples of North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, with whom we want to forge a new beginning. I extend it to the people of Syria, Lebanon and Iran, with awe at the courage of those fighting brutal repression.

But most especially, I extend my hand to the Palestinian people, with whom we seek a just and lasting peace.

Ladies and gentlemen, in Israel our hope for peace never wanes. Our scientists, doctors, innovators, apply their genius to improve the world of tomorrow. Our artists, our writers, enrich the heritage of humanity. Now, I know that this is not exactly the image of Israel that is often portrayed in this hall. After all, it was here in 1975 that the age-old yearning of my people to restore our national life in our ancient biblical homeland — it was then that this was braided — branded, rather — shamefully, as racism. And it was here in 1980, right here, that the historic peace agreement between Israel and Egypt wasn’t praised; it was denounced! And it’s here year after year that Israel is unjustly singled out for condemnation. It’s singled out for condemnation more often than all the nations of the world combined. Twenty-one out of the 27 General Assembly resolutions condemn Israel — the one true democracy in the Middle East.

Well, this is an unfortunate part of the U.N. institution. It’s the — the theater of the absurd. It doesn’t only cast Israel as the villain; it often casts real villains in leading roles: Gadhafi’s Libya chaired the U.N. Commission on Human Rights; Saddam’s Iraq headed the U.N. Committee on Disarmament.

You might say: That’s the past. Well, here’s what’s happening now — right now, today. Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon now presides over the U.N. Security Council. This means, in effect, that a terror organization presides over the body entrusted with guaranteeing the world’s security.

You couldn’t make this thing up.

So here in the U.N., automatic majorities can decide anything. They can decide that the sun sets in the west or rises in the west. I think the first has already been pre-ordained. But they can also decide — they have decided that the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Judaism’s holiest place, is occupied Palestinian territory.

And yet even here in the General Assembly, the truth can sometimes break through. In 1984 when I was appointed Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, I visited the great rabbi of Lubavich. He said to me — and ladies and gentlemen, I don’t want any of you to be offended because from personal experience of serving here, I know there are many honorable men and women, many capable and decent people serving their nations here. But here’s what the rebbe said to me. He said to me, you’ll be serving in a house of many lies. And then he said, remember that even in the darkest place, the light of a single candle can be seen far and wide.

Today I hope that the light of truth will shine, if only for a few minutes, in a hall that for too long has been a place of darkness for my country. So as Israel’s prime minister, I didn’t come here to win applause. I came here to speak the truth. The truth is — the truth is that Israel wants peace. The truth is that I want peace. The truth is that in the Middle East at all times, but especially during these turbulent days, peace must be anchored in security. The truth is that we cannot achieve peace through U.N. resolutions, but only through direct negotiations between the parties. The truth is that so far the Palestinians have refused to negotiate. The truth is that Israel wants peace with a Palestinian state, but the Palestinians want a state without peace. And the truth is you shouldn’t let that happen.

Ladies and gentlemen, when I first came here 27 years ago, the world was divided between East and West. Since then the Cold War ended, great civilizations have risen from centuries of slumber, hundreds of millions have been lifted out of poverty, countless more are poised to follow, and the remarkable thing is that so far this monumental historic shift has largely occurred peacefully. Yet a malignancy is now growing between East and West that threatens the peace of all. It seeks not to liberate, but to enslave, not to build, but to destroy.

That malignancy is militant Islam. It cloaks itself in the mantle of a great faith, yet it murders Jews, Christians and Muslims alike with unforgiving impartiality. On September 11th it killed thousands of Americans, and it left the twin towers in smoldering ruins. Last night I laid a wreath on the 9/11 memorial. It was deeply moving. But as I was going there, one thing echoed in my mind: the outrageous words of the president of Iran on this podium yesterday. He implied that 9/11 was an American conspiracy. Some of you left this hall. All of you should have.

Since 9/11, militant Islamists slaughtered countless other innocents — in London and Madrid, in Baghdad and Mumbai, in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, in every part of Israel. I believe that the greatest danger facing our world is that this fanaticism will arm itself with nuclear weapons. And this is precisely what Iran is trying to do.

Can you imagine that man who ranted here yesterday — can you imagine him armed with nuclear weapons? The international community must stop Iran before it’s too late. If Iran is not stopped, we will all face the specter of nuclear terrorism, and the Arab Spring could soon become an Iranian winter. That would be a tragedy. Millions of Arabs have taken to the streets to replace tyranny with liberty, and no one would benefit more than Israel if those committed to freedom and peace would prevail.

This is my fervent hope. But as the prime minister of Israel, I cannot risk the future of the Jewish state on wishful thinking. Leaders must see reality as it is, not as it ought to be. We must do our best to shape the future, but we cannot wish away the dangers of the present.

And the world around Israel is definitely becoming more dangerous. Militant Islam has already taken over Lebanon and Gaza. It’s determined to tear apart the peace treaties between Israel and Egypt and between Israel and Jordan. It’s poisoned many Arab minds against Jews and Israel, against America and the West. It opposes not the policies of Israel but the existence of Israel.

Now, some argue that the spread of militant Islam, especially in these turbulent times — if you want to slow it down, they argue, Israel must hurry to make concessions, to make territorial compromises. And this theory sounds simple. Basically it goes like this: Leave the territory, and peace will be advanced. The moderates will be strengthened, the radicals will be kept at bay. And don’t worry about the pesky details of how Israel will actually defend itself; international troops will do the job.

These people say to me constantly: Just make a sweeping offer, and everything will work out. You know, there’s only one problem with that theory. We’ve tried it and it hasn’t worked. In 2000 Israel made a sweeping peace offer that met virtually all of the Palestinian demands. Arafat rejected it. The Palestinians then launched a terror attack that claimed a thousand Israeli lives.

Prime Minister Olmert afterwards made an even more sweeping offer, in 2008. President Abbas didn’t even respond to it.

But Israel did more than just make sweeping offers. We actually left territory. We withdrew from Lebanon in 2000 and from every square inch of Gaza in 2005. That didn’t calm the Islamic storm, the militant Islamic storm that threatens us. It only brought the storm closer and make it stronger.

Hezbollah and Hamas fired thousands of rockets against our cities from the very territories we vacated. See, when Israel left Lebanon and Gaza, the moderates didn’t defeat the radicals, the moderates were devoured by the radicals. And I regret to say that international troops like UNIFIL in Lebanon and UBAM (ph) in Gaza didn’t stop the radicals from attacking Israel.

We left Gaza hoping for peace.

We didn’t freeze the settlements in Gaza, we uprooted them. We did exactly what the theory says: Get out, go back to the 1967 borders, dismantle the settlements.

And I don’t think people remember how far we went to achieve this. We uprooted thousands of people from their homes. We pulled children out of — out of their schools and their kindergartens. We bulldozed synagogues. We even — we even moved loved ones from their graves. And then, having done all that, we gave the keys of Gaza to President Abbas.

Now the theory says it should all work out, and President Abbas and the Palestinian Authority now could build a peaceful state in Gaza. You can remember that the entire world applauded. They applauded our withdrawal as an act of great statesmanship. It was a bold act of peace.

But ladies and gentlemen, we didn’t get peace. We got war. We got Iran, which through its proxy Hamas promptly kicked out the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Authority collapsed in a day — in one day.

President Abbas just said on this podium that the Palestinians are armed only with their hopes and dreams. Yeah, hopes, dreams and 10,000 missiles and Grad rockets supplied by Iran, not to mention the river of lethal weapons now flowing into Gaza from the Sinai, from Libya, and from elsewhere.

Thousands of missiles have already rained down on our cities. So you might understand that, given all this, Israelis rightly ask: What’s to prevent this from happening again in the West Bank? See, most of our major cities in the south of the country are within a few dozen kilometers from Gaza. But in the center of the country, opposite the West Bank, our cities are a few hundred meters or at most a few kilometers away from the edge of the West Bank.

So I want to ask you. Would any of you — would any of you bring danger so close to your cities, to your families? Would you act so recklessly with the lives of your citizens? Israel is prepared to have a Palestinian state in the West Bank, but we’re not prepared to have another Gaza there. And that’s why we need to have real security arrangements, which the Palestinians simply refuse to negotiate with us.

Israelis remember the bitter lessons of Gaza. Many of Israel’s critics ignore them. They irresponsibly advise Israel to go down this same perilous path again. Your read what these people say and it’s as if nothing happened — just repeating the same advice, the same formulas as though none of this happened.

And these critics continue to press Israel to make far-reaching concessions without first assuring Israel’s security. They praise those who unwittingly feed the insatiable crocodile of militant Islam as bold statesmen. They cast as enemies of peace those of us who insist that we must first erect a sturdy barrier to keep the crocodile out, or at the very least jam an iron bar between its gaping jaws.

So in the face of the labels and the libels, Israel must heed better advice. Better a bad press than a good eulogy, and better still would be a fair press whose sense of history extends beyond breakfast, and which recognizes Israel’s legitimate security concerns.

I believe that in serious peace negotiations, these needs and concerns can be properly addressed, but they will not be addressed without negotiations. And the needs are many, because Israel is such a tiny country. Without Judea and Samaria, the West Bank, Israel is all of 9 miles wide.

I want to put it for you in perspective, because you’re all in the city. That’s about two-thirds the length of Manhattan. It’s the distance between Battery Park and Columbia University. And don’t forget that the people who live in Brooklyn and New Jersey are considerably nicer than some of Israel’s neighbors.

So how do you — how do you protect such a tiny country, surrounded by people sworn to its destruction and armed to the teeth by Iran? Obviously you can’t defend it from within that narrow space alone. Israel needs greater strategic depth, and that’s exactly why Security Council Resolution 242 didn’t require Israel to leave all the territories it captured in the Six-Day War. It talked about withdrawal from territories, to secure and defensible boundaries. And to defend itself, Israel must therefore maintain a long-term Israeli military presence in critical strategic areas in the West Bank.

I explained this to President Abbas. He answered that if a Palestinian state was to be a sovereign country, it could never accept such arrangements. Why not? America has had troops in Japan, Germany and South Korea for more than a half a century. Britain has had an airspace in Cyprus or rather an air base in Cyprus. France has forces in three independent African nations. None of these states claim that they’re not sovereign countries.

And there are many other vital security issues that also must be addressed. Take the issue of airspace. Again, Israel’s small dimensions create huge security problems. America can be crossed by jet airplane in six hours. To fly across Israel, it takes three minutes. So is Israel’s tiny airspace to be chopped in half and given to a Palestinian state not at peace with Israel?

Our major international airport is a few kilometers away from the West Bank. Without peace, will our planes become targets for antiaircraft missiles placed in the adjacent Palestinian state? And how will we stop the smuggling into the West Bank? It’s not merely the West Bank, it’s the West Bank mountains. It just dominates the coastal plain where most of Israel’s population sits below. How could we prevent the smuggling into these mountains of those missiles that could be fired on our cities?

I bring up these problems because they’re not theoretical problems. They’re very real. And for Israelis, they’re life-and- death matters. All these potential cracks in Israel’s security have to be sealed in a peace agreement before a Palestinian state is declared, not afterwards, because if you leave it afterwards, they won’t be sealed. And these problems will explode in our face and explode the peace.

The Palestinians should first make peace with Israel and then get their state. But I also want to tell you this. After such a peace agreement is signed, Israel will not be the last country to welcome a Palestinian state as a new member of the United Nations. We will be the first.

And there’s one more thing. Hamas has been violating international law by holding our soldier Gilad Shalit captive for five years.

They haven’t given even one Red Cross visit. He’s held in a dungeon, in darkness, against all international norms. Gilad Shalit is the son of Aviva and Noam Shalit. He is the grandson of Zvi Shalit, who escaped the Holocaust by coming to the — in the 1930s as a boy to the land of Israel. Gilad Shalit is the son of every Israeli family. Every nation represented here should demand his immediate release. If you want to — if you want to pass a resolution about the Middle East today, that’s the resolution you should pass.

Ladies and gentlemen, last year in Israel in Bar-Ilan University, this year in the Knesset and in the U.S. Congress, I laid out my vision for peace in which a demilitarized Palestinian state recognizes the Jewish state. Yes, the Jewish state. After all, this is the body that recognized the Jewish state 64 years ago. Now, don’t you think it’s about time that Palestinians did the same?

The Jewish state of Israel will always protect the rights of all its minorities, including the more than 1 million Arab citizens of Israel. I wish I could say the same thing about a future Palestinian state, for as Palestinian officials made clear the other day — in fact, I think they made it right here in New York — they said the Palestinian state won’t allow any Jews in it. They’ll be Jew-free — Judenrein. That’s ethnic cleansing. There are laws today in Ramallah that make the selling of land to Jews punishable by death. That’s racism. And you know which laws this evokes.

Israel has no intention whatsoever to change the democratic character of our state. We just don’t want the Palestinians to try to change the Jewish character of our state. (Applause.) We want to give up — we want them to give up the fantasy of flooding Israel with millions of Palestinians.

President Abbas just stood here, and he said that the core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the settlements. Well, that’s odd. Our conflict has been raging for — was raging for nearly half a century before there was a single Israeli settlement in the West Bank. So if what President Abbas is saying was true, then the — I guess that the settlements he’s talking about are Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jaffa, Be’er Sheva. Maybe that’s what he meant the other day when he said that Israel has been occupying Palestinian land for 63 years. He didn’t say from 1967; he said from 1948. I hope somebody will bother to ask him this question because it illustrates a simple truth: The core of the conflict is not the settlements. The settlements are a result of the conflict. (Applause.)

The settlements have to be — it’s an issue that has to be addressed and resolved in the course of negotiations. But the core of the conflict has always been and unfortunately remains the refusal of the Palestinians to recognize a Jewish state in any border.

I think it’s time that the Palestinian leadership recognizes what every serious international leader has recognized, from Lord Balfour and Lloyd George in 1917, to President Truman in 1948, to President Obama just two days ago right here: Israel is the Jewish state.

President Abbas, stop walking around this issue. Recognize the Jewish state, and make peace with us. In such a genuine peace, Israel is prepared to make painful compromises. We believe that the Palestinians should be neither the citizens of Israel nor its subjects. They should live in a free state of their own. But they should be ready, like us, for compromise. And we will know that they’re ready for compromise and for peace when they start taking Israel’s security requirements seriously and when they stop denying our historical connection to our ancient homeland.

I often hear them accuse Israel of Judaizing Jerusalem. That’s like accusing America of Americanizing Washington, or the British of Anglicizing London. You know why we’re called “Jews”? Because we come from Judea.

In my office in Jerusalem, there’s a — there’s an ancient seal. It’s a signet ring of a Jewish official from the time of the Bible. The seal was found right next to the Western Wall, and it dates back 2,700 years, to the time of King Hezekiah. Now, there’s a name of the Jewish official inscribed on the ring in Hebrew. His name was Netanyahu. That’s my last name. My first name, Benjamin, dates back a thousand years earlier to Benjamin — Binyamin — the son of Jacob, who was also known as Israel. Jacob and his 12 sons roamed these same hills of Judea and Sumeria 4,000 years ago, and there’s been a continuous Jewish presence in the land ever since.

And for those Jews who were exiled from our land, they never stopped dreaming of coming back: Jews in Spain, on the eve of their expulsion; Jews in the Ukraine, fleeing the pogroms; Jews fighting the Warsaw Ghetto, as the Nazis were circling around it. They never stopped praying, they never stopped yearning. They whispered: Next year in Jerusalem. Next year in the promised land.

As the prime minister of Israel, I speak for a hundred generations of Jews who were dispersed throughout the lands, who suffered every evil under the Sun, but who never gave up hope of restoring their national life in the one and only Jewish state.

Ladies and gentlemen, I continue to hope that President Abbas will be my partner in peace. I’ve worked hard to advance that peace. The day I came into office, I called for direct negotiations without preconditions. President Abbas didn’t respond. I outlined a vision of peace of two states for two peoples. He still didn’t respond. I removed hundreds of roadblocks and checkpoints, to ease freedom of movement in the Palestinian areas; this facilitated a fantastic growth in the Palestinian economy. But again — no response. I took the unprecedented step of freezing new buildings in the settlements for 10 months. No prime minister did that before, ever. Once again — you applaud, but there was no response. No response.

In the last few weeks, American officials have put forward ideas to restart peace talks. There were things in those ideas about borders that I didn’t like. There were things there about the Jewish state that I’m sure the Palestinians didn’t like.

But with all my reservations, I was willing to move forward on these American ideas.

President Abbas, why don’t you join me? We have to stop negotiating about the negotiations. Let’s just get on with it. Let’s negotiate peace.

I spent years defending Israel on the battlefield. I spent decades defending Israel in the court of public opinion. President Abbas, you’ve dedicated your life to advancing the Palestinian cause. Must this conflict continue for generations, or will we enable our children and our grandchildren to speak in years ahead of how we found a way to end it? That’s what we should aim for, and that’s what I believe we can achieve.

In two and a half years, we met in Jerusalem only once, even though my door has always been open to you. If you wish, I’ll come to Ramallah. Actually, I have a better suggestion. We’ve both just flown thousands of miles to New York. Now we’re in the same city. We’re in the same building. So let’s meet here today in the United Nations. Who’s there to stop us? What is there to stop us? If we genuinely want peace, what is there to stop us from meeting today and beginning peace negotiations?

And I suggest we talk openly and honestly. Let’s listen to one another. Let’s do as we say in the Middle East: Let’s talk “doogli” (ph). That means straightforward. I’ll tell you my needs and concerns. You’ll tell me yours. And with God’s help, we’ll find the common ground of peace.

There’s an old Arab saying that you cannot applaud with one hand. Well, the same is true of peace. I cannot make peace alone. I cannot make peace without you. President Abbas, I extend my hand — the hand of Israel — in peace. I hope that you will grasp that hand. We are both the sons of Abraham. My people call him Avraham. Your people call him Ibrahim. We share the same patriarch. We dwell in the same land. Our destinies are intertwined. Let us realize the vision of Isaiah — (speaks in Hebrew) — “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light.” Let that light be the light of peace.

VIDEO: Imam Calling for War against France, Muslims March Screaming "Death to the Jews!"

Maxine Lepante just sent me this shocking video with these remarks:

We have just released a new and very shocking video, made in Paris last Friday, September 16th, in the islamized district of Barbès (18th district of Paris).

Days before this Friday, the French Interior Minister (Claude Guéant) had said publicly, on TV, that all the public Muslim prayers are for now on forbidden in France.

So, we sent a special reporter in the streets where, each Friday, for 15 years, the Muslims had been praying illegally on the ground. Our reporter videotaped a salafist preacher calling for war against France, in front of the Polonceau mosque (in the 18th district of Paris), and calling for the death of the French police and the French people "pigs".

Then, he videotaped pro-Hamas extremists marching in the streets of Paris with a big Hamas flag, and screaming "Death to the Jews !" And, then, he videotaped the Muslims praying on the ground in front of a barracks that had been renovated by the French authorities for them. (of course, this renovation was illegal, since it is forbidden to give public funds to a religion)


This video is in French. If someone wants to translate it into English, please don't remove our logo at the end of the video, and give the link to our original video, to our YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/ciceropicas) and to our organization's website (http://ripostelaique.com/).

French Atlas readers, please translate and post in comments, or email me at PamelaGeller@gmail.com.

UPDATE: Armaros said:

I have no time for a detailed translation but here s the gist of it:

The guy with the long hair and keffiyeh is basically warning of an uprising in at least 5 boroughs.
He clearly states "It will explode" a number of times.

Usual threat of violence... what else is new...

He accuses France of supporting Israel and alleges that the Le Pen led FN (far right party) is the most pro Israel in France (totally false, Jean Marie Le Pen minimized the holocaust and was known as a fascist racist)

The man then attacks France claims that prayer is their right as citizens and that because they pay taxes, they have the right to pray in public ( I guess he never went to school in France because no other country makes the faith-state separation more clear than France)

Then the Hamas marchers come and chant the usual, Kill the Jews and Allah Akbar .... 
The film maker notices that there are no women in the Muslim crowds and that this was the "first day without street prayers in Paris" sarcastically.

Huge Infidel Victory: UC Muslim Students Found Guilty On All Counts of Disrupting Meeting and Shutting Down Free Speech

 

Justice was served today in a California courtroom. A six-man, six-woman jury found members of the Muslim Brotherhood group, the Muslim Student Union, guilty on all counts of misdemeanor disturbing a public meeting and conspiracy in connection with the Feb. 8, 2010.

They deliberately broke the law. They deliberately disrupted and shut down Ambassador to Israel Michael Oren's, speech, knowing full well that they risked arrest. The stealth jihadists use freedom of speech to shut down freedom of speech. There is no freedom of speech under the sharia. Today American law triumphed over the sharia.

Atlas readers and others are to be applauded for urging the DA to prosecute the Muslim Brotherhood supremacist group. The Irvine 11 are the MSU students at UC Irvine who are accused of disrupting Ambassador Oren's speech. This was an orchestrated attack on free speech. Please take a minute to email Tony Rackauckas, the Orange County DA, letting him know you support his decision to prosecute these MSU students. Muslim Brotherhood-tied CAIR pushed for an aggressive plan to stop this prosecution. Both groups were named as Brotherhood proxies and unindicted co-conspirators in the largest Hamas funding trial in American history.

No modern phenomenon has impacted college campuses today more than the Muslim Student Association/Union. Founded in 1963 by the Muslim Brotherhood — the same radical Sunni organization that spawned the terror group Hamas — the MSU has since made headlines around the country due to its militant and controversial rhetoric. The MSU, especially that of University of California at Irvine, is infamous for attracting charges of anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism, as well as for sparking the 2007 investigation of UCI for anti-Semitism. The MSU is no stranger to the First Amendment. Come May every year, the organizations hides behind it so its members can spout anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic remarks on college campuses. And just last February, MSU members at UCI attempted to use their right to free speech in order to deny Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren his own free speech. (more here.)

The Brotherhood thugs:

Atlas Shrugs, Feb 2010: Oren was interrupted 10 times while trying to give his speech before 500 people at the UCI Student Center, where there was heavy security. Oren took a 20 minute break after the fourth protest, asked for hospitality and resumed his speech, only to be interrupted again by young men yelling at him every few minutes. Many members of the audience also applauded Oren.

After the 10th interruption, several dozens students who opposed Oren’s talk got up and walked out and staged a protest outside. It is not clear whether they were members of the UCI Muslim Student Union, which issued an email earlier in the day condemning Oren’s appearance on campus.

 They invoke freedom of speech to to kill freedom of speech. There is no free speech under the sharia. Today American law triumphed over the sharia.

UC Muslim students guilty of disturbing speech (hat tip Laurie R)

SANTA ANA – A jury Thursday found 10 Muslim university students guilty of disrupting a speech by an Israeli diplomat at UC Irvine last year, in a case that focused on free speech.

The six-man, six-woman jury found the students guilty on all counts of misdemeanor disturbing a public meeting and conspiracy in connection with the Feb. 8, 2010, talk by Michael Oren, the Israeli ambassador to the United States.

We're delighted the jury saw this the same way we saw it," said Assistant District Attorney Dan Wagner.

The prosecution said the defendants used a "heckler's veto" to thwart the free speech rights of the speaker and others in the audience, while the defense countered what the protesters did was a lawful expression of their free speech.

Defense attorney Dan Stormer said he was honored to represent the students, but disappointed in the verdict.

The jurors left the courtroom without comment immediately after the verdict was announced.

Court will reconvene at 1:30 this afternoon for a possible sentencing.

After months of pretrial motion, the trial lasted eight days, including about two days spent on closing arguments by one prosecutor and six defense attorneys earlier this week.

Wagner told jurors the protesters actions amounted to censorship when they planned to disrupt Oren and tried to cover it up.

The right to free speech is not absolute, he said, and it does not include canceling out the speech of others.

"If heckler's veto was allowed, then no one would have the right to free speech," he said. "Freedom does not mean that no one can tell me what I can do. That's not freedom; that's anarchy."

The prosecutor urged jurors not to buy into the "alternate reality" created by the defense, saying the defendants "convicted themselves."

Defense attorneys for the students – seven from UC Irvine and three from UC Riverside – said their clients intentionally disrupted the speech, but they believed they were conducting a peaceful protest that did not break any laws.

University officials' zero tolerance for protest kept students from exercising their rights to free speech, defense attorneys argued.

And, it they told jurors in Superior Court Judge Peter Wilson's court officials were prohibiting the content of the protesters' statements at a controversial political speech and not simply their conduct.

One of the elements the prosecution needed to prove for the jury to find the students guilty was the students' conduct and not the content of their message disrupted the speaker.

"It was the message that was being targeted by administrators," defense attorney Lisa Holder said, "The university was prohibiting (the students') unpopular pro-Palestinian message."

[...]

The "intent of the conspiracy was to rob the speaker of his free speech rights," Wagner told jurors, adding that a planned Q&A would have given students ample opportunity to have their say, not yelling out "something non-responsive that violates the rules we all live with."

When in an emailed "game plan" before the event students expressed willingness to disrupt regardless of what the university officials and police would do, that Wagner said was proof of conspiracy and the unlawfulness of the plan.

VIDEO: Netanyahu's Speech to the UN, "In Israel, Our hope for Peace Never Wanes" Urges Abbas to Meet With Him here, Now

VIDEO HERE

Crystal clarity.

LIVEBLOGGING: Netanyahu extends Israel's hand of peace to Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Turkey, all fighting brutal repression, but most expressly he extends his hand in peace to the Palestinians, with whom he seeks a just and lasting peace.

"In Israel, our hope for peace never wanes."

The desire for the Jewish people to live in their ancient homeland has been called here [in the UN] racism and denounced.

Israel is singled out for condemnation more times than all the other nations combined.

This is the unfortunate part of the UN ...."the theater of the absurd."

UPDATE: Netanyahu: Palestinians want state without peace YNET News

Responding to Abbas’ fiery anti-Israel speech, PM Netanyahu tells UN General Assembly Palestinians want state without peace; ‘Israel has extended its hand in peace from the moment it was established,’ he says. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took the podium at the United Nations General Assembly Friday evening, offering Israel’s response to a fiery anti-Israel speech delivered by the Palestinian leader earlier.

“Israel has extended its hand in peace from the moment it was established,” the prime minister said following Mahmoud Abbas’ speech.

The truth is that Israel wants peace, the truth is that I want peace,” he said, adding that “we cannot achieve peace through U.N. resolutions.”

FOX here:

In addressing the U.N. General Assembly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted to Palestine’s request for statehood. Netayahu said, “It’s here, year after year that Israel, is unjustly singled out for condemnation. It’s singled out for condemnation more often than all the nations of the world combined.”

Netanyahu said that he didn’t come to the United Nations for applause, but instead came to speak the truth. He continued, saying, “The truth is that Israel wants peace. The truth is that I want peace. The truth is that in the Middle East, at all times, but especially during these turbulent days, peace must be anchored in security.”

He argued that peace can’t be achieved through U.N. resolutions, but only through direct negotiations, which Palestine isn’t interested in.

Netanyahu went onto describe militant Islam as a “malignancy is growing between East and West,” that seeks to destroy.

UPDATE: From YNET News/FOX:

Responding to Abbas’ fiery anti-Israel speech, PM Netanyahu tells UN General Assembly Palestinians want state without peace; ‘Israel has extended its hand in peace from the moment it was established,’ he says

The Palestinians should recognize Israel as the Jewish state and make peace with it, before seeking a state of their own, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the UN General Assembly Friday.

“Israel has extended its hand in peace from the moment it was established,” offering Israel’s response to a fiery anti-Israel speech delivered by the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas earlier.

Netanyahu said that he extended his hand to the Arab nations of the Middle East “on behalf of Israel and the Jewish people,” and mostly to the Palestinian people, “with whom we seek a just and lasting peace.”

“I came here to speak the truth. The truth is that Israel wants peace. The truth is that I want peace. The truth is that Israel wants peace with the Palestinians, but they want a state without peace, and the truth is you shouldn’t let that happen,” he said. “The Palestinian should first make peace with Israel and then get their state. After peace is signed, Israel won’t be the last country to accept a Palestinian state – we will be the first.”

'Recognize Jewish state'

Declaring that Israel is a Jewish state, Netanyahu said: “We don’t want the Palestinian to change the Jewish character of the state. We want them to give up the fantasy of flooding Israel with millions of Palestinians. “

The prime minister added that settlements were not the main obstacle to peace, saying: “The core of the conflict is not the settlement, the settlements is a result of the conflict. The core of the conflict is the refusal of the Palestinians to recognize a Jewish state in any border.”

“Recognize the Jewish state and make peace with us,” he said, referring to Palestinian President Abbas.

Referring to the terrorism threat faced by Israel, the PM said: “Thousand of missiles have already rained down on our cities. So you might understand why Israelis rightfully ask what’s preventing it from happening again.”

UPDATE: J Post:

Palestinians want a state without peace," Netanyahu stated, telling the assembled diplomats, "You should not let that happen."

Netanyahu called on Abbas to renew peace talks immediately, "today at the United Nations."

"If we genuinely want peace, what is there to stop us," Netanyahu asked Abbas.

"With God's help lets find the common ground for peace. I can't make peace without you," Netanyahu said during his address.

Netanyahu criticized the hypocrisy of the United Nations, noting that the UN Security Council is now headed by Lebanon, who is controlled by Hezbollah - a group considered a terrorist organization by the United States, Israel, and the European Union.

The UN, Netanyahu said, denounces Israel more than any other nation.

The prime minister called comments by PA officials that Jews would not be allowed in a future Palestinian state "ethnic cleansing."

He called laws in Ramallah making the selling of land to Jews punishable by death "racism."

The prime minister stated that Palestinians should "give up the fantasy of flooding Israel" with millions of refugees, saying that he did not want Palestinians to try and change the Jewish character of the state.

Netanyahu called for the release of kidnapped IDf soldier Gilad Schalit.

"Every nation represented here should request his release," Netanyahu declared to applause.

"If you want to pass a resolution about the Middle East today, that's the resolution you should pass," the prime minister said.

UPDATE: Here is the full text of Netanyahu's speech:

Ladies and gentlemen, Israel has extended its hand in peace from the moment it was established 63 years ago. On behalf of Israel and the Jewish people, I extend that hand again today. I extend it to the people of Egypt and Jordan, with renewed friendship for neighbors with whom we have made peace. I extend it to the people of Turkey, with respect and good will. I extend it to the people of Libya and Tunisia, with admiration for those trying to build a democratic future. I extend it to the other peoples of North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, with whom we want to forge a new beginning. I extend it to the people of Syria, Lebanon and Iran, with awe at the courage of those fighting brutal repression.

But most especially, I extend my hand to the Palestinian people, with whom we seek a just and lasting peace.

Ladies and gentlemen, in Israel our hope for peace never wanes. Our scientists, doctors, innovators, apply their genius to improve the world of tomorrow. Our artists, our writers, enrich the heritage of humanity. Now, I know that this is not exactly the image of Israel that is often portrayed in this hall. After all, it was here in 1975 that the age-old yearning of my people to restore our national life in our ancient biblical homeland — it was then that this was braided — branded, rather — shamefully, as racism. And it was here in 1980, right here, that the historic peace agreement between Israel and Egypt wasn’t praised; it was denounced! And it’s here year after year that Israel is unjustly singled out for condemnation. It’s singled out for condemnation more often than all the nations of the world combined. Twenty-one out of the 27 General Assembly resolutions condemn Israel — the one true democracy in the Middle East.

Well, this is an unfortunate part of the U.N. institution. It’s the — the theater of the absurd. It doesn’t only cast Israel as the villain; it often casts real villains in leading roles: Gadhafi’s Libya chaired the U.N. Commission on Human Rights; Saddam’s Iraq headed the U.N. Committee on Disarmament.

You might say: That’s the past. Well, here’s what’s happening now — right now, today. Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon now presides over the U.N. Security Council. This means, in effect, that a terror organization presides over the body entrusted with guaranteeing the world’s security.

You couldn’t make this thing up.

So here in the U.N., automatic majorities can decide anything. They can decide that the sun sets in the west or rises in the west. I think the first has already been pre-ordained. But they can also decide — they have decided that the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Judaism’s holiest place, is occupied Palestinian territory.

And yet even here in the General Assembly, the truth can sometimes break through. In 1984 when I was appointed Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, I visited the great rabbi of Lubavich. He said to me — and ladies and gentlemen, I don’t want any of you to be offended because from personal experience of serving here, I know there are many honorable men and women, many capable and decent people serving their nations here. But here’s what the rebbe said to me. He said to me, you’ll be serving in a house of many lies. And then he said, remember that even in the darkest place, the light of a single candle can be seen far and wide.

Today I hope that the light of truth will shine, if only for a few minutes, in a hall that for too long has been a place of darkness for my country. So as Israel’s prime minister, I didn’t come here to win applause. I came here to speak the truth. The truth is — the truth is that Israel wants peace. The truth is that I want peace. The truth is that in the Middle East at all times, but especially during these turbulent days, peace must be anchored in security. The truth is that we cannot achieve peace through U.N. resolutions, but only through direct negotiations between the parties. The truth is that so far the Palestinians have refused to negotiate. The truth is that Israel wants peace with a Palestinian state, but the Palestinians want a state without peace. And the truth is you shouldn’t let that happen.

Ladies and gentlemen, when I first came here 27 years ago, the world was divided between East and West. Since then the Cold War ended, great civilizations have risen from centuries of slumber, hundreds of millions have been lifted out of poverty, countless more are poised to follow, and the remarkable thing is that so far this monumental historic shift has largely occurred peacefully. Yet a malignancy is now growing between East and West that threatens the peace of all. It seeks not to liberate, but to enslave, not to build, but to destroy.

That malignancy is militant Islam. It cloaks itself in the mantle of a great faith, yet it murders Jews, Christians and Muslims alike with unforgiving impartiality. On September 11th it killed thousands of Americans, and it left the twin towers in smoldering ruins. Last night I laid a wreath on the 9/11 memorial. It was deeply moving. But as I was going there, one thing echoed in my mind: the outrageous words of the president of Iran on this podium yesterday. He implied that 9/11 was an American conspiracy. Some of you left this hall. All of you should have.

Since 9/11, militant Islamists slaughtered countless other innocents — in London and Madrid, in Baghdad and Mumbai, in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, in every part of Israel. I believe that the greatest danger facing our world is that this fanaticism will arm itself with nuclear weapons. And this is precisely what Iran is trying to do.

Can you imagine that man who ranted here yesterday — can you imagine him armed with nuclear weapons? The international community must stop Iran before it’s too late. If Iran is not stopped, we will all face the specter of nuclear terrorism, and the Arab Spring could soon become an Iranian winter. That would be a tragedy. Millions of Arabs have taken to the streets to replace tyranny with liberty, and no one would benefit more than Israel if those committed to freedom and peace would prevail.

This is my fervent hope. But as the prime minister of Israel, I cannot risk the future of the Jewish state on wishful thinking. Leaders must see reality as it is, not as it ought to be. We must do our best to shape the future, but we cannot wish away the dangers of the present.

And the world around Israel is definitely becoming more dangerous. Militant Islam has already taken over Lebanon and Gaza. It’s determined to tear apart the peace treaties between Israel and Egypt and between Israel and Jordan. It’s poisoned many Arab minds against Jews and Israel, against America and the West. It opposes not the policies of Israel but the existence of Israel.

Now, some argue that the spread of militant Islam, especially in these turbulent times — if you want to slow it down, they argue, Israel must hurry to make concessions, to make territorial compromises. And this theory sounds simple. Basically it goes like this: Leave the territory, and peace will be advanced. The moderates will be strengthened, the radicals will be kept at bay. And don’t worry about the pesky details of how Israel will actually defend itself; international troops will do the job.

These people say to me constantly: Just make a sweeping offer, and everything will work out. You know, there’s only one problem with that theory. We’ve tried it and it hasn’t worked. In 2000 Israel made a sweeping peace offer that met virtually all of the Palestinian demands. Arafat rejected it. The Palestinians then launched a terror attack that claimed a thousand Israeli lives.

Prime Minister Olmert afterwards made an even more sweeping offer, in 2008. President Abbas didn’t even respond to it.

But Israel did more than just make sweeping offers. We actually left territory. We withdrew from Lebanon in 2000 and from every square inch of Gaza in 2005. That didn’t calm the Islamic storm, the militant Islamic storm that threatens us. It only brought the storm closer and make it stronger.

Hezbollah and Hamas fired thousands of rockets against our cities from the very territories we vacated. See, when Israel left Lebanon and Gaza, the moderates didn’t defeat the radicals, the moderates were devoured by the radicals. And I regret to say that international troops like UNIFIL in Lebanon and UBAM (ph) in Gaza didn’t stop the radicals from attacking Israel.

We left Gaza hoping for peace.

We didn’t freeze the settlements in Gaza, we uprooted them. We did exactly what the theory says: Get out, go back to the 1967 borders, dismantle the settlements.

And I don’t think people remember how far we went to achieve this. We uprooted thousands of people from their homes. We pulled children out of — out of their schools and their kindergartens. We bulldozed synagogues. We even — we even moved loved ones from their graves. And then, having done all that, we gave the keys of Gaza to President Abbas.

Now the theory says it should all work out, and President Abbas and the Palestinian Authority now could build a peaceful state in Gaza. You can remember that the entire world applauded. They applauded our withdrawal as an act of great statesmanship. It was a bold act of peace.

But ladies and gentlemen, we didn’t get peace. We got war. We got Iran, which through its proxy Hamas promptly kicked out the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Authority collapsed in a day — in one day.

President Abbas just said on this podium that the Palestinians are armed only with their hopes and dreams. Yeah, hopes, dreams and 10,000 missiles and Grad rockets supplied by Iran, not to mention the river of lethal weapons now flowing into Gaza from the Sinai, from Libya, and from elsewhere.

Thousands of missiles have already rained down on our cities. So you might understand that, given all this, Israelis rightly ask: What’s to prevent this from happening again in the West Bank? See, most of our major cities in the south of the country are within a few dozen kilometers from Gaza. But in the center of the country, opposite the West Bank, our cities are a few hundred meters or at most a few kilometers away from the edge of the West Bank.

So I want to ask you. Would any of you — would any of you bring danger so close to your cities, to your families? Would you act so recklessly with the lives of your citizens? Israel is prepared to have a Palestinian state in the West Bank, but we’re not prepared to have another Gaza there. And that’s why we need to have real security arrangements, which the Palestinians simply refuse to negotiate with us.

Israelis remember the bitter lessons of Gaza. Many of Israel’s critics ignore them. They irresponsibly advise Israel to go down this same perilous path again. Your read what these people say and it’s as if nothing happened — just repeating the same advice, the same formulas as though none of this happened.

And these critics continue to press Israel to make far-reaching concessions without first assuring Israel’s security. They praise those who unwittingly feed the insatiable crocodile of militant Islam as bold statesmen. They cast as enemies of peace those of us who insist that we must first erect a sturdy barrier to keep the crocodile out, or at the very least jam an iron bar between its gaping jaws.

So in the face of the labels and the libels, Israel must heed better advice. Better a bad press than a good eulogy, and better still would be a fair press whose sense of history extends beyond breakfast, and which recognizes Israel’s legitimate security concerns.

I believe that in serious peace negotiations, these needs and concerns can be properly addressed, but they will not be addressed without negotiations. And the needs are many, because Israel is such a tiny country. Without Judea and Samaria, the West Bank, Israel is all of 9 miles wide.

I want to put it for you in perspective, because you’re all in the city. That’s about two-thirds the length of Manhattan. It’s the distance between Battery Park and Columbia University. And don’t forget that the people who live in Brooklyn and New Jersey are considerably nicer than some of Israel’s neighbors.

So how do you — how do you protect such a tiny country, surrounded by people sworn to its destruction and armed to the teeth by Iran? Obviously you can’t defend it from within that narrow space alone. Israel needs greater strategic depth, and that’s exactly why Security Council Resolution 242 didn’t require Israel to leave all the territories it captured in the Six-Day War. It talked about withdrawal from territories, to secure and defensible boundaries. And to defend itself, Israel must therefore maintain a long-term Israeli military presence in critical strategic areas in the West Bank.

I explained this to President Abbas. He answered that if a Palestinian state was to be a sovereign country, it could never accept such arrangements. Why not? America has had troops in Japan, Germany and South Korea for more than a half a century. Britain has had an airspace in Cyprus or rather an air base in Cyprus. France has forces in three independent African nations. None of these states claim that they’re not sovereign countries.

And there are many other vital security issues that also must be addressed. Take the issue of airspace. Again, Israel’s small dimensions create huge security problems. America can be crossed by jet airplane in six hours. To fly across Israel, it takes three minutes. So is Israel’s tiny airspace to be chopped in half and given to a Palestinian state not at peace with Israel?

Our major international airport is a few kilometers away from the West Bank. Without peace, will our planes become targets for antiaircraft missiles placed in the adjacent Palestinian state? And how will we stop the smuggling into the West Bank? It’s not merely the West Bank, it’s the West Bank mountains. It just dominates the coastal plain where most of Israel’s population sits below. How could we prevent the smuggling into these mountains of those missiles that could be fired on our cities?

I bring up these problems because they’re not theoretical problems. They’re very real. And for Israelis, they’re life-and- death matters. All these potential cracks in Israel’s security have to be sealed in a peace agreement before a Palestinian state is declared, not afterwards, because if you leave it afterwards, they won’t be sealed. And these problems will explode in our face and explode the peace.

The Palestinians should first make peace with Israel and then get their state. But I also want to tell you this. After such a peace agreement is signed, Israel will not be the last country to welcome a Palestinian state as a new member of the United Nations. We will be the first.

And there’s one more thing. Hamas has been violating international law by holding our soldier Gilad Shalit captive for five years.

They haven’t given even one Red Cross visit. He’s held in a dungeon, in darkness, against all international norms. Gilad Shalit is the son of Aviva and Noam Shalit. He is the grandson of Zvi Shalit, who escaped the Holocaust by coming to the — in the 1930s as a boy to the land of Israel. Gilad Shalit is the son of every Israeli family. Every nation represented here should demand his immediate release. If you want to — if you want to pass a resolution about the Middle East today, that’s the resolution you should pass.

Ladies and gentlemen, last year in Israel in Bar-Ilan University, this year in the Knesset and in the U.S. Congress, I laid out my vision for peace in which a demilitarized Palestinian state recognizes the Jewish state. Yes, the Jewish state. After all, this is the body that recognized the Jewish state 64 years ago. Now, don’t you think it’s about time that Palestinians did the same?

The Jewish state of Israel will always protect the rights of all its minorities, including the more than 1 million Arab citizens of Israel. I wish I could say the same thing about a future Palestinian state, for as Palestinian officials made clear the other day — in fact, I think they made it right here in New York — they said the Palestinian state won’t allow any Jews in it. They’ll be Jew-free — Judenrein. That’s ethnic cleansing. There are laws today in Ramallah that make the selling of land to Jews punishable by death. That’s racism. And you know which laws this evokes.

Israel has no intention whatsoever to change the democratic character of our state. We just don’t want the Palestinians to try to change the Jewish character of our state. (Applause.) We want to give up — we want them to give up the fantasy of flooding Israel with millions of Palestinians.

President Abbas just stood here, and he said that the core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the settlements. Well, that’s odd. Our conflict has been raging for — was raging for nearly half a century before there was a single Israeli settlement in the West Bank. So if what President Abbas is saying was true, then the — I guess that the settlements he’s talking about are Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jaffa, Be’er Sheva. Maybe that’s what he meant the other day when he said that Israel has been occupying Palestinian land for 63 years. He didn’t say from 1967; he said from 1948. I hope somebody will bother to ask him this question because it illustrates a simple truth: The core of the conflict is not the settlements. The settlements are a result of the conflict. (Applause.)

The settlements have to be — it’s an issue that has to be addressed and resolved in the course of negotiations. But the core of the conflict has always been and unfortunately remains the refusal of the Palestinians to recognize a Jewish state in any border.

I think it’s time that the Palestinian leadership recognizes what every serious international leader has recognized, from Lord Balfour and Lloyd George in 1917, to President Truman in 1948, to President Obama just two days ago right here: Israel is the Jewish state.

President Abbas, stop walking around this issue. Recognize the Jewish state, and make peace with us. In such a genuine peace, Israel is prepared to make painful compromises. We believe that the Palestinians should be neither the citizens of Israel nor its subjects. They should live in a free state of their own. But they should be ready, like us, for compromise. And we will know that they’re ready for compromise and for peace when they start taking Israel’s security requirements seriously and when they stop denying our historical connection to our ancient homeland.

I often hear them accuse Israel of Judaizing Jerusalem. That’s like accusing America of Americanizing Washington, or the British of Anglicizing London. You know why we’re called “Jews”? Because we come from Judea.

In my office in Jerusalem, there’s a — there’s an ancient seal. It’s a signet ring of a Jewish official from the time of the Bible. The seal was found right next to the Western Wall, and it dates back 2,700 years, to the time of King Hezekiah. Now, there’s a name of the Jewish official inscribed on the ring in Hebrew. His name was Netanyahu. That’s my last name. My first name, Benjamin, dates back a thousand years earlier to Benjamin — Binyamin — the son of Jacob, who was also known as Israel. Jacob and his 12 sons roamed these same hills of Judea and Sumeria 4,000 years ago, and there’s been a continuous Jewish presence in the land ever since.

And for those Jews who were exiled from our land, they never stopped dreaming of coming back: Jews in Spain, on the eve of their expulsion; Jews in the Ukraine, fleeing the pogroms; Jews fighting the Warsaw Ghetto, as the Nazis were circling around it. They never stopped praying, they never stopped yearning. They whispered: Next year in Jerusalem. Next year in the promised land.

As the prime minister of Israel, I speak for a hundred generations of Jews who were dispersed throughout the lands, who suffered every evil under the Sun, but who never gave up hope of restoring their national life in the one and only Jewish state.

Ladies and gentlemen, I continue to hope that President Abbas will be my partner in peace. I’ve worked hard to advance that peace. The day I came into office, I called for direct negotiations without preconditions. President Abbas didn’t respond. I outlined a vision of peace of two states for two peoples. He still didn’t respond. I removed hundreds of roadblocks and checkpoints, to ease freedom of movement in the Palestinian areas; this facilitated a fantastic growth in the Palestinian economy. But again — no response. I took the unprecedented step of freezing new buildings in the settlements for 10 months. No prime minister did that before, ever. Once again — you applaud, but there was no response. No response.

In the last few weeks, American officials have put forward ideas to restart peace talks. There were things in those ideas about borders that I didn’t like. There were things there about the Jewish state that I’m sure the Palestinians didn’t like.

But with all my reservations, I was willing to move forward on these American ideas.

President Abbas, why don’t you join me? We have to stop negotiating about the negotiations. Let’s just get on with it. Let’s negotiate peace.

I spent years defending Israel on the battlefield. I spent decades defending Israel in the court of public opinion. President Abbas, you’ve dedicated your life to advancing the Palestinian cause. Must this conflict continue for generations, or will we enable our children and our grandchildren to speak in years ahead of how we found a way to end it? That’s what we should aim for, and that’s what I believe we can achieve.

In two and a half years, we met in Jerusalem only once, even though my door has always been open to you. If you wish, I’ll come to Ramallah. Actually, I have a better suggestion. We’ve both just flown thousands of miles to New York. Now we’re in the same city. We’re in the same building. So let’s meet here today in the United Nations. Who’s there to stop us? What is there to stop us? If we genuinely want peace, what is there to stop us from meeting today and beginning peace negotiations?

And I suggest we talk openly and honestly. Let’s listen to one another. Let’s do as we say in the Middle East: Let’s talk “doogli” (ph). That means straightforward. I’ll tell you my needs and concerns. You’ll tell me yours. And with God’s help, we’ll find the common ground of peace.

There’s an old Arab saying that you cannot applaud with one hand. Well, the same is true of peace. I cannot make peace alone. I cannot make peace without you. President Abbas, I extend my hand — the hand of Israel — in peace. I hope that you will grasp that hand. We are both the sons of Abraham. My people call him Avraham. Your people call him Ibrahim. We share the same patriarch. We dwell in the same land. Our destinies are intertwined. Let us realize the vision of Isaiah — (speaks in Hebrew) — “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light.” Let that light be the light of peace.

 

"Palestinians" Makes Formal Terror Statehood Bid at U.N., Wipes Israel Off the Map

Abbas is addressing the General Assembly after having just submitted his application for terror statehood. Abbas received a standing ovation as he approached the podium at that collective negation of humanity.

Abbas is describing the establishment of the state of Israel as the Nakba,  يوم النكبة Yawm an-Nakbah, the "catastrophe." Nothing changes, not for 64 years. Nothing -- the destruction of Israel is the end goal.

Eighteen years ago this week, on September 13, 1993, the PLO signed the Declaration of Principles with Israel on the White House lawn.

There, the terror group committed itself to a peace process in which all disputes between Israel and the PLO - including the issue of Palestinian statehood - would be settled in the framework of bilateral negotiations.

The PA was established on the basis of this accord. The territory, money, arms and international legitimacy it has been given was due entirely to the PLO pledge to resolve the Palestinian conflict with Israel through bilateral negotiations.

By abandoning negotiations with Israel two years ago, and opting instead to achieve its nationalist aims outside the framework of a peace treaty with Israel, the Palestinians are destroying the diplomatic edifice on which the entire concept of a peace process is based. They are announcing that they have no intention of living at peace with Israel. Rather they intend to move ahead at Israel's expense.

In truth, there is little new in the Palestinians' behavior. They have been using the UN to weaken Israel diplomatically since the early 1970s. Moreover, even if their bid does provide them with upgraded diplomatic status, it won't change the reality on the ground, nor are the Palestinians particularly interested in changing the situation on the ground. (Caroline Glick here)

We give 600 million dollars a year to these genocidal terrorists. We should cut it off today. They broke their pledge.

Palestinians make formal statehood bid at U.N. (CBS/AP) 

UNITED NATIONS - Defying U.S. and Israeli opposition, Palestinians asked the United Nations on Friday to accept them as a member state, sidestepping nearly two decades of troubled negotiations in the hope this dramatic move on the world stage would reenergize their quest for an independent homeland.

In the West Bank, the core of that hoped-for state, a Palestinian man was shot dead in a clash with Israeli soldiers and settlers as antagonisms flared over the statehood bid.

Earlier in the week, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rebuffed an intense, U.S.-led effort to sway him from the statehood bid, saying he would submit the application to U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon as planned.

We're going without any hesitation and continuing despite all the pressures," Abbas told members of the Palestinian diaspora at a hotel in New York on Thursday night. "We seek to achieve our right and we want our independent state." Shortly before noon on Friday, Ban's spokesman tweeted, "President Abbas just handed the Palestinian application to the Secretary-General UNSG."

In his letter to Ban accompanying the application, Abbas asked the U.N. chief to immediately forward the request for full U.N. membership to the Security Council and the General Assembly, according to a top aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity before the documents were submitted. The General Assembly will likely be asked to approve a more modest status upgrade if the bid in the council founders as expected.

To be sure, Abbas' appeal to the U.N. to recognize Palestinian independence in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip would not deliver any immediate changes on the ground: Israel would remain an occupying force in those first two territories and continue to severely restrict access to Gaza, ruled by Palestinian Hamas militants.

Beyond that, Security Council action on the membership request could take weeks or months, effectively buying time for both sides to consider revamped proposals for peace talks, notes CBS News foreign affairs analyst Pam Falk.

Both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Abbas are scheduled to speak to the UN General Assembly after the statehood bid has been submitted.

The logo of “the Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine to the United Nations” – on their website and on top of their official statements at the U.N. – shows the Palestinian Authority’s claim to a Palestine that stretches throughout the entire historical entity of the former Palestine mandate.

In other words, all of Israel. More at the Weekly Standard:

Absent from the logo is any hint that Palestine consists of anything other than Arab territory. No nod is given even to the U.N.’s 1948 decision to divide the region into Jewish and Arab sectors. As for the shape of Israel by the time it was forced into waging the defensive Six Day war in 1967: irrelevant. The logo illustrates that the Palestinian bid before the U.N. for support of a unilateral declaration of statehood is disingenuous and dangerous.

There is not too much left to the imagination here: Israel is “wiped off the map.”