2007: The West's Year Of Failure

[Cross-posted to THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS]

From this December 28, 2007 article in Spiegel Online International:

Ongoing difficulties in Iraq. A Taliban offensive in Afghanistan. And now the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan. For the West, 2007 has been a year of failure and missteps.

[...]

There are three lessons to be learned from the strategy followed by the US to this point.

Lesson one: The conflict with radical Islam is not the hobby of a US president gone berserk. This will become all the more clear next November when American voters go to the polls. Bush, who cannot run for re-election due to term limitations, will go, but the conflict with Islam will remain. In fact, it is growing more intense. That, at least, is what the murder of this exceptionally brave woman in Pakistan has given to the West: a high degree of clarity. The radical Islamists will not tolerate any democrats, even if they come from their own countries. They are looking for a showdown, apparently at any price. They will even accept the failure of a country as big and proud as Pakistan.

Lesson two: Bush will not be in a position to do much to end this conflict. He is a war president and an unsuccessful one at that. Even if he talks about diplomacy, it sounds like preparation for war. His partners in Berlin, Paris and London will have to act cleverly in this difficult situation. Any belligerence or crowing must be avoided so as to not damage the Western position as a whole. As strange as it might sound, this beleaguered president must be ushered into retirement with dignity and civility.

Lesson three: The classic military intervention -- Bush's formula against the danger of terrorism -- has not been successful up to now and will not be so in the future. And the situation in nuclear-armed Pakistan is clearly not one where any sort of military operation should be considered....

The article, avoiding insofar as possible any reference to Islam, emphasizes the role of diplomacy (Even with "thugs"!), which has been, for the most part over the past fourteen centuries, an abject failure with any Islamic nation. The Spiegel article, overlooking the religious element and the emphasis which Islamic terrorism places on Islamic jihadi-martyrs' status in eternity, also attempts to draw fallacious comparisons between the present clash of civilizations and the Cold War:

A look back and the Cold War -- an era full of provocations on both sides -- provides a useful model. In 1953, construction workers building the great Stalin Allee in East Berlin, rebelled against their communist government. Many in the Soviet zone hoped that the West would support their fight against the East German communist dictatorship. In West Berlin, the US propaganda station RIAS became shriller -- but nothing more was done.

In Budapest in 1956 there was the same calm discipline. The armed Hungarian students (this writer's father among them) rebelled against the Moscow puppet regime. They were hoping for Western help, but that hope was in vain. The students saw this as a betrayal. For tens of thousands, my father included, there was nothing to do but flee from the Soviet tanks rolling in.

The West's abstention was painful; in fact, it was unbearable -- but it made political sense.

These provocations continued until the dismal high point -- the military putsch by General Wojciech Jaruzelski in Warsaw in 1981. The armies of the West stayed in their barracks. Soviet Communism broke apart all by itself a short time later.

Toward the end, however, the article also states the following, thus ending on a contradictory note:

The West has to protect itself and its people with everything modern technology has placed at its disposal....[T]here is an important role to be played by the military and by secret services -- but primarily in the service of targeted operations against terror camps and cells. While mass invasions have proven useless, pinprick operations continue to have an important place in the West's arsenal.

In my view, the article overlooks a necessary component of victory in this long, long war against Islamic expansionism: Stop whitewashing Islam by calling it "the religion of peace."

[Hat-tip to Mark Alexander, where I found the article from Spiegel Online International]

Fairfax County Police Make Good Use Of Their DHS Grant

From this article in at Examiner.com:

New technology will allow Fairfax County police to identify someone on the street within a matter of seconds with a set of new tools they will share with departments elsewhere in northern Virginia.

A $14 million federal homeland security grant in 2005 allowed Fairfax police to purchase 50 units of a new portable Automated Fingerprint Identification System. The tool can scan two index fingers and search for a match among the approximately 1 million fingerprints on file in northern Virginia and the District of Columbia, Fairfax Lt. John V. Byrd said. A match will come back in about 30 seconds, often with a photograph, if a person's fingerprints are on file.

"This has the possibility to be the most effective tool for police since the two-way radio," Byrd said.

The portable units also can take a photo of a person and search for an image match, but that system is less reliable because there are fewer photographs than fingerprints on file, Byrd said.

Police believe the technology could significantly improve their ability to solve crimes, gather intelligence on gangs and combat terrorism, Byrd said.

"An officer on the street will be able to identify a person that he may or may not have been able to identify through other techniques," he said.

Most of the units will stay in Fairfax County. But the police department will share the technology with Arlington, Loudoun and Prince William counties, as well as with Fairfax City, Vienna, Herndon and Alexandria.

[...]

...Fairfax is the first jurisdiction to use machines that feature both fingerprint and photo recognition technology...

Now, let's hope that efficacious use of this new technology will be made.

This technology should be in use nationwide.

Weekly Radio Show: December 21

Listen to The Gathering Storm Radio Show, which WC and I cohost. The show broadcasts live every Friday for one hour at noon, Pacific Time.

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Friday, December 21: This week's guest for most of the hour will be blogger The Merry Widow, my adopted-from-the-Internet "sister." We'll be discussing with her superior vs. inferior cultures as well as silencing the voices that ask questions.

Note: If you are unable to listen live to the radio show, you can listen to recordings of the radio broadcasts later by CLICKING HERE.

Weekly Radio Show: December 28

Listen to The Gathering Storm Radio Show, which WC and I cohost. The show broadcasts live every Friday for one hour at noon, Pacific Time.

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Friday, December 28: This week's guest for the entire hour will be Cassandra, author of the book Escape! From an Arab Marriage: Horror Stories of Women Who Fled from Abusive Muslim Husbands and of the blog site No Slaves of Allah in America. We'll be discussing with Cassandra the unseen treachery behind the terrorist focus on Israel and the Palestinians.

Note: If you are unable to listen live to the radio show, you can listen to recordings of the radio broadcasts later by CLICKING HERE.

Weekly Radio Show: December 14

Listen to The Gathering Storm Radio Show, which WC and I cohost. The show broadcasts live every Friday for one hour at noon, Pacific Time.

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Friday, December 14: SPECIAL SHOW!

We're going to have a Blogger Slap Down, a type of debate suited to radio format. Three prominent bloggers who will give their opinionated responses to questions about what they see happening in Islam and the Left today.

Don't miss this show!

Note: If you are unable to listen live to the radio show, you can listen to recordings of the radio broadcasts later by CLICKING HERE.

Saudi Bucks At Our Universities

Photo credit
An accounting of the Saudi bucks infused into various universities all around the world has not been forthcoming as to the specificity of the usage of those funds. Isn't it important to reveal just what impact those billions have had on curriculum and material presented to the next generation of our nation's leaders?

From this December 10, 2007 article in the Washington Times (emphases mine):

Two years ago this month, a Saudi prince caused a media splash — and raised eyebrows — when he donated $20 million each to Georgetown and Harvard universities to fund Islamic studies.

Although few details have been released about how the money has been spent, at Georgetown, the money helped pay for a recent symposium on Islamic-Western relations held in the university's Copley Formal Lounge. The event attracted about 120 persons: students, Catholic priests, men in business suits and several women in colorful head scarves who all came to hear religion experts from several American universities, as well as from Bosnia, Ireland and Malaysia.

A member of the Norwegian royal family said he flew in just for the event.

"I just came here to learn the language scholars are using about these things," Prince Haakon of Norway said.

Some call the Saudi gift Arab generosity and gratitude for the years American universities have educated the elite of the Arab world. Others say the sheer size of the donations amounts to buying influence and creating bastions of noncritical pro-Islamic scholarship within academia.

"There's a possibility these campuses aren't getting gifts, they're getting investments," said Clifford May, president of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. "Departments on Middle Eastern studies tend to be dominated by professors tuned to the concerns of Arab and Muslim rulers. It's very difficult for scholars who don't follow this line to get jobs and tenure on college campuses.

"The relationship between these departments and the money that pours in is hard to establish, but like campaign finance reform, sometimes money is a bribe. Sometimes it's a tip."

The $40 million gift from the Saudi donor, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, was the latest in a tradition that started in the 1970s — Muslim donors pumping millions of dollars into American universities to fund Islamic studies, hire faculty specialists in Islam and fund books and seminars on the world's second-largest religion.

[...]

At Georgetown, [Prince Alwaleed's] money was funneled toward its Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, which was quickly renamed the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. The center, part of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, trains many of America's diplomats.

...The center's aim, according to its mission statement, is to "improve relations between the Muslim world and the West and enhance understanding of Muslims in the West."

The center's director, John Esposito, a prolific writer and praised by many as being a national authority on the religion, was severely criticized by several scholars for downplaying the threat of Islamic terrorism in the 1990s when he was a foreign affairs analyst for the State Department.

Mr. Esposito, "more than any other academic, contributed to American complacency prior to 9/11," Martin Kramer, a fellow at the Olin Institute at Harvard, wrote in a Jan. 2, 2006, commentary on his blog, sandbox.blog-city.com.
"[Mr. Esposito has] proved that he's still a magnet for Arab and Muslim money," Mr. Kramer wrote. "Prince Alwaleed apparently decided that while Esposito's reputation may be dented, the professor still has some value in him."

Mr. Esposito declined to be interviewed for this article but did defend himself in several e-mails.

[...]

Mr. Esposito said the number of programs sponsored by his center went from 27 last year to 22 this semester alone. The first of three new faculty, Ibrahim Kalin, a scholar on Sufiism and Islamic philosophy, is slated to come on board next fall.

A month before the gift was publicly announced, Mr. Esposito was one of four persons flanking Prince Alwaleed before a photographer at the George V hotel in Paris. It was then that the prince told Georgetown officials of their $20 million windfall — and that Mr. Esposito would oversee how the money was spent.

[...]

"The prince knew very well Georgetown's in a milieu filled with lobbyists and opinion makers; thus any program of his will exert more influence there than at a university not in a power center like Washington," Mr. Meyers said. "The grant also gave Esposito a much bigger microphone. When you've got a $20 million institute, that amplifies your voice considerably."

The Saudi Embassy's press office did not respond to requests for comment on this article, and a spokeswoman for Prince Alwaleed said he was "too busy" to respond.

[...]

In 1979, Saudi Aramco World magazine published a list of recent Middle Eastern gifts, including...$750,000 from the Libyan government for a chair of Arab culture at Georgetown University; and $250,000 from the United Arab Emirates for a visiting professorship of Arab history, also at Georgetown.

In 1986, Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi donated $5 million toward a sports center to be named after him at American University....
[...]

There are 17 federally funded centers on American college campuses devoted solely to Middle Eastern studies centers and another 30 to 40 that do not receive federal aid, according to Amy Newhall, executive director of the Middle East Studies Association at the University of Arizona. Not counting several positions at Georgetown University, she estimated at least 10 chaired professorships currently funded by Saudis at major universities.

"With all the talk of the Israel lobby, no one talks about the Saudi lobby," Mr. Meyers said. "There is no counterweight to Saudi influence in American higher education."

Indeed, Ain-al-Yaqeen reported that King Fahd has spent "billions of Saudi riyals," around the world.

"In terms of Islamic institutions, the result is some 210 Islamic centers wholly or partly financed by Saudi Arabia, more than 1,500 mosques and 202 colleges and almost 2,000 schools for educating Muslim children in non-Islamic countries in Europe, North and South America, Australia and Asia," the paper reported.

[...]

Mr. Kramer, also the author of "Ivory Towers on Sand: The Failure of Middle Eastern Studies in America," says American universities have allowed themselves to be purveyors of Saudi influence and opinion.

"Universities generate ideas, and [Prince Alwaleed] regards one idea — the 'clash of civilizations" — as positively dangerous to Arabs and Muslims," he wrote on his Web site, martinkramer.org. "So he has embarked on a grand giving spree, to create academic 'bridges" between Islam and the West, and specifically between the Arab world and the United States ...

"The mind boggles at the possibilities, when you think of the purchasing power of the world's fifth-richest man," Mr. Kramer continued. "Of course, this is why we can't ever expect to get the straight story on Saudi Arabia, Wahhabism and oil from people who operate within Middle Eastern studies. If you want a fabulously wealthy Saudi royal to drop out of the sky in his private jet and leave a few million, you had better watch what you say — which means you had better say nothing."

Prince Alwaleed, 52, — who slipped from the fifth richest person in 2005 to the 13th this year, according to Forbes magazine — is best known to some Americans as the man who offered $10 million to the victims of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City. That money was rejected by Rudolph W. Giuliani, then the mayor, after the prince scolded the U.S. for favoring Israelis over Palestinians.

[...]

In 2002, [Prince Alawaleed] donated $500,000 to the George Herbert Walker Bush Scholarship Fund, established by the Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass. In 2006, he donated $10 million to the Weill Medical College of Cornell University.

He defends such gifts in interviews, saying that he has financed study programs about American culture overseas, including a $10 million gift to found a Center for American Studies at American University in Cairo and $5.2 million for a similar center at American University in Beirut.

Prince Alwaleed's Cairo and Beirut projects explain American culture, but according to their Web sites, offer no courses in Christianity — America's majority religion. Meanwhile, typical courses at the Georgetown center are "Islamic Theological Development" and "Islamic Religious Thought and Practice."

[...]

"Islamists such as the radical fundamentalists seen with the Saudi Wahhabis exploit American universal tolerance to provide a vehicle for the dissemination of their propaganda free of critique," [Zuhdi Jasser] said...

The interfaithing street seems to run one way, in Wahhabism's direction. So much for promoting understanding among various religions on university campuses around the world. Courtesy of the Saudis, of course.

Weekly Radio Show: December 7

Listen to The Gathering Storm Radio Show, which WC and I cohost. The show broadcasts live every Friday for one hour at noon, Pacific Time.

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Friday, December 7: Our guest at the bottom of the hour is Saleem Siddiqui of Hot Conflict: Looking at the Hottest issues in the News, Politics and PoP Culture, from inside the Muslim Mind. Read HERE about Mr. Siddiqui's efforts to promote the integration of Muslims in the United States of America and around the world.

Note: If you are unable to listen live to the radio show, you can listen to recordings of the radio broadcasts later by CLICKING HERE.

Weekly Radio Show: November 30

Listen to The Gathering Storm Radio Show, which WC and I cohost. The show broadcasts live every Friday for one hour at noon, Pacific Time.

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Friday, November 30: This week's guest at the bottom of the hour is Cinnamon Stillwell of Cinnamon Stillwell.com, the Cinnamon Stillwell Blog and Daniel Pipes's Campus Watch: Monitoring Middle East Studies on Campus. Read the mission statement of Campus Watch HERE.

From Campus Watch:

CAMPUS WATCH, a project of the Middle East Forum, reviews and critiques Middle East studies in North America with an aim to improving them. The project mainly addresses five problems: analytical failures, the mixing of politics with scholarship, intolerance of alternative views, apologetics, and the abuse of power over students....

Ms. Stillwell is the the Northern California representative for Campus Watch and has written articles for the American Thinker, Family Security Matters, Frontpage Magazine, Accuracy In Media, Newsbusters, Israel National News, the Jewish News Weekly of N. CA, the Conservative Voice, and many others.

You do not want to miss this show!

If you are unable to listen live to the radio show, you can listen to recordings of the radio broadcasts later by CLICKING HERE.

Weekly Radio Show: November 23

Listen to The Gathering Storm Radio Show, which WC and I cohost. The show broadcasts live every Friday for one hour at noon, Pacific Time.

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Friday, November 23: SPECIAL SHOW!

This week's guest at the top of the hour: speaker, economist, and terrorism expert Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld. She is the director of The American Center for Democracy, which monitors and exposes the enemies of freedom and their modus operandi, and explores pragmatic ways to counteract their methods. Dr. Ehrenfeld is also the author of Funding Evil: How Terrorism Is financed and How to Stop It.

Our guest at the bottom of the hour is my dear friend and "brother," and my techie advisor Warren of the blog Long Range. We'll be discussing leftism and blog-site management, including dealing with trolls.

You do not want to miss this show!

If you are unable to listen live to the radio show, you can listen to recordings of the radio broadcasts later by CLICKING HERE.

Video from Dr. Ehrenfeld (8 minutes):

"The Libel Tourist" is a short-form documentary film. In 8 minutes, our eyes are opened to a new and chilling threat: how Saudi petrodollars have cowed, silenced, and almost broken freedom of speech in the West.

The film documents the true story of how an American – Israeli author Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld was ordered to destroy all copies of her book in a country where it had never been published- England—after a notoriously litigious Saudi billionaire sued her in a British court. Ehrenfeld's book Funding Evil; How Terrorism is Financed – and How to Stop It, accuses the Saudi billionaire of funding of terrorism.

Now Ehrenfeld is fighting back, counter-suing him in the New York, to defend her and our First Amendment rights.

More information about The Libel Tourist

Again, if you are unable to listen live to the radio show, you can listen to recordings of the radio broadcasts later by CLICKING HERE.

Obfuscation At The Islamic Saudi Academy

I have blogged many times about the Islamic Saudi Academy, alma mater of wannabe Presidential assassin Ahmed Abu Ali, valedictoriam at the school a few years before. One example of what I've previously written is here, and here is another.

Now comes this November 19, 2007 article, from AAFAQ: The Leading Arab Reform Web Site:

American Senators demand Closing of Saudi Academy in Washington

(Washington – Aafaq) - On Thursday, 12 members of the United States Senate demanded that the Secretary of State, Condolezza Rice, close the Saudi Islamic Academy in Washington because of the refusal of the Saudi officials to make available for inspection the curricula that are taught in the Academy. [Full Story in Arabic]

The Saudi News Agency (WASM) said that members of the Senate demanded that the Department of State follow up on the agreement that the United States and the government of Saudi Arabia made last year on improving the freedom of religion in Saudi Arabia and stopping the export of religious extremism.

The director of the Saudi Academy, Abdullah Al-Shabnan, held a press conference on Thursday, in which he denied the use of Saudi curricula in the school and also pointed out the curricula used do not contain any enmity toward other religions or sects.

The Saudi Academy refuses to make its curricula available for inspection to the American government or to the news media.

It may be mentioned that the Institute for Gulf Affairs Washington issued a lengthy report last year, in cooperation with Freedom House. The report received worldwide attention, because it showed that the curricula used in schools in Saudi Arabia are still filled with extremism, intolerance toward of other religions, and the incitement of hatred and violence toward other religions and cultures, despite claims of the Saudi government to the contrary.

Contrast the above with the following, which appeared on November 16, 2007 in the Washington Post:

Officials of a Northern Virginia Islamic school yesterday criticized a federal commission, saying that the panel unfairly damaged the school's reputation by recommending it be shuttered until it could prove that it is not promoting intolerance and violence through its textbooks.

Abdalla Al-Shabnan, director general of the Islamic Saudi Academy, said a report by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom calling upon the State Department in September to close the school had taken everyone by surprise and left those affiliated with the school shaken.

Yesterday, Al-Shabnan invited a few reporters, including one from The Washington Post, to tour the school and meet with teachers, students and parents. Officials displayed some of the textbooks used, including a few routinely used by students in Fairfax County public schools. Others, written in Arabic, are religious or language texts, academy officials said. They denied that any of the texts promote religious extremism.

"Some people believe we get our orders from the [Saudi] Embassy," Al-Shabnan said. "That is not the case. I am the one in charge. I am responsible for all the action in the school."

Parents and students say the commission's views do not describe the school they know. Dana Nicholas, assistant principal of the girls' school, said the academy uses a curriculum similar to the one used by Fairfax public schools. There are religious classes and Arabic is taught, said Nicholas, who described herself as a devout Christian. But, she added, "we are just a normal school."

Commission members said they were not persuaded by the school's invitation to reporters, nor a letter they received from Al-Shabnan on Wednesday. In the letter, dated Nov. 12, Al-Shabnan stated that the school had made its textbooks available to a Fairfax County supervisor for review. Supervisor Gerald W. Hyland (D-Mount Vernon) said yesterday that his office had received six boxes of books from the school and that a translator from the county's library system was looking through them.

Al-Shabnan also invited commission members to come to the school to review the textbooks.

Commission Chairman Michael Cromartie said the offer was not taken up because academy officials wanted mutually acceptable scholars and translators to review the textbooks. He said the commission had repeatedly asked Saudi Embassy officials in Washington for the books but had not received them.

The commission, created by Congress under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, issues an annual report about religious freedom around the world. Its members are appointed by the White House and congressional leadership.

Officials with the commission said they had spent several years examining textbooks used by schools in Saudi Arabia, which gives the Northern Virginia academy much of its funding. Those textbooks, the commission members said, promoted violence against Christians, Jews, Shiites and polytheists.
The Islamic academy, which has two campuses in Northern Virginia, was founded in 1984 to educate children of Saudi diplomats from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. About 30 percent of the roughly 1,000 students are Saudi, school officials said. The school's governing board is led by the Saudi ambassador to the United States.

Officials of the school said the materials used there are unique, obtained from Saudi Arabia but changed to meet the needs of an American student body.

Al-Shabnan said yesterday that he had turned over the school's textbooks to the Saudi Embassy. He said he expected that embassy officials would turn the textbooks over to the State Department.

Department officials and others with knowledge of the issue, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing inquiry, said U.S. officials think the commission's recommendation to close the school was premature. They said the State Department was proceeding cautiously, speaking with Saudi officials about issues of religious tolerance and school curriculum, to avoid creating a crisis.

Hello, State Department? The crisis has already been created.

Weekly Radio Show: November 16

Listen to The Gathering Storm Radio Show, which WC and I cohost. The show broadcasts live every Friday for one hour at noon, Pacific Time.

The call-in number is (646) 915-9870.

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Friday, November 16: Two guests! Our interviewee at the top of the hour is Elisabeth of Austria. At the bottom of the hour WC and I will be interviewing Fausta of Fausta's Blog.

We'll be discussing with Elisabeth the latest anti-jihadist news from Europe: the Islamofascist conference in Brussels, Switzerland's banning of minarets, and legislation in Italy and France, both of which are passing laws to ship out Muslim trouble-makers.

According to Fausta's profile, Fausta was born and raised in Santurce, Puerto Rico and is a long-term resident of Princeton, New Jersey. She discusses New Jersey, taxation, current events, and how news are reported in the French and Spanish-language media.

If you are unable to listen live to the radio show, you can listen to recordings of the radio broadcasts later by CLICKING HERE.

Weekly Radio Show: November 9

Listen to The Gathering Storm Radio Show, which WC and I cohost. The show broadcasts live every Friday for one hour at noon, Pacific Time.

The call-in number is (646) 915-9870.

Callers welcome!

Friday, November 9: This week's guest at the bottom of the hour is Dan Zaremba of Australian Islamist Monitor. We will be discussing with Mr. Zaremba the threat of Islam in general and Australian Islamist Monitor's role in exposing the Islamist agenda.

If you are unable to listen live to the radio show, you can listen to recordings of the radio broadcasts later by CLICKING HERE.

Australian Islamist Monitor's "About" page is HERE, and the statement of objectives is HERE. You can read Mr. Zaremba's essays HERE. According to this excerpt from "Always Victims":

No other totalitarian ideology mastered deception and playing the victimhood card better than Islam. Nazi stories about the martyrdom of the Sudetten Volk or even Communists attempts to spin the facts and play victims appear clumsy and childish in comparison....

Join us for an informative discussion from the Aussie point of view!

WorldNetDaily: Hillary takes cash from terror suspects

From WorldNetDaily via Jihad Watch, Hillary's campaign accepts from money from terrorist enablers, including local residents M. Yaqub Mirza and M. Omar Ashraf. Omar Barzinji, another contributor, is related to Jamal Barzinji, a Herndon resident with questionable terrorist conncections.


M. Yaqub Mirza

Any information about these characters is welcome.

Jihad Watch: Close The D.C. Madrassa

The latest on the Islamic Saudi Academy from Jihad Watch:

Close The D.C. Madrassa

Why is this militant madrassa still operating just across the Potomac from the White House and Capitol? Because Fairfax County is still leasing it an old high school building, and the Democrat county supervisor in charge of the lease doesn't see any problem with the school.

Will someone come forward to out this Democratic county supervisor?? Tuesday is Election Day. Is there an opportunity to vote him/her out of office??

This touches on a personal story. We were talking with a man (not a Muslim) who championed ISA, sensing "prejudice" among his neighbors. Perhaps his neighbors might have been hacked off at the county allowing the KSA to extend itself further, especially when it has insinuated itself into the Washington political scene. Perhaps they objected to gender apartheid and the total absence of freedom of religion in KSA. That's "prejudice"?

Checking Curriculum At The Islamic Saudi Academy

Fairfax County has decided to take a look at the materials being used at the Islamic Saudi Academy, alma mater of aspiring Presidential assassin Ahmed Abu Ali. Essay by J. Grant Swank, Jr:

Per Washington Times’ Julia Duin, hate is taught at the 23-year-old Islamic Saudi Academy, Alexandria, VA.

The school has been under investigation before. Presently citizens are asking the State Department to close the school because it threatens other religions and could undo our Republic.

“The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), which advises Congress, the State Department and the president on religious-freedom issues, has issued a 30-page document saying the Saudi Embassy, which operates the 933-student academy, is violating U.S. law.”

This is not hysteria on the part of USCIRF. It is cold logic, as anyone who has been following the history of this school’s instruction is aware, not to mention verses in the Koran that advocate killing all non-Muslims.

Those who seek to bar the publishing of these verses are a party to the atrocities instigated by extremist Muslims. It is akin to Germans who shied away from exposing Hitler setting up camp to extinguish Jews and Jewish sympathizers.

In other words, bald fact, no matter how unpleasant, must be put “out there.” Those who hope it simply “will go away” are integral to the threat.

“At issue are textbooks the USCIRF says contain ‘highly intolerant and discriminatory language, particularly against Jews, Christians and Shi'a Muslims.’ Its findings are based on a three-year study of Arabic-language textbooks, some of them from the Saudi Academy, by the Center for Religious Freedom in the District.

“The textbooks instructed students to ‘hate’ Jews, Christians, ‘polytheists’ and other ‘unbelievers,’ praised violent jihad as a ‘religious duty’ and to believe as fact the anti-Semitic forgeries known as ‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.’"

Now would it surprise anyone that the academy heads inform media that no such hate literature exists?

What knowledgeable persons know about extremist Islamics is that they believe Allah permits them to lie, considering deceit a virtue when it furthers Islam World Rule. Therefore, for academicians at the school to boast that texts and instructors’ lectures are void of hate is exactly what Allah would decree.

“Saudi officials said in response that the textbooks were being revamped and an official at the academy, who asked not to be named, said school textbooks were revised in 2006.

“The USCIRF was rebuffed when it asked the embassy this summer to see copies of the new textbooks, spokeswoman Judith Ingram said.

"’We've simply gotten nowhere with our requests,’ she added.”

Nowhere? What does that honestly say about academy officialdom? This is not rocket science. This is in-your-fact warning.

If fundamentalist Bob Jones University was accused of teaching hate, it would welcome outsiders to read every text on campus as well as attend every lecture in every lecture hall.

If evangelical Wheaton College were accused of instructing Christians to kill non-Christians, campus officials would hold press conferences, invite any personages to investigate curricula and sit in on any teaching forums throughout an entire school year.

Why then is the Islamic Academy not opening up its classes and texts to anyone? This school is located in America. It is using our soil to destroy our nation.

If that is not the case, then the academy must come forth with the evidence.

“The Saudi Academy is one of 20 international Saudi schools around the world. The Virginia academy's main campus is on Richmond Highway in Alexandria and a west campus for young children is on Popes Head Road in Fairfax. Twenty-eight percent of its students are Saudi citizens.

“The USCIRF has long been critical of Saudi Arabia, and in 2004 it named the kingdom a ‘country of particular concern’ in terms of religious-freedom violations. As a result, the Saudi government promised the State Department it would allow greater religious tolerance within its borders. During a visit there this spring, USCIRF officials said they were stonewalled by the Saudis on several issues, including the content of current school textbooks.”

There is reason for suspicion. Anyone who sidelines that suspicion is part of the problem, furthering the plot to undermine America.

There is going to be an investigation of sorts. Excerpt from the Associated Press, October 29, 2007:

Fairfax County officials are reviewing Arabic-language textbooks at a private Islamic school following a federal panel's recommendation that the school be shut down.

The county does not expect to find any problems with the textbooks at the Islamic Saudi Academy, but wants to study the issue "to put the matter to rest," Fairfax County spokeswoman Merni Fitzgerald said Monday.

[...]

Fitzgerald said the county is not concerned about the books' contents, but because it is the academy's landlord it wants to investigate in light of the commission's report.

"In order to put the issue to rest, these actions are being taken," Fitzgerald said. "I'm sure there won't be anything in there that people would find objectionable."

Sounds as if Ms. Fitzgerald is "investigating" with a certain mindset. How objective will this investigation be?

Weekly Radio Show: November 2

(This posting stuck toward the top for a few days. Please scroll down)

Listen to The Gathering Storm Radio Show, which WC and I cohost. The show broadcasts live every Friday for one hour at noon, Pacific Time.

The call-in number is (646) 915-9870.

Callers welcome!

Friday, November 2: Three interviewees, LA Sunsett of Political Yen/Yang: Balanced Commentary for Political Centrists, Karridine, and Simon of Power and Control, will be joining us for this week's show.

Karridine, one of our interviewees at the top of the hour, recently released the song "Wanna Go Home (GI's Lament)," honoring our men and women in our military. You can read the lyrics HERE and hear a clip HERE. Karridine views this moving piece of music as his contribution to the Fighting Forces protecting America and freedom, in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the world. "Soldier's Lament" has always been I Wanna Go Home, WHEN I've done an honorable job for my nation, family and friends. We are going to play the song on the air and discuss its message and origins.

Karridine was referred to The Gathering Storm Radio Show by Simon of the Power and Control blog. Simon and Karridine have been online buddies for several years. Simon, who believes that "Wanna Go Home" is the song for the Iraq War, has a background in both computer and radio technology and will also be joining us at the top of the hour.

LA Sunsett is our interviewee for the second half of the hour. According to his profile, LA is a political independent that belongs to no political party. I base my political ideology solely on principle, and not by daily talking points.... He blogs a variety of topics. We plan to discuss with LA our foreign policy toward Iran and his concerns about the Patriot Act.

If you are unable to listen live to the radio show, you can listen to recordings of the radio broadcasts later by CLICKING HERE.

Laura Bush Dons The Abaya

First, we have this photo posted by Reliapundit at THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS and by others elsewhere, showing First Lady Laura Bush sitting between two black sacks:


Little consolation, of course, but at least our First Lady wasn't wearing the abaya.

Um, not exactly.

I started clicking links at Foehammer's Anvil and found that Laura Bush did indeed done the abaya. Photo from the White House web site, via this posting by Debbie Schlussel:


Debbie Schlussel also found the following at USATODAY.com (emphases mine):

Given that the first lady wore a headscarf when she visited a Jewish holy site in Jerusalem and a mantilla when she met with Pope Benedict XVI, we asked if Bush will be wearing some sort of abaya while she's in Saudi Arabia. "No," Sally McDonough, the first lady's spokeswoman, tells USA TODAY's David Jackson, adding: "they do not expect nor encourage it" of Western visitors.

Condoleezza Rice and Madeleine Albright didn't wear head coverings when they visited Riyadh on official business, according to the photographs in our archive.

Update at 12:45 p.m. ET: McDonough says they have a nuanced policy when it comes to women who are visiting Saudi Arabia as part of the first lady's delegation.

"According to our team, during any activities on your own time - going to the mall, going out of the hotel for dinner, etc - women need to follow Saudi law and wear an Abaya. During official meetings, it is not necessary," she writes in an e-mail to USA TODAY. "As per guidance from Embassy on the ground, as members of the official traveling party, we will not need to wear any head scarves or abayas at any point."

Apparently at some "point," First Lady Laura Bush felt the "need to wear" the abaya and even to post the photo at the White House web site. In my book, that "need" is called dhimmitude.

I say it again, just as I did in an earlier posting:


Laura Bush, you don't speak for me.

Now, It's Personal

Bear with me as I lay the foundation for the section toward the end of this posting, the portion I've bolded.

From this source:

The Danish chapter of Stop the Islamisation Of Europe, SIOE, has come out with a disturbing report of what seems to be a co-ordinated attempt on the lives and/or physical well being of their leaders.

The photos below come from this source:







So, what was going on? (SIOE stands for "Stop the Islamisation of Europe"; SIAD stands for Stop the Islamisation of Denmark):

On sunday the 21th October SIOE Denmark had announced a demonstration in Copenhagen....Before the demo Anders Gravers (SIOE and SIAD) and 2 other members were driving in a van with three seats in the front, following the security car(...)

2-5 sek. after there was a loud bang and the frontwindow was damaged. About two autonomous looking types were in the front and two on each side smashing the side windows shouting "Get him out, get him out!" and started hitting Anders and the SIAD passenger in the other site with ironbars. The SIAD member in the middle was hit of a thrown filled soda bottle in her backhead.

Anders succeded after a while to kick one of the autonomous hard in the face as he leaned in to unlock the door. Anders managed to get out with a fire extinguisher from the van and hit another one hard on the shoulder. It remained later that they attempted to stab him down when there was found cut holes in the shirt, jacket and vest. Anders was wearing his security vest which saved his life.

Suddenly they disappeared and Anders got around the van and saw a SIAD member lying on the floor while he was beaten in the head of 4-5 persons with ironbars. Apperently they also tried to stab him down, but again he also wore his security vest which saved his life.

Suddenly someone screamed RUN RUN and they disappeared up the steep driveway. The elderly woman was lying on the floor completely still. She had been in the security car and got out immediately when the driver shouted OUT OUT. She didn’t know what to do and started running. She was hunted down by two persons and banged down with an ironbar. She lay completely still in the hope she wouldn’t get anymore. She felt they stood a moment watching her if she would move. Then they presumably ran to the other SIAD member on the floor and joined the attack on him.

Kleinverzet concludes with the following:

The SIOE site has more, including photos of the aftermath, New Zonka has background on this incident and the dereliction of duty by the Danish MSM. This was not reported AT ALL anywhere in Europe (much like the Amsterdam car-b-ques or the Brussels riots). Even the Danish MSM got it (deliberately?) wrong.

This could be just another stormy week in Eurabia. On the other hand, this could be the cauldron starting to boil. Fact is: I'm bracing myself.

"That's over in Europe and could never happen here," you say. Well, after a recent experience of my own, I'm not so sure that the danger is as distant as we'd like to believe.

Not long ago, I spoke in person to a group about the Islamification of the West, right here in the D.C. area. And guess what? Some present insisted afterwards that I have a security escort to my car. I'm not kidding! Here in America! You see, terrorism comes in different forms, including that of intimidation.

So, before you brush off the idea that the above attack is something which could happen only "over there," I suggest that you rethink your complacency. I've been rethinking mine. Understand that I am rethinking and considering some new strategies. I am not cowed. I will not submit! In fact, I feel a wave of ramping-up coming on.

Weekly Radio Show: October 26

Listen to The Gathering Storm Radio Show, which WC and I cohost. The show broadcasts live every Friday for one hour at noon, Pacific Time.

The call-in number is (646) 915-9870.

Callers welcome!

Friday, October 26: Two interviewees, Mr. Ducky and Hanther of Tandra Dot Com, will be joining us for this week's show.

Mr. Ducky, our interviewee at the top of the hour, is a frequent commenter at my blog and at the blogs of some of my blogger friends. In his own words, I am a leftist who is trying to understand the right. There is a pretty severe disconnect in areas of the arts, religion, economics, politics.

Hanther, our interviewee and the bottom of the hour, is an author and illustrator. According to this page of the web site: Hanthercraft International is a multi-media company dedicated to the development of new standards for the presentation of visual narrative....Tandra is character driven sci-fi biased heroic fantasy adventure set in an alternate universe. Hanther also writes commentary, such as this one which directly pertains to the theme of The Gathering Storm Radio Show.

If you are unable to listen live to the radio show, you can listen to recordings of the radio broadcasts later by CLICKING HERE.

More On Esam Omeish And Mahdi Bray

Article from the October 23, 2007 edition of the Northern Virginia Daily:

Gilbert, Athey criticize Kaine: Delegates - Ties too close

By Garren Shipley -- Daily Staff Writer

Democratic Gov. Timothy M. Kaine is far too close to a Muslim group that allegedly has ties to Islamic terrorism and espouses radical views, according to two local delegates. But a group leader says the charges are founded in racism.

Kaine should move to put some distance between his administration and the Falls Church-based Muslim American Society, said Dels. Todd Gilbert, R-Woodstock, and Clifford L. "Clay" Athey Jr., R-Front Royal.

It all started when Kaine appointed Dr. Esam Omeish, the president of the society, to the Virginia Commission on Immigration. Gilbert wrote to Kaine, asking him to reconsider the appointment after seeing online videos of Omeish accusing Israel of genocide against Palestinians and exhorting Muslims to "the jihad way."

Omeish resigned less than a day later under pressure from Kaine.

But after some investigation, the delegates say the connections between Kaine and MAS appear to be deeper than just one appointment.

Kaine was the keynote speaker at the society's Freedom Foundation "Standing for Justice Dinner." He was photographed with leaders of the group, including Imam Mahdi Bray, the executive director of the foundation.

In an online video of a 2000 rally in Washington, Abdurahman al-Amoudi — who would later plead guilty to charges of funneling money from Libya to Saudi militants — took to the podium and declared his support for Hamas and Hezbollah.

Hamas, now the ruling party in the Gaza Strip, started a wave of suicide bombings against Israeli civilians in 1993, according to the nonpartisan Council on Foreign Relations. Hezbollah, which now holds a quasi-state in southern Lebanon, is thought to be behind the 1983 bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 servicemen.

"I have been labeled by the media in New York to be a supporter of Hamas. Anybody support this Hamas here?" al-Amoudi says in the video, drawing cheers from the crowd and fist pumps from Bray.

"I wish the added that I am also a supporter of Hezbollah. Anybody supports Hezbollah here?" he asks, drawing more cheers and fist pumps.

The video speaks for itself, Gilbert said.

"The governor shouldn't have been involved with this organization and its leadership," Gilbert said.

That being said, anyone can be the victim of bad staff work, he said.

"If [Kaine] didn't know this stuff, now that he does know it, he should say he rejects what the leadership of this organization stands for and he's going to distance himself from it, and encourage other leading Dem-ocrats to do the same."
Athey was less generous.

"It is clear that Governor Kaine and the Democratic Party sought the support of radical individuals who could turn out votes in his election. According to Mahdi Bray, the governor received that support," said Athey, referring to a story earlier this month in The Washington Times, in which Bray credited the Democrats' success in 2005 and 2006 to his organization.

"Ask Jim Webb what kind of impact we have," Bray said. "Ask the governor of Virginia what kind of impact we have. The Democrats' win hinged on the Muslim vote."

"I am not going to dignify the latest allegations by Dels. Gilbert and Athey with a comment," said Kaine spokesman Kevin Hall via e-mail. He also declined to comment on Bray's election-related statements.

Bray said Monday that he and others at the video weren't cheering for the terrorist organizations.

"The majority of the people they were kind of raising their hands, and kind of cheering, and so on because this was so uncharacteristic of al-Amoudi," Bray said. "We didn't know he had a problem with law enforcement. He was considered the pillar of the American Muslim community."

Bray said his gestures weren't in support of Hamas and Hezbollah.

"You saw me pumping my fists. You didn't see me raising my hands. If they had shown the audience, you would have seen people in the audience raising their hands and falling out laughing," he said. "For him to come and make these kinds of radical rants, no one took him seriously."

Bray said he does not support violence, and would have been more judicious in his reaction had the event happened after Sept. 11, 2001.

He also suggested that Gilbert had racist motives for his statements, noting that the delegate could be a "throwback" to Virginia's racist past.

"There are some throwbacks. And I think that Gilbert and others are throwbacks to the old days" who want to "maintain the status quo. Maybe their district is not as diverse as Northern Virginia."

Gilbert said Bray's charges are typical.

"We're so mired down in political correctness and this feeling that you have to be tolerant of all views that you can't even call somebody out for congratulating suicide bombers, and promoting and supporting recognized terrorist organizations," Gilbert said.

Mr. Shippley also embedded the following video in the online version of the article:

Recommendation To Close Islamic Saudi Academy

(All emphases by Always On Watch)

It remains to be seen whether or not anything will come of the recommendation of a federal panel. From this source, October 18, 2007:

McLEAN, Va. (AP) - A private Islamic school supported by the Saudi government should be shut down until the U.S. government can ensure the school is not fostering radical Islam, a federal panel recommends.

In a report released Thursday, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom broadly criticized what it calls a lack of religious freedom in Saudi society and promotion of religious extremism at Saudi schools.

Particular criticism is leveled at the Islamic Saudi Academy, a private school serving nearly 1,000 students in grades K-12 at two campuses in northern Virginia's Fairfax County.

The commission's report says the academy hews closely to the curriculum used at Saudi schools, which they criticize for promoting hatred of and intolerance against Jews, Christians and Shiite Muslims.

"Significant concerns remain about whether what is being taught at the ISA promotes religious intolerance and may adversely affect the interests of the United States," the report states.

The commission, a creation of Congress, has no power to implement policy on its own. Instead, it makes recommendations to other agencies.

The commission does not offer specific criticism of the academy's teachings beyond its concerns that it too closely mimics a typical Saudi education.

The report recommends that the State Department prevail on the Saudi government to shut the school down until the school's textbooks can be reviewed and procedures are put in place to ensure the school's independence form the Saudi Embassy.

Messages left Wednesday with the State Department and the Saudi Embassy were not immediately returned.

Several advocacy groups in recent years have cited examples of inflammatory statements in religious textbooks in Saudi Arabia, including claims that a ninth-grade textbook reads that the hour of judgment will not come "until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them."

Saudi officials said they have worked in recent years to reform the textbooks and the curriculum, but critics say progress has been insufficient.

The school's director-general, Abdalla I. Al-Shabnan, said Wednesday that he had not seen the report. But he said the academy has adjusted its curriculum in recent years and removed some of the inflammatory language that had been included in the Saudi text. The school's curriculum may now serve as a model for the Saudi government to use in continuing its reform of Saudi schools, he said.

"There is nothing in our curriculum against any religion," Al-Shabnan said.

He also said he is willing to show the school's curriculum and textbooks to anybody who wants to see them, and he expressed disappointment that the commission did not request materials directly from the school.

"We have an open policy," he said.

He also pointed out that many of the school's teachers are Christian and Jewish.

The commission based its findings in part on a the work of a delegation that traveled to Saudi Arabia this year. The commission asked embassy officials to review the textbooks used in Saudi schools generally and at the Islamic Saudi Academy specifically but did not receive a response.

Commission spokeswoman Judith Ingram said the commission did not request to speak to academy officials because that went beyond the commission's mandate.

The report also criticizes the school's administrative structure, saying it is little more than an offshoot of the Saudi Embassy, with the Saudi ambassador to the United States serving as chairman of the school's board of directors. The structure "raises serious concerns about whether it is in violation of a U.S. law restricting the activities of foreign embassies."

After the Sept. 11 attacks, critics questioned the nature of the religious education at the Saudi academy. The school again found itself in the spotlight in 2005, when a former class valedictorian, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, was charged with joining al-Qaida while attending college in Saudi Arabia and plotting to assassinate President Bush.

Abu Ali was convicted in federal court and sentenced to 30 years in prison. He is appealing his conviction.

Over two years ago, in an article dated October 5, 2005, significant concerns arose about the Islamic Saudi Academy:

WASHINGTON - The American government is demanding that Saudi Arabia account for its distribution of hate material to American mosques, as the State Department pressed Saudi officials for answers last week and as the Senate later this month plans to investigate the propagation of radical Wahhabism on American shores.

The flurry of activity comes months after a report from the Center for Religious Freedom discovered that dozens of mosques in major cities across the country, including New York, Washington, and Los Angeles, were distributing documents, bearing the seal of the government of Saudi Arabia, that incite Muslims to acts of violence and promote hatred of Jews and Christians.

A Washington-based group that is part of the human rights organization Freedom House, the Center for Religious Freedom also found during its yearlong study that the Saudi-produced materials describe democracy and America as un-Islamic. They instruct recent Muslim immigrants to consider Americans as enemies and the materials urge new arrivals to use their time here as preparation for jihad. The documents also promote the version of Islam officially embraced by Saudi government and several of the September 11, 2001, hijackers, Wahhabism, as the only authentic Islam....

Some six months before the above article, the Washington Post published the following about the Islamic Saudi Academy:

Eleventh-graders at the elite Islamic Saudi Academy in Northern Virginia study energy and matter in physics, write out differential equations in precalculus and read stories about slavery and the Puritans in English.

Then they file into their Islamic studies class, where the textbooks tell them the Day of Judgment can't come until Jesus Christ returns to Earth, breaks the cross and converts everyone to Islam, and until Muslims start attacking Jews.

As early as 2004, Paul Sperry wrote "Look Who's Teaching Johnny about Islam," an article indicating that that the influence of the Islamic Saudi Academy extends further than the boundaries of the school's two campuses:

A top textbook consultant shaping classroom education on Islam in American public schools recently worked for a school funded and controlled by the Saudi government, which propagates a rigidly anti-Western strain of Islam, a WorldNetDaily investigation reveals.

The consultant, Susan L. Douglass, has also praised Pakistan's madrassa schools as "proud symbols of learning," even after the U.S. government blamed them for fueling the rise of the Taliban and al-Qaida.

Douglass, routinely described as a "scholar" or "historian," has edited manuscripts of world history textbooks used by middle and high school students across the country. She's also advised state education boards on curriculum standards dealing with world religion, and has helped train thousands of public school teachers on Islamic instruction.

In effect, she is responsible for teaching millions of American children about Islam, experts say, while operating in relative obscurity.

WorldNetDaily has learned that up until last year Douglass taught social studies at the Islamic Saudi Academy in Alexandria, Va., which teaches Wahhabism through textbooks that condemn Jews and Christians as infidels and enemies of Islam. Her husband, Usama Amer, still teaches at the grades 2-12 school, a spokeswoman there confirmed.

Susan Douglass also has connections to the Council on Islamic Education:

Critics complain that Douglass, who taught at the Saudi academy for at least a decade, has convinced American textbook publishers and educators to gloss over the violent aspects of Islam to make the faith more appealing to non-Muslim children. The units on Islam reviewed by WND appear to give a glowing and largely uncritical view of the faith.

Asked about it, Douglass referred questions to the Council on Islamic Education, which did not respond. CIE's website lists her in its staff directory as a "principal researcher and writer."

CIE is a Los Angeles-based Muslim activist group run by Shabbir Mansuri, who has been quoted in the local press saying he's waging a "bloodless" revolution to fight what he calls anti-Muslim bias in public schools and promote Islam in a positive light in American classrooms. Mansuri, who consults with Saudi education ministers at his center, claimed in a 2002 op-ed piece that Islam has been on American soil "since before this nation was founded."

[...]

Douglass has argued for more in-depth coverage of Islam in classrooms, while at the same time advising that Christian principles, including historic facts such as Christ's crucifixion, are clearly qualified with attributions such as "Christians believe."

Houghton Mifflin is not the only major publisher influenced by CIE. Prentice Hall also collaborates with the group. And its "Connections to Today," which is the most widely used world history book in the country, instructs students that jihad is an "inner struggle to achieve spiritual peace," according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Also, CIE has helped write supplemental teachers materials that engage children in entertaining Muslim role-playing activities in the class. Parents say they make the study of Christianity and other religions seem dull by comparison....

I'm not holding my breath for the academy to close. Similar calls, including calls for extensive education of the institution, have come before. Besides, as I mentioned earlier in this posting, the school's influence extends much further than the boundaries of the academy's campuses. Nevertheless, closing the academy would be a step in the right direction.

Islamic Prayer Room At GMU

Quite the controversy going on, it seems, and just in time for Islamo-fascism Awareness Week.

What Is Ramadan?

This coming weekend on October 12-14, for the first time ever the Empire State Building in New York City will be bathed with green lights, the color closely associated with Islam, so as to commemorate Eid ul-Fitr, the end of Ramadan. Exactly what is being celebrated just blocks from the World Trade Center, the site of the horrific 9/11 terrorist attack on America's shores? To understand why such a commemoration of Eid ul-Fitr should be unacceptable to all those who love America, a short history lesson is in order.

Despite the feel-good recent kumbaya honorings on the part of Congress, the Pentagon (led by Chaplain Saifulislam, whose name, by the way, translates as "sword of Islam"), and President Bush, Ramadan involves more than prayers, fasting, and the giving of alms — all of which are part of the month long observance but which are also the outward signs of another message. By literal definition, of course, Ramadan commemorates Allah's "revealing" the Qur'an to Muhammad. But history clearly indicates that the "revelations" from Allah to Muhammad began around 610, some fourteen years earlier than 624.

Those earlier passages, sometimes referred to as the Meccan verses, are the oft-quoted peaceful verses in the Koran. Contrary to what one might expect, however, the last day of Ramadan does not celebrate the actual date of the earliest revelations of Allah to Muhammad but rather the Battle of Badr, the first significant military victory by the forces of Muhammad.

The Battle of Badr of March 17, 624, is one of the few military conflicts specifically mentioned in the Qur'an and holds a great deal of significance in Islam. Eid ul-Fitr, the final portion of Ramadan and which the lighting of the Empire State Building will recognize this weekend, has as its origin the aforementioned battle. Furthermore and most importantly, this battle marked the turning point for Islam, both politically and ideologically.

Having earlier fled to Medina along with followers who accepted him as their prophet whereas most of the tribes of Mecca did not, early on that morning in 624 Muhammad got word that a rich Quraish caravan from Syria was returning to Mecca. He therefore assembled the largest army he had ever been able to muster, some 300 men, with the original intent of raiding the caravan. After his men successfully overtook the caravan and brought back the booty, Muhammad then conveniently received a new "revelation" from Allah — a "revelation" which not only included rejoicing in having captured an enemy's caravan but which also called "proved" that Muhammad had been preaching the true way all along. Fulfilling Destiny, Muhammad and his forces proceeded to trounce the Quraish as punishment for having earlier rejected the prophet's teachings. From this source:

In the name of Allah, the Beneficient, the Merciful.

The battle of Badr was the most important among the Islamic battles of Destiny. For the first time the followers of the new faith were put into a serious test. Had victory been the lot of the pagan army while the Islamic Forces were still at the beginning of their developments, the faith of Islam could have come to an end.

No one was aware of the importance of the outcome of the Battle as the Prophet (S.A.W.) himself. We might read the depth of his anxiety in his prayerbefore the beginning of the Battle when he stood up supplicating his Lord:

God this is Quraish. It has come with all its arrogance and boastfulness, trying to discredit Thy Apostle. God, I ask Thee to humiliate them tomorrow. God, if this Muslim band will perish today, Thou shall not be worshipped.

[...]

This battle laid the foundation of the Islamic State...

In other words, victory at the Battle of Badr proved to Muhammad and his adherents that Islam should from that time forth take on a militant aspect because such is the will of Allah. From the day of the Battle of Badr on, the tone of the verses in the Qur'an changed. These more recent revelations, sometimes referred to as the Medinan verses, abrogated the earlier and peaceful Meccan ones. Because preaching and tolerance had not brought Muhammad the following which he needed in order to establish himself and Islam as political forces to be reckoned with, Allah, via a military victory, showed the prophet a more effective way to spread Islam. Therefore, Muhammad's victory at the Battle of Badr symbolizes, for at least some Muslims, both the way to bring about the will of Allah and the will of Allah itself.

The underlying meaning of those green lights casting their glow on the Empire State Building this coming weekend is all about submission to Islam and to the will of Allah. Ah, the dhimmitude!

Weekly Radio Show: October 19

Listen to The Gathering Storm Radio Show, which WC and I cohost. The show broadcasts live every Friday for one hour at noon, Pacific Time.

The call-in number is (646) 915-9870.

Callers welcome!

Friday, October 19: Two interviewees, Mustang and Freedom Fighter, will be joining us for this week's show.

Our interviewee for the first half hour is my cyberfriend and mentor, Mustang of the blog Social Sense. Agree or diagree with him, you'll discover that his thought-provoking essays covering a variety of topics are among the best on the web.

Our intervieww at the bottom of the hour is Freedom Fighter of the blog Joshua Pundit: A Digest and Commentary on the War against Jihad. His blog covers current events pertaining to the so-called war against terror.

If you are unable to listen live to the radio show, you can listen to recordings of the radio broadcasts later by CLICKING HERE.

Defining Satire

(All emphases by Always On Watch)

The story of the hundreds of flyers left all over the campus of George Washington University illustrates the leftist bias in academia and in the media. At first, Young America's Foundation or the group's supporters came under suspicion. YAF's official October 9, 2007 statement about the distribution of the posters is HERE, and includes the following:

...Bridgette Behling, the assistant director of the Student Activities Center at GWU, wrote an email to one of the conservative students urging them to disavow hate speech that may originate from any future Foundation events: “due to the inflammatory nature of today’s events [falsified posters], as a good faith effort on behalf of YAF, it is important that YAF drafts a statement which states that you will not allow hate speech to be a part of any of YAF’s events, literature, written or verbal communication planned for Islamofacism Week. This statement should also include your plan for preventing these things from happening as well as the consequences for these things happening. It is important that we have this document should any further incidents occur as we move forward.”...

Later some additional information came to light. According to this article in the university's newspaper the GW Hatchet:

A group of seven GW students sent an e-mail to The Hatchet late Tuesday night [October 9, 2007] admitting to hanging hundreds of controversial posters around campus early Monday morning.

The students - Adam Kokesh, freshman Yong Kwon, senior Brian Tierney, freshman Ned Goodwin, Maxine Nwigwe, Lara Masri and Amal Rammah - said their motives were misinterpreted. Students for Conservativo-Facism Awareness hung the posters in opposition to Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, an event being held beginning Oct. 22.

Kokesh, a graduate student and Iraq War veteran, gained celebrity over the past year because of his vocal opposition to the war. Nwigwe and Rammah are also graduate students.

[...]

Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week is being held at GW and sponsored by the Young America's Foundation, a conservative student group. It will feature several speakers - including controversial conservative author David Horowitz - slated to discuss radical Islam.

One-hundred and forty two colleges nationwide will host the event, according to its Web site. Horowitz is organizing the week.

"While the poster, even if taken seriously was not intended to cause any real harm, the systematic and glorified type of racism represented by this event is being imposed upon us from dangerous divisive outside forces" the e-mail said.

In the letter, members of the organization said their intent was to shed light on the week - which they called racist.

When all else fails, playing the race card is the tactic — never mind that adherents to and supporters of Islamo-fasicsm cross race lines.

Miss Beth of the blog Miss Beth's Victory Dance provides the following, which I haven't been able to confirm:

It was a hoax [they claim satire] perpetrated by the Saudi-funded radical islamic front group Muslim Student Association.

If true, no surprise there. Anything to stir things up instead of participating in a reasoned discussion to show that the term "Islamofascism" is a misnomer. Anything to discredit Islamo-fascism Awareness Week, which begins on October 22 at university campuses all over the United States, according to the left sidebar at FrontPage Magazine:

Berkeley -- Nonie Darwish, October 22

Brown -- Robert Spencer, October 24

Cal Poly -- Greg Davis, October 25

Cal State Fullerton -- Nonie Darwish

Clemson -- Mike Adams, October 25

Columbia -- Phyllis Chesler, Ibn Warraq, Christina Hoff Sommers

Columbia -- Sean Hannity, David Horowitz, October 26

DePaul -- Robert Spencer, October 25

Emory -- David Horowitz, October 24

George Mason -- Luanah Saghieh, Alan Nathan, October 22

Lawrence University -- Jonathan Schanzer

Maryland --Michael Ledeen

Michigan -- David Horowtz, October 23

Northeastern -- Daniel Pipes, October 24

Ohio State -- David Horowitz, October 25

Penn -- Rick Santorum, October 24

Penn State -- Rick Santorum, October 23

Rhode Island -- Robert Spencer, October 24

San Francisco State -- Melanie Morgan, October 24

Stanford -- Wafa Sultan

Temple -- Rick Santorum, October 24

Tulane -- Ann Coulter, October 22

UC Santa Barbara -- Dennis Prager, October 25

UC Irvine -- Ann Coulter

UCLA -- Nonie Darwish, October 24

UCLA -- Frank Pastore, John Ziegler

USC -- Ann Coulter, October 25

Virginia -- Frank Gaffney

Washington -- Kirby Wilbur

Washington -- Michael Medved, October 25

Wisconsin -- David Horowitz, October 22

Hot Air has this update about one of the "masterminds" behind the posters distributed at GWU:

As soon as I saw it, the name Adam Kokesh rang a bell. He’s the Marine vet who got in trouble for wearing his uniform to anti-war protests, and who heads up the Iraq Veterans Against the War....

The situation at GWU could have been much worse, I suppose. Just think of the uproar which could have ensued had a group distributed posters of the Danish cartoons satirizing MTP!