Senate Gears Up for Debate and Vote on Repealing Iraq War Authorizations
(CNSNews.com) – With Republicans divided on the issue, the Senate voted on Thursday to advance legislation to repeal Iraq war authorizations put in place in 1991 and 2002, in what would be the first action of its kind by Congress in more than half a century.
The procedural vote passed 68-27, with all 27 “no” votes coming from Republicans. Nineteen Republicans joined Democrats voting in favor, and three Republicans and two Democrats did not vote. (Voting record here.)
The vote tees up a debate, and likely amendments, before a final vote, which the lead sponsors hope could take place next week.
Monday marks the 20th anniversary of the start of the Iraq war, which began five months after Congress passed the 2002 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF). The 1991 AUMF authorized the campaign to eject Saddam Hussein’s forces from Kuwait in Operation Desert Storm.
Supporters of repeal assert that Iraq is today an ally, hosting U.S. troops who are advising and training local forces to safeguard their country against threats, including a resurgence of ISIS.
But it is Iraq’s neighbor, Iran, that is expected to feature prominently in the debate over repealing the AUMFs; opponents of repeal argue that it sends a signal of lack of resolve to Iran and its terrorist proxies in Iraq.
Speaking on the Senate floor before Thursday’s vote, supporters of repeal said that repealing the authorizations will have no impact on the U.S. ability to respond to Iranian aggression.
Foreign Relations Committee chairman Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) said President Biden had “responded to Iranian-led and Iranian-backed attacks repeatedly,” without relying on the 2002 AUMF.
“I know well the threat that Iran poses to us and to our allies in the region,” continued Menendez, who is among the most hawkish Democrats on Iran.
“We cannot be naive about their intentions, and we need to have the political will to respond how and when we deem necessary. But repeal will have no impact on our ability to defend U.S. interests against Iran – none whatsoever.”
Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), who is leading the bipartisan repeal effort with Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), took a similar line.
“I share the views of so many of my colleagues on the need to counter Iran, I really do,” he said. “But reimagining a more than 20-year-old authorization that was passed to combat a totally different enemy, is not the way to do it.”
Young said the existence of the 1991 and 2002 AUMFs has not changed the fact that Iraq has faced pressure from Iran over the past two decades.
“Going forward, as Iraq continues to face Iranian coercion and violence,” he said, “we must increase our resolve to stand with them as partners, not as our enemy. And repealing these authorizations will help us do just that.”
Speaking to reporters outside the Capitol, Kaine said that Iran uses the continued existence of the AUMFs for propaganda purposes, telling the Iraqis that if the Americans were their friends, “why would they have two war authorizations against you?”
“Dropping these war authorizations has a way of sending a very powerful signal that the United States and Iraq working together will be a voice for stability in the region,” he said.
If the Senate passes the legislation, it will go to the GOP-controlled House. In June 2021, the then Democrat-led House passed a measure to scrap the 2002 AUMF in a 268-161 vote, with almost a quarter of Republicans voting in favor.
‘Critical authorities’
The White House on Thursday signaled Biden’s support for the repeal, saying in a statement of policy that it “would have no impact on current U.S. military operations.”
It added that Biden was committed to working with Congress to ensure that “outdated” AUMFs “are replaced with a narrow and specific framework more appropriate to protecting Americans from modern terrorist threats.”
By contrast, the Trump White House in January 2020 opposed a House measure to repeal the 2002 AUMF.
“Iran and Iran-sponsored proxies continue to plan and execute attacks against United States forces in Iraq,” it said. The AUMF “provides critical authorities for the United States to defend itself and its partner forces” in Iraq.
Weeks earlier, President Trump had ordered the airstrike that killed IRGC Qods Force commander Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad, and the White House cited the 2002 AUMF in part as legal justification.
“The president exercised America’s clear and inherent right of self-defense to counter this threat,” then-National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien told reporters on January 3.
“It was a fully authorized action under the 2002 AUMF and was consistent with his constitutional authority as commander-in-chief to defend our nation and our forces against attacks like those that Soleimani has directed in the past and was plotting now.”
Earlier, the Obama-Biden administration also justified the use of the 2022 AUMF “for the related dual purposes of helping to establish a stable, democratic Iraq and of addressing terrorist threats emanating from Iraq.”
“After Saddam Hussein’s regime fell in 2003, the United States continued to take military action in Iraq under the 2002 AUMF to further these purposes, including action against AQI (now known as ISIL),” the Obama administration said in a 2016 legal and policy framework document.
“Then, as now, that organization posed a terrorist threat to the United States and its partners and undermined stability and democracy in Iraq,” it said.
The current repeal effort will not affect the 2001 AUMF, passed after al-Qaeda attacked the U.S. on 9/11. Administrations since then have used it to justify military operations against terrorists in countries including Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan, and Libya.
Attempts to repeal the 2001 AUMF, led for years in the House by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), have not progressed. When the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week considered the Kaine-Young bill, Sen. Rand Paul proposed repealing the 2001 AUMF too, but cast the lone vote in favor.
The last time Congress repealed a military authorization was in January 1971, when a measure to repeal the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution – which became the legal basis for prosecution of the Vietnam War – was attached to foreign military sales legislation signed into law by President Nixon.
America Might Share the Fate of Byzantium
When Constantinople finally fell to the Ottomans on Tuesday, May 29, 1453, the Byzantine Empire and its capital had up to that point survived for 1,000 years beyond the fall of the Western Empire at Rome.
Always outnumbered in a sea of enemies, the Byzantines’ survival had depended on its realist diplomacy of dividing its enemies, avoiding military quagmires, and ensuring constant deterrence.
Generations of self-sacrifice ensured ample investment for infrastructure. Each generation inherited and improved on singular aqueducts and cisterns, sewer systems, and the most complex and formidable city fortifications in the world.
Brilliant scientific advancement and engineering gave the empire advantages such as swift galleys and flamethrowers—an ancient precursor to napalm.
The law reigned supreme for nearly a millennium after the emperor Justinian codified a prior 1,000 years of Roman jurisprudence.
Yet this millennium-old crown jewel of the ancient world, once home to 800,000 citizens, had only 50,000 inhabitants left when it fell. There were only 7,000 defenders on the walls to hold back a huge Turkish army of over 150,000 attackers.
The Islamic winners took over the once magical city of Constantine and renamed it Istanbul. It had been the home of the renowned Santa Sophia, the largest Christian church in the world for over 900 years. Almost immediately, this “Church of the Holy Wisdom” was converted into what was then largest the mosque in the Islamic world, with minarets to follow.
So what happened to the once indomitable city fortress and its empire?
Christendom had cannibalized itself. Western Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy fought endlessly. Westerners often hated each other more than they did their common enemy.
In the final days of Constantinople, almost no help was sent from Western Europe to the besieged city.
In fact 250 years earlier, the Western Franks of the Fourth Crusade had detoured from the Holy Land to storm the supposedly allied Christian city of Constantinople. Then they ransacked it and hijacked the Byzantine Empire for a half-century. Constantinople never quite recovered.
The 14th-century Black Plague killed tens of thousands of Byzantines and scared thousands more into moving out of the cramped city.
But the aging and dying empire battled more than the challenges of internal divisions, or an unforeseen but deadly pandemic and the empire’s disastrous responses to it.
The last generations of Byzantines had inherited a global reputation and standard of living that they themselves no longer earned. They neglected their former civic values and fought endless battles over obscure religious texts, doctrines, and vocabulary.
They did not expand their anemic army and navy. They did not reunite their scattered, Greek-speaking empire. They did not properly maintain their once life-giving walls.
Instead of earning money through their accustomed nonstop trade, the Byzantines inflated their currency and were forced to melt down the city’s inherited gold and silver fixtures.
The once canny and shrewd Byzantines grew smug and naive. Childlessness became common. Most now preferred to live outside of what had become a half-empty, often dirty, and poorly maintained city.
Meanwhile, they underestimated the growing power of the Ottomans, who systematically pruned away their empire. By the mid-15th century, Islamic armies were ready to exploit fatal Byzantine weaknesses.
The Sultan Mehmed II grandly announced that the Ottomans were now the real, the only world power. Ascendant Ottoman armies would eventually move on to the very gates of Vienna in an effort to rule all the lands of the ancient Roman empire.
We should take heed from the last generations of the Byzantines.
Nowhere is it foreordained that America has a birthright to remain the world’s preeminent civilization.
An ascendant China seems eerily similar to the Ottomans. Beijing believes that the United States is decadent, undeserving of its affluence, living beyond its means on the fumes of the past—and very soon vulnerable enough to challenge openly.
Left and Right seem to hate each other more than they do their common enemies.
Like the Byzantines, Americans gave up defending their own borders, and simply shrugged as millions overran them as they pleased.
Our once iconic downtowns, like end-stage Constantinople before the fall, are now dirty, half-deserted, dangerous, and dysfunctional.
America prints rather than makes money, as its banks totter near bankruptcy.
Americans similarly believe they are invincible without ensuring in reality that they are. Our military is more worried about being “woke” than deadly.
Like Byzantines, Americans have become snarky iconoclasts, more eager to tear down art and sculpture that they no longer have the talent to create.
Current woke dogma, obscure word fights, and sanctimonious cancel culture are as antithetical to the past generations of World War II as the last generation of Constantinople was to the former great eras of the emperors Constantine, Justinian, Heraclius, and Leo.
The Byzantines never woke up in time to understand what they had become.
So far, neither have Americans.
Courtesy of The Daily Signal. (Originally titled "Are We the Byzantines?")
TAKE A LOOK AT WHAT THE MUSLIMS HAVE DONE TO EUROPE AND YOU'LL SEE WHAT WE SHOULD EXPECT HERE, IF IT'S NOT ALREADY HERE AND NOW!
Is it all that different from his open borders policies, where millions of unvetted foreign migrants are flooding into this country without authorization, bringing crime, drugs, and costs, yet there too nothing is done about it? Joe offers an absurd excuse for that decision, as well claiming that all migrants who can utter the magic word 'asylum' are entitled to a free ride inside the U.S. for years or more, amounting to an all-expenses paid trip for thousands. MONICA SHOWALTER
“Then we suffered the rattling election of Barack Obama, whose active membership in a white-, Jewish-, and America-hating church was well known to the electorate. His close personal relationship with the likes of his adored Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Louis Farrakhan was no secret. Obama was open about his goals. He told us he was out to "fundamentally transform America" and the world.” ALAN BERGSTEIN
Prestigious American Heritage Private School Raises $10,000 for Radical Mosque
High tuition costs, but money to spare for terror and bigotry.
American Heritage Schools (AHS) are a pair of high-priced college preparatory schools located in South Florida, with campuses in Broward and Palm Beach Counties. AHS calls itself the “#1 School In Florida.” It boasts the “Highest Number of National Merit Scholars” – 175 for the Class of 2023, 16 Presidential Scholars, and 168 AP/Honors courses with a “94% rate on all AP exams.” Yet, for a school(s) that would appear so smart, it just did something awfully foolish and alarming. It bragged about how one of its clubs raised $10,000 for an entity linked to terror and bigotry. If the educational institution has any integrity, it will demand the money is given back.
On March 8th, the AHS Broward campus, which is located in Plantation, proudly posted on its Facebook page about how its Arabic Club organized a Ramadan food drive to raise money for the Islamic Foundation of South Florida, a radical mosque based in Sunrise. It stated, “The Arabic Club organized a food drive for the day of Ramadan. Led by Mr. Jose Bronca, club advisor, and Mohamed Hachem, club president, the Arabic Club made the Heritage community aware of the needs of the Islamic Foundation of South Florida (IFSF)… Many people donated money to the foundation, raising $10,000. Thank you to everyone that supported this drive!”
This was shocking, given IFSF’s disturbing history.
The former Youth Director and Events Coordinator for IFSF is local Muslim activist Abdur Rahman al-Ghani. Al-Ghani believes Jews are inherently wicked. His Facebook posts have described Jews as “the children of Satan” and “demonic.” About homosexuals, he has written, “If you are gay, you are not a Muslim, you are a stone cold kaffir outside the fold of Islam. No one is born gay, it is a sickness…” He has posted a photo of Hamas militants with the caption (in part), “We love u Hamas. U are the real hero.” He has labeled the US the “World’s Number One Terrorist Organization” and wrote that Islam “will over-take the World in numbers.”
In April 2014, IFSF hosted a talk by Mazen Mokhtar, a former administrator for the now-defunct al-Qaeda financing and recruitment site, Jihad in Chechnya (qoqaz.net). The site was produced by Azzam Publications, named for the mentor of Osama bin Laden and co-founder of al-Qaeda, Abdullah Yusuf Azzam. Mokhtar has described suicide bombings as “an effective method of attacking the enemy and continuing jihad.” About Hamas, he wrote, “One of the reasons of my support for Hamas is that they have very high moral standards…” and “the operations of HAMAS are heroic…”
Of course, Abdur Rahman al-Ghani may no longer be involved with IFSF, and the Mazen Mokhtar speech was nearly a decade ago. However, recent events at IFSF and affiliations of the mosque demonstrate that the radical identity of IFSF is entirely unchanged.
Last month, IFSF hosted an event for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a group with financial and foundational ties to Hamas. In December 2022, a sermon was given at IFSF by Shafayat Mohamed, an imam who has been thrown off several Broward boards for his anti-gay rhetoric and whose mosque, Darul Uloom, has been a haven for high-profile al-Qaeda operatives. In June 2022, IFSF hosted a speech by a representative from Islamic Relief, a group that has been banned by a number of nations. And in March 2022, IFSF hosted an event for the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), a group with a variety of links to South Asian terror.
IFSF and its children’s school, Salah Tawfik Elementary & Middle School (STEMS), are currently members of the South Florida Muslim Federation (SFMF), an umbrella organization for South Florida’s many extremist Muslim groups, including all of the entities mentioned already and a number of radical mosques beyond IFSF and Darul Uloom.
One of IFSF’s fellow Federation mosques is Masjid Jamaat Al-Mumineen (MJAM), which promotes on its website material: calling Jews and Christians “enemies,” sanctioning domestic violence against women, glorifying female genital mutilation, and mandating death punishments for homosexuals. In September 2021, IFSF hosted a talk by MJAM’s imam, Izhar Khan. In May 2011, the FBI accused Khan of plotting with members of his family to help finance the Taliban.
Another SFMF mosque, the Islamic Center of Boca Raton (ICBR), was founded by a website designer for Hamas and a former assistant to a leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). In May 2021, IFSF hosted an event with ICBR founding Imam Ibrahim Dremali and IFSF Imam Sultan Mohammed, titled ‘LET’S TALK PALESTINE.’ One day prior, Dremali lauded Hamas and PIJ, saying “The only people right now in Gaza fighting are Hamas and Jihad… Don’t worry. Victory is coming soon.” Dremali also had implored people to read Protocols of the Elders of Zion and said, “If the Arab leaders open the borders for Palestine… the Jews they’ll be inside that ocean.”
Following the August 2020 explosion that devastated Beirut, Lebanon, leaving hundreds dead, thousands injured, and over $15 billion in property damage, the Arabic Club of American Heritage Schools sent two sizable containers filled with clothes, food and medicine to Beirut. It was a legitimate and commendable act, and the group was praised for doing so.
However, what was neither legitimate nor commendable was for the club to raise money for the extremist IFSF. Given the mosque’s numerous links to terrorism and bigotry, not a dime raised was warranted, let alone $10,000. Advisor Jose Bronca and AHS failed to exercise due diligence in investigating the insidious nature of their funds’ recipient. As a result, donors were duped into thinking their money would go to a worthy cause and institution.
The AHS slogan is “Knowledge, Integrity, Compassion.” AHS and its Arabic Club should live up to this motto and show ‘integrity’ by owning up to their mistake and immediately demanding that the money be returned. Providing funds to such an organization as IFSF is both immoral and a threat to security.
Beila Rabinowitz, Director of Militant Islam Monitor, contributed to this report.
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THE FAVE SPORT OF MUSLIM MEN IN SWEDEN IS RAPE
Malaysia Sends Sweden 20,000 Qurans in Swedish
What's the endgame? And will it work?
Sweden is the country where, a few weeks ago, the Danish anti-Islam activist Rasmus Paludan set fire to a Qur’an, sparking the usual outrage among Muslims worldwide. Now the Muslims in Malaysia have decided to help persuade the Swedes that they should reconsider having allowed this (which, in fact, they have already done), by sending them a gift of 20,000 Qur’ans translated into Swedish. The Malaysians are convinced that now that the Swedes will have had a chance to read, in their own language, that eloquent, splendid, never-to-be-surpassed text of the Holy Qur’an, they will realize the sheer wonderfulness of Islam and be just as outraged that anyone would set fire to it. They may also be hoping that some Swedes may even convert to Islam as a result. It’s touching, in a way, this faith expressed by the Muslims in Malaysia, who think that reading the Qur’an cannot help but persuade Western Infidels to end their Islamophobia, and even cause some of them to embrace Islam. The story of the 20,000 Qurans that Malaysians intend to distribute in Sweden is provided here: “Malaysia to send 20,000 translated Qurans to Sweden,”
Malaysia has set aside more than $2 million American dollars to fight Islamophobia. The money goes to translating and printing the Quran in several languages and distributing copies internationally.
Out of the 2 million copies, 20,000 will be shipped to Sweden. This is due to Rasmus Paludan, a far-right [Danish] politician, who publicly burned the Quran in Sweden last month during a protest.
The plan is meant to create a better understanding of Islam, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim told reporters after the International Forum on Islamophobia. An event held on Monday, Feb. 27, in the capital Putrajaya.
“We will print 20,000 in Swedish – and other languages too – for the purpose of better understanding,” he told reporters.
Anwar said the translations, publication and distribution will show wisdom and maturity in the face of unnecessary attacks on Islam.
The “wisdom and maturity” is shown by responding to Rasmus Paludan’s burning of the Qur’an not by threatening him with death or even murdering him – which so often in the past has been the response to presumed blasphemy or mockery of or attacks on Islam (see how Muslims have dealt with Theo van Gogh, Lars Vilks, the dozen cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo) — but by providing free Qur’ans, in all the main languages of the Infidels. These devout Muslims think that once Swedish have a Qur’an, they can read and refer to, they will cease to be alarmed about Islam. For who could read the beautiful words of the Holy Qur’an and not be swayed?
Joachim Bergström, Swedish ambassador to Malaysia, welcomed Anwar’s announcement.
“I am personally delighted that this important text will be more accessible in my native country and in Europe,” Bergström told BenarNews.
Joachim Bergström have spent many years living and working in the Muslim world. Between 2016 and 2021 he worked as Sweden’s special envoy to combat Islamophobia.
“I am convinced that knowledge and dialogue are the way to promote understanding and peace,” Bergström added.
Joachim Bergstrom is a kind of Swedish John Esposito, who like Esposito has spent his working life among Muslims and has come to sympathize with them and with their religion, becoming a Defender of the Faith – that faith being Islam. He identifies with Muslims, and parrots their claim of widespread “islamophobia,” a charge which is meant to shut down all criticism of the faith. Bergstrom claims he is “personally delighted” that 20,000 Swedish-language Qur’ans will now be made available, for free, in Sweden. This is the way, he says, to “promote understanding and peace.” The Swedes cannot help but recognize the truth and beauty of the Qur’an, and will be ashamed that they ever defended the troublemaking Islamophobe Rasmus Paludan, who, in the guise of upholding the right to free speech in Sweden, was simply trying to wound Muslims in the very depths of their being by setting fire to the Qur’an.
Are the Malaysians right? Will sending 20,000 Qur’ans in Swedish translation so move their Swedish readers that they will see Islam, and Muslims, in a new light? Will some perhaps even convert to the One True Faith? That’s the expectancy and hope of the Malaysians. I think they have got it exactly wrong. It is the ignorance of the Qur’an that has led Westerners to be insufficiently alarmed about the Muslim migrants now in their midst. Knowledge of the Qur’an’s contents will not soften, but harden, the Swedes’ antipathy toward Islam. Just imagine how Swedish Infidels will react upon learning that in the Qur’an, Muslims are described as the “best of peoples” (3:110), while non-Muslims are described as the “most vile of created beings” (98:6). There is no possibility of explaining away those two verses, or convincing anyone of sense that they do not really mean what they say.
It won’t any longer be possible for Muslim apologists to claim to Swedish readers that the Qur’an is a book of peace and tolerance. After all, the Swedes — or the 20,000 of them who are provided with the Swedish-language Qur’ans — will have read, and remembered because their virulent contents would certainly have startled them, such verses as 2:191-193, 3:151, 4:89, 8:12, 8:60, 9:5, 9:29, 47:4, and 98:6.
How do you explain all that away to Swedes who no longer need depend on Muslim apologists who soften the meaning of the verses, claiming that they have to be “contextualized,” which meant that they were never meant to apply to all people for all time, but applied only to non-Muslim enemies of the 7th century? A true reading of the Qur’an shows that these verses were not directed only at Infidels of a certain time and place, but to all Infidels, everywhere, and for all time.
Imagine a Swedish reader who reads these verses commanding Muslims to behave in a certain way toward Infidels:
2:191: “And kill them wherever you find them, and drive them out from where they drove you out, for persecution is worse than slaughter.”
3:151: “We will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve because they ascribe partners to Allah, for which no justification has been revealed. Their dwelling is the fire, and wretched is the dwelling place of the wrongdoers.”
4:89: “They wish that you would disbelieve even as they disbelieve, that you may be on the same level. So do not choose friends from them until they migrate in the way of Allah, if they turn back, then take them and kill them wherever you find them, and choose no friend or helper from among them.”
8:12: “When your Lord inspired the angels, I am with you. So make those who believe stand firm. I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Then strike the necks and strike their fingertips.”
8:60: “Make ready for them all that you can of force and of warhorses, so that by them you may strike terror in the enemy of Allah and your enemy, and others beside them whom you do not know. Allah knows them. Whatever you spend in the way of Allah, it will be repaid to you in full, and you will not be wronged.”
9:5: ”Then, when the sacred months have passed, kill the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them, and besiege them, and prepare for them every ambush. But if they repent and establish prayer and give alms, then leave their way free. Indeed, Allah is forgiving, merciful.”
9:29: “Fight against those do not believe in Allah or the last day, and do not forbid what Allah and his messenger have forbidden, and do not follow the religion of truth, even if they are among the people of the book, until they pay the jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued.”
47:4: “Now when you meet the unbelievers, strike the necks until, when you have subdued them, then make fast the bonds, and afterward either generosity or ransom until the war lays down its burdens. That, and if Allah willed, he could have punished them, but so that he may test some of you by means of others. And those who have been killed in the way of Allah, he does not make their actions useless.”
98:6: “Indeed, the unbelievers among the people of the book and the idolaters will remain in the fire of Gehenna. They are the most vile of created beings.”
It will be much more difficult for Muslim apologists to convince Swedes of the “real meaning” of the Qur’an; they will now be able to read and understand the verses above (and there are many others equally offensive and threatening toward Infidels), that the Qur’an is a book of peace, rather than what in truth it is – a handbook of war. How salutary it would be if those Malaysians were to send to Sweden not 20,000 Qur’ans, but two million. The more the Infidels can read the Qur’an for themselves, without relying on the misleading paraphrases of the apologists, the more accurate will be their understanding of the text. And that, in turn, should increase their alarm over the Muslims whom, out of ignorance, they have allowed to settle by the millions in their midst.
In fact, why stop with translating the Qur’an in Swedish? Why can’t ex-Muslims translate into the two dozen languages of Europe the most important ahadith – the acts and sayings of Muhammad –-and excerpts, too, from Ibn Ishaq’s biography of the Prophet, so that both could be published in the same pamphlet, in a press run of half-a-million?
Wouldn’t it be useful for Europe’s non-Muslims to learn that Muhammad said “I have been made victorious through terror” and “War is deceit,” as reported in Sahih Bukhari? Shouldn’t they also be provided with the hadith in Bukhari that recounts Muhammad’s marriage to little Aisha when she was six years old and tells us, too, that he consummated that marriage when Aisha was nine and he was fifty-four? That is not something Muslims want Infidels to know, which is exactly why it should be included in that possible pamphlet. Nor do Muslims want Infidels to know about Muhammad expressing a wish that “someone would rid me” of three people who had refused to accept Islam and had mocked him in verse. The three were a woman poet, Asma bint Marwan, a 90-year-old Jewish poet, Abu ‘Afak, and still another Jewish poet and community leader, Ka’b bin al-Ashraf. All three were murdered, one after another, by dutiful followers of Muhammad who were hoping thereby to win his favor.
Of course, we already have in English, the world’s lingua franca, exactly the Qur’an English speakers need, with copious glosses on the meaning of difficult verses. It is The Critical Qur’an of Robert Spencer. If you haven’t yet read and studied it, you are urged to do so now. You won’t regret it.
THE (REALITY) OF THE DEMOCRAT PARTY:
Anti-Semitic, open borders for cheaper labor and funded by criminal banksters… and these pols are making vast fortunes sucking the blood of America!
https://globalistbarackobama.blogspot.com/2018/09/obomb-muslim-anti-semitic.html
We must not let them cheat their way to power over the rest of us. Their ongoing vote fraud must be stopped and the Democrats need to take a look at themselves and at what they have become. It's not a pretty picture. What they have become threatens to destroy the greatest nation on the planet and they are doing it on purpose. They have nothing but contempt for the US as founded and for those of us who love this country. PATRICIA McCARTHY – AMERICAN THINKER
“Then we suffered the rattling election of Barack Obama, whose active membership in a white-, Jewish-, and America-hating church was well known to the electorate. His close personal relationship with the likes of his adored Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Louis Farrakhan was no secret. Obama was open about his goals. He told us he was out to "fundamentally transform America" and the world.” ALAN BERGSTEIN
“There is a deep racist and anti-Semitic disease in the leadership of the Democrats. As Senator Cory Booker brings his hatred for the Jewish State to the Senate, he should be asked whether he agrees with his hero, “The only good Zionist is a dead Zionist we must take a lesson from Hitler”. DANIEL GREENFIELD
New York Jury Spares ISIS Terrorist of Death Penalty for Truck Attack
Convicted New York City truck attack terrorist Sayfullo Saipov will not face the death penalty after a New York federal jury on Monday failed to reach a unanimous verdict on the death sentence.
Saipov was convicted in late January for the Halloween 2017 terrorist truck attack that killed eight people and wounded 12 others on the Hudson River Bike Path, marking New York’s deadliest terrorist attack since September 11, 2001.
Saipov drove a Home Depot rental truck onto a bicycle path but stopped only after he crashed into a special-needs school bus. He was heard shouting, “Allahu Akbar,” as he exited the truck.
After authorities fired shots at Saipov, he was taken to a hospital, where he reportedly smiled when describing the attack and asked to fly the Islamic State’s (ISIS) flag in his room.
Although a jury convicted him of all 28 counts in the indictment, they had to reach a separate unanimous verdict for federal authorities to impose the death penalty. Still, Saipov will spend the rest of his life behind bars without the possibility of release in lieu of the death penalty.
United States Attorney Damian Williams issued the following statement after the jury declined to impose the death penalty:
On October 31, 2017, Sayfullo Saipov stole eight innocent lives – and devastated the lives of many more – in a horrendous terrorist attack. This evil act was fueled by Saipov’s allegiance to ISIS, an allegiance which Saipov proudly maintained after the attack and up through his trial. Today a jury has declined to authorize the death penalty for Saipov, and accordingly the defendant will be subject to a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
During last week’s closing arguments, Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Houle told the jury Saipov deserved the death penalty for his “unremorseful slaughter of innocent civilians,” ABC News reported.
“Murder is always terrible but when the defendant made the choice to murder multiple people he exposed himself to a harsher punishment,” Houle said. “He stole eight lives.”
However, Saipov’s defense attorney David Patton claimed the jurors had “an awesome responsibility and power” in determining the fate of Saipov’s life and argued it was “not necessary” for him to die. Patton also urged the jury to let Saipov “die in obscurity, not as a hero, not as a martyr.”
“It is not necessary to kill Sayfullo Saipov, not for our safety or anyone else’s and not to do justice,” Patton said. “In this case, we are asking you to decide that meeting death with more death is not the answer.”
Although New York outlawed capital punishment in 2004, the death penalty remains available in federal courts. However, New York has not carried out the death penalty for a federal case since 1953, when convicted spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed.
Jordan Dixon-Hamilton is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jdixonhamilton@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter.
IMAGE OF OBAMA AND HIS GOOD FRIEND LOUIS FARRAKHAN
Levin: This is a scandal no one is talking about
Mark Levin: Biden and the Democrat Party Are ‘Tolerating’ a ‘Very Ugly’ Antisemitism
Conservative radio host Mark Levin slammed the Democrat Party for “tolerating” antisemitism, saying the left would sooner call former President Trump a white supremacist than address its own history of Jew-hatred.
On his Fox news show, Life, Liberty & Levin, the TV host on Sunday highlighted a speech by Nation of Islam cult leader and rabid antisemite, Louis Farrakhan, in which he attacked the Jewish people but praised members of the so-called Squad, Reps Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
“Jewish power has all of our people the knowledge, wisdom, and talent afraid. But just look at what these people control. And every door that leads to power, they have a sentinel on watch. Somebody has to take on the synagogue of Satan. And here we are. What good is your vote if the man you voted for has to go to somebody that you never elected? Behind the door to get instructions. And the Jews have become wealthy just by loaning money, charging you interest and the stranglehold the Jews have on this government,” Fox News cited Farrakhan as saying at the Saviors Day event.
Farrakhan has a “significant impact” on the Democrat Party, Levin said, and called out President Joe Biden for not condemning the speech or Farrakhan.
“Is there a reason Joe Biden didn’t condemn this? Is the reason Kamala Harris didn’t condemn this? Is a reason why nobody at the White House has mentioned it? Is there a reason why the Washington press corps blows this off? Yeah, there are reasons for this,” he said.
He went on to note that Farrakhan was invited to the Congressional Black Caucus for lunch on Capitol Hill.
“Why did they invite this man? Because the Democrat Party has a problem,” the host argued.
Citing an article from Kevin Williamson at the National Review, he said Democrats have a “minor socialist problem.” Williamson wrote:
They have a major problem in the form of Jew-hating weirdos. Prominent among them, the Reverend Louis Farrakhan of the so-called Nation of Islam. Farrakhan has been out and proud, Jew-hating weirdo for many decades. But Democrats still feel the need to make gestures of obeisance before him. Anti-Trump leaders such as Tamika Mallory or Linda Sarsour of the Women’s March, have embraced Farrakhan and courted his favor. Barack Obama came a-calling in 2005 when he was ramping up his political career. The Congressional Black Caucus has consulted him. Bill Clinton stood alongside him at Aretha Franklin’s funeral, implicitly elevating the cult leader. California Democrats Barbara Lee, now wants to be a senator, and Maxine Waters attended Farrakhan’s public events, and Obama administration veteran, Eric Holder, posed for a picture with him.
Farrakhan is an anti-Semite. About that there is no real debate. Eric Holder. Maxine Waters. Others who confer status and influence on Farrakhan and his gang. Maybe they aren’t anti-Semitic. They certainly are collaborators.
Levin charged the Democrats with unbridled hypocrisy, accusing Biden of racism.
“This effort to try and turn conservatism into the KKK, into neo-Nazi ism is really amazing, especially considering the history of the Democrat Party and its embrace of the KKK and slavery and segregation and Jim Crow. Despite its history of filibustering the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, despite its current president, Joe Biden being a racist and segregationist early in his career opposing public school integration, calling it a jungle,” he said.
Antisemitism is quickly spreading, Levin continued, and it’s becoming “very, very ugly.”
“The President of the United States is saying almost nothing about any of this. The Democrat leadership is tolerating anti-Semitism.”
Lawmakers Mum As Ticketmaster Doles Out Tickets For Farrakhan Hate Rally
Ticketmaster makes money off event where Farrakhan assailed 'stranglehold that Jews have on this government'
March 2, 2023The ticketing giant hated by Taylor Swift fans and everyone else who has ever tried to buy concert tickets is now under fire from Jewish activists for selling tickets to a Louis Farrakhan event in which the minister defended Adolf Hitler and predicted another Holocaust against Jews. But many of Ticketmaster's biggest critics on Capitol Hill don't seem to care.
Ticketmaster, which charges service fees on each ticket it sells, raked in money selling tickets to Farrakhan's annual Saviours' Day conference in Chicago last weekend. During his speech at the event, Farrakhan assailed the "stranglehold that Jews have on this government" and claimed "Jewish power is what has all of our people of knowledge and wisdom and talent afraid."
The event was met with crickets on Capitol Hill, with almost no one in Congress speaking out against Ticketmaster for making money off of the Farrakhan event. The reaction is a stark contrast to lawmakers' response when Ticketmaster bungled sales last year for Taylor Swift's much-anticipated concert tour. That fiasco was in the news cycle for weeks and led to a Department of Justice investigation as well as a Senate hearing. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle say Ticketmaster and its parent company, LiveNation, have a monopoly over the ticket industry, leading to price-gouging and a failure to crack down on automated scalping.
"Daily reminder that Ticketmaster is a monopoly, it’s merger with LiveNation should never have been approved, and they need to be reigned in [sic]," wrote Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) in a Twitter post in November. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R., Wash.), now the chairwoman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, sent a letter to Ticketmaster last year raising concerns about its practices, while Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) and Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.) called on the Department of Justice to investigate. None of their offices responded to a request for comment on Ticketmaster's Farrakhan sales.
Only Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R., Tenn.)—who also spoke out about the Taylor Swift debacle—weighed in on the Farrakhan controversy when contacted by the Washington Free Beacon.
"It is extremely concerning that Ticketmaster is choosing to use its platform to elevate and promote a well-known anti-Semite. The targeting of the Jewish people has gone on far too long and must stop," she said.
Entertainment industry leaders and Jewish groups had urged Ticketmaster to drop the Farrakhan event from its sales platform, but Ticketmaster did not waver. The Anti-Defamation League also sent a letter to Ticketmaster on Friday to "note that the Nation of Islam’s annual Saviors’ Day event regularly serves as a platform to amplify this hate and bigotry." The group said it was not calling on the company to halt ticket sales.
The event came as anti-Semitism is on the rise in the United States. Hate crimes against Jews have surged in major cities, while celebrities like Kanye West and Kyrie Irving have promoted anti-Jewish conspiracy theories on social media. Farrakhan during his speech praised West as a "very great brother" and "genius."
"Ye broke into the fashion industry, that’s controlled by Jews," said Farrakhan. "Don’t be mad with them. They’re in every avenue that leads to power."
"Somebody has to take on the synagogue of Satan, and here we are," he said. "We cannot let them take the country."
Farrakhan criticized Jews who use the phrase "Never Again" when discussing the Holocaust.
"You can say that to men, but you can’t say that to God. Because the Bible says, behold, the day cometh that shall burn—as a what?—as an oven. And those who do wickedly, He will slay them."
"God is not unjust; when he kills you, you know you deserved it," he added.
Farrakhan also defended the Nazis by citing an argument he supposedly heard from a Jewish rabbi on TV.
"Usury is what has made [the Jews] strong. I heard a Jewish rabbi, maybe about six weeks ago, he came on television talking about Adolf Hitler," said Farrakhan. "And he said Hitler was right. He said Hitler went against usury and Hitler attacked pornography that the Jews had put on the Germans."
Farrakhan and his group, the Nation of Islam, promote numerous conspiracy theories about Jews, including that Jews control the government, the media, and global financial institutions.
Last week, a group of entertainment industry leaders sent a letter to Ticketmaster CEO Michael Rapino calling on the company to drop the sales of the Farrakhan event and citing the preacher’s long history of anti-Semitism.
The ticketing giant hated by Taylor Swift fans and everyone else who has ever tried to buy concert tickets is now under fire from Jewish activists for selling tickets to a Louis Farrakhan event in which the minister defended Adolf Hitler and predicted another Holocaust against Jews. But many of Ticketmaster's biggest critics on Capitol Hill don't seem to care.
Ticketmaster, which charges service fees on each ticket it sells, raked in money selling tickets to Farrakhan's annual Saviours' Day conference in Chicago last weekend. During his speech at the event, Farrakhan assailed the "stranglehold that Jews have on this government" and claimed "Jewish power is what has all of our people of knowledge and wisdom and talent afraid."
The event was met with crickets on Capitol Hill, with almost no one in Congress speaking out against Ticketmaster for making money off of the Farrakhan event. The reaction is a stark contrast to lawmakers' response when Ticketmaster bungled sales last year for Taylor Swift's much-anticipated concert tour. That fiasco was in the news cycle for weeks and led to a Department of Justice investigation as well as a Senate hearing. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle say Ticketmaster and its parent company, LiveNation, have a monopoly over the ticket industry, leading to price-gouging and a failure to crack down on automated scalping.
"Daily reminder that Ticketmaster is a monopoly, it’s merger with LiveNation should never have been approved, and they need to be reigned in [sic]," wrote Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) in a Twitter post in November. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R., Wash.), now the chairwoman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, sent a letter to Ticketmaster last year raising concerns about its practices, while Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) and Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.) called on the Department of Justice to investigate. None of their offices responded to a request for comment on Ticketmaster's Farrakhan sales.
Only Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R., Tenn.)—who also spoke out about the Taylor Swift debacle—weighed in on the Farrakhan controversy when contacted by the Washington Free Beacon.
"It is extremely concerning that Ticketmaster is choosing to use its platform to elevate and promote a well-known anti-Semite. The targeting of the Jewish people has gone on far too long and must stop," she said.
Entertainment industry leaders and Jewish groups had urged Ticketmaster to drop the Farrakhan event from its sales platform, but Ticketmaster did not waver. The Anti-Defamation League also sent a letter to Ticketmaster on Friday to "note that the Nation of Islam’s annual Saviors’ Day event regularly serves as a platform to amplify this hate and bigotry." The group said it was not calling on the company to halt ticket sales.
The event came as anti-Semitism is on the rise in the United States. Hate crimes against Jews have surged in major cities, while celebrities like Kanye West and Kyrie Irving have promoted anti-Jewish conspiracy theories on social media. Farrakhan during his speech praised West as a "very great brother" and "genius."
"Ye broke into the fashion industry, that’s controlled by Jews," said Farrakhan. "Don’t be mad with them. They’re in every avenue that leads to power."
"Somebody has to take on the synagogue of Satan, and here we are," he said. "We cannot let them take the country."
Farrakhan criticized Jews who use the phrase "Never Again" when discussing the Holocaust.
"You can say that to men, but you can’t say that to God. Because the Bible says, behold, the day cometh that shall burn—as a what?—as an oven. And those who do wickedly, He will slay them."
"God is not unjust; when he kills you, you know you deserved it," he added.
Farrakhan also defended the Nazis by citing an argument he supposedly heard from a Jewish rabbi on TV.
"Usury is what has made [the Jews] strong. I heard a Jewish rabbi, maybe about six weeks ago, he came on television talking about Adolf Hitler," said Farrakhan. "And he said Hitler was right. He said Hitler went against usury and Hitler attacked pornography that the Jews had put on the Germans."
Farrakhan and his group, the Nation of Islam, promote numerous conspiracy theories about Jews, including that Jews control the government, the media, and global financial institutions.
Last week, a group of entertainment industry leaders sent a letter to Ticketmaster CEO Michael Rapino calling on the company to drop the sales of the Farrakhan event and citing the preacher’s long history of anti-Semitism.
From political leaders to business people, Muslims have a roadmap.
Some Muslims appear angry with the crackdown of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma of the Indian state of Assam upon illegal madrassas (Islamic seminaries), as well as upon the child marriage rackets of some Muslim leaders. Reacting to the latest incidents in the state during a public meeting, a prominent Muslim leader, Badruddin Ajmal, boasted that Muslims would establish Islamic rule in India within 20 years. “After 20 years,” said Ajmal while addressing a public meeting held after his party meeting in the Dabaka area of the Nagaon district of Assam, “India will be governed by boys and girls belonging to the Muslim community.” Ajmal is the chief of the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF); since 2009, he also holds a seat in Lok Sabha, the parliament of India, from Dhubri.
Various sources have confirmed that the Islamic organization led by AIUDF and the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) plan to set up numerous training and career education institutions for Muslim students that would produce large numbers of Muslim officers in the Indian Administrative Services (IAS), the India Police Services (IPS), and allied services in state cadres. These organizations would also support the education and training of engineers, doctors, advocates, and business entrepreneurs from their community that would help establish an Islamic regime in India in an institutionalized way.
Although Hindus dominate the primarily white-collar professions, they will be dependent on the Muslim population for the basic needs of life, and the presence of Sharia-compliant Muslims in the administrative ranks will further the revision of laws so that they favor Muslims.
The fact that there are institutions that support free training for Muslim students who are preparing for administrative services is well known. Young Muslims are opting for this route in order to get a share of administrative power. Some Muslim-owned corporations use funds from their welfare trusts to provide scholarships to Muslim students. From political leaders to business people, the Muslims have a roadmap to an Islamized India, and many of them are collectively following this path while the majority slumbers. Hence, when a Muslim leader such as Badruddin Ajmal asserts that he sees Islamic control of India in 20 years, the state machinery shouldn’t just laugh it off and dismiss it as wishful thinking.
It is said that the Islamic outfit also plans to capture and influence Indian social systems through love jihad (luring gullible Hindu women into relationships with Muslim men, forcing them to convert to Islam, and killing them or forcing them to commit suicide if they refuse), population jihad (giving birth to a large number of children per couple while people of other religions generally limit themselves to two), land jihad (capturing land nationwide and claiming it under the authority of the Waqf Board), and conversion as four tools to neutralize the control of Hindus in India.
The halal industry has successfully penetrated the Indian markets, and with a scarcity of choices, non-Muslims are made to consume halal products. Almost every eatery and restaurant serves dishes made with halal meat. The retailers selling raw meat take pride in declaring that they exclusively sell halal meat, even in Hindu-majority cities and towns. Markets are full of halal-certified spices and grocery items that are not even meat products. The market now has halal-certified make-up brands promoted by Hindu influencers. Most Hindus remain unfazed by all this and are shelling out money for their own destruction.
This is not the first time that Badruddin Ajmal has courted controversy for his outrageous comments. A few months ago, he said that Hindus “should follow Muslims and get their children married at an young age. Get the boys married at 20-22 and the girls at 18-20 and see how many children are born.” His comments attracted sharp criticism from BJP MLA Diganta Kalita. The leader of the Congress, Debabrata Saikia, filed a complaint against Ajmal, accusing the latter of targeting the Hindu community. Saikia also claimed that the AIUDF chief’s comments had triggered disharmony or enmity towards Hindus, especially Hindu women of India.
Apart from the above, Ajmal has incurred several charges of promoting enmity between different groups and doing things that are prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony. He is also accused of criminal intimidation, cheating, and other malicious acts that appear to have been intended to provoke outrage among those who oppose him.
Terror in Tel Aviv: Three Israelis Shot by Palestinian Terrorist
Three Israelis were shot and wounded by a Palestinian terrorist while sitting in a cafe in downtown Tel Aviv on Thursday night.
Two of the victims remained in critical condition on Friday morning. The third was listed as being in moderate condition.
The terrorist, identified as Mutaz Salah al-Khawaja from the Palestinian town of Ni’lin, was shot and killed by security forces at the scene. He was known to the police as having affiliations with the Hamas terror group and had previously served time in an Israeli prison twice for owning and using illegal weapons.
Hamas released a statement calling the attack a “a natural response to the crimes committed by the Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank and Jenin.”
Al-Khawaja recorded a video hours before Thursday’s attack, calling for jihad and saying that he wished to die as a martyr.
On Friday morning, the terrorist’s father was arrested. IDF soldiers mapped al-Khawaja’s home ahead of its expected demolition, a policy Israel says deters attacks.
“I saw a terrorist and I hid,” an eyewitness told the Ynet news site. “I saw policemen running towards the corner of the building. A firefight broke out between them. He came and they neutralized him.”
The shooting came amid ongoing protests against the government’s plans for judicial reform. Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai called on anti-government protesters to leave the area to allow police to secure it.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu broadcast a brief message from an official visit to Rome.
“There has been another terror attack in the heart of Tel Aviv tonight. We send, first of all, our hopes and our wishes for the speedy recovery of the wounded, and we strengthen the security forces and the police who are fighting terrorists this night and every night,” he said.
“We will continue to build our nation and deepen our roots, and to build our common future as brothers and sisters.”
Hamas released a statement calling the attack a “a natural response to the crimes committed by the Israeli occupation forces in [Judea and Samaria] and Jenin.”
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