Answering Muslims

Muslim Convert Samantha Lewthwaite Is Now Terrorist "Boss"

2013-05-19T13:48:00.001-05:00

I wonder if there will ever come a time when we can have an open, honest discussion about the ideology that caused this British girl to become a violent jihadist. One day, perhaps.

Samantha Lewthwaite

Express—The British wife of one of the 7/7 suicide bombers may have been more closely involved in the planning of the London terror attacks than previously thought.

Suspicions have grown that Muslim convert Samantha Lewthwaite, now known as the White Widow due to her fugitive status in East Africa, was actually one of the masterminds behind the killings in 2005. Immediately after the explosions which murdered 52 people on the London transport system, she said she "abhorred" the actions of her dead husband Jermaine Lindsay, whose bomb detonated near King's Cross on the Piccadilly Line.

However, the middle-class Muslim convert from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, has since risen to a senior status in the Al Shabaab movement in Kenya and Somalia, a terror group affiliated to Al Qaeda.

Believed to be behind its funding and propaganda, the 29-year-old has assumed cult status among her jihadi followers for her characteristic street-slang rants at non-Muslim "kuffar".

An arrest warrant was issued for her last May after she failed to appear in court in Kenya to face bomb-making charges.

Her alleged co-conspirators are two other Britons, her second husband Habib Saleh Ghani, from Hounslow, west London and Jermaine Grant, from east London, who remains in custody in Kenya after his arrest in December 2011.

At the time of Grant's arrest, he reportedly told police that Lewthwaite was "the boss".

They are all accused of possessing chemicals and "conspiring to improvise an explosive device with the intent to cause harm to innocent civilians".

The chemicals found in a raid on her home in Kenya in December 2010 included acetone and hydrogen peroxide, two of the key components of the terror attacks in London eight years ago.

A security source said: "That raises the prospect that Lewthwaite may have been more closely involved in the 7/7 attacks than previously thought. It might also explain her seniority as a top-rank Al Qaeda leader and the suspected chief financier of Al Shabaab."

Lewthwaite is also a suspect for a grenade attack at a hotel bar in Mombasa, Kenya, in which three people were killed last June while watching an England football match on television during Euro 2012.

She has boasted of rearing children to become Mujahideen terrorists and is now one of the world's most-wanted women. (Continue Reading.)

Michael Youssef: The Bipartisan Folly of Our Islam Delusion

2013-05-19T11:49:00.002-05:00

Western nations are still convinced that if we simply remove dictators in Muslim countries, and install democracies in place of the dictatorships, freedom will flourish. What we fail to realize is that there is a very important reason that democracy flourished in the West.

FoxNews—In our deeply partisan politics of today there is one area where it is hard to find the truth spoken by either Republicans or Democrats. It is the idea that Muslim people yearn for democracy. This is a glaring shortsightedness that both sides hold in common.

To be clear, many of my Muslim friends long for Western-style democracy and freedom. But they are always thwarted (and always will be) by the majority view that prevails in their countries. That is why even those friends of mine would admit that democracy is incompatible with Islamic ideology.

Knowledgeable people will agree that our modern form of democracy is a delicate rose that bloomed in the soil of the Protestant Reformation. The Reformation turned the people of the Dark Ages back to the Bible, with its deeply rooted respect for the individual.

The Bible unequivocally declares that God values “the individual.” God not only created a man and a woman to be compatible in every way, but God gave man the management responsibility for His creation—thus God placed “the individual” at the helm of importance.

The Christian faith testifies to the fact that although humans fell out of favor with God by disobeying His command not to partake of the fruit of the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden and therefore bringing sin and death into the world, God saw fit to redeem them at a colossal cost to Himself—by dying for the sins of the world on a Cross. Such is the value he places on us.

That is the soil that gave Western democracy its ideals.

Now enter some misguided Republicans and Democrats who think that the ideology of Islam can be rehabilitated and made compatible with Western Christian values.

Neither political side understands that, contrary to the biblical view of man, the root of Islamic ideology declares that man is of no consequence. Allah is. The human individual is of no value; he is only to serve the whim of Allah, his prophet, and the successors (caliphates) of the prophets of Islam.

Democracy and freedom rise from the bottom up, whereas Islam is a top-down ideology—Allah, whose words they claim to have received, is all that matters. (Continue Reading.)

Dearborn Arab International Festival Canceled This Year

2013-05-17T21:46:00.003-05:00

It's sad to see the festival canceled, but it's probably in Dearborn's best interest to cancel it. Terry Jones and Ruben Israel were coming to the festival to protest, and some of the attendees don't respond well to protesters. The city has made some important strides over the past few years, mostly due to the persuasive power of lawsuits. However, until the citizens of Dearborn can somehow convince young people not to react violently to constitutionally protected free speech, it's better not to draw a crowd.

Not surprisingly, Niraj Warikoo of the Detroit Free Press is blaming the cancelation on "aggressive" Christian "extremists," and not on the security guards who assaulted us in 2009, or on the police officers who arrested us in 2010 for having a peaceful discussion (and, two days later, took us into custody for distributing Bibles outside of the festival), or on the young Muslims who chased a preacher out of the festival in 2011, or on the young Muslims who viciously attacked Ruben Israel's group in 2012. For the Detroit Free Press, problems at the festival are always caused by Christians, even if the Christians are bleeding after being pelted with rocks. I wonder if Niraj will ever realize that, by refusing to hold Muslims accountable for their actions, he's treating them like children, and engaging in a subtle form of racism (the racism of lowered expectations).

Dearborn--After growing religious tensions between some Christian missionaries and local Muslims, the annual Arab International Festival in Dearborn has been canceled for this year, organizers said Friday.

The announcement left many disappointed that a small number of aggressive extremists could ruin what had become a tradition in the eastern section of Dearborn, which has a significant number of Arab Americans.

The city and organizers were facing increased insurance and liability costs because of the tensions and lawsuits over the festival. Last month, the City of Dearborn had proposed moving the festival to a park instead of the traditional location on Warren Avenue in order to decrease conflict.

But Fay Baydoun, director of the American-Arab Chamber of Commerce, said Friday that it would have been impossible to organize a successful event in time at the new location. Baydoun said she hopes that next year’s festival will “come back better and stronger.” (Continue Reading.)

Be sure to read the comments on Niraj's article, to see how he's managed to convince his readers that a handful of Christian "extremists" caused all of the problems at the festival. I suspect that, if people like Niraj had reported honestly on what was happening at the festival in 2009, the problems would have been addressed and dealt with, and the festival would continue to this day.

Howard Bloom on the Boston Bombing

2013-05-17T19:54:00.004-05:00

Umar Lee Leaves Islam and Converts to Christianity!

2013-05-17T12:23:00.002-05:00

Here's a video by Umar Lee, a convert to Islam who finally realized that he became a Muslim based on false promises. Let's all pray for our brother and the difficult (but glorious) journey that lies ahead for him.

Austrian Hostage Dominik Neubaur Forced to Convert to Islam

2013-05-16T18:56:00.002-05:00

But I'm sure that Muslim groups like CAIR and ISNA will condemn this forced conversion as quickly as they condemn Islamophobia.

VIENNA/HELSINKI (Reuters) - An Austrian man held hostage for five months in Yemen said he was kept in permanent darkness in a room too small to stand in and was forced to convert to Islam at gunpoint.

Weeks into his captivity, Dominik Neubaur told Austrian magazine News, he was taken out for what he thought would be his execution - but he believed he was spared after he recited verses from the Koran.

"I heard a weapon being loaded and felt its muzzle on the back of my head," Neubaur said in his first interview since his release a week ago.

The 26-year-old student of Arabic and a Finnish couple were kidnapped by tribesmen in Sanaa on December 21, and were later sold to al Qaeda, according to the Yemeni government. The three were freed on May 9. (Continue Reading.)

Cannibal Jihadist Khalid al-Hamad Defends Eating Heart of Dead Soldier

2013-05-14T15:56:00.001-05:00

How could sending money to these rebels be a bad idea?

AFP (Beirut)--A Syrian rebel who was filmed apparently cutting out and eating the organs of a soldier has defended his actions as revenge for regime atrocities, Time magazine reported on Tuesday.

The U.S. news weekly said it had talked by Skype with the fighter, identified as Khalid al-Hamad, who appeared in a video that sparked outrage and condemnation, including from the Syrian opposition.

Hamad claimed he was driven to the gruesome acts by footage on the dead soldier’s cellphone, showing him “humiliating” a naked woman and her two daughters.

The magazine said Hamad described participating in another acts of mutilating regime forces, including militiamen known as shabiha.

“I have another video clip... In the clip I am sawing another shabiha with a saw. The saw we use to cut trees. I sawed him in small pieces and large ones,” Time quoted him as saying.

The magazine said Hamad, a Sunni like much of the opposition fighting against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, expressed hatred of member’s of the leader’s Alawite sect. He also insisted that the rebel, identified as Hamad, had been “previously ejected” from his unit “because of his history of brutality.”

“Hopefully we will slaughter all of them,” he told the magazine. (Continue Reading.)

Syrian Rebel Cannibalizes Soldier's Heart While Shouting "Allahu Akbar!"

2013-05-14T10:56:00.002-05:00

Perhaps this cannibal will make a great new president, once the U.S. government helps put him in power.

(CNN) -- The ghastly video shows how barbaric the Syrian civil war can be.

A man, said to be a well-known rebel fighter, carves into the body of a government soldier and cuts out his heart and liver.

"I swear to God we will eat your hearts out, you soldiers of Bashar. You dogs. God is greater!" the man says. "Heroes of Baba Amr ... we will take out their hearts to eat them."

He then puts the heart in his mouth and takes a bite.

A group loyal to President Bashar al-Assad posted the video online Monday. The group describes the mutilation as a "crime that crosses all lines."

It's a sentiment shared by the main opposition alliance, which describes the act as "horrific and inhumane."

"The Syrian Coalition strongly condemns this act, if it is revealed to be true," the dissident group said in a statement.

"The coalition stresses that such an act contradicts the morals of the Syrian people, as well as the values and principles of the (rebel) Free Syrian Army." (Continue Reading.)

Three Jihadists Arrested in Plot to Blow Up U.S. Embassy in Cairo

2013-05-13T08:16:00.002-05:00

Maybe they weren't invited to President Obama's Cairo speech, so they may not have heard that everything is sunshine and roses between Islam and the West.

CAIRO — Egyptian security forces have arrested three militants with ties to Al Qaeda who were planning terrorist attacks in Egyptian cities and against a foreign embassy, the interior minister said Saturday.

A Western official said the Egyptians had privately identified the embassy as the United States Embassy in Cairo.

Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim said at a news conference that the suspects had been arrested with 22 pounds of explosive materials and instructions on how to make bombs and build rockets and model airplanes to use in the attacks.

He said the suspects were “on the verge” of attacking an embassy when they were arrested.

He did not identify the embassy, but Egyptian officials have told their American counterparts that the United States Embassy was a target, a Western diplomat said. (Continue Reading.)

Saudi Arabia Sentences Two Men to Prison, Lashes in Conversion Case

2013-05-13T06:43:00.001-05:00

In the West, critics of Sharia are called hate-mongers, bigots, and Islamophobes for daring to question Muhammad's teachings. In the heart of the Muslim world, people are being brutally lashed and jail for daring to think that they have human rights. Why are Westerners so quick to condemn critics for intolerance, but so slow to condemn those who are actually intolerant?

Saudi Arabia--A Saudi court jailed a Lebanese man for six years and sentenced him to 300 lashes after convicting him of encouraging a Saudi woman to convert to Christianity, local dailies reported Sunday.

The same court sentenced a Saudi man convicted in the same case to two years in prison and 200 lashes for having helped the young woman flee the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom, local daily Al-Watan said.

A court delivered the verdict in Khobar in the kingdom's east, where the woman and the two accused worked for an insurance company.

The July 2012 case caused a stir in Saudi Arabia, which applies a strict version of Islamic Sharia law that stipulates Muslims who convert to another religion must be sentenced to death.

The woman, known only as "the girl of Khobar", was granted refuge in Sweden where she lives under the protection of unspecified NGOs, according to local press reports.

She had appeared in a YouTube video last year in which she announced that she had chosen to convert to Christianity.

Her family's lawyer Hmood al-Khalidi said he was "satisfied with the verdict," according to the press.

Both men, who could also be prosecuted over other charges including corruption and forging official documents that allowed the woman to leave the country without her family's agreement, will appeal.

Saudi women are banned from travelling without their guardians' permission. (Source)

Judge Jeanine Pirro Blasts Obama Administration Over Benghazi Cover-Up

2013-05-12T15:19:00.001-05:00

Daniel Greenfield: Obama’s Big Brotherhood Bet

2013-05-10T18:07:00.003-05:00

Excellent analysis by Daniel Greenfield.

FrontPage--In the spring of 2009, Obama went down to Cairo. He skipped the gaming tables at the Omar Khayyam Casino at the Cairo Marriott and instead went over to the Islamist baccarat tables at Cairo University and bet big on the Muslim Brotherhood.

Obama had insisted on Muslim Brotherhood attendance at a speech that was part apology and part abandonment. The apology was for American power and the abandonment was of American allies.

The text of the speech was largely inconsequential in the same way that most of the words that scroll across the teleprompters of politicians are. In politics, the speech is often the medium while the timing, the audience and the location are the message. And the message was that the Brotherhood’s hour had come.

Obama was following through on an idea that had long been an article of faith on the left. The idea was that the United States had invested in a defunct status quo and that our biggest problems were our allies. The only way out was to toss them all overboard.

Generations of diplomats had griped from their walled compounds in Riyadh, Kuwait City or Doha that many of our problems in the region would go away if Israel somehow went away. But this was bigger. It involved dumping every single allied government in the region to start fresh with new governments elected through popular democracy and enjoying popular support. It would be a new beginning. And a new beginning was also the title of the Cairo speech.

The idea wasn’t new, but it was right up there with proposals to unilaterally abandon our nuclear arsenal or dedicate ten percent of the budget to foreign aid; ideas that a lot of diplomats liked, but that they knew no one would ever be crazy enough to pull the trigger on.

And then Obama tried to pull the trigger on two out of three. What he wanted was for the Brotherhood to win so that it could make the War on Terror irrelevant.

As much as the advocates of smart and soft power insisted that Islamic terrorism had nothing to do with Islam, they knew better. They knew that Al Qaeda wanted to create Islamic states that would form into a Caliphate. Central to its thinking was that it would have to fight to create these states. But what if the Caliphate could be created without a war?

To make it happen, all America had to do was surrender the Middle East.

The attacks of September 11 had created a serious crisis for liberal policymakers. Unlike the bombing of the World Trade Center on Clinton’s watch, these attacks could not be ignored or swept under the rug. But neither could liberals accept a clash of civilizations that would destroy their multicultural society or an extended series of international police actions that would militarize the country.

The logic that led from September 11 to the Cairo speech to Benghazi was impeccable. It combined the clean sweep theory with grand scale appeasement.

“Islamic terrorists are carrying out attacks because they want their countries to be ruled by Islam. Why not help them to do it?”

The United States withdrew support from its allies. It apologized, surrendered and waited for the takeovers to begin. When the dictators wouldn’t step aside voluntarily, the bombers were sent in.

The grand bargain with the Muslim Brotherhood was supposed to end the War on Terror by trading the Muslim Brotherhood’s brand of political Islamism for Al Qaeda’s campaign of terror. It was as if FDR had struck a deal with the Bolsheviks to get rid of the Trotskyites (and indeed such a bargain did operate briefly during WW2).

Obama’s grand bargain came to a squalid end on September 11. In Benghazi, the Muslim Brotherhood militia that was supposed to protect the mission instead sold it out and abandoned it.

The Brotherhood would accept American support, but it wouldn’t stop terrorist attacks against America. Its front groups in America would not cooperate with the FBI, its governments and militias in the Middle East would not protect American diplomatic facilities.

On September 11, the American embassy in Cairo was besieged by protesters with the support of the Muslim Brotherhood. In Tunis, the new Islamist government turned its back on the embassy, forcing Hillary Clinton to plead with President Marzouki to send out his own presidential guard to defend it.

In Benghazi and Cairo, Al Qaeda attacked while the Brotherhood played dumb. In Syria, Brotherhood and Al Qaeda militias worked together, while Brotherhood spokesmen insisted that they were the only secular alternative. In the United States, Al Qaeda terrorists carried out their “lone wolf” attacks while the Brotherhood front groups which ran most of the Islamic organizations in America claimed not to know what was going on.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s victories did not make Al Qaeda go away. Instead the two found common ground while playing a game of Good Terrorist and Bad Terrorist. Or as the mainstream media calls it, Moderates and Extremists.

Obama had stacked all of our allies in the Middle East that didn’t have enough oil to matter and bet them at the Brotherhood’s casino on a single spin of the wheel. And the Brotherhood took it all.

But Obama is still at the casino stacking up more chips. The next round of the game moves to Syria. Instead of the Brotherhood using its new power to protect the United States, the United States is expected to get involved in another Iraq in order to help the Brotherhood take over Syria to complete the Islamist triumphs of the Arab Spring.

The United States has become a tool of Muslim Brotherhood expansionism. Obama helped the Brotherhood overthrow governments by political means, but now the Brotherhood is demanding military intervention to help a Brotherhood/Al Qaeda coalition take over Syria. And if Obama goes along with it, he will have turned the United States military into the mercenaries of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The root cause of terrorism is not American foreign policy, but Muslim foreign policy. Appeasement turns American foreign policy into an arm of Islamic expansionism.

Americans have died because of Obama’s dirty deal with the Muslim Brotherhood. The question now is whether Obama will send American soldiers and pilots to die for the Brotherhood. (Source)

Benghazi Talking Points Underwent 12 Revisions, Scrubbed of Terror Reference

2013-05-10T12:16:00.001-05:00

Ever get the feeling that our government is lying to us?

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ABC News--When it became clear last fall that the CIA’s now discredited Benghazi talking points were flawed, the White House said repeatedly the documents were put together almost entirely by the intelligence community, but White House documents reviewed by Congress suggest a different story.

ABC News has obtained 12 different versions of the talking points that show they were extensively edited as they evolved from the drafts first written entirely by the CIA to the final version distributed to Congress and to U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice before she appeared on five talk shows the Sunday after that attack.

White House emails reviewed by ABC News suggest the edits were made with extensive input from the State Department. The edits included requests from the State Department that references to the Al Qaeda-affiliated group Ansar al-Sharia be deleted as well references to CIA warnings about terrorist threats in Benghazi in the months preceding the attack.

That would appear to directly contradict what White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said about the talking points in November.

“Those talking points originated from the intelligence community. They reflect the IC’s best assessments of what they thought had happened,” Carney told reporters at the White House press briefing on November 28, 2012. “The White House and the State Department have made clear that the single adjustment that was made to those talking points by either of those two institutions were changing the word ‘consulate’ to ‘diplomatic facility’ because ‘consulate’ was inaccurate.”

Summaries of White House and State Department emails — some of which were first published by Stephen Hayes of the Weekly Standard — show that the State Department had extensive input into the editing of the talking points. (Continue Reading.)

UK Withdraws Some Embassy Staff from Libya

2013-05-10T08:25:00.000-05:00

WESTERN LEADERS: "We need to support the Arab Spring! Wouldn't it be great for Muslim fundamentalists to run entire countries!"

PEOPLE WHO UNDERSTAND JIHAD: "We don't think you really understand Islam. This isn't going to end well."

WESTERN LEADERS: "Racists! Everyone knows that Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance! Surely if we let devout adherents of such a religion run governments, peace and tolerance will spread like fire!"

PEOPLE WHO UNDERSTAND JIHAD: "That won't be the only thing on fire if we support the Arab Spring. We hope you've got good security at your embassies."

[LATER]

WESTERN LEADERS: "We need to start evacuating our people from the countries we helped liberate. They're becoming far too violent and intolerant. But not to worry. Let's focus on liberating Syria and installing a Muslim Brotherhood government!"

BBC--The UK has withdrawn some staff from its embassy in Libya in response to the "ongoing political uncertainty" in the country, the Foreign Office says.

It said: "The British Embassy is temporarily withdrawing a small number of staff, mainly those who work in support of government ministries which have been affected by recent developments."

However, it added that the mission in the Libyan capital of Tripoli remained "open as usual", including for consular and visa services.

Heavily armed militias have been besieging government buildings in Tripoli over the past month, blocking access to ministries to push their political demands.

Last month a car bomb exploded outside the French embassy in Tripoli, wounding two French guards and several residents.

It was the first major attack on a foreign embassy in the Libyan capital. (Continue Reading.)

Crowder and Klavan: The Benghazi Scandal

2013-05-09T21:46:00.004-05:00

Raymond Ibrahim: The Mass Exodus of Christians from the Muslim World

2013-05-07T15:03:00.001-05:00

Christians are fleeing the Muslim world to escape persecution, death, torture, and rape. Will CNN and MSNBC accuse these Christians of being "Islamophobes"?

FoxNews--A mass exodus of Christians is currently underway. Millions of Christians are being displaced from one end of the Islamic world to the other.

We are reliving the true history of how the Islamic world, much of which prior to the Islamic conquests was almost entirely Christian, came into being.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recently said: “The flight of Christians out of the region is unprecedented and it’s increasing year by year.” In our lifetime alone “Christians might disappear altogether from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Egypt.”

Ongoing reports from the Islamic world certainly support this conclusion: Iraq was the earliest indicator of the fate awaiting Christians once Islamic forces are liberated from the grip of dictators.

In 2003, Iraq’s Christian population was at least one million. Today fewer than 400,000 remain—the result of an anti-Christian campaign that began with the U.S. occupation of Iraq, when countless Christian churches were bombed and countless Christians killed, including by crucifixion and beheading.

The 2010 Baghdad church attack, which saw nearly 60 Christian worshippers slaughtered, is the tip of a decade-long iceberg.

Now, as the U.S. supports the jihad on Syria’s secular president Assad, the same pattern has come to Syria: entire regions and towns where Christians lived for centuries before Islam came into being have now been emptied, as the opposition targets Christians for kidnapping, plundering, and beheadings, all in compliance with mosque calls telling the populace that it’s a “sacred duty” to drive Christians away.

In October 2012 the last Christian in the city of Homs—which had a Christian population of some 80,000 before jihadis came—was murdered. One teenage Syrian girl said: “We left because they were trying to kill us… because we were Christians…. Those who were our neighbors turned against us. At the end, when we ran away, we went through balconies. We did not even dare go out on the street in front of our house.”

In Egypt, some 100,000 Christian Copts have fled their homeland soon after the “Arab Spring.” In September 2012, the Sinai’s small Christian community was attacked and evicted by Al Qaeda linked Muslims, Reuters reported. But even before that, the Coptic Orthodox Church lamented the “repeated incidents of displacement of Copts from their homes, whether by force or threat.

Displacements began in Ameriya [62 Christian families evicted], then they stretched to Dahshur [120 Christian families evicted], and today terror and threats have reached the hearts and souls of our Coptic children in Sinai.”

Iraq, Syria, and Egypt are part of the Arab world. But even in “black” African and “white” European nations with Muslim majorities, Christians are fleeing.

In Mali, after a 2012 Islamic coup, as many as 200,000 Christians fled. According to reports, “the church in Mali faces being eradicated,” especially in the north “where rebels want to establish an independent Islamist state and drive Christians out… there have been house to house searches for Christians who might be in hiding, churches and other Christian property have been looted or destroyed, and people tortured into revealing any Christian relatives.” At least one pastor was beheaded.

Even in European Bosnia, Christians are leaving en mass “amid mounting discrimination and Islamization.” Only 440,000 Catholics remain in the Balkan nation, half the prewar figure.

Problems cited are typical: “while dozens of mosques were built in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, no building permissions [permits] were given for Christian churches.” “Time is running out as there is a worrisome rise in radicalism,” said one authority, who further added that the people of Bosnia-Herzegovina were “persecuted for centuries” after European powers “failed to support them in their struggle against the Ottoman Empire.”

And so history repeats itself. (Continue Reading.)

Rabbi Daniel Lapin Asks Penn Jillette an Interesting Question

2013-05-07T13:46:00.002-05:00

This almost sounds like the beginning of a joke: "A rabbi and an atheist are having a discussion on a show hosted by a Mormon. So the rabbi asks the atheist, 'Would the world be a better place if a billion Muslims became evangelical Christians?' And the atheist says . . ."

Gotta love Penn Jillette.

City of Dearborn Apologizes for Arresting Christians at 2010 Arab Festival; Settlement Reached in Lawsuit

2013-05-06T15:28:00.005-05:00

In June of 2010, a few of us were on our way out of Dearborn's annual Arab International Festival, when some young Muslims began asking us questions, which we were happy to answer. Here's unedited footage of our last 20 minutes or so at the festival:

Nearly three years later, thanks to our lawyers Robert Muise and David Yerushalmi, the City of Dearborn has apologized for arresting us. (Click here for the apology on the City's website.)

David Wood's Arrest in 2010

Detroit, Michigan (May 6, 2013) — After more than two years of intense motion practice and discovery, the City of Dearborn has agreed to enter into a settlement that includes a public apology for arresting several Christian missionaries who were peacefully preaching to Muslims at the Dearborn Arab International Festival in 2010. The American Freedom Law Center (AFLC), a national nonprofit Judeo-Christian law firm, is representing Dr. Nabeel Qureshi, David Wood, and Paul Rezkalla, who were thrown in jail on June 18, 2010, and charged with “breach of the peace” for their free speech activity.

In September 2010, Robert Muise, AFLC Co-Founder and Senior Counsel, represented the Christians during a five-day criminal trial. At the end of the trial, the Christians were acquitted by a unanimous jury verdict. Following the acquittals, fellow AFLC Co-Founder and Senior Counsel David Yerushalmi and Muise filed a 100-page, civil rights lawsuit against the City, its mayor, John B. O’Reilly, its chief of police, Ronald Haddad, 17 City police officers, and two executives from the American Arab Chamber of Commerce on behalf Qureshi, Wood, and Rezkalla. The lawsuit was later amended to add the Arab Chamber as a defendant. The civil rights complaint alleged that the Christians’ constitutional rights were egregiously violated during the Arab festival.

Just this past week, the City agreed to enter into a settlement, which includes a public apology that will be posted on the City’s website for three years; the removal from the City’s website of a press release and letter from the mayor that contained derogatory comments about the Christians; and a payment to the Christians, the amount of which is confidential. The legal claims against the Arab Chamber defendants will proceed.

The City’s public apology states as follows:

On June 18, 2010, David Wood, Nabeel Qureshi (co-founders of Acts 17 Apologetics) and Paul Rezkalla were arrested by Dearborn police officers at the Dearborn Arab International Festival (“Arab Festival”), while they were engaging in a peaceful dialogue about their Christian faith with several festival attendees. Wood, Qureshi, and Rezkalla were subsequently charged with breach of peace, a misdemeanor offense.

The decision to arrest these individuals was based in part on information provided to the Dearborn police by Arab Festival attendees, workers, and volunteers. When all of the information—including the video captured by Wood, Qureshi, and Rezkalla—was presented to a Dearborn jury, the jury found that these individuals were not guilty of the criminal offense of breach of peace.

The City of Dearborn regrets and apologizes for the decisions to arrest and prosecute David Wood, Nabeel Qureshi, and Paul Rezkalla and the hardship caused to everyone involved.

Through this apology and its acceptance by David Wood, Nabeel Qureshi, and Paul Rezkalla, the parties seek to build a bridge and to confirm to the community that members of all faiths are welcome in Dearborn to peacefully share their views and to engage in religious discussions.

Muise commented, “For too long our clients have been vilified for simply exercising their constitutional right to evangelize on a public street during the Arab Festival. And despite their acquittal, they continued to be treated as if they had committed a crime. With this settlement and apology, our clients have been vindicated and this dispute with the City will finally be put to rest.”

Yerushalmi added, “While the dispute with the City is over, there is still unfinished business with the Arab Chamber. As the City itself noted in its apology, Arab Festival volunteers and workers, who were acting under the guidance and direction of the Arab Chamber and its executive director, Fay Beydoun, and pursuant to the Chamber’s festival ‘rules and regulations,’ are similarly responsible for the violation of our clients’ rights, and we intend to hold them accountable.”

The American Freedom Law Center is a Judeo-Christian law firm that fights for faith and freedom. It accomplishes its mission through litigation, public policy initiatives, and related activities. It does not charge for its services. The Law Center is supported by contributions from individuals, corporations, and foundations, and is recognized by the IRS as a section 501(c)(3) organization. Visit us at www.americanfreedomlawcenter.org.

Four Dead as Mob Demands Sharia Blasphemy Laws in Bangladesh

2013-05-05T19:40:00.000-05:00

When I say that Islam doesn't allow freedom of speech, I'm called a "racist," a "hate-monger," a "bigot," and, of course, an "Islamophobe." But what will my critics say about Muslims who demand Sharia blasphemy laws? Are these Muslims "bigots" and "Islamophobes" because they don't believe Islam allows freedom of speech?

Dhaka, Bangladesh (CNN) -- The streets of Bangladesh's capital rang with the sound of gunfire, explosions and tear-gas canisters Sunday as Islamist protesters demanding laws against blasphemy battled police, leaving four dead.

Tens of thousands of supporters of the Hefazat-e-Islam movement blocked nearly all the roads leading into the capital, Dhaka, as they pressed a list of demands, including the anti-blasphemy statute. Clashes broke out when Hefazat activists tried to break a police cordon.

Street battles went on for hours, with police firing rubber bullets and tear gas and the Islamists hurling crude explosives and chunks of brick. At least three bodies were left in the streets, and one more person was reported dead at a hospital. Police said scores of people were hurt, including police officers and journalists. . . .

Sunday's demonstrators called for tough laws against bloggers and writers who they believe insult the Prophet Mohammed. A similar demonstration in February left four other people dead.

Hezafat's call for an anti-blasphemy law is aimed at a group of bloggers, online activists and authors they have called "atheists" and accused of denigrating Islam and Mohammed. Online activists who had a pioneering role in organizing the Shahbagh sit-in have denied they are atheists. (Continue Reading.)

Islamic Polygamy in Germany

2013-05-05T17:42:00.003-05:00

This is an interesting documentary (in German, with English subtitles). In the Middle East, Muslim men can only practice polygamy if they are wealthy enough to pay for multiple brides. In Europe, however, second, third, and fourth wives are not recognized by governments, so these women (married in Sharia ceremonies) are officially single mothers. This allows them to receive government benefits both for their asylum status and for being single mothers. With so much Western money pouring into the family, any Muslim can afford multiple wives. Polygamy, then, is now much, much easier (and more affordable) in Europe than in Muslim countries!

Muslim Cleric Yousuf Badri Loses Temper When Riham Said Removes Hijab During Interview

2013-05-04T14:26:00.001-05:00

It doesn't sound like Yousuf Badri is comfortable with a woman talking back to him.

Glen Roberts: Loonwatch and the Non-Muslim Terrorist

2013-05-04T13:08:00.003-05:00

Glen Roberts (thereligionofpeace.com) has posted an excellent refutation of Loonwatch's absurd claim that 94% of terrorist attacks are committed by non-Muslims. Loonwatch offers the following breakdown of terrorist attacks:

Here's Glen's obliteration of the deception:

Since January, 2010 the Islamic propaganda outlet Loonwatch.com has prominently posted an article with the title "All Terrorists are Muslim… except the 94% that aren’t." Although not saying exactly who it is that believes "all terrorists are Muslim", the gist of the piece is that an FBI report from seven years ago concluded that the vast majority of attacks have nothing to do with Islam.

As Loonwatch puts it:

Only 6% of terror attacks are by Muslims

7% of terrorism is by Jewish extremists

66% of terror attacks are by leftists and Latinos

This would appear to defy common sense. Reports of bombings, shootings, stabbings and even beheadings by terrorists cross the newswire each day. Some are indeed the work of communist groups or nationalists, but the vast majority are clearly the product of Islamic extremists who kill in the name of religion.

Loonwatch is playing a couple of tricks here - the biggest being that they are drawing on domestic data only. In other words, when they say that 94% of terrorists aren't Muslim, they actually mean in the United States, where terror attacks are relatively rare and Muslims make up only 1% of the population.

So, if we ignore the overwhelming bulk of attacks across the globe, Muslims are "only" six times more likely to commit acts of terror than the general population. The numbers for Loonwatch get even worse on closer examination.

As it turns out, much of the FBI list includes "violence" against property rather than people. In fact, the formula used by the agency to define terrorism is somewhat fuzzy. While it includes tree-spiking and bank robbery, for example, it somehow omits the Arizona assassination of a Sunni cleric by Iranian terrorists in 1980, the 1990 murder of Rabbi Kahane by an Islamic radical at a New York hotel, and even the killing of two CIA agents by a Muslim extremist at Langley in 1993.

When Americans hear the word 'terrorism', however, what comes to mind isn't vandalism, but rather those acts of genuine violence that are intended to cause loss of life. So, how do we focus on these incidents and filter out the rest?

Well, perhaps the best way of knowing whether terrorists are serious about killing people is if they actually do. Since Muslims and non-Muslim terrorists have equal opportunity to kill, Loonwatch shouldn’t object to an analysis of only those attacks which cause deaths. What does the data have to say when we exclude non-lethal attacks?

Even by the FBI’s curious standard, the sort of truly violent terrorism that most concerns Americans is extremely rare in the United States. Only 29 attacks on their list of incidents between 1980 and 2005 resulted in actual death. Of these, Islamic extremists were responsible for 24%, accounting for 2,981 kills, while non-Muslim attackers racked up 196.

Thus, what the FBI report is really saying is that a demographic which makes up only 1% of the American population accounts for one-fourth of all deadly terror attacks in the U.S. and 94% of related casualties! (The 94% statistic is somewhat ironic because it is the same figure than Loonwatch is touting to dispel concerns). The Jewish population in the U.S. is more than twice that of Muslims, but there were only three so-called Jewish attacks during the entire 25 years (all by the "Jewish Defense League") with a total of three killed.

Since 2005, there have been at least six additional deadly attacks that would probably qualify as terrorism in the U.S. even to the FBI. One was the 2012 shooting by a skinhead that resulted in six deaths at a Sikh temple and the other five were by Muslims, which left 19 dead. This means that since 1980, Muslims in the U.S. have been 35 times more likely to commit terror than all other demographics combined.

Now, the point of all this isn’t to "prove" that any particular person is dangerous. The numbers are quite low and it is unlikely that the Muslim you know personally is all that different from you, much less plotting mass murder. A person's nominal religion is not grounds for thinking a certain way about them or for reaching conclusions that are based on anything other than their own words or deeds.

What we are demonstrating is how Muslim propaganda groups like Loonwatch and CAIR knowingly manipulate the public into false conclusions about Islam using disingenuous methods. They are also dishonest when they try to confuse people into thinking that criticism of Islamic bigotry means hatred for Muslims.

Taqiyya may be a part of Islamic law, but a noble cause never requires a lie.

Then again... how noble can a religion really be when it's most vocal members are far more concerned about image than the dead and dismembered victims of the devout? (Source)

Federal Judge Orders Terror Suspect Abdella Ahmad Tounisi to Stay at Home with Parents Until Trial

2013-05-04T08:04:00.002-05:00

Good idea. Whatever radicalized this young man and made him want to join Al Qaeda, it's sure to disappear if he goes home for a few months with the family that raised him. Better yet, why not sentence Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to home confinement? Perhaps he could share an apartment with Tounisi, and their friendship would melt away their jihadist tendencies. MTV could even make a reality show about these two former jihadists sharing an apartment and trying to reform their lives. At the end of each episode, after making peace with the U.S., Tsarnaev and Tounisi could do the "Dance of Joy" like Balki and Cousin Larry:

I know that this is just a silly fantasy, but when our judges live in Fantasy Land, why not join them?

Washington Times--A federal judge ordered a teen who is charged with trying to join an al Qaeda terrorist group to fight in Syria to be released from jail and instead confined to his home — an unusually lax bail decision that outraged prosecutors, who quickly appealed.

Their appeal in effect halted the judge’s order, albeit only temporarily, The Chicago Tribune reported. For now, the suspect, Abdella Ahmad Tounisi, will stay in jail. But Friday, that could change again. A different federal judge is set to hear another bail hearing, The Tribune said.

Prosecutors say Mr. Tounisi, 18, is a flight risk and a danger to the community. He’s accused to providing support to a terrorist group, and he’s been in federal custody since April 19, when he was arrested at O’Hare International Airport.

Specifically, prosecutors say Mr. Tounisi posted messages on a website that he thought was a message board to the Al-Nusra Front radical militant group, but was really an FBI set-up. In the messages, he agreed to travel to Syria to fight with the militants, attorneys for the government claim, The Tribune reported.

Mr. Tounisi is also believed to have ties to another Chicago-area terrorism suspect who was arrested in September for setting off a bomb outside a bar in the city, The Tribune reported.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Daniel Martin, while ordering Mr. Tounisi’s release from jail in favor of confinement to home, called his decision a “close, close” call, The Tribune reported. He was swayed, in part, by the many family members who attended the hearing on Mr. Tounisi’s behalf, The Tribune said. (Source)

Poll: Does Islam "Fit" in the Western World?

2013-05-03T11:44:00.000-05:00

A new study by the Bertelsmann Foundation shows that most people in Spain, Switzerland, France, East Germany, and Israel believe that Islam does not "fit" in the Western world. Of those polled in Canada, the United States, West Germany, Sweden, and Great Britain, less than half (though more than 40%) said that Islam does not fit in the West. Is this evidence of widespread racism and bigotry among developed nations, or are people simply concerned about Muhammad's teachings and their impact on society?

(Note: "Der Islam passt nicht in die westliche Welt" = "Islam does not fit in the Western world." "Stimme dem zu, in Prozent" = Percentage who agree.)

Robert Spencer and Raymond Ibrahim on Islamic Persecution of Christians

2013-04-30T11:16:00.000-05:00