Sunday, May 31, 2009

Peregrins,, Columbus may 29, 2009~getting ready for bed

this is awesome!!

Getting ready for bed, the kids return to the box for the night...

thanks Skygirlblue!!


Schanzer in American Thinker: "Islamic Speakers Bureau Backed By Radical Profs"













Middle East Forum
May 31, 2009



Islamic Speakers Bureau Backed By Radical Profs


by Jonathan
Schanzer
American Thinker
May 31, 2009


http://www.meforum.org/2141/islamic-speakers-bureau-backed-by-radical-profs








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A California nonprofit dedicated to "teaching about Islam
& Muslims" at U.S. high schools and college campuses features a board
of advisors that is stacked with some of the most controversial activist
professors in the field of Middle Eastern studies today. The imprimatur of
these scholars may signal a troubling shift toward the support of
proselytizing efforts and the further unraveling of Middle East Studies in
America.


The board
of Islamic Networks Group
(ING) is a veritable Who's Who of Islamist
apologists and activists. Leading the list is John Esposito, the founding
director of the Saudi-funded Center for Muslim Christian Understanding at
Georgetown University. He famously
stated
that the suicide-bombing Hamas organization engages in "honey,
cheese-making, and home-based clothing manufacture."


Joining Esposito on the ING board is Sherman Jackson of the
University of Michigan, who was a trustee at
the North American Islamic Trust
and worked
with the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA)
, both un-indicted
co-conspirators in the U.S. v. Holy Land Foundation
.


There's also Ingrid Mattson, a convert to Islam, who is a
professor at the Hartford Seminary and president of the un-indicted
co-conspirator ISNA. While much of her work is controversial, she is
famous for a CNN
chatroom interview
in 2001 in which she stated that the radical Saudi
Wahhabi ideology is "a reform movement" that "really was analogous to the
European Protestant reformation."


Hamza Yusuf Hanson, who is not a scholar but sits on the ING
board, publicly
declared his own extremism
at an ISNA convention. In 1991, he
reportedly delivered a speech titled "Jihad is the Only Way"
to the
Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), which is an arm of the radical
organization Jamaat-i-Islami in Pakistan.


While Maha El-Genaidi, the
founder, president and CEO of ING, does not appear openly to embrace
radicalism, she reportedly has worked with the
Council on American Islamic Relations
(CAIR), also an un-indicted
co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation case. El-Genaidi also participated
in an event sponsored by the Muslim Students Association with Siraj
Wahhaj
, an un-indicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center
bombing.


ING's reach is wide. Its web site lists
more than a dozen affiliated organizations in North America. They reflect
a broad network involved in Islamic outreach (da'wa), otherwise
known as proselytizing.


The list of ING affiliates includes such Muslim outreach
organizations as: The Islamic
Speakers Bureau of Nebraska
; the
Islamic Resource Group in Minnesota
; the Islamic Education and Resource Network
in Michigan
; the Islamic Center of
Cincinnati
; the Organization of
Islamic Speakers Midwest Illinois
; the Islamic Speakers Bureau of
Atlanta
; the Kentucky Islamic Resource
Group
; the Islamic Speakers
Bureau of San Diego
; and the Islamic Speakers Bureau of
Vancouver
.


Because ING charges nothing for its campus speeches, hosts
aren't deterred by financial needs. Thus, with a modest 2007 budget of
$356,000, the latest figure available via public tax returns, ING made an
astonishing 750 classroom
visits in one year
, a figure that doesn't include visits to churches,
senior centers, corporations, and forums for policemen and healthcare
workers. According to a recent ING
newsletter
, the group reached 14,000 students and adults after public
schools and universities responded to a large-scale ING direct mail
campaign.


ING also disseminates its message through the printed word.
Access to the ING online store is now denied for reasons unknown, but a few of
the organization's publications are available on the Internet. Among them
is Arab and Muslim Stereotyping in American Popular Culture by Jack
Sheehan, a former communications professor at Southern Illinois University
who was
also a visiting professor at Esposito's Center for Muslim Christian
Understanding
. Another title is Presenting
Ramadan and Eid in Elementary School: Grades K-6 Kit for Parents and
Teachers
,
designed to generate excitement about these Muslim holy
days through art, music, and "lunar activities."


ING also appears to have created a curriculum about Islam
for grades 7 through
12
. It also appears that the State of California, at least at one
point, used ING curriculum. However, the ING links on the California
Department of Education website are now dead.


There is nothing even vaguely radical on the ING website.
The organization's behavior appears to be consistent with its message of
pluralism
. One might only observe that the organization attempts to
whitewash the radical strains of the religion (a common theme in the work
of Esposito and Mattson).


Without challenging ING's freedom to preach, two important
observations should be made.


First, it is now clear that some Middle Eastern Studies
professors have ceased being observers of Islam and are now engaging in
its propagation. Countless analysts have noted that Middle Eastern Studies
professors substitute scholarship
with apologia for radicalism
. Still others openly agitate
against the United States or Israel
. However, it is rare to see
scholars openly lend their support to proselytizing efforts of this
kind.


It is too early to know whether the scholars on the ING
board represent an anomaly or a trend. The motivations of Mattson and
Sherman - both converts to Islam - are somewhat understandable. Esposito,
a non-Muslim, is more of a mystery.


On a more practical level, elementary school, high school,
or college administrators mulling a free visit from El-Genaidi's group
should be forewarned about the academic engine that powers ING. ING's
leading thinkers have a history of cavorting with apologists for
radicalism-and the radicals themselves.



Jonathan
Schanzer
, an adjunct scholar at Campus Watch, is deputy
executive director of the Jewish Policy Center and
author of
Hamas vs. Fatah: The Struggle for
Palestine.

Related Topics: Academia, Muslims in the United
States
, Radical Islam
Jonathan
Schanzer

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from NY to Israel Sultan Reveals The Stories Behind the News
















Appeasement of Concessions - The Invisible War with Islam


Posted: 30 May 2009 07:38 PM PDT


"He who sets the terms of the war sets the terms of the
peace."




While our focus is on the visible war against terrorists and
guerrillas in which our armies are engaged in, this war is only the
visible war, the tip of a great dark iceberg which reaches far beneath the
surface.


The visible war we are fighting is the war that the most
radical Islamists are carrying forward, it is the war that occupies the
bulk of our attention, it is the only war that our leaders officially
recognize -- but it is also the war that sets the terms for the invisible
war happening daily on our streets, in our schools, in government,
university, civil service and throughout our lives.

The visible
war, the terrorist threat, the car bombings, the shootings, the riots, the
stabbings are the threat under which free nations surrender themselves one
piece at a time. The goal of the visible war is to make present and clear
the threat. But it is the invisible war which extracts the
concessions.

The invisible war is not waged with guns or bombs. It
is waged with reasonable editorials, with suits and benedictions. With
smiles and handshakes and reassurances. It is a salesman's pitch that goes
something like this. "We want to live in peace. To be your neighbors, to
attend your weddings, embrace your families and create a better world. But
first this is what we want--"

The invisible war. The quiet threat
that sets the terms of the peace. The "Muslim Moderates" who seem quite
reasonable who come bearing a gift, the message that peace is possible, as
long as the proper concessions are made to them. And of course those
concessions will be followed by more concessions still. And yet more to
come after.

And if those concessions are not made, the visible war
will follow. There will be riots, bombings, stabbings, shooting. The
growing domestic Muslim population, whose presence we are legally not
permitted to object to or their deportation to call for, in countries as
diverse as England, Australia, Israel, Sweden, Russia and France, will
turn hostile and become a weapon in our midst.

The invisible war
uses the threat of a visible war combined with the threat of the
"radicalization" of the "moderate" Muslim population, positioned like
self-reproducing Trojan horses within our midst, to enforce concessions in
the invisible war.

While we chase terrorists around the world,
their leaders and our domestic sympathizers are busy setting the terms of
surrender in our own capitals and getting their way more often than
not.

It is easy enough to see the template for it in the countries
most seriously affected, a look at Israel, Thailand or the Philippines
allows us to total up the final costs that are brought to the bargaining
table as terrorist leaders are legitimized to become statesmen and
terrorist populations become sovereign nations. But it is not as obvious
at the beginning when the butcher's bill has yet to be toted up and the
real agenda is still only a whisper in coffee houses, an ink smear on a
pamphlet, a hastily recorded speech by an Imam that law enforcement
refuses to take seriously. It is not until there is real blood on the
streets, when years of conflict become decades of conflict and the toll
wears down even the patriot and the hardened soldier, that the real
surrender begins and the enemy declares victory in the invisible war.




The real threat is not so much in the visible war, murderous as
it may be. The visible war may claim thousands and perhaps even millions.
But it is the invisible war that destroys countries feeding them up as
menu items for the Islamofascist beast. As great a threat as the terrorist
is, the phony moderate Muslim is a far greater threat -- for Islamic
leaders extract ten times the price of every moderate Muslim, both at home
and abroad, demanding money, political power, influence, land, autonomy,
positions and control in their name.

While we fight the invisible
war, Islam exploits the fighting to set better terms in its own invisible
war. As long as we give lip service to appeasing moderate Muslims, as long
as we turn our energies to appeasement, as long as we allow ourselves and
our societies to be held hostage to Muslim rage-- we allow the enemy to
set the terms of the war and in doing so set the terms of our own
surrender.













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North Korea Preparing For Test Of Long Range ICBM Missile ?


Posted: 31 May 2009 12:52 AM PDT



North Korea appears to be preparing for a long-range missile
test, defying the U.N. Security Council whose members are negotiating a
resolution to punish it for its recent nuclear test, Yonhap News Agency
reported Saturday, quoting an informed intelligence source.


The source, asking not to be identified, said an object that
appeared to be an intercontinental ballistic missile ICBM was recently
spotted on a cargo train at an artillery research center near Pyongyang,
the North Korean capital.


“We believe that the object is certainly an ICBM,” said the
official, adding that its size is somewhat similar to the one the North
fired into the Pacific on April 5.


North Korea is believed to have started moving the object to a
missile launch pad in Musudan-ri on the country’s east coast, according to
the official.


“The missile may be a modified version of a Taepodong-2
missile, which can travel over 4,000 km,” the official said. A Taepodong-2
missile is theoretically capable of reaching the western U.S.


“It usually takes about two months to set up a launch pad, but
the process could be done in as little as two weeks, which means the North
could launch a long-range missile as early as mid-June,” the source
said.


The developments of what appears to be preparations for a
missile launch follow Monday’s nuclear test, which drew the international
community’s condemnation against North Korea. The test came less than two
months after it fired a rocket that the U.S. and its allies say was a
disguised form of an intercontinental ballistic missile.


The remarks came shortly after a South Korean defense source in
Singapore said some activities were spotted at a North Korean munitions
factory used to build long-range missiles.


Some watchers speculate that North Korea may launch a missile
at a time close to a summit set for June 16 between South Korean President
Lee Myung-bak and his U.S. counterpart, Barack Obama.


“There is a possibility that North Korea may push the ‘fire’
button right before or after the South Korea-U.S. summit,” said a key
diplomatic official at the presidential office, requesting to be
unnamed.


Source


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National Terror Alert is America's trusted source for homeland security news and
information.






Taliban Target Britain On Orders From al-Qaeda


Posted: 30 May 2009 01:33 PM PDT



The terrorist informant has told prosecutors he was trained by
Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistan Taliban, and was planning a
series of suicide attacks with 11 other men.


The informant, known as “Ahmed”, told investigators the bombers
were to work in pairs using a “device carried in a backpack with a third
person to detonate a remote control” in order to ensure the bombers went
through with their mission.


Details of the attempted attacks emerged in papers submitted to
the Spanish authorities in a case against the alleged bombers, who were
arrested in raids in the Raval district of Barcelona in January last
year.


It is claimed the attacks were to begin on the Barcelona
underground system and then spread to the other European countries with a
presence in Afghanistan, thought to include Britain, according to new
documents.


The information echoed claims made by British security services
that a terrorist cell was sent to Manchester from the Taliban heartland in
Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas.


British investigators believe that the cell, which was
allegedly planning attacks on the Trafford and Arndale shopping centres
over the Easter holidays, had connections with al-Qaeda, and Spanish
prosecutors say their cell may also have had links with al-Qaeda.


The terrorist group is believed to have formed a “holy
alliance” with the Taliban to launch terrorist attacks on foreign
soil.


Instead of relying on British-born men travelling to Pakistan
for training, al-Qaeda is now recruiting “ready made” terrorists from
among the Taliban, investigators believe.


The 10 men arrested in the north west are fighting deportation
on national security grounds after Government lawyers accused them of
being members of a “UK-based network linked to al-Qaeda involved in attack
planning”.


Spanish police found chemicals including nitrocellulose and
potassium perchlorate along with batteries, timers and cables in the
raids.


They also found “materials for indoctrination” relating to
attacks against Nato forces in Afghanistan and books and DVDs.


Spanish prosecutors submitted documents laying out their case
earlier this month and Dolores Delgado Garcia, a prosecutor at Spain’s
National Court, told the Daily Telegraph she believed the Barcelona cell
was inspired by speeches by Osama bin Laden about the “loss of Andalucia”
once part of the Muslim Ottoman empire.


“Al-Qaeda has been targeting Spain because of its historic
associations with Andalucia,” she said. “But other cities in Europe where
countries have troops in Afghanistan were also targets.”


Explaining her case at a top-level conference organised by New
York University’s Centre for Law and Security, she said “Ahmed” had become
a “protected witness” and had told them that “Baitullah Mehsud would make
demands and when they were not complied with, they would launch their
attacks”.


Read Full Article


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information.