New college student club approved: "Sympathetic Students in Support of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria"

The state of universities has fallen to a new low.  Political correctness runs amok, speech is suppressed in favor of "tolerance" and now, students are allowed to raise money for the Islamic State. The students and faculty seem clueless, except when they talk about how the name needs to be changed, in order not to upset too many people.

This is madness, and in my mind sedition closing in on treason.

From the Daily Mail March 30 by David Martosko

Catholic university officials caught on secret video approving student club devoted to raising money for ISIS, saying: 'We're here to get that done.'

Administrators at a Catholic university in Florida agreed to help an honors student start a campus club that would send money and supplies to the ISIS terror army.

Hidden camera footage released Monday morning shows officials and faculty at Barry University advising a senior – identified only as 'Laura' – about the best way to secure funding for a club she called 'Sympathetic Students in Support of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.'

'I want to start fundraising efforts on campus, and what I want to do is raise funds to send overseas,' she told Derek Bley, the school's Coordinator for Leadership Development and Student Organizations.

Bley offered to help her create the organization and agreed with her request to 'pass out Islamic State flags and educate people' at an annual student 'Festival of Nations' fair.

The video is from Project Veritas, a conservative 'guerilla film-making group' that last week captured a Cornell University dean agreeing that ISIS and Hamas would be welcome at the Ivy League school.

Barry University, based in Miami Shores, has received more than $112 million in federal grants and contracts, and another $109 million from Florida taxpayers since 2000, Project Veritas said Monday, citing figures from OpenTheBooks.com.

It also once received tuition money from retired NBA great Shaquille O'Neal, who graduated in 2012 with a doctorate in Education. His final 'capstone project' – a load-lightened version of a doctoral dissertation – focused on 'humor and seriousness in leadership styles,' according to the Miami New Times.

The school's mission statement says 'all members of our community' must 'accept social responsibility to foster peace and nonviolence.'

Yet Bley was enthusiastic about Laura's terror-funding venture. 'We're not here to limit people and their clubs, he said. 'If there a demand or a need, or an interest that students have to do this, we're here to support that.'

'If you've got ... people who are interested, and this is something you want take and run with,' he added. 'we're here to help you get that done.'

Laura put the murderous ISIS army's credentials front-and-center.

'They are terrorists,' she told Bley, 'but, like, we're trying to help them. We're trying to, like, educate them and give them funding so that they don't have to be impoverished and get involved in acts of violence.'

'You should create jobs and help promote education in the Islamic State,' she added later, 'because that's what helps reduce terrorism.'

That was a subtle jab at U.S. State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf, who said last month on MSNBC that 'we cannot kill our way out of this war' with ISIS.'

The Obama administration, Harf said, should instead 'go after the root causes that lead people to join these groups' – including 'lack of opportunity for jobs.'

At one point Laura expanded her fictional club's mandate to include providing paper and pencils to the 'widows and orphans' of dead ISIS jihadis.

Another part of her pitch to college officials was a mission that included providing flashlights to ISIS fighters and their families.

'A lot of the facilities have been destroyed' in Iraq and Syria, she said, 'so there is not a lot of electricity and power.'

'A lot of the fighters, they can't see at night, you know?' she continued. 'So, like, people are attacking them and they can't see at night. And because they are so poor, like, they don't have night vision and stuff.'

Bley explored the idea, speculating about the 'thousands of dollars' it might cost to send 'bulk shipments' of flashlights to the Middle East, 'like the ones at Costco and stuff.'

The only objection Laura encountered was related to the group's proposed name.

'The only thing, as far as the name [goes],' she heard from Frederique Frage, the university's associate director of international and multicultural programs, is that 'technically our country is at war with ISIS'.

Frage was quick to add: 'I am not saying that – at all – ISIS represents Islam.'

But students might have 'some reservation' supporting a group engaged in a 'humanitarian effort' aimed at the terror group, she said. 'It's just unfortunate.'

Another multicultural program administrator, Daisy Santiago, chimed in that Laura should rename her group 'Students in Support of the Middle East' – 'as opposed to having the 'ISIS' [name].'

Read it all and see the video at the link

Muslim MI5 double agent planned jihad against his peers

What kind of vetting would have prevented this man from attaining the position he had within MI5? Was no one willing to ask the tough questions?  Does anyone care?

From the Daily Mail March 29 by Duncan Gardham

British double agent 'plotted to kill his MI5 handler and attack UK' after infiltrating jihadist group in Syria

An MI5 agent was allegedly recruited by a terrorist mastermind in Syria and sent back to Britain in a plot to launch a devastating attack against his handlers.

The agent was recruited by MI5 as an undercover informant within the radical Islamic community and he then travelled to Syria where he became part of a jihadist group.

But he apparently double-crossed his British handlers and returned to London with plans to launch an 'insider attack' in the capital.

The Mail on Sunday has been aware of the alleged plot for more than a year but agreed to previous requests from the security services not to publish the story for 'national security' reasons.

Parts of the plot were reported in a story in The Mail on Sunday last year, in which we revealed that the jihadist, who has a British passport, had plans to attack Central London and that David Cameron had been briefed about the details.

This newspaper is aware of the man's identity and further details of the investigation but are not printing them for legal reasons.

A long undercover operation was run by MI5 to try to identify linked individuals who might be travelling back from Syria to launch similar attacks but this investigation has now concluded, meaning we can now report the fact that he was a potential 'double agent'.

The revelations come as the terror threat in the UK continues to be 'severe' but as MI5 faces difficult questions about its tactic of recruiting agents who are known Islamic extremists.

Supporters of Mohammed Emwazi, the Islamic State executioner known as Jihadi John, have claimed that MI5 harassed him and similar allegations have been made by the family of Michael Adebolajo, one of the killers of Fusilier Lee Rigby.

The security services refuse to answer such questions because they stick by a strict policy to 'neither confirm nor deny' whether individuals have been approached or recruited – a policy they stick to even after suspects have been accused of serious crimes.

However, The Mail on Sunday can disclose that the man worked for MI5 for a period before he decided to travel abroad in 2012.

Investigators believe he met a terrorist mastermind with designs on attacking the West who encouraged him to plan an attack.

Back in Britain, information suggested he began plotting to attack the MI5 handlers who had recruited him and set about trying to buy automatic weapons in this country or abroad. The alleged 'double agent' was apparently planning to use the firearms to stage a murderous attack on the public in an echo of the Kenyan shopping mall massacre last year, sources said.

He remained in contact with his jihadi controller, a terrorist mastermind who is thought to have established links to Britain.

The agent also joined up with another extremist and they approached two other men for help in obtaining the equipment, but these other men did not agree to help them.

MI5 were sufficiently concerned by an intercepted communication they received that they launched an emergency operation to apprehend the man. Scotland Yard's firearms unit was sent to Central London when investigations suggested he was close to launching his attack.

The man was detained for questioning and remains in custody. However, no firearms were discovered linking him to a plot and it appears the security services' fears of an imminent attack were unfounded.

Read it all

Islamic State beheads 8 Shiites in Syria

"When you meet the infidels, strike their necks..." (47-4)

From the New York Times March 29

Islamic State Group Beheads 8 Shiites in Syria's Hama

BEIRUT — A new video released by the Islamic State group on Sunday shows its fighters cutting off the heads of eight men said to be Shiite Muslims. The video posted on social media said the men were beheaded in the central Syrian province of Hama.

The video could not be immediately independently verified, but it appeared genuine and corresponded to other AP reporting of the events. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also said that the video was authentic.

IS has beheaded scores of people since capturing large parts of Iraq and Syria last year in a self-declared caliphate.

In the video, the men, wearing orange uniforms with their hands tied behind their backs, were led forward in a field by teenage boys. They were then handed over to a group of IS fighters. A boy wearing a black uniform hands out knives to the fighters, who then behead the hostages.

An Islamic State fighter speaks in the video, using a derogatory term for Shiites and calling them "impure infidels." The IS fighter said in the video that the current military campaign against IS will only make the militant group stronger.

"Our swords will soon, God willing, reach the Nuseiries and their allies like Bashar and his party," the man said referring to Syrian President Bashar Assad and Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group that is fighting on his side. The word Nuseiry is a derogatory term to refer to Assad's Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

Read it all

The women of the Islamic State

We are not talking about those females whom the "right hand possesses" or slaves captured/kidnapped, we are talking about women who freely choose to leave their comfortable Western homes and travel to Syria and Iraq and be part of the global jihad.  They freely give themselves to jihadi fighters in marriage, do medical work and keep the home fires burning.  They are the unsung heroines of the Islamic State and the front line for keeping moral among the faithful.

From The Star March 30 by Michelle Shephard

Why it's wrong to underestimate the Islamic State's female recruits

Umm Jihad may very well be who she claims to be, a 20-year-old American university student who was studying business in Virginia until she left to join the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS, in Syria.

When she is asked in a private online chat how she should be identified, she sends a photo of four women hanging out of a white Beemer and hoisting AK-47s in the air. Their hair, faces and bodies are completely shrouded in black robes and veils so they cannot be identified.

She responds: “Me and some Aussies.”

It is easy to ridicule as the Islamic State equivalent of Girls Gone Wild. Much of the Islamic State’s chatter on social media seems more laughable than serious, leading a CNN host to say last month that the group lured women with kittens, Nutella and emojis. Then CNN’s Carol Costello’s suggestion was then widely mocked by Islamic State supporters.

“There are very facile reductions, especially TV sensationalism of tropes like kittens and Nutella pancakes, and it is really problematic because it is not getting at understanding the nuanced, complex factors that lead women from Western nations to go and join forces with groups like ISIS,” says Jasmin Zine, an associate professor of sociology at Wilfrid Laurier University.

Zine has been researching the impact of the “war on terror” and Islamophobia on identity and citizenship, as well as radicalization among Canadian Muslim youth.

“Highlighting only the absurd glosses over the reasons why women are drawn to the group or the real risks they face,” she said.

Much of what we have learned about the Islamic State comes from its members, although most of what they post online is to praise the group.

The risks of moving into a war zone and being caught between warring factions or aerial strikes are rarely mentioned. In addition, there are reports of sexual abuse or teenage girls forced to move from one husband to another as their fighter husbands are killed.

Clearly what is never mentioned in the propaganda is that joining the Islamic State may be easy — getting out is hard.

Since most online posting is anonymous, it is hard verify identities.

One of the Islamic State’s most influential online voices used to be a Twitter account under the name Shami Witness. Last year, Britain’s Channel 4 uncovered that Shami Witness was not a holy warrior, or pro-ISIS analyst, but a 24-year-old businessman from Bangalore, India, who apparently had a lot of time on his hands.

But if Umm Jihad is not who she purports to be, her statements still echo hundreds of others online and provide insight into what women drawn to ISIS are either reading or writing.

They talk about the Islamic State’s higher calling, the sense of sisterhood and they romanticize their marriages, or becoming young mothers.

Zine says some are driven by a humanitarian impulse, a need to do something in response to Muslim deaths of the so-called war on terror. “It has a lot to do with what’s happening in the world these youths are seeing in alternative media. They see death and destruction in a way the normal consumer of Western media culture doesn’t see because it has been mainly a nameless, faceless war,” she said.

Only a few voices from women inside can be heard online about how bad it can be for these young women. Some complain that there is tension between those from Western countries, versus locals in Syria and Iraq, where the group has declared its Caliphate.

One woman, claiming on Twitter that foreigners are “subjected to mistreatment and discrimination from the locals,” describes an incident where a foreign woman was left to bleed at a hospital during a miscarriage, while doctors tended to local patients.

Most foreign women come from European countries, Australia and, to a lesser degree, Canada and the U.S. Umm Jihad posted a photo on Twitter of four gloved hands holding Canadian, American, Australian and British passports.

“Bonfire soon, no need for these anymore,” she wrote.

A 23-year-old woman from Edmonton is believed to be among the recruits. She reportedly left for the Islamic State last summer after enrolling in an online course to study the Qur’an taught by another woman based in Edmonton, according to a CBC television report.

In January, Shayma Senouci, a girl from the suburbs of Montreal was reported missing to police and is presumed to have left for Syria. Her Facebook account rages against a 2013 proposal by the Quebec government to ban religious symbols and calls Israel's shelling of Gaza last summer a “genocide.”

“How can we stay impassive when faced with this?!!” she wrote last July.

Three other Canadian teenagers also tried last year to join, abruptly leaving their Brampton homes and making it as far as Istanbul, Turkey, before authorities turned them back after being alerted by their parents.

Umm Jihad says she misses nothing about the West and she believes it was her obligation as a Muslim to join the Islamic State. A British woman she met online helped her leave Virginia last November for Raqqa, Syria, where she says she now lives.

When we started talking a couple of weeks ago, she was living alone with her husband, whom she did not identify.

But she said women were happiest when their husbands died in battle and became ashahid, or martyr. The widows then “have to wait four months and 10 days before they’re allowed to leave the house, remarry, go shopping etc.,” she wrote in a text. “It’s not hard because it’s for the sake of Allah and we are happy to observe it . . . When one husband gets martyred, it’s like a celebration.”

The next day, she got her wish, posting on Twitter that her husband, Abu Jihad Al Australi was killed, waxing poetically of his death. “My husband had a dream a week before he went to battle. He dreamt that he got shot in the head and it felt like a pinch,” she wrote.

“He saw a bright light that he was trying to go towards, as he was getting closer n closer to it it got brighter n brighter until he couldn’t . . . handle it. I remember him tell me his dream and laughing.”

If true, she was married to a man from Melbourne, Australia named Suhan Rahman. Photos of his blood-soaked body were posted alongside other fighters killed in clashes with Kurdish fighters earlier this month, including the body of what is believed to be Ahmad Waseem, who was from Windsor and was known by the kunya, or nickname, ofAbu Turab al-Kanadi.

Umm Jihad’s posts on Twitter grew more strident after her husband’s death, urging attacks on the West, or “that treacherous tryant” U.S. President Barack Obama.

But she is polite and conciliatory when answering questions on the social-messaging app KIK, unlike her Twitter account, which was suspended Saturday. When asked about disconnect, she responds: “Oh lol. Not like I can tell u to go kill kuffar,” using the word for the non-believers.

There is more, read it all

Islamic State says Caesarean births are "un-Islamic"

Does it get any more surreal?  Down the rabbitt hole we go...

"The Islamic State order stipulates that the new charges are aimed at deterring hospitals from carrying out routine Caesareans"

From the Daily Mail March 27 by Robert Verkaik

Now ISIS clamps down on mothers having 'un-Islamic' Caesarean births

Islamic State is clamping down on Caesarean operations in the latest attack on what it perceives to be decadent Western practices.

Doctors working for ISIS have been ordered to charge 15,000 Syrian pounds for a Caesarean childbirth operation, the equivalent of two months salary for the average Syrian worker.

Under the harsh new rules enforced by the terror group, doctors who carry out the operations without charging the fee will now face unspecified punishments.

The Islamic State order stipulates that the new charges are aimed at deterring hospitals from carrying out routine Caesareans.

But the high fees will force women who can't afford the operations to endure painful childbirth.

A written order published in the northern Syrian province of Deir az-Zor states: 'in order to assist the believers from the sons of Islam who are working in the medical corps to support their brothers from the poor and others besides them from the Muslim populace, and with the desire to keep the course of medical work removed from arbitrary whim.'

It adds: 'This is to be considered as tantamount to a written order and all who contravene it will be held accountable in the Dar al-Qaḍa [IS judiciary] with attendant consequence.'

There is growing opposition among Islamic clerics to Western trends in gynaecology developments and in particular to mothers who wish to have a pain-free childbirth sometimes referred to as 'too posh to push'.

One scholar has recently claimed that the rise in Caesarean operations in the Middle East is part of a plot against Muslim mothers.

Sheikh Muhammad ibn Saalih al Uthaymeen has ruled that Muslim mothers shouldn't need any decadent pain-relieving assistance in the delivery of their babies.

In his ruling published on an Islamic website he says: 'I would like to take this opportunity to point out a phenomenon that has been mentioned to us, which is that many obstetricians, male and female, in the hospitals are too keen for birth to take place by surgical means, which is known as a Caesarean.

'I am afraid that this may be a plot against the Muslims, because the more births take place in this manner, the more the skin of the abdomen is weakened and pregnancy becomes more dangerous for the woman, and she becomes unable to get pregnant.'

He adds: 'Some of the people who work in private hospitals have told me that many women come to the hospitals and their specialists tell them that there is no alternative to a Caesarean, then they go to this private hospital and give birth naturally.'

Leaders of the Islamic State have tried to build a modern health service and have appealed to doctors from all over the world to travel to Syria and Iraq to join their medical teams.

Read it all

Obama declassifies top secret Israeli nuclear program plans, become public through FOIA

It is clear now that the Obama White House sees Israel as an enemy.  Cozying up to Iran by giving them, through their declassification of sensitive and top secret information, ammunition to ratchet up the demonization of Israel does not bode well for future discussions on peace in the region.  

Most telling in the report is the fact that information on other major nuclear powers such as France, Italy and Germany is still classified and not for public view.  There is only one reason Israel alone has been exposed: Obama wants to see Israel, at the very least humiliated and at most defeated in their bid to survive.

He is not my president.

From Arutz Sheva March 25 by Ari Yashar and Matt Wanderman

US Declassifies Document Revealing Israel's Nuclear Program

In a development that has largely been missed by mainstream media, the Pentagon early last month quietly declassified a Department of Defense top-secret document detailing Israel's nuclear program, a highly covert topic that Israel has never formally announced to avoid a regional nuclear arms race, and which the US until now has respected by remaining silent.

But by publishing the declassified document from 1987, the US reportedly breached the silent agreement to keep quiet on Israel's nuclear powers for the first time ever, detailing the nuclear program in great depth.

The timing of the revelation is highly suspect, given that it came as tensions spiraled out of control between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama ahead of Netanyahu's March 3 address in Congress, in which he warned against the dangers of Iran's nuclear program and how the deal being formed on that program leaves the Islamic regime with nuclear breakout capabilities.

Another highly suspicious aspect of the document is that while the Pentagon saw fit to declassify sections on Israel's sensitive nuclear program, it kept sections on Italy, France, West Germany and other NATO countries classified, with those sections blocked out in the document.

The 386-page report entitled "Critical Technological Assessment in Israel and NATO Nations" gives a detailed description of how Israel advanced its military technology and developed its nuclear infrastructure and research in the 1970s and 1980s.

Israel is "developing the kind of codes which will enable them to make hydrogen bombs. That is, codes which detail fission and fusion processes on a microscopic and macroscopic level," reveals the report, stating that in the 1980s Israelis were reaching the ability to create bombs considered a thousand times more powerful than atom bombs.

The revelation marks a first in which the US published in a document a description of how Israel attained hydrogen bombs.

The report also notes research laboratories in Israel "are equivalent to our Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore and Oak Ridge National Laboratories," the key labs in developing America's nuclear arsenal.

Israel's nuclear infrastructure is "an almost exact parallel of the capability currently existing at our National Laboratories," it adds.

Read it all

Bowe Bergdahl charged with desertion

Obama traded five battle hardened jihadists for a deserter, and as far as I am concerned a traitor.  It is alleged he converted to Islam while in captivity, and his desertion was supposedly to find the Taliban and turn himself over to them.  I believe he is complicit in his own captivity, thus a traitor to his country and the oath he took when joining the military.

He should be shot, but he will most likely get life in prison.

From ABC News March 25 by Luis Martinez and Lee Ferran

Bowe Bergdahl Charged With Desertion, Could Face Life

American soldier and former Taliban captive Bowe Bergdahl has been charged with desertion over his disappearance from an Afghan outpost in 2009 and could face life in confinement, the Army announced today.

Bergdahl was freed after five years in Taliban captivity in a controversial deal last year in which the U.S. agreed to release five mid- to high-level Taliban figures from detention in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. As part of the deal, the Taliban five were relocated to Qatar.

Qatar is a clandestine supporter of global jihad and a haven for Islamists, but never mind all that.

After Bergdahl's dramatic return to the U.S., the Army launched an investigation into whether the soldier willfully left his post in Afghanistan before he was taken by the Taliban in 2009, as someAfghan war veterans alleged.

The Army said today Bergdahl has been charged with two counts under the Uniform Code of Military Justice: one count of “desertion with intent to shirk important or hazardous duty” and one count of “misbehavior before the enemy by endangering the safety of a command, unit or place.”

The second count is the more severe of the two, carrying a potential sentence of “confinement for life” should Bergdahl be convicted. Both charges also potentially carry a dishonorable discharge, a reduction in rank to private, and a total forfeiture of all pay and allowances.

"We ask that all Americans continue to withhold judgment until the facts of this case emerge," Bergdahl's attorney, Eugene Fidell, said in a statement. "We also ask that government officials refrain from leaking information or engaging in other conduct that endangers our client's right to a fair trial."

The Army said the case has been referred to a military preliminary hearing akin to a grand jury inquiry, which is “designed to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to merit a court-martial,” after which a higher authority will decide to go ahead with a court-martial against Bergdahl or drop the charges...

Read it all

Islamic State selling looted artifacts on eBay

"The trade in antiquities is a profitable business for the terror group and is thought to be worth tens of millions of pounds..."

From the Daily Mail March 14 by Jack Krone

2,000-year-old artefacts looted by ISIS from ancient sites in Iraq and Syria are being sold on EBAY

2,000-year-old artefacts looted from ancient sites in Iraq and Syria by ISIS are being sold on eBay as jihadis cash in on relics dating back millennia.

Jewellery, ceramics and coins plundered from museums within ISIS territory are known to pass between criminal gangs before turning up in Gulf States and later appearing on trading websites.

Two coins from Apamea, in western Syria, which date back to Ancient Greece have appeared on eBay with price tags of £57 and £90.

This comes after entire Roman mosaics were ripped up by a bulldozer from the ancient site.

The trade in antiquities is a profitable business for the terror group and is thought to be worth tens of millions of pounds, The Times reports.

As well as looting ancient artefacts, ISIS is known to levy a 'tax on valuable and historical items found in its territory to ensure the group's central administration benefits financially from raids on museums.

The number of artefacts flowing from the war zone is so great that their market price has actually fallen....

CIA head Brennen says Islamic State "not Islamic"

The smoke and mirrors continues unabated from the White House.  I don't think they even listen to the words coming out of their mouths, instead they just spew the party line.  Islam and Muslims are not waiting for us to define what is, and what is not Islam, so any pronouncements by Brenner are only met with laughter and the knowledge that the jihad can continue unencumbered by honest scrutiny.

From ZeeNews March 23

CIA Director says Islamic State represents ''ideology of violence, '' not Islam

Washington: CIA Director John O. Brennan has cautioned against categorizing the Islamic State (IS) fighters as followers of Muslim faith by saying that they represent an "ideology of violence" and not religion.

In an interview, Brennan stuck to the Obama administration`s official line and stressed on the need to not use phrases like "radical Islam" for the IS terrorists, The Washington Times reported.
Brennan warned that it would be a mistake to link the IS with Islam, when majority of Muslims around the globe have denounced, condemned their actions and therefore, he added, "we should not give them any religious legitimacy."

The CIA Chief added that he was prepared to call them "extremists" and "violent terrorists" who misrepresent Islamic faith.

Rather than call them what they call themselves.  I wonder how he would react if I said I didn't like his name John anymore, and from now on I would call him Barney. 

French PM Valls: nothing must slow down Islam in France

Manuel Valls and his Interior Minister, Bernard Cazeneuve believe there can be a "French Islam" where the sharia is benign, discrimination of women is nonexistent and religious relativism will reign supreme.  Nothing could be further from the truth, as they will soon find out.  To define Islam in Western terms will do nothing to blunt the ideological teachings endemic with Islam since 610AD.

With the surrender of France to Islam, and Britain and Germany not far behind, the clash of civilizations predicted by Samuel Huntington is rapidly approaching.

From GalliaWatch March 14

Nothing must slow down Islam

The comments made by Manuel Valls on March 3 during a visit to the grand mosque of Strasbourg (above) are worth noting, even though I'm a bit late in reporting them. They come under the same category as those made by Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, who recently announced a new "dialogue" with Muslim leaders and the relaunching of an Islamic "foundation" to fund various cultural activities. Both men are working diligently to implant Islam firmly in France. With every new mosque, every new concession to halal food, every new welcome to imams, they eradicate a bit more of French tradition, and bring the country a step closer to overt conflict. From Le Point:

Manuel Valls wants to meet the challenge of "anything that slows down the Islam of France," in particular with regard to the training of imams. But he wants also to stem the "reflex" of soliciting foreign countries to finance mosques. "I hope to act, we hope to act… and we hope that everybody, you first among them, see the depth of the problems we have to deal with today," he declared during a meeting with Muslim leaders at the grand mosque of Strasbourg. "Anything that delays an Islam of France, even if this is already a reality, that's the great challenge we must face."

"If there is no miracle recipe, things are little by little taking shape. Larger mosques, more worthy ones, have been built. Now, it is in the field of training that we must invest. And the State wants to provide the means," said Valls who would later elaborate on this during a visit to the University of Strasbourg, where he announced that the State would increase to twelve, from the current six, the number of universities that offered courses for imams.

Valls insisted that there was no need to seek funds for mosques from foreign countries:

"In France, all the energy, all the necessary resources already exist for the development of Islam."

He then launched into a condemnation of extremism:

Islamist extremism and the extreme right are two "major dangers for the Republic" that "nourish each other".

"We must not hide from the challenges we are facing.The rise of populism, of the extreme right, in Europe and in France, feeds naturally on the rise of jihadism, terrorism, and radical extremism. At bottom, these two extremisms feed one another and represent a major danger for our democracy, our society and our ability to live together. I am sometimes surprised, angered, by the fact that people are not sufficiently aware of this. The only answer, the only one, to these two dangers that feed on each other is the Republic. The only answer is laïcité, education, the university, knowledge, intelligence, the ability to live together. Otherwise our plan, our national plan, will be in jeopardy."

He's clear about his intention to radically transform France into a Muslim country (which it already is) and to re-program the minds and hearts of the people so that they agree to live side by side with elements that are antithetical to French law, tradition, mores and customs.

And the only reason he is against Islamic extremism is that it fosters the rise of Marine Le Pen. Otherwise it would appear he has no problem with jihad.

Islamic State posts names and photos of 100 service members

“Know that it is wajib (religious duty) for you to kill these kuffar! and now we have made it easy for you by giving you addresses, all you need to do is take the final step, so what are you waiting for? Kill them in their own lands, behead them in their own homes, stab them to death as they walk their streets thinking they are safe…”

But John Kerry says the Islamic State has nothing to do with Islam, and that it is a religion of peace! Is the Islamic State misunderstanding their religion?  Maybe Kerry can go over there and explain it to them.

From New York Daily News March 21 by Jason Molinet

ISIS hackers call for homegrown ‘jihad’ against U.S. military, posts names and addresses of 100 service members

Islamic State hackers have posted the personal details of 100 U.S. service members they claim took part in the bombing of ISIS targets in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia and Afghanistan – and called on homegrown radicals to strike back.

The group calling itself Islamic State Hacking Division allegedly gathered the dossier from cracked military databases and made an open call for “jihad against the crusaders” using JustPaste.it, a Polish-based social network favored by ISIS propagandists.

“These Kuffar that drop bombs over Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Khurasan and Somalia are from the same lands that you reside in, so when will you take action?” the group asks. “Know that it is wajib for you to kill these kuffar! and now we have made it easy for you by giving you addresses, all you need to do is take the final step, so what are you waiting for? Kill them in their own lands, behead them in their own homes, stab them to death as they walk their streets thinking they are safe…”

The black flag entry is a self-styled terrorist WikiLeaks titled “Target: United States Military.”

It lists the name, unit and address of 100 U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marines – many of them pilots – along with headshots of each. One of the targeted is a Navy aviator from upstate New York.

Read it all

Malaysia: new legislation says leaving Islam punishable by death

The most populous Muslim country and one held up as a shining example of Islamic moderation is about to deal with the question of death for apostasy.  There should never be a reason in this enlightened world to have a discussion about whether someone should be killed for changing their religion, but within Islam alone, that tenet is enshrined within the doctrine through the hadiths of Muhammad.  A discussion of this tenet would go far in reforming Islam, but that will not happen until the ulema decides to reopen the gate of ijtihad and have an honest talk about how to bring Islam into the 21st century.

From FMT March 18

Apostasy under Kelantan’s hudud carries the death penalty

The hudud bill to be tabled by Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) before the Kelantan State Assembly prescribes the death penalty for the offence of apostasy, the Malay Mail Online reports today.

The Syariah Criminal Code II 1993 classifies “intidah” and “riddah” as voluntary or deliberate pronouncements or utterances of words that violate a Muslim’s creed, known has aqidah.

These involve challenges to fundamental aspects of the Islamic faith of every Muslim, including Rukun Islam (Pillars of Islam), Rukun Iman (Pillars of Faith) and the distinction between halal and haram.

According to the report, the enactment does not define what would constitute a violation of Rukun Islam or Rukun Iman.

Under the proposed legislation, the immediate punishment for such an offence is imprisonment over a period to be determined by the Syariah Court “for the purpose of repentance.”

However, chillingly it goes on to say that if the offender fails to repent, the punishment may extend to execution.

“Provided that when he repents whether the repentance is done before the death sentence is pronounced or after such pronouncement is carried out, he shall be free of the hudud sentence and his forfeited property shall be returned to him,” the enactment says, as quoted by the report.

A senior lawyer consulted by FMT suggests that the provisions were also against basic legal principles and also opens up the grave possibility of arbitrary exercises of the power by state authorities.

“Firstly, what constitutes a violation of Rukun Islam and Rukun Iman appears not to be properly defined, leaving them open to interpretation,” he suggests.

“Secondly, the fact that the purpose of the punishment – even to the point of execution – is to secure repentance throws open the possibility of a citizen being coerced involuntarily into remaining in the faith,” he adds.

“It is a trite principle of law that admissions and confessions must be voluntarily given – they cannot be extracted by inducement, threat or promise.”

“Thirdly, and most importantly, it is a clear violation of the fundamental constitutional right of freedom of religion.”

Read it all

Pentagon loses 500M in weapons in Yemen

The shoulder-shrugging in intense as everyone and no-one takes all and no responsibility for the missing cache of arms.

"In recent weeks, members of Congress have held closed-door meetings with U.S. military officials to press for an accounting of the arms and equipment. Pentagon officials have said that they have little information to go on and that there is little they can do at this point to prevent the weapons and gear from falling into the wrong hands"

This could go well...

From The Washington Post March 17 by Craig Whitlock

Pentagon loses track of $500 million in weapons, equipment given to Yemen

The Pentagon is unable to account for more than $500 million in U.S. military aid given to Yemen, amid fears that the weaponry, aircraft and equipment is at risk of being seized by Iranian-backed rebels or al-Qaeda, according to U.S. officials.

With Yemen in turmoil and its government splintering, the Defense Department has lost its ability to monitor the whereabouts of small arms, ammunition, night-vision goggles, patrol boats, vehicles and other supplies donated by the United States. The situation has grown worse since the United States closed its embassy in Sanaa, the capital, last month and withdrew many of its military advisers.

In recent weeks, members of Congress have held closed-door meetings with U.S. military officials to press for an accounting of the arms and equipment. Pentagon officials have said that they have little information to go on and that there is little they can do at this point to prevent the weapons and gear from falling into the wrong hands.

“We have to assume it’s completely compromised and gone,” said a legislative aide on Capitol Hill who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

U.S. military officials declined to comment for the record. A defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the Pentagon, said there was no hard evidence that U.S. arms or equipment had been looted or confiscated. But the official acknowledged that the Pentagon had lost track of the items.

Indonesia close to death penalty for being gay

Indonesia, moderate and modern, home to hundreds of millions of Muslims, one of the largest Islamic countries in the world and a beacon of "moderate" Islam is very close to passing law giving the death penalty for being gay.  When will we hear organized outrage from the LGBT community about this obvious discrimination?  We will not, because being gay is being a victim, and Muslims are as much the victim of "Islamophobia" as gays are a victim of "homophobia".  The silence from the LGBT community is deafening, and that silence allows the screams and pleas from those gays who are being persecuted, and those who will die because of officially sanctioned Islamic law to be heard loud and clear.

From America Blog March 17 by Jon Green

Indonesia’s top clerics issue fatwa against gays

The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), the most prominent Islamic clerical organization in the country, has issued a fatwa calling for the death penalty to be imposed for the crime of having gay sex.

The edict was issued earlier this month to “remind” the public that homosexuality is a “deviant sexual behavior” that the society should not tolerate, as it puts a “stain on the dignity of Indonesia.”

As Hasanuddin A.F., the head of the MUI’s fatwa commission, said, as quoted by the Jakarta Globe:

It doesn’t matter that they love each other…The law still prohibits it. In Islamic law, it’s a sexual act that must be heavily punished. It would be bad if the government allows same-sex marriage.

The fatwa is particularly worrisome given how influential MUI is in Indonesia, which is home to the world’s largest Muslim population. The organization was founded under Suharto’s New Order in 1975, and has since been the umbrella organization for Muslim clerics in the country. So when they tell believers in Indonesia that a certain group of people shouldn’t have the full protection of the law behind them, it carries quite a bit of weight. Prior fatwas issued by the MUI have been used to justify violence against the Ahmadiyah community, a sect of Islam branded as heretical by the MUI.

And given the already-high rate of violence against religious minorities in the country, the active incitement to religiously-motivated violence against the homosexuals, coming from the country’s most prominent religious body, has put Indonesia’s LGBT community on notice.

On paper, Indonesia is typically considered one of the world’s more progressive majority-Muslim countries. Its constitution officially grants its citizens freedom of religion (provided that you subscribe to one of the six religions recognized by the government) and, while same-sex marriage is prohibited, homosexuality is only officially criminalized in a few localities.

The country is also frequently held up as an example of how wrong critics of Islam are when they say that the religion is used to make life worse for those who don’t adhere to its principles. After all, only 16 percent of Indonesia’s Muslims believe that the death penalty should be assigned to apostates.

Read it all

Islamic State destroys 4th century monastery in Iraq

The cultural genocide continues apace.  The destruction of ancient artifacts is in line with Qur'anic commands, and so the Islamic State is practicing Islam as practiced by Muhammad, the perfect man, or "al-insan al-kamil".  The Qur'an says that ruins are a sign of Allah's punishment to those who have rejected Islam as the true religion: "Many were the Ways of Life that have passed away before you: travel through the earth, and see what was the end of those who rejected Truth" (3:137).

From Daily Mail March 19 by John Hall

Another blow to Christianity and civilisation: ISIS destroy 4th Century Mar Benham monastery in Iraq

Barbaric Islamic State militants have dealt yet another blow to Christian history in Iraq by using explosives to destroy the 4th Century Mar Benham monastery.

The ancient building, built by Assyrian king Senchareb 1,600 years ago, stood in the Christian-dominated town of Bakhdida, just 20 miles south east of oil rich ISIS stronghold Mosul.

Locals took to social media to share images of the massive blast, which reduced the ancient monastery to little more than vast piles of rubble.

The attack was later confirmed by Kurdish journalists familiar with developments in the city.

Mar Benham monastery was captured by ISIS last July in a lightning advance that saw the militants seize control of vast swathes of northern Iraq - including the country's second largest city, Mosul.

Resident monks who live in the building - which is also known as the Monastery of the Martyrs Saint Behnam and his Sister Sarah, and was once visited by thousands of Christians and Muslims every year - were subsequently forced to leave and flee to nearby Christian villages.

The destruction of the religious building was subsequently confirmed by Barzan Sadiq, executive producer at Kurdish Rudaw media network, according to the International Business Times.

'#ISIS blew the monastery of the two martyrs "Mar Behnam & His sister Sarah Mart",which dates back to the fourteenth century eastern #Mosul,' he was quoted as saying on Twitter, citing the Islamic calender.

The destruction of the monastery came just days it was claimed that 'ancient' statues infamously filmed being smashed to pieces by ISIS militants in a Mosul museum were all worthless fakes.

The terrorist organisation released shocking footage at the end of February purportedly showing jihadis destroying 3,000-year-old artworks with sledgehammers in their northern Iraqi stronghold.

But Baghdad museum director Fawzye al-Mahdi ridiculed the propaganda exercise, claiming the genuine priceless Assyrian and Akkadian statues and sculptures are still safely in his possession in the Iraqi capital, adding that those in Mosul were plaster cast replicas.

If true, this would be good news for the world.  Lets pray what he claims is true.

The destruction of the monastery emerged as the United Nations human rights office said that ISIS fighters may have committed genocide against the minority Yezidi community in Iraq as well as crimes against humanity and war crimes against civilians including children.

Read it all

NY High School does The Pledge of Allegiance in Arabic

"Zinc said he was instructed to read the Pledge of Allegiance in different languages that week to promote diversity, but received a hail of backlash for it"

Reading the Pledge in different languages to "promote diversity" is as specious an argument as schools having Western teens wear the hijab to "promote diversity".  To let stand the religious relativism that all are equal (from Western norms) does not promote diversity, it instead distances the ability to delineate the differences, or identify possible friction in that religion when measured against Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism or any other mainstream religious belief. 

Our schools are not the unbiased bastions of free speech they used to be, they are propaganda machines churning out programmed graduates with little real knowledge of the world at large.

From NY Daily News March 19 by  Jason Silverstein and Melissa Chan

Upstate New York high school reads Pledge of Allegiance in Arabic, angering some students and leading to district apology

The upstate New York high school senior who ignited furor over the Arabic reading of the Pledge of Allegiance was trying to show the great cultural rift in the nation when he divided the student body.

"A lot of people said stuff like, 'You're waking up terrorism in America,'" Andrew Zinc, 18, told the Daily News. "I was expecting outrage from the student body ... I wasn't expecting it to get this big."

Zinc, the elected student assembly president, sparked controversy Wednesday at Pine Bush High School when he allowed another student to recite the country’s oath of allegiance in Arabic during the school’s Foreign Language Week celebration.

The girl, identified as Dana and believed to be Muslim, asked Zinc permission before she took over the loud speaker following his daily morning announcements.

"As soon as she asked, I knew without hesitation I would say yes,” he said. “I felt impassioned about it because I knew what would happen. I knew people wouldn't like it.”

“The point of reading it in another language is that it doesn't matter what language you speak,” the teen added. “America is defined by what you believe, not what you speak or how you look. I wanted everyone to see this so we could see that deep cultural divide."

Zinc said he was instructed to read the Pledge of Allegiance in different languages that week to promote diversity, but received a hail of backlash for it.

In some classrooms, students reportedly catcalled during the reading or sat down in protest.

The reading “divided the school in half,” Superintendent Joan Carbone told theTimes Herald-Record. It also caused students to harass Dana, Zinc said.

"That poor girl was crying in school yesterday. People would not leave her alone,” he said.

The school also allegedly canceled its Foreign Language Week following the outrage and banned Zinc from reading announcements for the rest of the year, he claims.

"No matter how much our administration says we accept and promote diversity, that is clearly not true,” Zinc said. "I just wanted to start a conversation, and it's disappointing to me that administration is trying to kick this under the rug instead of talking about it."

Principal Aaron Hopmayer, who has apologized for the Arabic announcement in a building-wide announcement, did not immediately return a call for comment to confirm.

Broken Silence

I have not posted updates here at Islamtodayoregon in the last few weeks, and you the reader deserve an explanation.  I am in my final quarter of college and have been taking up to 18 credits of 400 level classes, and to say it has been a challenge does no justice to the word challenge.  I am bound and determined to finish my bachelors degree in history with a minor in philosophy (everyone from Aristotle to Schleiermacher and beyond) and so I am using that as an excuse for the lack of updated postings recently.

There is so much to absorb and so much to research and write that I have been forced to neglect this blog and your need to have the best and most factual news on jihad, Islamic theology and the continuing growth of global Islam.  I am closing in on the end of my next to last semester and most assignments have been written, so I can take a bit of a breather and concentrate on my first responsibility-you the reader.

With Spring Break here this coming week, I will be back researching and posting news about the continuing spread of Islam worldwide.  This blog is but a small voice, part of the larger narrative that asks the tough questions, demands the truthful answers and never waivers from its goal: revealing the facts on Islam from those who define, practice and encourage the "religion of peace".

As always, your comments are welcome, your support encourages me to continue the journey of truth, freedom and liberty that is required if we are to stop the rise of global jihad and the domination of Islam globally.  Thank you.