Middle East and Terrorism: 2024-09-01

Saturday, September 7, 2024

Pakistani-Canadian ISIS Terrorist Planned Mass Attack on Chabad’s 770 HQ in NY - Hana Levi Julian

by Hana Levi Julian

“The defendant is alleged to have planned a terrorist attack in New York City around October 7th of this year with the stated goal of slaughtering, in the name of ISIS, as many Jewish people as possible,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland.

A Pakistani national living in Canada has been arrested after allegedly planning a massive attack on Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, NY to mark the first anniversary of the October 7 invasion and massacre in southern Israel by Gaza’s Hamas terrorist organization.

Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 20, (aka Shahzeb Jadoon) was arrested on Sept. 4 in Canada in connection with a complaint filed in the Southern Districct of New York.

He was charged with one count of attempting to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization (FTO), the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), according to the Justice Dept.

“The defendant is alleged to have planned a terrorist attack in New York City around October 7th of this year with the stated goal of slaughtering, in the name of ISIS, as many Jewish people as possible,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland.

“Thanks to the investigative work of the FBI, and the quick action of our Canadian law enforcement partners, the defendant was taken into custody.

“As I said to Canada’s Minister of Public Safety yesterday, we are deeply grateful to our Canadian partners for their critical law enforcement actions in this matter.

“Jewish communities — like all communities in this country — should not have to fear that they will be targeted by a hate-fueled terrorist attack. The Justice Department will continue to work closely with our domestic and international partners to aggressively counter the threat posed by ISIS and other terrorist organizations and their supporters,” Garland added.

“The defendant was allegedly determined to kill Jewish people here in the United States, nearly one year after Hamas’ horrific attack on Israel. This investigation was led by the FBI, and I am proud of the terrific work by the FBI team and our partners to disrupt Khan’s plan.” said FBI Director Christopher Wray.

“The FBI will continue to work closely with our partners to investigate and hold accountable those who seek to commit violence in the name of ISIS or other terrorist organizations. Fighting terrorism remains the FBI’s top priority.”

Khan, who resided in Canada, tried to travel from Canada to New York City, where he intended to use automatic and semi-automatic weapons to carry out a mass shooting in support of ISIS at a major Jewish center in Brooklyn, New York.

Khan began posting on social media and communicating with others on an encrypted messaging application about his support for ISIS in or about November 2023, when, among other things, he distributed ISIS propaganda videos and literature.

Subsequently, Khan began communicating with two undercover law enforcement officers (collectively, the “UCs”). During those conversations, Khan confirmed that he and a US-based ISIS supporter (“Associate-1”) had been planning to carry out an attack in a particular US city (“City-1).

Among other things, Khan said that he had been actively attempting to create “a real offline cell” of ISIS supporters to carry out a “coordinated assault” in City-1 using AR-style rifles to “target[] Israeli Jewish chabads . . . scattered all around [City-1].”

During subsequent conversations, Khan repeatedly instructed the UCs to obtain AR-style assault rifles, ammunition, and other materials to carry out the attacks, and identified the specific locations in City-1 where the attacks would take place.

Khan also provided details about how he would cross the border from Canada into the United States to conduct the attacks. During these conversations with the UCs, Khan emphasized that “Oct 7th and oct 11th are the best days for targeting the jews” because “oct 7 they will surely have some protests and oct 11 is yom.kippur.”

On or about Aug. 20, Khan changed his target location from City-1 to New York City.

“After initially suggesting certain neighborhoods in New York City to the UCs, Khan decided to target Location-1, a Jewish center located in Brooklyn, New York,” according to the court documents.

“Khan told the UCs that he planned to carry out this attack on or around Oct. 7, 2024 — which Khan recognized as the one-year anniversary of the brutal terrorist attacks in Israel by Hamas, a designated FTO, which, on Oct. 7, 2023, launched a wave of violent, large-scale terrorist attacks in Israel.

“In support of his choice of New York City as his target location, Khan boasted that ‘New york is perfect to target jews” because it has the “largest Jewish population In america” and therefore, “even if we dont attack a[n] Event[,] we could rack up easily a lot of jews.'”

Khan proclaimed that “we are going to nyc to slaughter them,” and sent a photograph of the specific area inside of Location-1 where he planned to carry out the attack.

Khan continued to urge the UCs to acquire AR-style rifles, ammunition, and other equipment for his attack, including “some good hunting [knives] so we can slit their throats.”

According to the complaint, Khan repeatedly reiterated his desire to carry out the attack in support of ISIS, and discussed planning for the attack, including by identifying rental properties close to Location-1 and paying for a human smuggler to help him reach and cross the border from Canada into the United States. During one communication, Khan noted that “if we succeed with our plan this would be the largest Attack on US soil since 9/11.”

On or about Sept. 4, as Khan said he planned to do in connection with his attack, he attempted to reach the US-Canada border.

Khan used three separate cars to travel across Canada towards the United States, before he was stopped in or around Ormstown, Canada, approximately 12 miles from the US-Canada border.

Khan is charged with one count of attempting to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

The FBI New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles Field Offices are investigating the case. “The Justice Department is grateful to Canadian law enforcement for their actions in this matter,” the Justice Dept. said in its statement.

The Office of International Affairs of the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division is seeking the extradition of Khan from Canada.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kaylan E. Lasky and David J. Robles for the Southern District of New York and Trial Attorney Kevin C. Nunnally of the Justice Department’s National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section are prosecuting the case.

Hana Levi Julian

Source: https://www.jewishpress.com/news/us-news/ny/pakistani-canadian-isis-terrorist-planned-mass-attack-on-chabads-770-hq-in-ny/2024/09/07/

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Anti-Israel protesters ‘speaking out for all the right reasons,’ Walz says in Michigan radio interview - Andrew Bernard

by Andrew Bernard

“We can’t allow what’s happened in Gaza to happen,” said the Democratic vice presidential nominee. “It’s a humanitarian crisis.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks at a campaign rally for Vice President of the United States Kamala Harris at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Ariz., on Aug. 9, 2024. Credit: Gage Skidmore/Creative Commons.

Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz said in a radio interview on Thursday that anti-Israel protesters are “speaking out for all the right reasons” and that more pressure should be applied to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept a Palestinian state.

The Michigan NPR station WCMU asked the Minnesota governor how a Harris-Walz administration would break from the Biden administration handling Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

“We can’t allow what’s happened in Gaza to happen,” Walz said. “The Palestinian people have every right to life and liberty themselves. We need to continue to put the leverage on to make sure we move towards a two-state solution.”

“I think we’re at a critical point right now,” he added. “We need the Netanyahu government to start moving in that direction.”

Walz described the Oct. 7 attack as a “horrific act of violence against the people of Israel” and said that the Jewish state has the right to defend itself and that the United States “will always stand by that.”

He did not mention Hamas.

Walz complimented anti-Israel protesters, who have a significant presence in Michigan, as the state with the nation’s largest Arab population. “I think those folks who are speaking out loudly in Michigan are speaking out for all the right reasons,” he said. “It’s a humanitarian crisis. It can’t stand the way it is.”

Balancing the pro-and anti-Israel vote

The Biden-Harris administration’s handling of the war could be a critical issue on Election Day in swing states like Michigan and Pennsylvania, where balancing the pro- and anti-Israel vote could be a deciding factor given how close the race is expected to be.

Anti-Israel protesters have interrupted Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign events repeatedly since U.S. President Joe Biden dropped out of the race in July.

At a rally in Detroit in August, hecklers chanted “Kamala, Kamala, you can’t hide, we won’t vote for genocide.”

Responding to the anti-Israel message of the hecklers, Harris took a more combative approach than her running mate. “If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that,” she said. “Otherwise, I’m speaking.”

At a rally in Arizona two days later, she responded to another interruption by talking about “respecting the voices” of protesters.

“Now is the time to get a ceasefire deal and get the hostage deal done,” Harris said.

In his interview on Thursday, Walz ended his answer about Israel with a call to “find a way that people can live together.”

“Getting a ceasefire with the return of the hostages and then moving towards a sustainable two-state solution is the only way forward,” he said.

Matt Brooks, the CEO of the Republican Jewish Coalition, stated that “Joe Biden thinks the antisemitic, anti-Israel radical protestors ‘have a point,’ Kamala Harris appeases them, saying they ‘are showing exactly what the human emotion should be’ and now Tim Walz believes they ‘are speaking out for all the right reasons.’ What a total disgrace.”

“Let’s be clear: The mobs on our streets and college campuses are wildly antisemitic and anti-Israel and should be totally condemned in the strongest possible terms,” Brooks said. “It is shameful and appalling that the top leaders of today’s Democratic Party cannot firmly and directly reject their vile antisemitic base.”

“Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are choosing to put partisan politics ahead of the safety and security of the Jewish community and America’s key ally as it fights a war for its very survival. It is disgusting, and the American people will reject Harris and Walz’s extremism in November,” he added. “Their priorities are clearly not our priorities. Harris and Walz stand with the radical squad, not with us.”

Andrew Bernard

Source: https://www.jns.org/anti-israel-protesters-speaking-out-for-all-the-right-reasons-walz-says-in-michigan-radio-interview/

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Alan Dershowitz announces he is leaving Democratic Party - Misty Severi

by Misty Severi

Dershowitz, who has been a prominent Democrat for decades but has been critical of the party recently, said he was "disgusted" at the Democratic convention, and cited growing dissatisfaction with the party as the reason for the change.

Harvard Law School Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz announced on Friday that he is officially leaving the Democratic Party, but did not state who he would vote for in November's election.

Dershowitz, who has been a prominent Democrat for decades but has been critical of the party recently, said he was "disgusted" at the Democratic convention, and cited growing dissatisfaction with the party as the reason for the change.

"I am no longer a Democrat," Dershowitz told VINnews. "I am an Independent. I will decide who to vote for in at the last minute based on the totality of the circumstances. I want to see how they deal with Iran, I want to see how they deal with Iran's attacks on the United States, I want to encourage the current administration to support Israel. So I'm not revealing my vote until maybe November 1.

"I need to hear all the information, all the evidence, but I am no longer a member of the Democratic Party," he added.

The former lawyer said there were many things that pushed him toward leaving the party over time, but that the biggest thing recently has been the Democrats' behavior at their convention in Chicago. He said part of the issue was featuring speakers such as Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, who did not represent his views of the party.

Dershowitz said the party's trend to the far left means they no longer represent the same values that he believes in, including on matters such as the right to due process and free speech.

One area that the former Harvard Law professor has lambasted Democrats and the current Justice Department for is their handling of the prosecution of former President Donald Trump in the hush money case, which he called a "phony conviction," in June.

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.

Source: https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/alan-dershowitz-announces-he-leaving-democratic-party

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Iran's New Plan: Lost Gaza, So Take West Bank - Khaled Abu Toameh

by Khaled Abu Toameh

The PA, however, has constantly violated the terms of the Oslo Accords by, among other things, failing to stop armed groups from operating in its territory and from attacking Israelis. The PA has therefore become part of the problem, not the solution.

One of the reasons the Palestinian Authority (PA) is reluctant to crack down on the "battalions" is because PA officials are aware that the terrorists enjoy widespread support among the Palestinian public.
The Palestinian Authority eventually fell victim to its own passivity. In 2007, Hamas staged a violent and brutal coup against the PA in Gaza, killing dozens of PA loyalists. According to a Human Rights Watch report: "Hamas military forces captured 28-year-old Mohammed Swairki, a cook for [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas's presidential guard, and executed him by throwing him to his death, with his hands and legs tied, from a 15-story apartment building in Gaza City."
The Israeli operation aims to prevent Iran and its Palestinian proxies from opening a new front against Israel from the West Bank.
The PA, however, has constantly violated the terms of the Oslo Accords by, among other things, failing to stop armed groups from operating in its territory and from attacking Israelis. The PA has therefore become part of the problem, not the solution.
If anyone is upset with Israel for its counterterrorism operation, they need to be more upset with the PA for not standing up to the armed groups and preventing Iran from establishing a terror base in the West Bank.

One of the reasons the Palestinian Authority (PA) is reluctant to crack down on armed terrorist groups, is because PA officials are aware that the terrorists enjoy widespread support among the Palestinian public. Pictured: Gunmen from a number of terrorist groups, including the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Izaddin al-Qassam Brigades, Al-Quds Brigades, and Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, hold what they called a "joint press conference" in Jenin refugee camp on February 25, 2023. (Photo by Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP via Getty Images)

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has condemned Israel for initiating a large-scale military operation in the northern West Bank, near Jordan, but it has purposely chosen to overlook the reason behind the Israeli security's operation. Israel's counterterrorism operation, called Summer Camps, targets numerous Iran-backed armed terrorist groups, including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), that have been operating freely in PA-controlled territories in the past few years.

The main objective of Israel's operation is to thwart Iran's intention, with the help of the armed groups, to turn not only Gaza, but also the West Bank into another terror base to be used as part of the Islamists' Jihad (holy war) to destroy Israel.

The PA should applaud Israel's security forces for pursuing the terrorists, rather than criticizing them. These armed groups, which refer to themselves to as "battalions," pose a direct threat not only to Israel, but the PA as well. The gunmen have created their own state within a state in the areas under PA administration, openly contesting the PA's legitimacy and making a mockery of its security forces.

Most of the gunmen there belong to Hamas and PIJ, which are strongly opposed to the Palestinian Authority and its policies, especially the security coordination between the PA security forces and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The two groups do not recognize Israel's right to exist and seek to replace it, through Jihad, with an Islamist state. One of the reasons the PA is reluctant to crack down on the "battalions" is because PA officials are aware that the terrorists enjoy widespread support among the Palestinian public.

The Israeli military operation in the northern West Bank could have been avoided, had the PA fulfilled its duty of combating terrorism by dismantling the armed groups.

Article XIV, "The Palestinian Police," of the Oslo Accord signed between Israel and the PLO in 1993 states:

"Except for the Palestinian Police and the Israeli military forces, no other armed forces shall be established or operate in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip."

Article XV, "Prevention of Hostile Acts," states:

"Both sides shall take all measures necessary in order to prevent acts of terrorism, crime and hostilities directed against each other, against individuals falling under the other's authority and against their property, and shall take legal measures against offenders."

The PA, however, has constantly violated the terms of the Oslo Accords by, among other things, failing to stop armed groups from operating in its territory and from attacking Israelis. The PA has therefore become part of the problem, not the solution.

Since 2021, several "battalions" made up of hundreds of gunmen, have appeared in the PA-controlled territories in the northern West Bank. They have carried out countless terrorist attacks against Israelis, both within Israel and in the West Bank. Since the beginning of this year, 30 Israelis have been murdered in terrorist attacks. Yet, we are not aware of a single instance in which the Palestinian security forces, tasked with maintaining law and order in the areas under PA control, have arrested or prosecuted even one perpetrator.

Many Israeli and Palestinian lives could have been spared had the PA done its job and taken action against the "battalion" gunmen. The PA, however, is still reluctant, or too terrified, to take on the armed groups. That is why the Israeli security forces were obliged to launch the current counterterrorism operation.

The Israeli operation aims to prevent Iran and its Palestinian proxies from opening a new front against Israel from the West Bank. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz wrote on August 29:

"Iran is working to establish an eastern terror front against Israel through special units of the IRGC [Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps], involved in smuggling weapons, funding, and directing terror organizations.

"In the first stage, they smuggle weapons into the Kingdom of Jordan, mainly through the Syrian border, attempting to destabilize the regime and turn the Israel-Jordan border from a peaceful one into a volatile front.

"From there, the weapons are smuggled into Judea and Samaria, particularly into Palestinian refugee camps, where an Iranian-Hamas terror infrastructure is being established, following the proxy model they've set up in Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, and Iraq. The Palestinian Authority is unable to confront this threat, which also endangers its existence...

"All actions must be carried out with determination and speed, alongside tightening sanctions on the Iranian regime to curb its subversive activities."

The PA has a history of failing -- or refusing -- to take action against armed groups operating in regions under its jurisdiction. The PA did virtually nothing to stop Hamas from building its terror infrastructure when it controlled the Gaza Strip. Hamas's actions included smuggling weapons across the border with Egypt and building dozens of assault tunnels in various locations throughout the Gaza Strip and near the Israeli border.

The Palestinian Authority eventually fell victim to its own passivity. In 2007, Hamas staged a violent and brutal coup against the PA in Gaza, killing dozens of PA loyalists. According to a Human Rights Watch report:

"Hamas military forces captured 28-year-old Mohammed Swairki, a cook for [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas's presidential guard, and executed him by throwing him to his death, with his hands and legs tied, from a 15-story apartment building in Gaza City."

If anyone is upset with Israel for its counterterrorism operation, they need to be more upset with the PA for not standing up to the armed groups and preventing Iran from establishing a terror base in the West Bank. Failing to do so means that Iran's proxies may soon hurl Abbas himself from a high-rise in Ramallah, the de-facto capital of the Palestinians in the West Bank, in addition to launching more terrorist attacks against Israelis.

Follow Khaled Abu Toameh on X (formerly Twitter)

Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20918/iran-hamas-west-bank

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Trump May Not Win in Pennsylvania -- Until After the Election - Joe Fried

by Joe Fried

Pennsylvania does not require ID when voting by mail. That is bad enough. But just before the 2020 election, Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court eliminated the only other way to determine if a ballot comes from a real voter: It ended signature matching.

Donald Trump is likely to win the most votes in Pennsylvania, but unless he leads by at least 3 percent on Election Day, it is likely that Kamala Harris will be declared the winner.

If that happens, the Republicans will have to take extraordinary steps to dispute the stolen election.

To understand the need for an extra 3 percent, we must review the serious problems of the 2020 election, which remain today.

Two big problems

Pennsylvania does not require ID when voting by mail. That is bad enough. But just before the 2020 election, Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court eliminated the only other way to determine if a ballot comes from a real voter: It ended signature matching. That absurd ruling remains in effect for the 2024 election, so there will be no way to determine if mailed ballots are submitted by legitimate voters. Indeed, there will be even less security for the 2024 election because the radical Pennsylvania Supreme Court just ruled that ballots no longer need to be dated.

The problem in Pennsylvania is not just theoretical: It led to an invalid certification of the 2020 election. On Dec. 28, 2020, nearly two months after the 2020 election, 16 members of the Pennsylvania legislature put out an urgent press release warning that 202,377 ballots (nearly 3 percent of the total vote) had not been matched to registered voters.

In response, the state's Secretary of State said, effectively, the “check is in the mail.” These were her words (almost two months after the election):

...some counties have not yet finished entering into the SURE system what are called voter histories. Each history is tied to the record of the individual voter who cast a ballot... [T]hese counties included Philadelphia, Allegheny, Butler and Cambria, which would account for a significant number of voters...

The Secretary’s explanation was good enough for mainstream media “fact checkers,” who immediately declared that the problem raised by 16 Republican legislators was “debunked.” But no one in media bothered to follow up to see if the ballots were finally matched to registered voters. I can tell you, factually, they were not.

A high-quality data analysis firm called “Verity Vote” prepared a meticulous analysis that compared ballots received by each county to the number of registered voters who actually voted in each county. Pennsylvania’s unique registration system, called the SURE system, indicates total registered voters as well as the number of registered voters who actually voted in the prior election. For that reason, it is possible to compare ballots to actual registered voters who voted.

To prepare the analysis, Verity Vote purchased voter registration updates from the Pennsylvania Secretary of State for each week from late October 2020 through the beginning of February 2021. At all times, there was a voter deficit ranging from 121,000 to 202,000. As a veteran auditor with over 40 years of experience, I independently obtained registration data and reviewed the Verity Vote analysis extensively. It was completely accurate.

If you wonder where the phony ballots came from, here is the answer. True the Vote (TTV), the data analysts behind the 2000 Mules movie, estimated that there were 210,000 to 275,000 Pennsylvania ballots harvested just before the 2020 election. Although the mainstream media declared that the TTV estimates were faulty (too imprecise), those “fact checks” were simplistic. As I note in a separate article, a review of six so-called “fact checks” showed that...

No fact checker mentioned the very precise cell phone tracking that is possible when multiple GPS signals are used. According to the U.S. federal government (GPS.gov), when two or more cell phone frequencies are combined, it is possible to obtain results accurate to within centimeters, or even millimeters (instead of several feet). That is information the fact checkers ignored.
Fact checkers also ignored TTV’s claim to have used three different types of signals — not just one. TTV asserted that, by combining 3 signals, it achieved average real life accuracy to within 39 inches (not the 40 foot accuracy reported by fact checkers). By “real life accuracy” I mean the accuracy achievable after consideration of buildings, trees, and other obstructions.

Although no one can say for sure that the 210,000 - 275,000 ballot estimate is accurate, or that TTV was as meticulous as it claimed, it is virtually certain that a huge number of ballots were illegally harvested, and those harvested ballots probably accounted for much of the problem reported by the 16 PA legislators, and confirmed by Verity Vote.

Unfortunately, there is no reason to think that there won’t be fake ballots in Pennsylvania’s 2024 election. After successfully smearing the 2000 Mules movie, Democrat ballot harvesters probably feel more emboldened than ever before. They will cheat again.

The solution

As I stated earlier in the American Thinker, the Trump team must be prepared to accumulate strong evidence to prove that votes are suspect. Once the election is over, the only method that will work is post-election voter canvassing.

Although the exact method will vary by location, here are some of the specific steps that will be required:

The voter database of each large county must be obtained. It should include all registered voters and their addresses, and it must identify the voters who cast a mail-in ballot.
A large sample of addresses must be selected from the population of people shown to have voted by mail. The sample must be representative of the county’s population, and it should be selected by an expert statistician.
Trained volunteers should knock on the doors of selected voters.
When a resident responds at the door, the volunteers should identify themselves as private citizens who are conducting voluntary election integrity research.
Several questions should be asked:
1. Did you vote?
2. What method did you use to vote (in person or absentee)?
3. How many ballots did you receive in the mail for yourself?
4. How many ballots did you receive for person(s) who do not live here?
5. What did you do with any extra ballots received?
When all data are received, the results should be compiled and analyzed.

After the 2020 election, a massive canvassing effort was performed in Maricopa County, Arizona. It determined that 5.7 percent of the alleged voters were unknown at the voting address. Unfortunately, the survey was produced far too late to be useful. In Macomb County, Michigan a survey determined that there was a problem with about 18 percent or more of the alleged voters. That canvass effort was shut down prematurely by Dana Nessel, Michigan’s radical Attorney General.

There are other factors to consider:

Even though canvassing activity is legal in most areas, Democrats will furiously try to block any canvassing, so lawyers must be familiar with election and solicitation laws for each community.
The surveys must be completed within days after the election, before memories fade and people get confused.
For each major county within a swing state, a bi-partisan group of leaders should be selected. If possible, these leaders should be retired judges, lawyers, doctors, engineers, and accountants, and they should have unblemished credentials. They will select and supervise the volunteers.
A professional statistician must be used, and she must select a sample large enough to achieve high confidence with a small margin of error. For most counties the required sample might range from 500 to 1,000.
Accurate records of all responses must be kept. If discrepancies are found, sworn affidavits should be obtained, if possible.

When done properly, the findings will be solid evidence that can be used in an election lawsuit. It won’t prove that a particular candidate won, but it can show that a new election must be held.

There is one more option, and it is much better: Trump can avoid all of this by increasing his lead to over 3 percent by Election Day.

Image: Pixabay / Pixabay License

Joe Fried is an Ohio-based CPA who has performed and reviewed hundreds of certified financial audits. He is the author of the book, Debunked? An auditor reviews the 2020 election, and How Elections Are Stolen, which outlines 23 problems that must be fixed before the 2024 election. More information can be found at https://joefriedcpa.substack.com/, Joe’s permanently free Substack account.

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/09/trump_may_not_win_in_pennsylvania_em_until_after_the_election_em.html

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Iran's Mullahs Love Hiding Behind Their Proxies — It Is Time to Stop Letting Them - Majid Rafizadeh

by Majid Rafizadeh

Iran and its proxies have attacked US troops in the region more than 150 times just since October. The US response has not exactly been a deterrent. In the meantime, the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism continues cheerfully to put the finishing touches on its nuclear weapons program.

Iran's regime and its proxies constantly launch attacks – at Sunni Gulf States, at Israel and at US troops -- with the seeming goal of eradicating the Jewish state and driving "The Big Satan" out of the region. That way, the mullahs appear to believe, Imperial Iran would be able to enjoy the run of the corral without interference from countries they allege are imperialist, and revel in an unfettered "open season."
Iran and its proxies have attacked US troops in the region more than 150 times just since October. The US response has not exactly been a deterrent. In the meantime, the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism continues cheerfully to put the finishing touches on its nuclear weapons program.
The regime hides behind its proxies because it would rather its proxies receive retaliatory strikes instead of Tehran, Isfahan, Qom or Natanz, and it seems above all to fear losing its grip on power. The mullahs doubtless are aware that they lack broad support among the Iranian people, so it is easier to extend their influence and Islamist ideology through their proxies. Why should a country that does not treat its own people well treat others any better?
The time to put a stop to Iran's runaway aggression is long overdue – before it launches nuclear weapons.

Iran's regime and its proxies constantly launch attacks – at Sunni Gulf States, at Israel and at US troops -- with the seeming goal of eradicating the Jewish state and driving "The Big Satan" out of the region. That way, the mullahs appear to believe, Imperial Iran would be able to enjoy the run of the corral without interference from countries they allege are imperialist, and revel in an unfettered "open season." Pictured: Soldiers of Iran's Houthi proxy in Sanaa, Yemen on January 19, 2024 (Photo by Mohammed Huwais/AFP via Getty Images

For nearly four decades, since the rise of Iran's Islamist regime in 1979, the West has funneled substantial political and economic resources into combating Iran's proxies. To what effect? Not enough, it would seem, to write home about.

After all these years, the West might consider, instead, facing a crucial realization: it might consider attacking the source, not merely its symptoms. It is high time for the West to wake up.

After nearly 40 years, it is only natural to ask whether these efforts have succeeded in even curbing Iran's proxies, terrorist groups, and militias. Unfortunately, not even a fraction of success can be claimed. On the contrary, these groups have grown stronger, more entrenched, and more lethal over the years. Their numbers and influence have multiplied, and their power has only solidified, until they are now formidable forces in the region – because no one has stopped them.

Iran's regime and its proxies constantly launch attacks – at Sunni Gulf States, at Israel and at US troops -- with the seeming goal of eradicating the Jewish state and driving "The Big Satan" out of the region. That way, the mullahs appear to believe, Imperial Iran would be able to enjoy the run of the corral without interference from countries they allege are imperialist, and revel in an unfettered "open season."

Iran and its proxies have attacked US troops in the region more than 150 times just since October. The US response has not exactly been a deterrent. In the meantime, the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism continues cheerfully to put the finishing touches on its nuclear weapons program.

In Lebanon, for instance, Iran has meticulously cultivated the terrorist group Hezbollah, turning it into a dominant force that wields significant control over the Lebanese government. Driven by the mullahs' mission of "Death to Israel" and "Death to America," Hezbollah has become a relentless adversary of both Israel and the US.

In Iraq, the situation is similarly troubling. Iran's Shiite militia groups, operating under the umbrella of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), now encompass more than 60 militias. These groups are not just rogue elements; they are integrated into the Iraqi government, consistently attacking U.S. bases under the Biden-Harris administration, and furthering Iran's anti-American ideology. The mullahs' influence is now deeply embedded within the very fabric of Iraq's governance.

Meanwhile, Iran's support for Hamas is well-documented. Through funding and weaponry, Iran has built up Hamas, presumably with the explicit aim of annihilating Israel. This support is also part of a broader strategy to destabilize the region and force out the West.

In Syria, Iran's involvement has been both extensive and strategic, with its militia groups playing a crucial role in sustaining the Assad regime. Iran has deployed and supported a network of Shiite militias, including Hezbollah fighters and various groups recruited from Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, all under the guidance of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force.

In Yemen, the Houthi rebels have been serving as yet another Iranian proxy. These militants have attacked the oil-rich nations of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and wreaked havoc in the Red Sea, attacking ships and launching Iranian missiles and drones into Israel. Their actions have further destabilized an already volatile region, extending Iran's reach into yet another theater of conflict.

At the core of all these operations is the Iran's IRGC and its elite Quds Force. These entities are the godfathers of Iran's proxy strategy, providing funding, training, and support to militia groups throughout the Middle East. Their ultimate goal is to assert the mullahs' power and influence across the region, using these proxies as cats' paws in their grand strategy.

Since the regime's establishment in 1979, the number of Iran's proxies has vastly increased. Yet, despite this alarming trend, the West, for decades, continues to pursue a strategy that has clearly failed. It seems that for many sanctimonious Europeans who are forever preaching to everyone else about human rights, the profits of doing business and selling cars take priority.

When an Iranian proxy, such as Hamas, launches an attack, the response should be to strike the IRGC directly. When Iran's proxies threaten other nations, the West should target Iran's key assets, such as its ports or oil refineries. Such actions might actually get the regime's attention.

The regime hides behind its proxies because it would rather its proxies receive retaliatory strikes instead of Tehran, Isfahan, Qom or Natanz, and it seems above all to fear losing its grip on power. The mullahs doubtless are aware that they lack broad support among the Iranian people, so it is easier to extend their influence and Islamist ideology through their proxies. Why should a country that does not treat its own people well treat others any better?

The time to put a stop to Iran's runaway aggression is long overdue – before it launches nuclear weapons.

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Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US Foreign Policy. He can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20919/iran-proxies

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The Constitution Stands in Their Way, So … - Laura Hollis

by Laura Hollis

Our Constitution is not dangerous. But the people who are threatened by it—all of them: politicians, academics, journalists, activists—are.

Ah, the left. Ever ready to burn the foundations of America to the ground in pursuit of … progress.

The latest example is a New York Times article by Jennifer Szalai titled, “The Constitution Is Sacred. Is It Also Dangerous?” You can guess what her conclusion will be, but the subhead nevertheless provides an additional clue: “One of the biggest threats to America’s politics might be the country’s founding document.”

Unsurprisingly, Szalai starts out by casting everything in terms of current Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. He is not only a threat to the Constitution, according to Szalai, but—more alarmingly—the Constitution is to blame for his political existence. “Trump owes his political ascent to the Constitution,” she argues, “making him a beneficiary of a document that is essentially antidemocratic and, in this day and age, increasingly dysfunctional.”

As proof, Szalai complains that Trump lost the “popular vote” and that two of his three Supreme Court nominees were confirmed by a majority of the U.S. Senate that only represented 44% of the population. She points accusingly at the provisions of the Constitution containing the Electoral College (Article I), the composition of the U.S. Senate (Article II) and the method of selecting federal judges (Article III).

Szalai ignores that the United States is not, in fact, a democracy but a constitutional republic. She repeats the trope that the creation of the Electoral College was all about slavery—it was not—and she disregards that the Constitution was a treaty of sorts between 13 independent states that agreed to cede some but by no means all of their sovereignty to a federal government of deliberately limited powers. It was intended by the founders that the larger populations of states like New York (which was not a slave state) and Virginia (which was) would not be able to simply outvote the citizens of smaller, less populated states like Rhode Island and New Hampshire. Just so, today, California and Illinois are not supposed to outvote Wyoming and Iowa. Our bicameral Congress was established with the composition of the House of Representatives based upon population, but states having equal representation in the Senate for the same reason—giving less-populated states a meaningful voice in federal governance.

Szalai sees the lack of raw majoritarianism as a flaw, and she quotes legal scholar Erwin Chemerinsky for support. Chemerinsky writes, “It is important for Americans to see that these failures stem from the Constitution itself.” Szalai points out that Chemerinsky is not alone. “The argument that what ails the country’s politics isn’t simply the president, or Congress, or the Supreme Court, but the founding document that presides over all three, has been gaining traction,” she writes, “especially among liberals.”

But what Szalai praises as “mass democratic politics,” others would call mob rule.

This is how it starts: “Fringe” pieces are written and viewed as outliers. Then come the academics, whose role it is to give outrageous ideas “scholarly” credibility (even though a shocking amount of what gets published in the humanities and social sciences is unmitigated garbage, as scholars Peter Boghossian, Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay revealed to academia’s great embarrassment in 2018).

Then comes the normalization, via books and speaking engagements, repetition by paid mouthpieces in the press (remember the “extremely dangerous to our democracy” videos?), and bots on social media, followed by corporate compulsion through human resources policies.

Who thinks the Constitution is “dangerous”? Those whose power it limits. The First Amendment—guaranteeing freedom of speech, of the press, of religion, of peaceable assembly, and the right to petition the government—is a threat to them. One need only observe the attacks on free speech in France, Great Britain, and Brazil to see what would—and will—happen in the U.S. if our Constitution is gutted.

The Fourth Amendment is a threat to those who would seize whatever property you own. The Fifth and 14th Amendments are threats to those who would toss political opponents in prison without due process. And the Second Amendment is the penultimate threat—an armed citizenry that can fight back against government oppression.

Politicians and activists who agree with Szalai resent the Constitution and argue that its limits on their power are unjust because their aims are so benevolent. They only want to discriminate against you to remedy past discrimination. They only want to put pornography in schools. They only want to create gender and sexual confusion in your children without your knowledge or over your objection and to take your children away if you push back. They only want to force doctors to perform abortions and euthanasia against their will. They only want to ban the extraction of natural gas, oil, and coal, the use of air conditioners, stoves, refrigerators, automobiles, air travel, and nitrogen-based fertilizers. They only want to force you to take experimental injections. They only want to spray you with chemicals from the air. They only want to eliminate meat and dairy and force you to eat lab-grown “protein” and insects. They only want to release genetically modified mosquitoes into the ecosystem. They only want to tax you beyond your ability to support yourself and your family. They only want to regulate entire industries out of existence and collapse the entire economy.

But it’s all for your own good. For racial reparations. For sexual freedom. For reproductive justice. For public health. For dignity in dying. For civil rights. For the children. For the animals. For developing nations. For global citizens. For the climate. For the planet. For the dictatorship of the proletariat and the elimination of the bourgeoisie. For the emperor!

Here’s the thing: The Constitution does not just protect against human malevolence, of which there is plenty. It also protects against human stupidity, of which there is much more.

Relatively few oppressive regimes have existed for the sole purpose of gratifying a dictator’s arbitrary desire to inflict mass suffering. But hundreds of millions of people have suffered, starved, and died because of the monstrous stupidity of people who simply had too much control.

Our Constitution is not dangerous. But the people who are threatened by it—all of them: politicians, academics, journalists, activists—are.

***

To find out more about Laura Hollis and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Laura Hollis

Source: https://amgreatness.com/2024/09/07/the-constitution-stands-in-their-way-so/

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‘Weak’ administration sends ‘mixed messages’ that confuse Mideast leaders, senator says - Mike Wagenheim

by Mike Wagenheim

Joni Ernst told JNS that she learned from the Saudi crown prince on an international trip that the kingdom believes that it’s just a matter of time before it normalizes with Israel.

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa, on Aug. 15, 2023. Photo by Gage Skidmore/Creative Commons.

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) met with leaders last month in Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan and Egypt—a trip that made her hopeful that a deal would lead to good news in the war between Israel and Hamas.

In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Ernst and her delegation that “he felt that the IDF was choking out Hamas,” the senator told JNS this week on the sidelines of the Republican Jewish Coalition Summit in Las Vegas. “He felt that they were affecting their resupply of munitions and arms into the Gaza Strip.”

But after the congressional delegation left, Ernst learned that Israel had recovered and identified the bodies of six hostages whom Hamas executed. “Right now, it sounds like a ceasefire may be further away than it was a week ago,” she told JNS.

The Iowa Republican, who is a member of the congressional Abraham Accords Caucus, told JNS that Washington must do a better job of mediating between the countries she visited on the trip.

“We need strong leadership to bring these parties to the table and really talk about what is going on and how to find that path forward,” she said.

Ernst said a “very weak Biden-Harris administration” is “sending mixed messages to the Middle East, and it’s confusing all of those leaders.”

“They’re not sure where their alliances are. Is it with Israel? Is it with Iran?” she told JNS. “So we really don’t know, and they don’t know. If they don’t know, they will not be able to find a path forward.”

The White House is “trying to figure out how to straddle this fence,” the senator said. But “there is no straddling this fence” by trying to show support for Israel while appeasing “people who are raising the Hamas flag over college campuses,” she added.

Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince, told Ernst that normalization between Jerusalem and Riyadh, which Hamas thwarted after it invaded and attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, “is going to go forward, but we just don’t know when.”

The prince told the senator that “a lot of that will depend upon what happens in the Gaza Strip,” she said.

‘All about the bartering and exchange’

Ernst didn’t say whether the prince laid out any specific parameters, but she told JNS that “steps towards peace” between Israel and “those in the Gaza Strip” need to happen.

“In order to do that, Israel needs to see the decimation of Hamas. We need to be putting pressure, not only on Hamas but on Iran as well. We can’t continue to appease them,” Ernst said. “Once we see those steps, I think that MBS will come back to the table with the United States and Israel, and I do think that we can secure an agreement.”

Ernst, who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told JNS that the recent decision by the Biden administration to resume selling offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia, which Washington had frozen in 2021, was “all tied together” with efforts to broker Israel-Saudi normalization.

“Anything one country does affects another. It’s all about the bartering and exchange, and what can we get for a deal,” she said. “So Saudi Arabia, yes, it was frozen for a while, but we will start to see again maybe a little thawing of relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia that’s necessary in order to get everybody to the table.”

Mike Wagenheim

Source: https://www.jns.org/very-weak-biden-admin-sending-mixed-messages-that-are-confusing-middle-east-leaders-senator-says/

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U.S. Campuses: The 'Taboo' Ignored Pandemic of Muslim Jew-Hate - Andrew Bostom

by Andrew Bostom

Discussion of the most plausible and discernible explanation for this global surfeit of Muslim Jew-hatred is also shunned: relentless inculcation of antisemitic motifs from the Qur'an itself, and other core Islamic texts, by the pre-eminent authoritative religious teaching institutions in Islam, such as Al-Azhar University, Sunni Islam's putative "Vatican."

ADL further recorded a total of 400 antisemitic incidents on college and university campuses, compared to only 33 incidents during the same period in 2022. Ugly incidents of U.S. campus antisemitism persisted throughout the spring 2024 semester year.
Routine empirical, if taboo, observation clearly indicates that often, the most vociferous and violent U.S. student campus antisemites share a common Islamic/Muslim religio-ethnic identity. A courageous, expansive Brandeis University study was just published addressing the potential validity of this anecdotal observation by analyzing U.S. undergraduate college student religious affiliation as a critical, independent factor animating their Jew-hatred.
Sadly, but with depressing predictability, the study's seminal, if corroborative findings are being ignored by media, and the most voluble talking heads and "public intellectuals," across the ideological spectrum.
The study authors concluded that although "a climate of universal anti-Jewish hatred" did not exist, Jewish student concerns about antisemitism were justified, and "driven by about a third of students who held distinct patterns of beliefs about Jews and Israel." Specifically, "Identifying as Muslim was significantly associated with being either hostile to Israel or hostile to Jews, even after controlling for other factors." Furthermore, compared to Christians, for example, Muslims were 2.6-fold more likely to harbor the most virulent antisemitism, namely, shared hostility to both Israel and Jews.
Since 2004, ADL surveys of Muslims have been conducted in Western (European and U.S.) societies, and Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries, where Islam is the state religion. MENA Muslim nations are by wide margins the 16 most antisemitic countries worldwide, where the prevalence of extreme antisemitism ranges from a "low" of 74% (in Egypt and Saudi Arabia), to 93% (among the Palestinian Muslims of Gaza, and the West Bank).
Largely consistent with these ADL MENA Muslim data, and strikingly concordant with the 2.6-fold excess of extreme Muslim antisemitism, relative to extreme Christian antisemitism, just revealed by the Brandeis study of U.S. college students, 2015, 2019, and 2023 ADL Western European reports, and a 2017 ADL U.S. report, found a 2- to 4-fold excess prevalence of extreme antisemitism, among Muslims versus Christians, or non-Muslims.
Discussion of the most plausible and discernible explanation for this global surfeit of Muslim Jew-hatred is also shunned: relentless inculcation of antisemitic motifs from the Qur'an itself, and other core Islamic texts, by the pre-eminent authoritative religious teaching institutions in Islam, such as Al-Azhar University, Sunni Islam's putative "Vatican."
Identical, canonically sourced Jew-hating Islamic religious indoctrination is ubiquitous, and even embellished, in mainstream U.S. mosques, a baleful practice that has intensified following October 7, 2023.
Unfortunately, monomaniacal focus on DEI racist bias has become just the latest device to avoid any serious discussion of Islam, and the global pandemic of excess Muslim Jew-hatred. Hope springs eternal publication of the landmark Brandeis study confirming this disproportionate pandemic has reached U.S. campuses, will finally initiate honest reckoning with such uniquely Muslim bigotry.

Routine empirical, if taboo, observation clearly indicates that often, the most vociferous and violent U.S. student campus antisemites share a common Islamic/Muslim religio-ethnic identity. Pictured: Students participate in a demonstration in support of Hamas outside Columbia University campus on November 15, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

The carnage of October 7, 2023 in southern Israel was wrought by an unprovoked attack by the Jew-hating, jihad terror organization Hamas, in conjunction with local Gazan Muslims. Some 1,200 Israelis were murdered, the victims being overwhelmingly non-combatant children, women, men, and the elderly. Atrocities committed against these primarily non-combatant Israelis included, mutilation, torture, beheadings, and mass rape, followed by burning, helpfully documented by the jihadists' own videos and oral testimony (of captured jihadists), surveillance camera videos, surviving eyewitness testimony of the victims, and forensic pathology evidence.

Perversely, during the two-months immediately after the October 7 massacres, and accompanying atrocities, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) authenticated an "unprecedented" increase in Jew-hating incidents within the United States, marking the "highest number of incidents during any two-month period since ADL began tracking in 1979." ADL recorded a total of 2,031 antisemitic incidents between October 7, 2023 and December 7, 2023, "up from 465 incidents during the same period in 2022, representing a 337% increase year-over-year." Approximately 250 antisemitic incidents "specifically targeted Jewish institutions such as synagogues and campus Hillels."

ADL further recorded a total of 400 antisemitic incidents on college and university campuses, compared to only 33 incidents during the same period in 2022. Ugly incidents of U.S. campus antisemitism persisted (here; here) throughout the spring 2024 semester year. Columbia University—a hub of campus Jew-hatred—was even forced to cancel its main commencement ceremonies, outright.

As Jewish students return to their unchanged (see here; here; here) campus environments for the fall 2024 semester, formal polling data make plain that alarming numbers concealed their identity as Jews (44%), and avoided certain events, locations, or circumstances (78%), because they experienced physical threats, or knew of someone who had (55%). Moreover, anecdotal reporting suggests returning Jewish students worry that Jew-hating, pro-Hamas demonstrations may worsen during the fall semester. Given routine dismissal of charges, or minimal, wrist-slapping "actions" against the most viciously Jew-hating student and faculty offenders, by Columbia and other institutions, this latter fear is understandable.

Routine empirical, if taboo, observation clearly indicates that often, the most vociferous and violent U.S. student campus antisemites share a common Islamic/Muslim religio-ethnic identity. A courageous, expansive Brandeis University study was just published addressing the potential validity of this anecdotal observation by analyzing U.S. undergraduate college student religious affiliation as a critical, independent factor animating their Jew-hatred.

Sadly, but with depressing predictability, the study's seminal, if corroborative findings are being ignored by media, and the most voluble talking heads and "public intellectuals," across the ideological spectrum.

During the spring 2024 semester, survey data were collected from 4,123 undergraduate students (including 313 Jewish students) at 60 U.S. colleges and universities (public and private; geographically varied) with sizable Jewish student populations. The non-Jewish respondents (3810) were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with nine unquestionably negative statements about Jews and Israel, and the pattern of their responses was then evaluated. Here are the nine statements, which overlap considerably with those previously validated and included in major ADL (and other academic) assessment surveys of antisemitism in the past two decades:

"Jews in America have too much power."
"Jews don't care what happens to anyone but their own kind."
"Jewish people talk about the Holocaust just to further their political agenda."
"Jews should be held accountable for Israel's actions."
"Israel does not have the right to exist."
"All Israeli civilians should be considered legitimate targets for Hamas."
"To what extent is your overall opinion of Hamas favorable or unfavorable?"
"Supporters of Israel control the media."
"I wouldn't want to be friends with someone who supports the existence of Israel as a Jewish state."

The study authors concluded that although "a climate of universal anti-Jewish hatred" did not exist, Jewish student concerns about antisemitism were justified, and "driven by about a third of students who held distinct patterns of beliefs about Jews and Israel." Specifically, "Identifying as Muslim was significantly associated with being either hostile to Israel or hostile to Jews, even after controlling for other factors." Furthermore, compared to Christians, for example, Muslims were 2.6-fold more likely to harbor the most virulent antisemitism, namely, shared hostility to both Israel and Jews.

How do these results comport — if at all — with other contemporary assessments of Muslim antisemitism?

The ADL has developed, validated, and applied a simple, elegant survey instrument to determine the prevalence of "extreme antisemitism" — defined as agreement with at least 6/11 antisemitic stereotypes—across, and within populations around the world. Since 2004, ADL surveys of Muslims have been conducted in Western (European and U.S.) societies, and Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries, where Islam is the state religion. MENA Muslim nations are by wide margins the 16 most antisemitic countries worldwide, where the prevalence of extreme antisemitism ranges from a "low" of 74% (in Egypt and Saudi Arabia), to 93% (among the Palestinian Muslims of Gaza, and the West Bank).

Largely consistent with these ADL MENA Muslim data, and strikingly concordant with the 2.6-fold excess of extreme Muslim antisemitism, relative to extreme Christian antisemitism, just revealed by the Brandeis study of U.S. college students, 2015, 2019, and 2023 (here; here) ADL Western European reports, and a 2017 ADL U.S. report, found a 2- to 4-fold excess prevalence of extreme antisemitism, among Muslims versus Christians, or non-Muslims. The only ADL survey statistically adjusted for "confounders" (biases) associated with Antisemitism, was a 2004 Western European report. An academic analysis of these data (reported by Yale investigators, in 2006) described an adjusted nearly 8-fold excess prevalence (Table 3) of extreme antisemitism among Muslims, compared to Christians!

More ominously, non-ADL surveys published after Hamas's October 7 jihad massacres capture distressingly broad pro-Hamas, Jew-annihilationist sentiments among both MENA, and U.S. Muslims. A large (n=8000), population-based survey from 16 MENA countries, representing 95% of the total 320 million MENA Muslims, conducted by Muslim academics, and reported in January, 2024, revealed that 89% supported Hamas' October 7 carnage, and 89% simultaneously rejected Israel's right to exist as an autonomous state. Earlier, in late October 2023, a U.S. poll which oversampled American Muslims, found 58% believed Hamas' October 7 massacres were "justified."

Discussion of the most plausible and discernible explanation for this global surfeit of Muslim Jew-hatred is also shunned: relentless inculcation of antisemitic motifs from the Qur'an itself, and other core Islamic texts, by the pre-eminent authoritative religious teaching institutions in Islam, such as Al-Azhar University, Sunni Islam's putative "Vatican."

Only hours after the October 7, 2023 attacks, Al-Azhar University's current Papal equivalent Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayyeb, and other Al-Azhar luminaries, celebrated (here; here; here; here) Hamas' jihad carnage, on the University's social media platforms. Less than 2-weeks later, Al-Azhar issued a fatwa declaring that all Israelis were legitimate targets of jihad terror: "the term 'civilians' does not apply to the Zionist settlers of the occupied land," mirroring the Islamic jurisprudence of Al Azhar fatwas, or the resolutions of Al-Azhar Conference Proceedings, regarding Jews and Israel, put forth regularly, since the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine.

In 2007, Al-Tayyeb, then Al-Azhar University President, sanctioned suicide bombing murder of Israeli Jews, non-combatants included, and twice since becoming Grand Imam (here; here), he has condemned Jews, eternally, during national Egyptian television broadcasts, while invoking Qur'an 5:82 — "You will surely find the most intense of the people in animosity toward the believers [to be] the Jews" — a central Antisemitic Qur'anic verse—for causing "Muslim distress... since the inception of Islam 1400 years ago."

Late Grand Imam of Al-Azhar University Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi (d. 2010), Al-Tayyeb's immediate predecessor, was one of the most revered modern authorities on Qur'anic exegesis. Tantawi provided a summary gloss on the "degenerate" Qur'anic characteristics of the Jews (3:112; 4:46; 4:161; 3:120, 5:79; 2:109; 3:113), in his Ph.D. thesis, "The Children of Israel (Jews) in the Qur'an and Traditions," emphasizing their timeless relevance, and denouncing Jews who rejected Islam as "maleficent deniers," further granting Muslims license to commit violence against them, to extirpate Jewish "evil."

Identical, canonically sourced Jew-hating Islamic religious indoctrination is ubiquitous, and even embellished, in mainstream U.S. mosques (such as here, here, and here), a baleful practice that has intensified following October 7, 2023.

Until now, analyses of post-October 7 antisemitism on U.S. campuses by both conservative (here; here), and non-progressive, liberal (here; here; here) "thought leaders," or politicians, have riveted, exclusively, upon the deleterious impact of the Marxist "Diversity-Equity-Inclusion" (DEI) pedagogy which lards university curricula, and administrative procedures. Worse still, this DEI monomania fails to consider—out of ignorance, or fear—the dogmatic Islamophilia, and accompanying whitewash of Islam's "sacralized" Jew-hatred, DEI has begotten in the academy for at least a half century. Already in 1974, the late renowned Islamologist, Maxime Rodinson (d. 2004), noted ruefully, with regard to higher education on Islam,

"The anti-colonial left...often goes so far as to sanctify Islam and the contemporary ideologies of the Muslim world... Understanding has given away to apologetics pure and simple."

Unfortunately, monomaniacal focus on DEI racist bias has become just the latest device to avoid any serious discussion of Islam, and the global pandemic of excess Muslim Jew-hatred. Hope springs eternal publication of the landmark Brandeis study confirming this disproportionate pandemic has reached U.S. campuses, will finally initiate honest reckoning with such uniquely Muslim bigotry.

Andrew G. Bostom, MD, MS, is the author of The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims, The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism: From Sacred Texts to Solemn History, Sharia versus Freedom: The Legacy of Islamic Totalitarianism and other books and essays on Islam. His research focus has been on the impact of Islamic conquest, colonization, and governance on non-Muslims.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20920/campus-muslim-jew-hate

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