Hamas Embraces the Path of the Islamic State (ISIS) - Lt. Col. (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi

by Lt. Col. (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi

Institute for Contemporary Affairs

Founded jointly with the Wechsler Family Foundation

Vol. 14, No. 38       November 27, 2014

• The more the Islamic State carries out its secret subversion in the Palestinian street, the more Hamas tends to adopt the Caliphate’s terror methods.
• In October 2014 Palestinian security forces arrested dozens of Islamic State supporters, some of whom had tried to set up secret cells and carry out terror attacks. The Islamic State-inspired vehicular and stabbing attacks won widespread Palestinian support.
• Hamas does not openly back the Islamic Caliphate. Neither Hamas nor Islamic Jihad, which are both dependent on Iran as a strategic ally, are free to express direct or indirect support for the Islamic State, the cardinal enemy of the regime in Tehran.
• Hamas feels confident that Israel will refrain from attacking Hamas targets in Gaza due to the ceasefire.

The State of the Islamic Caliphate (known as the Islamic State, IS, ISIS, ISIL, or Daesh), which was declared by self-appointed caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has fundamentally altered the reality of the Middle East and threatens to reshuffle the geopolitical cards, change the map of existing state borders, and undermine all the Muslim states as separate national entities.

The self-proclaimed "Caliph" - Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

The goal to re-establish the caliphate led to the emergence of the global Muslim Brotherhood movement in Egypt at the end of the 1920s; of Hizb ut-Tahrir in the 1950s, whose ideological platform enshrines the vision of the caliphate and the aim of fulfilling it; and of other Islamic organizations. All of these without exception, including Hamas (the branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in “Palestine”) and the Islamic Movement in Israel, view the creation of the caliphate as a religious duty. In line with the prophecy of Muhammad the restoration of the caliphate is supposed to be the means to unify Muslims under the rule of Islamic law (shari’a), before proceeding to conquer Europe and impose the Muslim religion worldwide.

The Islamic State poses a weighty challenge to other regional actors. Not only is the vision of Islam being realized in Iraq and Syria, to which Islamic tradition assigns a special importance on the way to restoring Islam to its former glory, but the Islamic State continues to entrench its rule, fearlessly defying the United States and the West while attracting thousands of Muslims from all over the world and inspiring many millions more.

Jihadi Organizations Don’t All Support the Islamic State

The leading Islamic organizations – the International Union of Muslim Scholars headed by Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Hizb ut-Tahrir – have rejected Caliph Baghdadi’s call to all Muslims to swear him their allegiance. In their view, the establishment of the caliphate did not meet the conditions Islam stipulated and hence is not valid. At the same time, these groups resolutely deny the legitimacy of the war being waged by the United States and the international and Arab coalition against the Islamic State.

Thus, for example, Sheikh Qaradawi wrote on his Twitter account: “I disagree with the Islamic State’s ideological conception and approach; but I will never agree to the United States being the one to fight it.” This is because the Americans “are not motivated by the values of Islam, but rather by their own interests even if blood must be spilled.”1

The Islamic Action Front, which is the Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm in Jordan, came out against the Hashemite Kingdom’s participation in the military coalition against the Islamic State. A statement the group issued on September 11, 2014 declared that the campaign against the Islamic State “is not our war.”2 Hizb ut-Tahrir took a similar stance when it unequivocally asserted that “participation in Obama’s imperialist coalition [against the Islamic State] is a grave crime.”3

Implicit in the ambivalence of these organizations’ posture is the baffling challenge that the caliphate poses for them. On the one hand, they do not want to swear allegiance to the caliph, since that requires total subjugation to the rule of the caliphate with all this entails; on the other hand, they want to defend the caliphate against the international and Arab coalition even though they know that the continued strengthening of the caliphate could lead to the downfall of the existing regimes and the annexation of additional states under Baghdadi’s rule.

Another very important consideration for these organizations is that the Islamic Caliphate exerts great influence beyond the borders of Syria and Iraq. In his speech proclaiming the caliphate, Baghdadi did not request the Islamic organizations’ backing. As caliph he sees himself as representing all Muslims in the world, and he calls on them directly to swear allegiance to him and embark on jihad. Baghdadi thereby exerts influence over the other Islamic organizations; he seeks recruits for the army of the caliphate and hopes to create branches within the Muslim states that will work to overthrow existing governments.

The Islamic State and the Palestinians

The Islamic State also exercises considerable influence in the Palestinian Authority of the West Bank and in Gaza, which is effectively under Hamas rule. When, on September 21, 2014, the caliphate’s spokesman Sheikh Abu Muhammad al-Adnani called on Muslims worldwide to engage in jihad against the infidels and kill them indiscriminately in any manner, including ramming them with cars and stabbing them with knives, the words resonated in the Palestinian camp. Over the past two months there have been many stabbing and vehicular attacks in sovereign Israel and in the West Bank; the most severe was the massacre in a Jerusalem synagogue on November 18, 2014, in which four rabbis and a policeman were murdered with pistols, meat cleavers, and knives.

That the caliphate’s power of attraction has not gone unnoticed by senior Hamas figures is apparent in articles in Hamas’s daily mouthpiece Felesteen (felesteen.ps), published in Gaza. Dr. Yusuf Rizaka, who was minister for holy places in the Hamas government headed by Ismail Haniyeh and from 2007 to 2014 served as an adviser to Haniyeh, praises the “private jihad” that has swept the younger generation in Jerusalem, and explains that certain religious commandments apply to every Muslim and that parental approval is not required to perform them.

Rizaka added:

The private jihad is a declaration of the death of the Arab regime and the Arab liberator [of the occupied lands] and of the rise of the Palestinian sphinx from the sands of the current reality in order to fight the war of the heroes against the enemy, the suicide warriors, and thereby to bring back to life the days of Yehiya Ayash [the Al-Aqsa Brigades commander who was behind a spate of suicide bombings], Hassan Salameh [an Al-Aqsa Brigades operative from Gaza who sent several suicide bombers on missions to the West Bank], Amar Abu Sirhan [a Palestinian terrorist who stabbed three Israelis to death in 1990], and [the onslaught of] the knives in Jaffa.4

Dr. Abd al-Hamid al-Farani, a researcher at the Department of Religious and Wakf Affairs,5 admits in a Felesteen article on October 20, 2014 that “the main issue occupying the world today, including the Arabs and the Muslims, is the matter of the Islamic State and the ostensible danger that it poses.” According to him, “Its [the Islamic State’s] ostensible danger is not at all equal to the Zionist danger that has been looming over the heart of Palestine for over six decades.”6

According to al-Farani, the Islamic State does not necessarily constitute a threat and the most important task is to liberate Palestine through armed struggle:

Your words about the Islamic State do not interest me, since what interests me is greater than any organization, party, or ideological platform, and that is Al-Aqsa [Mosque], O the nation of Muhammad beckons to you and calls on you to put it at the top of your order of priorities, not in words and not in idle chatter, but in armies and planes.

In a Felesteen article on October 19, 2014 Dr. Adnan Abu Amar of the Islamic University in Gaza7 notes that Salafi jihadist elements have been leaving the Hamas fold over ideological disputes and immediately joining radical Islamist organizations, including the Islamic State.8

Imad Afana, a Palestinian academic in the Islamic field and native of Damascus,9 wrote in Felesteen on October 1, 2014, that “the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant and the establishment of the caliphate is a dream that fires the imagination of every Muslim in the world.”10 He added:

Today there is great readiness among Muslim young people to join other Islamic organizations such as Al-Nusra and the Islamic State, based on the prophecy and the many hadiths of the Prophet on the virtues of control of the Levant, the jihad warriors of the Levant and the martyrs of the Levant, and also the saying that the Al-Quds [Jerusalem] liberation army went forth from the Levant toward Jordan….

In light of the political-security reality in Gaza, which necessitated a temporary ceasefire with Israel after the war, and also in the West Bank, on the Jordanian border, and in Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt, what is required is “the ongoing adjustment of the compass of the umma [Islamic nation] and its jihadist activity in the direction of Al-Quds and the liberation of Palestine.” Here, Afana finds an effective answer to Islamic State’s focus on Iraq and Syria, which in his view detracts from the struggle over Palestine.

There are, however, unmistakable signs of the trend in favor of the Islamic State. In October 2014, Palestinian security forces arrested dozens of Islamic State supporters, some of whom had tried to set up secret cells and carry out terror attacks.11 The Islamic State-inspired vehicular and stabbing attacks won widespread Palestinian support. Immediately after the news emerged of the massacre at the Jerusalem synagogue, joyful celebrations were held throughout Gaza and in the West Bank as well; among other things these included the traditional practice of handing out sweets to passersby.12

In Felesteen on November 20, Palestinian journalist Khaled Maali explained the implications of the synagogue massacre in the spirit of the Islamic State:

The Al-Quds operation became known immediately to the settlers, and the state of trauma, terror, and fear was reflected in their faces, since the operation conveyed to them the following message: “You will be slaughtered like sheep if you stay in a land that is not yours and desecrate the Al-Aqsa Mosque…. All the Palestinians and the liberals in the world know that every settler [meaning, in this context, every Jew who lives in the Land of Israel] is a murderer and a thief [of land], and is not innocent.”13

The day after the massacre, Felesteen published a cartoon showing the headless corpse of a young Jew under the caption: “Here is Al-Quds [Jerusalem].”14 Cartoons in a similar vein, lauding the stabbing and car-ramming attacks, appeared on social networks of the different Palestinian organizations. This was a continuation of the “Daes” campaign – a play on the Arabic word daes (trample) and the Arabic acronym for Islamic State, Daesh. This “Run over the Jew” theme has also been expressed in songs and videos that extol the Palestinian murderers.

For example, a new and well-crafted video, “Revolution of Knives” by Ismail Nasser Farahat of Gaza, who apparently lives in Turkey and works for Life Lens for Media Productions, calls on Palestinians to murder Israeli soldiers daily.15 The video encourages Palestinians to overcome all hindrances and prepare the weapons needed for bloody attacks. At the start of the clip a masked Palestinian appears who is diligently preparing a knife. He whets it well with a whetting machine and, finishing his task in the workshop, flaunts it proudly. A message in Arabic appears: “Rise and avenge, prepare the weapon for revenge, slaughter the Jewish soldier-apes, and slaughter them every day anew, since you are death, you are destruction and you are the martyr.”



Screenshot from https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HMm62qtA13c

After that the masked Palestinian is shown attacking an Israeli soldier from behind and stabbing him to death. The soldier’s corpse is left lying on the ground in a large pool of blood.




The masked Palestinian brandishes the murder weapon and speaks to the camera, but his voice is not heard. Instead the message he wants to express is conveyed in Arabic and in Hebrew (with errors in spelling and syntax): “Leave our land we are heaven’s promise to you and we will destroy you, leave our land, we are the history here, and we are the emissaries of hell to you sons of Zion.”

Hamas does not openly back the Islamic Caliphate, and its top officials only rarely refer to it officially. In a press conference in Tunisia on September 13, 2014, Hamas leader Khaled Mashal was asked about the Israeli claim that Hamas is similar to the Islamic State. He replied:

The Islamic struggle movement Hamas presented an example to the region with its call from the beginning for moderation and the middle path in the interpretation of Islam, for dialogue, for a rational approach and for meeting an idea with an idea and an opinion with an opinion…. Hamas gave the region an example of political moderation, of openness to the regional and international spheres along with adherence to the national principles of the Palestinian people.16

Here Mashal exercised great caution not to directly criticize the Islamic State. He did not mention it at all but instead explained the approach of Hamas, indicating that its strategy leads to achievements without sacrificing its ideological platform.

Hamas Navigates Between the Islamic State and Its Patron, Iran

Neither Hamas nor Islamic Jihad, both of which are dependent on Iran as a strategic ally, is free to express direct or indirect support for the Islamic State, the cardinal enemy of the regime in Tehran. The references to the Islamic State that issue from Iran, including from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei himself,17 are unequivocal and set clear red lines for the Palestinian organizations. The assistant to the foreign minister for Arab and African affairs, Hossein Amir Abdel-Lahian, said in this context that if the Islamic State was really a defender of the Sunnis, it would back Hamas and the other Palestinian struggle organizations; in other words, the Islamic State is an enemy of the Sunni world and not only of the Shiite world.18 On October 16, 2014, the leader of Islamic Jihad, Ramadan Salah, arrived for a visit to Tehran that, according to the official announcement, was intended to discuss among other things the danger the Islamic State constitutes, including the diversion of the struggle from Palestine to other arenas.19

Hamas is committed at present to the temporary ceasefire in Gaza. But this period of reduced terror from Gaza, even as preparations for the next round proceed, has left a vacuum. The Islamic State has entered this vacuum in a jihadist surge as it achieves victories on the battlefield, fights the West without trepidation, enforces Islamic law, and promises to liberate Palestine after overthrowing the “treasonous” Arab regimes in Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

In the face of this challenge, which threatens to erode Hamas’s popular support and has already led Hamas operatives to leave the organization for the Islamic State, Hamas is trying to open a front with Israel in the West Bank and Jerusalem or at least ride the wave of “private jihad” that has swept away many. This approach is consistent with Hamas’ strategic aim of dismantling the Palestinian Authority’s rule in the West Bank, taking over the Palestinian government, and making the West Bank a base for the next terror assault on Israel – to be waged from a position vastly superior to Gaza.

Thus Hamas has adopted the Islamic State’s terror methods without crediting the source of the inspiration. The more the tacit competition with the Islamic State over the Palestinian street intensifies, the more Hamas is likely to escalate these methods. In doing so, while also making repeated proclamations of a third Intifada, Hamas wants to be seen as persisting in the jihad against Israel, and it feels confident that because of the ceasefire Israel will refrain from attacking Hamas targets in Gaza in response to terror attacks in the West Bank, or to attacks that originate in the West Bank but occur in Israeli territory.

* * *

Notes 

1 http://assafir.com/Article/372011/Archive

2 http://www.allofjo.net/index.php?page=article&id=77222#sthash.Pu29BCnK.dpuf

3 http://www.pal-tahrir.info/hizb-publications/7489-2014-09-11-21-39-40.html

4 https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=539320639533467&id=173493772782824

5 www.quranradiofm.com/print.aspx?id=145&q=1

6 http://felesteen.ps/details/news/125644/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D9%82%D8%B5%D9%89-%D8%A3%D9%85-%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B9%D8%B4.html

7 http://adnanabuamer.com/page.php?id=9#.VHMZHIvF_gc

8 http://felesteen.ps/details/news/125619/%D8%A8%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%B0%D8%A7-%D8%AA%D8%AE%D8%AA%D9%84%D9%81-%D8%AD%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%B3-%D8%B9%D9%86-%D8%AA%D9%86%D8%B8%D9%8A%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF%D9%88%D9%84%D8%A9.html

9  http://www.alnoor.se/author.asp?id=1970

10 http://felesteen.ps/details/news/124625/%D9%85%D8%B3%D8%AA%D9%82%D8%A8%D9%84-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%82%D8%A7%D9%88%D9%85%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%81%D9%84%D8%B3%D8%B7%D9%8A%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%A8%D8%B9%D8%AF-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AD%D8%B1%D8%A8-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%83%D9%88%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%89-%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B9%D8%B4.html

11 http://fpnp.net/site/news/36958

12 http://www.alfajertv.com/news/3386178.html

13 http://felesteen.ps/details/news/127669/%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%B9%D9%83%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%B9%D9%85%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D8%AF%D8%B3.html

14 http://felesteen.ps/nd/releases//2014/112014/19/index.html?d=1416831942

15 https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HMm62qtA13c

16 http://www.assabah.com.tn/article/89097/%D8%AE%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF-%D9%85%D8%B4%D8%B9%D9%84-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D9%84%D9%82%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D8%B5%D8%AD%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%A8%D8%AA%D9%88%D9%86%D8%B3-%D9%87%D8%B0%D8%A7-%D8%B1%D8%AF%D9%86%D8%A7-%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%89-%C2%AB%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B9%D8%B4%C2%BB-%D9%88%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%AA%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%A7%D9%87%D9%88-%D9%88%D8%AD%D9%84%D9%81%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%87%D9%85%D8%A7-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%A3%D9%85%D8%B1%D9%8A%D9%83%D8%A7

17 http://www.tahaaluf.com/%D8%AE%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%86%D8%A6%D9%8A-%D8%BA%D8%B2%D8%A9-%D8%AA%D9%85%D9%83%D9%86%D8%AA-%D9%85%D9%86-%D8%AA%D8%B1%D9%83%D9%8A%D8%B9-%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%8A%D9%84-%D9%88-%D8%A7%D9%84/

18 http://www.faceiraq.com/inews.php?id=2888529

19 http://www.elnnews.com/archives/924

Publication: Jerusalem Issue Briefs

Notes 

1 http://assafir.com/Article/372011/Archive

2 http://www.allofjo.net/index.php?page=article&id=77222#sthash.Pu29BCnK.dpuf

3 http://www.pal-tahrir.info/hizb-publications/7489-2014-09-11-21-39-40.html

4 https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=539320639533467&id=173493772782824

5 www.quranradiofm.com/print.aspx?id=145&q=1

6 http://felesteen.ps/details/news/125644/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D9%82%D8%B5%D9%89-%D8%A3%D9%85-%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B9%D8%B4.html

7 http://adnanabuamer.com/page.php?id=9#.VHMZHIvF_gc

8 http://felesteen.ps/details/news/125619/%D8%A8%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%B0%D8%A7-%D8%AA%D8%AE%D8%AA%D9%84%D9%81-%D8%AD%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%B3-%D8%B9%D9%86-%D8%AA%D9%86%D8%B8%D9%8A%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF%D9%88%D9%84%D8%A9.html

9  http://www.alnoor.se/author.asp?id=1970

10 http://felesteen.ps/details/news/124625/%D9%85%D8%B3%D8%AA%D9%82%D8%A8%D9%84-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%82%D8%A7%D9%88%D9%85%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%81%D9%84%D8%B3%D8%B7%D9%8A%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%A8%D8%B9%D8%AF-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AD%D8%B1%D8%A8-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%83%D9%88%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%89-%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B9%D8%B4.html

11 http://fpnp.net/site/news/36958

12 http://www.alfajertv.com/news/3386178.html

13 http://felesteen.ps/details/news/127669/%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%B9%D9%83%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%B9%D9%85%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D8%AF%D8%B3.html

14 http://felesteen.ps/nd/releases//2014/112014/19/index.html?d=1416831942

15 https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HMm62qtA13c

16 http://www.assabah.com.tn/article/89097/%D8%AE%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF-%D9%85%D8%B4%D8%B9%D9%84-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D9%84%D9%82%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D8%B5%D8%AD%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%A8%D8%AA%D9%88%D9%86%D8%B3-%D9%87%D8%B0%D8%A7-%D8%B1%D8%AF%D9%86%D8%A7-%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%89-%C2%AB%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B9%D8%B4%C2%BB-%D9%88%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%AA%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%A7%D9%87%D9%88-%D9%88%D8%AD%D9%84%D9%81%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%87%D9%85%D8%A7-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%A3%D9%85%D8%B1%D9%8A%D9%83%D8%A7

17 http://www.tahaaluf.com/%D8%AE%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%86%D8%A6%D9%8A-%D8%BA%D8%B2%D8%A9-%D8%AA%D9%85%D9%83%D9%86%D8%AA-%D9%85%D9%86-%D8%AA%D8%B1%D9%83%D9%8A%D8%B9-%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%8A%D9%84-%D9%88-%D8%A7%D9%84/

18 http://www.faceiraq.com/inews.php?id=2888529

19 http://www.elnnews.com/archives/924

Publication: Jerusalem Issue Briefs

- See more at: http://jcpa.org/article/hamas-embraces-path-of-islamic-state/#sthash.qYqQEEAM.dpuf

Lt. Col. (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi

Source: http://jcpa.org/article/hamas-embraces-path-of-islamic-state/

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Baroness Warsi's Obsession - Douglas Murray

by Douglas Murray

What seems odd is this obsession with Israel, with which she has no ties. Yet this Baroness, who claims to be motivated only by moral outrage, is considerably silent on the far worse moral outrages that go on day in and day out in a country with which she does have ties — of which she made a virtue while in office. Yet Baroness Warsi ignores entirely the horrific and continual human rights abuses in her own family's homeland of Pakistan. Whether it is Christians being burned alive or the practice of "bonded labor" (slavery), Warsi appears utterly unconcerned. At present, a Christian mother of four is due to be hanged for blasphemy.
What is far more important is that the obsessions and blind spots of Baroness Warsi are the obsessions and blind spots being taught to a generation.

Moral equivalence must be one of the overriding curses of our age. Even those who are capable of making moral judgements now often find it easier to make equivalences between sides than to study facts and work out who may be or right or wrong. So whenever any conflict breaks out, much of the world can be relied on – from the United Nations downwards (or upwards) – to call for a cessation of the "cycle of violence." In Britain last week, there was an especially flamboyant example of this trend, courtesy of the noble Baroness Warsi.

This is the woman who was promoted by Conservative party leader David Cameron seven years ago; once the Conservative party became the party of government in 2010, she became the first Muslim woman to attend Cabinet in Britain. She could have done an immense amount of good in that role. She could have led reformist trends within the Muslim communities in the UK. She could have acted as a demonstration that Muslims can be loyal British citizens without side clannish, religious or sectional interests overriding other interests. Instead she turned out to be a force of extraordinary regression, and someone who turned out to bang some very predictable drums.

This summer, when Israel was forced once again to engage in a highly targeted air and ground operation against Hamas terrorists in Gaza, the British government held fairly firm in support of our ally, Israel, in doing what it needed to do to a terrorist group that was kidnapping and murdering teenagers and heavily rocketing Israel.

But Baroness Warsi – who had only ever reached Cabinet because of David Cameron's personal championing – resigned in protest. She claimed in her resignation that Britain's ongoing support for Israel was morally indefensible.

It is always fascinating seeing this tug occur within the political identity of someone who presents themselves as a "progressive." Baroness Warsi's parental country of origin is Pakistan, and she made a fair amount of play during her time in office as someone who could uniquely advance the cause of Britain inside Pakistan and other Muslim-majority countries. But it was Israel that caused her to resign.

This month she cropped back up when four civilians were murdered in the most brutal fashion while praying in a synagogue in the Har Nof neighborhood in West Jerusalem. This slaughter – which occurred in territory that any and every peace plan would place indisputably under Israeli jurisdiction – included the slaughter of one Druze policeman, three American rabbis, and one rabbi, Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Goldberg, who had been born in Britain and had a joint British and Israeli passport.

While the blood from the attack was still on the floor of the synagogue, Sayeeda Warsi was out of the starting gate. She began to tweet British pro-Israel groups and also, crucially, British Jewish communal figures, to express a moral equivalence between the people who had just hacked four rabbis to death while they were praying in a synagogue, and those Israelis who have been protesting that it is outrageous that the Temple Mount in Jerusalem – a site holy to both Muslims and Jews – is allowed to benefit Muslims only.

She first tweeted: "Israeli extremists storm Al Aqsa & intimidate worshippers Palestinian extremists storm synagogue & kill 4 worshippers #Tragic #peacenotwar." She then tweeted: "Both @David_Cameron & @Ed_Miliband say a Palestinian life is equal to an Israeli life so let's ALL condemn the killing on BOTH sides."

The fascinating thing is that it is all part of a pattern for the Baroness. On her Twitter feed, both before and since leaving office, she has used the networking site to micro-comment on all things Israeli. Barely a conservatory can be built in Israel without the Baroness butting in from London to condemn Israel.

As is her right, of course. Even people paid by the taxpayer to fulfill no particularly discernible purpose are free, in their downtime, to vent their opinions on Twitter. What seems odd is this obsession with Israel. It is not a country or a region with which she has any special ties. She has no reputation as an expert on the conflict, or on ending conflicts in general. Yet here she is, week in and week out, micro-commenting on Israel. Given the window onto the soul that Twitter can provide, does it seem unfair to ask why this obsession? And to raise a curious disparity.

What is odd is that this Baroness, who claims to be motivated only by moral outrage, is so silent on the considerably worse moral outrages that go on day in and day out in a country with which she does have ties — of which she made a virtue while in office.

Yet Baroness Warsi ignores entirely the horrific and continual human rights transgressions in her own family's homeland of Pakistan. Whether it is Christians being burned alive, or the practice of so-called "bonded labor" (slavery), Warsi appears utterly unconcerned.

No criticism here... Above: Baroness Warsi meets with Shahbaz Sharif, the Chief Minister of Punjab, Pakistan, in October 2012. (Image source: UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office)

There are around 350,000 Pakistanis who have become refugees since the launch of a major Pakistani military offensive in the tribal region of North Waziristan. Yet not a peep from Warsi. Nor has she bothered to find out how many Pakistanis have died as a result of air strikes. This revealing lapse occurs despite the fact that if there is one thing of which we can be sure, it is that Pakistan's military does not warn civilians in advance of an attack, as the Israeli Air Force does. As a result, Pakistan's aerial campaigns will undoubtedly be killing a far higher ratio of civilians to terrorists than in Gaza.

At present, a Christian mother in Pakistan is due to be hanged for blasphemy. I can find no stirring campaign or comment by the noble Baroness. Nor can I find any persistent campaign run by her to highlight the despicable ongoing case against a Christian woman in Pakistan, Asia Bibi, who has been charged with the capital offense of "blasphemy." And that despite the fact that there are Muslims in Britain who support the case against Asia Bibi and who could do with being opposed by a prominent British Muslim.

Why does Baroness Warsi not use her position to fight against these hourly injustices and outrages being committed in the country to which she is so closely tied? Hangings for "blasphemy," as well as the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people, may be common occurrences in Pakistan, but what increasingly obsesses Warsi appears to be only Israel.

In this she is hardly alone. Making moral equivalences about Israel and her enemies today almost always goes hand in hand with a blind spot to the real human rights atrocities occurring almost everywhere else in the Middle East other than in Israel, not to mention many countries farther afield.

In many ways the story of Sayeeda Warsi is just a story about the diminution of an already diminished figure. But it also points to something far more important: the obsessions and blind spots of Baroness Warsi are the obsessions and blind spots being taught to a generation.

To persuade people that the human rights outrages of our time are happening not in places such as Pakistan, where she could actually do some good, but in Israel — where alleged outrages are often proven not even to have existed, as with the Goldstone report or the UN's exoneration of Israel's actions in the Turkish Flotilla boat, the Mavi Marmara.

A person of real character would stand up to this trend. Instead, Warsi is instead using her position to whip up anti-Israel activity and, accidentally or otherwise, helping to develop the world's growing ethical blind spots. She has become a one-woman walking demonstration of why Britain's House of Lords needs reform.


Douglas Murray

Source: http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4907/baroness-warsi-obsession

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

The Turkish Governor's "Huge Hatred" - Burak Bekdil

by Burak Bekdil

"It is shameful for a public official to make such remarks. Hate-speech and anti-Semitism have seized the state. The hate-speech often exhibited by the ruling politicians encourages public officials to follow suit." — Aykan Erdemir, lawmaker, Republican People's Party.
"This governor has a lot to learn from Sultan Abdulhamid... They [Jews] are our people. This is Turkey's synagogue, not Israel's." — Young Civilians group.
The governor has probably scored good points to get a future promotion for the "huge hatred inside" him.
Once again, hate-speech in Turkey will not be prosecuted because it targets people who are not Sunni Muslim Turks.

At the beginning of the 20^th century, Edirne, a Turkish province in Thrace, hosted a prominent community of some 20,000 Jews – a larger community than the entire Jewish population of about 17,000 in Turkey today. Most of the Jews of Edirne were forced to leave the city after the pogroms of 1934. In 2000, the Jewish population in Edirne had dropped to 2 (no typo: two) people.

Earlier, in the Ottoman Turkey of 1907, Sultan Abdulhamid had ordered the construction of what would become one of the world's two biggest synagogues (and Europe's biggest), known in Turkish as "Buyuk Sinagog," or the "Great Synagogue", in Edirne. As the Jews left the town, the Great Synagogue turned into a sorrowful wreck.

A view of the Great Synagogue" of Edirne, from 2010. (Image source: Wikipedia Commons/Yabancı)

In late 2000s, the Jewish community in Turkey applied to the governor's office in Edirne to have sermons and wedding ceremonies at the synagogue. Luckily, in 2010, the Great Synagogue was declared a historical site and brought under a $1.7 million restoration program to reopen for prayers and visits – not that the Turks thought the building would serve the (literally) couple of Jews left in town, but that they thought it could lure tourists (and money). The restoration work is almost complete.

Last week, most Turks learned that there even was a synagogue in Edirne when the governor of the city threatened to forbid post-restoration prayers at the Great Synagogue and instead turn it into a museum.

Governor Dursun Sahin said he would not allow prayers at the synagogue because Israeli security forces had attacked the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem -- although Israeli police denied walking into the house of worship.

Sahin said: "While those bandits (Israeli security forces) blow winds of war inside al-Aqsa and slay Muslims, we build their synagogues. I say this with a huge hatred inside me. We clean their (Jewish) graveyards, send their projects to boards. But the synagogue here will be registered only as a museum, and there will be no exhibitions inside it."

At least the vengeful governor was honest. He said what he said admittedly "with a huge hatred inside him." Not a hatred of what he perceives "as the Israeli government's actions against poor Palestinians," but what he evidently perceives as anything Jewish. As this author reminded readers here last week: "For most of Turkey's Islamists, there is no difference between the words 'Israel,' the 'Israeli government,' 'Jew' or a 'Turkish Jew:' They are all the same and are all regarded with hostility."

Once again, the Turkish government silently nodded to the governor. Despite calls for his resignation, he remains in office. No investigation has been launched for his hate speech, which literally contained the words "huge hatred." On the contrary, he must have won the hearts and minds of many important Turks in Ankara.

But once again, a few brave Turkish men stood up and the governor had to retreat. "I was misunderstood," the governor later said, apologetically.

An opposition lawmaker had called for the governor's resignation for his remarks and demanded, in case the governor did not resign, that he be sacked by the government. "If Sahin does not resign to save the dignity of his post and Turkey's honor, he should be removed from his post immediately," Republican People's Party lawmaker Aykan Erdemir said in a written statement. "It is shameful for a public official to make such remarks. Hate-speech and anti-Semitism have seized the state. The hate speech often exhibited by the ruling politicians encourages public officials to follow suit."

Erdemir was right. Only recently, a school teacher was caught having hung a signpost at the gate of the Neve Salom synagogue in Istanbul that read: "Building to be destroyed." The man was not prosecuted.

Erdemir has suggested that a parliamentary commission should be formed to investigate "the rising anti-Semitism in Turkey." It is unlikely that the Islamist-majority parliament will agree with him.

Erdemir was not the only one to defend the Great Synagogue. On Nov. 22, a group of activists who call themselves the "Young Civilians," a bunch of liberals, rushed to the Great Synagogue to protest against the governor. They issued a press release demanding, like Erdemir, the governor's resignation.

The governor will not resign but will have to endure the embarrassment of what the Young Civilians, in a powerful line, recommended him to do: "This governor," they said, "has a lot to learn from Sultan Abdulhamid... He has a lot to learn from the young [Turkish] gendarmerie corporal who lost his life while protecting the Jews in Edirne from the looters during the 1934 pogroms." They also placed at the gate of the Great Synagogue placards that read, "They [Jews] are our people," "This synagogue was here when [the state of] Israel did not exist," and "This is Turkey's synagogue, not Israel's."

The few brave men of Turkey did it, and the government had to step back. Adnan Ertem, the director general of the General Directorate of Foundations, the government department in charge of the synagogue, said that: "Our intention is to keep that building as a house of worship to serve all visitors."

The synagogue, for the time being, is saved. The governor has probably scored good points to get a future promotion for the "huge hatred inside him." The opposition member of parliament, Erdemir, has probably added to his career of being a "Zionist" politician. The Young Civilians may soon have to go through a meticulous auditing of their books by government tax inspectors. And once again, hate speech in Turkey will not be prosecuted because it targets people who are not Sunni Muslim Turks.



Burak Bekdil, based in Ankara, is a Turkish columnist for the Hürriyet Daily and a Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

Source: http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4912/turkey-edirne-synagogue

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Non-Muslim University Chaplains Resign Over Special Treatment for Muslims - Daniel Greenfield

by Daniel Greenfield

I’m surprised it took this long to happen. Muslims have been demanding and getting privileged treatment at the expense of other religions in workplaces and schools for a while now. (via Vlad Tepes)

Western’s longest-serving chaplain, along with four of his colleagues, has resigned in protest over the recently announced move of the Chaplains’ Services offices and a dedicated Muslim prayer space in the University Community Centre.
Rev. Michael Bechard, Western’s Roman Catholic chaplain, submitted his resignation and those of Janet Loo, Annette Donovan Panchaud, Melissa Page Nichols and Maija Wilson from the UWO Chaplains’ Association, to University President Amit Chakma on Friday.
The University announced last week that the current Muslim prayer room in University College would be moved along with the Chaplains’ Services offices to one space in the basement of the UCC. In addition, the current multi-faith space in the UCC will no longer be used.
“I am uneasy with the fact that the university is providing a dedicated space to the Muslim community when such privileges are not being granted to any other body,” he said.
Rev. Karen Low, United Church Chaplain, said in an email that the chaplains were concerned with the allocation of space that was available for the entire community.
“With the current situation — a designated Muslim prayer space and no space available for the prayer and reflection needs of others — we are presented with an issue of justice and equality.”

Equality is against the Islamic religion. So is justice.

The whole point of Islam is to impose inferiority on other religions. That affirms the specialness of Muslims or Muslim privilege. So no they aren’t willing to share.

Bechard said the new space could be used in-between Muslim prayer times for students of other faiths to use.
Kado Zimmo, president of the Muslim Students’ Association, said the needs of the Muslim community mean they need a space specifically for them.
“It is difficult to share the space because there are certain regulations that need to be upheld within the prayer space.”
Bechard was also critical of the way the decision was reached. He said the only people at the table were the Muslim chaplain, another two chaplains, the Muslim Students’ Association and the University.
“Many of these meetings took place without the rest of the chaplains being drawn into the conversation or even informed of the meetings,” Bechard said. “And to be told [after the fact] by administration that there is no room for negotiation and there will be no more further conversation, I think, is nonsense.”

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam. He is completing a book on the international challenges America faces in the 21st century.

Source: http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/non-muslim-university-chaplains-resign-over-special-treatment-for-muslims/

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Egyptian Buffer Zone Collapses Gazan Economy - Arutz Sheva Staff

by Arutz Sheva Staff

Prices soar in Hamas terror stronghold amid Egyptian destruction of smuggling tunnels, with cement prices ten times higher.

Egyptian soldiers in Rafah, Gaza

Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash 90

 

The Egyptian buffer zone along the Sinai border with Gaza has sent prices soaring in the Hamas-ruled enclave, after the Nile state cracked down on illegal smuggling tunnels to Sinai that were reportedly used by Hamas to arm lethal attacks on Egyptian soldiers.

The price of cigarettes nearly tripled in Gaza, with local merchant Imad Shalbiya telling AFP "the tunnels from Egypt have been closed, hitting stocks of cigarettes in Gaza hard and sending prices soaring."

Egypt has been imposing a severe siege so as to cut down the flow of weapons and cash for Hamas in the tunnels; Hamas is a Gazan offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood group currently clashing with the Egyptian military-backed government. That siege was tightened last October after lethal attacks in northern Sinai.

The smuggling of building materials alone, which were used largely to construct terror tunnels into Israel, totaled over one billion euros ($1.2 billion) annually according to Ayman Abed of Hamas's economy ministry.

Egypt has already destroyed 1,600 smuggling tunnels, and is likewise demolishing homes and expelling Gazans from the border to create a 1 kilometer (0.62 miles) deep buffer zone with the world remaining silent on the moves - a silence gently broken by Amnesty International weeks after the demolition explosions started.

"Prices are very high since Egypt completely closed the tunnels," said Abu Mohammed, who owns a small supermarket west of Gaza City, noting hikes in the price of "milk, legumes and even cheese."

"We used to sell Egyptian cheese for ten or 11 shekels; now it is more than 23 (about $6). I don't sell it anymore. No one buys it at this price," added Abu Mohammed.

Mohammed Safi, who owns an electronics shop, added "prices of mobiles are higher since the blockade of tunnels. We can't get them as before. We used to sell iPhone 5s for 2,200 shekels (around $560), now the price is 2,600 (around $660)."

Under Hamas rule, Gaza's youth unemployment rate is at 63%, with Oxfam saying more than 40% of the overall population is jobless and that 80% live on humanitarian aid.

Rebuilding after Hamas's most recent terror war on Israel has been a thorny issue, with Israel already sending two massive shipments of construction materials in despite the fact that Hamas has already reportedly restarted construction of its terror tunnels into Israel.

On Tuesday 1,120 tons of cement were delivered by Israel to Gaza, after 1,300 tons of construction materials were transferred on October 14.

Despite that, and the global pledge of $5.4 billion to rebuild, Gaza builders' merchant Suheil Tuman said "when the tunnels were open, a ton of cement sold for 380 shekels (just under $100) on the black market. Today it is 3,800 shekels (just under $1,000)."

Economist Amr Shaabane said in the past Gaza prices had always been lower than in Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem thanks to the smuggling tunnels, but "today, Gaza market stalls offer Israeli goods at a price that is more expensive to begin with and to which heavy taxes are added on their entry to Gaza."

AFP contributed to this report.


Arutz Sheva Staff

Source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/188006#.VHtHrcmCETw

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Legitimate and Illegitimate Dictators - Burak Bekdil

by Burak Bekdil


President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has once again declared his refusal to recognize the legitimacy of Egypt's President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and reproached countries that have accepted Mr.. el-Sisi as a legitimate leader.

"They [el-Sisi] toppled a person [Mohamed Morsi] who came to power through votes. What did those countries who call themselves 'democratic' say? Did they speak up?" These are the words with which Mr. Erdoğan, once again, expressed his part-time democrat-self. "Even if you consider him legitimate, we will not consider him legitimate."

Unfortunately, Mr. Erdoğan does not understand that his political past and present fail to convince the world that he and only he is the God of Democracy.

His one-time best regional ally (and family friend) Bashar al-Assad was not reigning in the cradle of democracy before the Syrian became Mr. Erdoğan's most powerful regional obsession. Nor did the dynasty that is Mr. Erdoğan's only (and best) ally presently come to power out of the ballot box; and no doubt Mr. Erdoğan has no concerns over why Qataris cannot elect their leaders. One wonders: Has the Turkish Patron Saint of World Democracy ever advised his royal Saudi friends to scrap their dynasty and introduce the ballot box?

Could it be that Mr. Erdoğan's obsession not to accept Messrs. al-Assad and el-Sisi is because these gentlemen have blood on their hands? Over 150,000 victims in Syria and 3,000 in Egypt? Why, then, was Mr. Erdoğan "good friends" with Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, who has an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for the deaths of hundreds of thousands and for crimes against humanity? What, really, makes Mr. al-Bashir a "legitimate leader" for Mr. Erdoğan?

I must perhaps repeat: Last July, Mr. el-Sisi of Egypt, won 45.6 percent of the vote (96.7 percent of the 47 percent turnout), one year after he ousted President Morsi in a coup d'état. Mr. Morsi had won 26.9 percent of the national vote (51.7 percent of the 52 percent turnout). In other words, the coup leader's popular vote was 18.7 percentage points higher than the coup victim's. But there is more.

Erdoğan has the habit of rising against illegitimate coup leaders only when they target Islamist ambitions and governments.

Only half a year ago, the Thai army staged a coup d'état against a democratically-elected government. The Turkish Patron Saint of World Democracy has not spoken a word against that coup. The "page about Thailand" in the Turkish Foreign Ministry's website does not even mention the coup; but it mentions the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries; the Thai foreign minister's 2010 visit to Turkey; the rise in bilateral trade; Istanbul-Bangkok flights being one of the Turkish national carrier's busiest routes; 40,000 Turkish tourists visiting Thailand every year; and Turkish investments and schools in Thailand. Where is Turkey, the feared enemy of the world's coup-makers?

Just a few weeks ago, Burkina Faso's military dissolved Parliament and announced a transitional government after violent protests against President Blaise Compaoré. The protests had been sparked by the government's attempt to push a constitutional change through Parliament to allow Mr. Compaoré to seek reelection next year.

Army chief General Honoré Traoré said the new government would be installed after consultation with all political parties and would lead the country to an election within 12 months. The general also announced a curfew.

Ironically, Burkina Faso is one of the 21 countries in the world to which Turkey sends "military aid." So, Turkish public money may have been used in overthrowing the "legitimate" government in the West African country.

Does Mr. Erdoğan know that another illegitimate coup had taken place somewhere on earth? He may not, but the Foreign Ministry in Ankara apparently does. A statement from the ministry said: "We watch the developments with concern … We recommend restraint … We hope that a solution based on dialogue and consensus with the participation of all parties could be found."

Very dry, is it not, for the ministry of a country whose leader has dedicated himself to fight all coup-makers?

The truth is, the Patron Saint has the habit of rising against illegitimate coup leaders only when they target Islamist ambitions and governments. Other coups are irrelevant or just fine.


Burak Bekdil, based in Ankara, is a columnist for the Turkish daily Hürriyet and a fellow at the Middle East Forum.

Source: http://www.meforum.org/4900/legitimate-and-illegitimate-dictators

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Was Murdered Ferguson Man a Grand Jury Witness? - Selwyn Duke

by Selwyn Duke


The murder bore some earmarks of a hit. The young man was found behind the wheel of his white Pontiac Grand Prix, shot to death through the driver’s side window. There also was possibly something unique about him:

That he might have witnessed the Michael Brown shooting.

The young man was 20-year-old DeAndre Joshua, widely reported as the first casualty of the Ferguson riots. He was found dead Monday night mere yards from where robbery suspect Brown was shot in self-defense by Officer Darren Wilson on August 9. And Joshua’s alleged status as a possible witness to that fateful summer incident is raising some eyebrows.

The implication is that someone rubbed him out because he talked — or because it was thought he did. As UniversalFreePress.com’s Dave Gibson wrote, “While officials would not say if Joshua was in fact, a witness to the shooting death of Michael Brown, nor if he actually provided testimony to the grand jury which ultimately cleared Officer Darren Wilson of any wrongdoing in the shooting, his murder does point to a retribution-type killing.” Gibson closes his piece pointing out, “As the gangland saying goes: ‘Snitches get stitches!’”

Yet the argument for this motive is far from unassailable. While it’s not generally reported that Joshua was robbed, a woman (identified as a friend or relative) quoted in this Daily Mail article made passing reference to that being the case. The paper also writes that the young man’s grandmother, Renita Towns, “said that he graduated Beaumont High School and that he was working in Wal-Mart. Family member Brian Joshua, 45, added: 'He was a good kid, he's gone to high school, he's got a job, he's not into drugs or any of that stuff.’” On the other hand, one website claims that DeAndre Joshua was “in fact, a drug dealer, according to both law enforcement sources and his Facebook page” (it doesn’t provide much evidence for this allegation, however). He was also a friend of Brown’s accomplice during the August 9 robbery, Dorian Johnson, who is currently under protection. The point is that there could be reasons for Joshua’s murder other than his being a possible “snitch.”

Yet while the picture surrounding Joshua’s murder is fuzzy, the reason why some suspect a retribution killing is airtight:


It’s now known definitively that many black Ferguson grand-jury witnesses were afraid to testify — often fearing retaliation from those in their own community.

As Time’s Tina Susman wrote on Thursday, opening her piece with one anonymous individual’s story, “This witness was scared. He had Googled himself and found the phrase: ‘Snitches get stitches.’” She explained that the witness was frightened “that black neighbors would find fault with his description of what happened” when Officer Wilson shot Michael Brown. Another witness, wrote Susman, “who described Brown as charging toward Wilson, said he felt uncomfortable walking into the Ferguson police station ‘past all the protesting going on,’ but felt it was his duty to tell what he had seen.” She writes of yet another “who testified that Brown ‘might have been punching’ Wilson through his car window” as having stated "I'm shaking and I'm nervous right now and I'm scared, you know.”

Other witnesses expressed fears many would describe as paranoid, such as concern over retribution by the Ferguson Police or KKK. (Given that the KKK’s membership is down to a couple thousand members nationwide, with as many as 10 percent being FBI informants, this boogeyman may be reminiscent of how 19^th-century British mothers would once warn their children to “be good or Nappy will get you” — even after Napoleon Bonaparte’s death.)

But the fears, realistic and unrealistic both, may explain why it took the Ferguson grand jury so long to render their decision. As Susman also wrote, quoting Kathi Alizadeh, an attorney presenting evidence:

[S]he said there were about 15 eyewitnesses or other people with potentially valuable information still to question, and some were resisting.

"Some of them have frankly said there is no way I'm coming in, no way I'm going to testify," Alizadeh told the jury. In those cases, she said the only option was to serve them with subpoenas. "But if you knock on the door and nobody answers, we have no right, you know, to kick in the door," she said.

Of course, witness fear is nothing new — it has long served to deter those who would testify against organized crime and is why the witness-protection program exists. Yet fear and intimidation have had enough of an effect in the Ferguson fiasco to lead many to believe that, to an extent at least, the rule of law had broken down. While the United States certainly isn’t yet like Colombia — where criminals could once intimidate officials with the policy “silver or lead” (accept bribes or face bullets) — even Ferguson police officers and their families have gone into hiding due to death threats, as The New American reported recently.

Given this, it’s no surprise that the possibility of retribution was also a factor for the grand jurors. In fact, St. Louis County prosecutor Robert McCulloch had warned them to safeguard their anonymity and “not wear their juror badges as they entered the justice building in Clayton, Mo., lest news reporters or others spot them,” wrote Susman.

Reflecting this breakdown in rule of law, a police officer had warned anonymously prior to the Ferguson grand-jury decision, “We will not be able to protect you or your family… If you do not have a gun, get one and get one soon.” After witnessing Monday’s burning and looting and the murder of DeAndre Joshua, it seems this was sound advice that, just perhaps, the Ferguson witnesses who courageously spoke the truth may want to heed themselves.


Selwyn Duke

Source: http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/crime/item/19621-was-murdered-ferguson-man-a-grand-jury-witness

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Farrakhan: 'We'll tear this godd**n country apart' over Ferguson - Thomas Lifson

by Thomas Lifson


Speaking at publicly supported Morgan State University in Baltimore, a predominantly black institution of higher learning, Nation of Islam leader Luis Farrakhan issued threats over the shooting of Michael Brown and the no true bill verdict of the grand jury investigating it. The Daily Caller reports:

Farrakhan stated in his speech — given at Morgan State University, a black college located in Baltimore, Md. — that violence was justified in response to the decision not to indict officer Darren Wilson and peaceful protests are only in the interest of “white folks.”
We going to die anyway. Let’s die for something,” the radical figure told the crowd to roaring applause.
He even said the parents of teenagers should teach their kids how to throw Molotov cocktails. “Teach your baby how to throw the bottle if they can. Fight,” the minister advised, and then imitated throwing the explosive device.
Farrakhan argued that violence was justified by the “law of retaliation” HE claims is in both the Bible and the Koran.
“In this book, there’s a law for retaliation,” he said, while holding up what appeared to be the NOI version of the Koran, and repeated, “A law for retaliation.”

I am no lawyer, but this sounds like incitement to violence to me.  You can watch him below, if you have the stomach.

Thomas Lifson

Source: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2014/11/farrakhan_well_tear_this_goddamn_country_apart_over_ferguson.html

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.