24/7 Al Jazeera, Obama and Me

One American who does have a live feed is President Obama. He watches in the White House, and Al-Jazeera is on 24/7 in the Situation Room. His secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, explains why: "It's real news. You may not agree with it, but you feel like you're getting real news around the clock. Al-Jazeera has been the leader in... literally changing people's minds and attitudes."

It's not hard to explain why this is Al-Jazeera's moment. The Arab uprisings and the rulers' resistance are the perfect story to give the network a push, in the same way that the first Gulf war made CNN's name. The events are dramatic and they are happening in Al-Jazeera's backyard. Dictator by dictator, Arab leaders have singled out Al-Jazeera as "the enemy" or, as Muammar Gaddafi puts it, "dogs". They have ransacked its offices, blocked its broadcasts, hacked its website and arrested its journalists, which has only served to cement its role as the must-watch chronicler of history. The drama comes after President Obama's visited Cairo to urge Arab leaders to embrace human rights and democracy. His speech has made it hard for many US politicians to do what they have often done before - dismiss Al-Jazeera as a cheerleader for radical Islam.

But behind the breathless, footfalls-of-revolution reporting, the soaring global viewing figures and the scramble by American media executives to screen a channel they wouldn't touch with a bargepole a few weeks ago, there is, for many, a nagging question. What is Al-Jazeera, and is it a force for good?

To find the answers, you have to go to a place with the most unglamorous name in telly. "TV Roundabout" is a traffic island amid dusty desert scrub on the outskirts of downtown Doha. Al-Jazeera (which means The Island) consists of two low-slung, beige concrete buildings with blue windows fringed by grass and petunias that struggle in temperatures exceeding 50C. Inside, the green glass lobby is deserted and the walls are stained. There's nobody in reception. The only sign of life is the office cat, Maurice, padding the marble floor. When Hosni Mubarak visited, before he was deposed as president of Egypt, he took one look at the place and declared: "All that trouble from this little matchbox!"

The monitors in the lobby screen both Al-Jazeera Arabic and Al-Jazeera English. The station is different, all right. The images it shows are far more grisly than anything we're used to in Britain. Footage of corpses, including - critics would say especially - young children, often appear, whether from Iraq, Afghanistan or the hospitals of Gaza. Swirling orchestral accompaniments make the experience theatrical and emotive. There's greater use of new media, notably Twitter feeds and shaky mobile-phone footage downloaded from Facebook - much of it unverifiable. The language seems odd. On the Arabic-language channel, suicide bombers are often called shaheed, or martyrs. Al-Jazeera English refers to the "so-called war on terror", instead of the "war on terror". The service even looks different. There are fewer perfectly coiffed big-name female presenters or pretty-boy war-zone glory hounds flying in to anchor big stories than on "normal" news channels.

Instead, jobbing young reporters get down'n'dirty on the streets, living the Arab revolution from barricade to barricade. It's hardly surprising that America's neocons, notably the former defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld, have caricatured the channel as an anti-Semitic, anti-American outlet for Islamo-porn.

You don't have to be a conservative to feel a bit uneasy. Like the protesters taking to the streets across the Arab world, Al-Jazeera plays by rules westerners don't understand. That worries us because, like the uprisings themselves, we don't know where it will lead. With its fizzy, feisty formula, could Al-Jazeera turn out to be an unwitting accessory to an Islamic revolution that will leave the most febrile region of the world even more dangerous? The question is ever more pertinent now that the Arab uprisings are taking a darker turn, with growing civil unrest and a worsening refugee crisis.
[....]

"Al-Jazeera isn't a job, it's a mission... perhaps even like a religion. Before Al-Jazeera was launched, information was coming really from one direction, from the north to the south, from the developed world to the developing. It was one-sided. You can't blame the West for that. It simply got its act together and developed more sophisticated forms of communication. But now there are some parts of the world which are making an effort to redress the balance. There's a landgrab going on."

With the network suddenly the focus of international attention, you might expect Al-Jazeera journalists to go out of their way to avoid the merest suggestion that they are on a mission, far less invoke religion. Far from it. They are so confident that their hour has arrived and history is on their side that they talk freely, expressing every prejudice they hold.

A familiar voice and face in the newsroom belong to Darren Jordan. The former BBC TV news presenter joined Al-Jazeera English when it started, claiming he was tired of falling editorial budgets and stifling bureaucracy. He argues that Al-Jazeera has demonstrated that it covers the Middle East, South America, Africa and Asia
"a lot better than the BBC or CNN. We're established as the channel of reference. We're brash, different... and bloody good".

[...]

Ghida Fakhry sits a few desks down from Zeidan, along a corridor strewn with the usual detritus of a TV station - discarded cups of coffee, M&M wrappers and yellowing copies of the International Herald Tribune. She was born in Lebanon and moved to Geneva and London, where she studied at the School of Oriental and African Studies. She was appointed New York bureau chief of Al-Jazeera Arabic in 2000 and joined Al-Jazeera English in Washington at its launch, before moving to Doha. After 9/11 the western media "began to censor itself", she argues. "Journalists decided: ‘In the name of national security, we're not going to really ask the tough questions, we're just gonna go with whatever our government tells us. The war in Iraq is being waged because there are weapons of mass destruction? Fine.' People felt they no longer should be challenging their government."

When war broke out in Iraq and Afghanistan, western outlets "sanitised their coverage", she continues. The corpse count on Al-Jazeera is far higher than on any other channel. As well as dead youngsters, Al-Jazeera picture editors seem to favour the charred remains of people caught in missile strikes, often by the US and Israel. Fakhry herself is so revolted by the graphic scenes that she often turns away from the screen. "Oh my God, it's pretty gruesome. I often think it's a horror show I'm just about to present."

But these images are part of being "true to the story", she argues. "It helps to show the effects of the bombs. It's not just seeing it in green laser beams on our screen, something that looks outlandish and very far away. No, these are bullets, these are bombs, and their effect is this - the death, the blood, the destruction."

And the jihad's death, blood and destruction? It would be funny if it weren't so deadly.

Adopting a different perspective, and screening pictures others reject as too disturbing, make Al-Jazeera an influential player in the Middle East uprisings. By airing grainy mobile-phone video shot by Tunisian protesters, it exploded the myth perpetuated by the Tunisian regime that it was impregnable and its security services invincible. The spell that had stopped millions of ordinary Arab citizens from rising up was broken.

Critics argue that the network crosses the line from covering the news to creating it, that it is an agitator encouraging protests. They point to the use of often unchecked "citizen journalist" footage: in the Tunisian uprising some 60% of Al-Jazeera's pictures came from protesters' mobile phones. Critics cite "wildly optimistic" and "inaccurate" reporting. During the Cairo protests, correspondents said that as many as 2m demonstrators gathered in Tahrir Square; other media outlets estimated hundreds of thousands. Detractors also highlight Al-Jazeera's decision to stream live 24/7 pictures of key locations, such as Tahrir Square, which few dispute encouraged protesters to take to the streets and stay there. They point to presenters so overcome by emotion that they weep on air and reporters being carried aloft by protesters, as if they were political leaders, rather than mere observers. They also cite the network's decision to screen the programme Ash-Shariah wal-Hayat (Shariah and Life), hosted by Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a religious leader who has preached that Jews are "the treacherous aggressors", and said: "Allah, take this profligate, cunning, arrogant band of people... kill them down to the very last one."

Mostefa Souag, director of news at Al-Jazeera Arabic, does not deny that the channel plays an active role in the events it covers. He is proud of it. "We are promoting peaceful protest and the cause of human rights and democracy," he says. The word "promoting" will be all the proof Al-Jazeera's detractors need to conclude that it is unprofessional and irresponsible. After all, where will such "promoting" lead? What if Egypt or Libya, instead of becoming democracies, are transformed into repressive theocracies like Iran? Will Al-Jazeera then be so proud of its role?

I decide to ask Fakhry. Bad move. She gets very cross. "You're suggesting that Egypt's going to fall into the hands of the bogeyman," she says, her brow furrowed like the folds of her Brooks Brothers trouser suit. "That people are not ready for democracy. That uprisings should only be allowed and encouraged in the West, to people who are accustomed to democracy and who deserve it. That's so arrogant."

What if Egypt does turn out to be the new Iran? How will she feel then? "I will feel at least people tried it out. If people want this to be another Iran, then... power to the people, good for them." But she might not be able to judge it as good, bad or indifferent if a country such as Iran were to develop and use a nuclear weapon, because she and countless others could be vaporised. Fakhry is unmoved. "Iran has long said that they are not interested in a nuclear weapon. Why should I go with the statements that come out of Washington and London and Paris and not give them the benefit of the doubt? Is Ahmadinejad completely insane? Would he use a nuclear weapon, even if he had it, knowing full well that it could mean the end of Jerusalem and the Palestinian people? Let's think a little."

So the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran does not worry her. "No it doesn't. It just doesn't. Call me naive." Many will.

The longer you spend in TV Roundabout, the more contradictions you see. And the longer you spend in Doha, the more you wonder how on earth Al-Jazeera exists at all. News hubs - the BBC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, Canal+ - are usually located in buzzy cities: London, New York, Paris. Doha is so sleepy that the Lonely Planet guide describes it as "the most boring place on Earth".

Arab media networks tend to be cheerleaders for the status quo in the Arab world, reporting the comings and goings of His Highness Sheikh This and His Excellency Sheikh That as they do such thrilling things as open water desalination plants. Al-Jazeera plunges into controversial stories. From the start, it ran frequent live interviews with Israeli officials, then taboo on Arab television. It also investigates stories that deeply embarrass Arab leaders. It recently teamed up with The Guardian to publish the Palestine Papers - leaked documents indicating that the Palestinian Authority had offered Israel far-reaching territorial concessions.

Al-Jazeera may proclaim its support for democracy, freedom and human rights in Arab nations, but it exists solely thanks to the patronage of a ruling autocrat. The emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, is a natural-gas gazillionaire and a Sandhurst-educated Anglophile who, with family members and political allies, owns and controls Harrods, a chunk of Barclays Bank, the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square, Chelsea Barracks, the snazzy One Hyde Park development in Knightsbridge, and the soaring 1,000ft Shard of Glass at London Bridge, the tallest structure in the capital. He presides over a country with no free elections, no free trade unions and no right to free speech, yet he founded Al-Jazeera and funds it to the tune of almost $1 billion a year - provided, of course, it does not criticise him or his government.

If Al-Jazeera breaks all the rules, why does it work? By skill, guile and a healthy dollop of luck. The network should never have launched. The BBC beat Al-Jazeera to the Arab TV market. In 1994 it set up an Arabic version of BBC World News in a joint venture with a private-sector Saudi broadcaster. But the service collapsed after only 18 months, when the BBC withdrew in protest at attempts to censor news about Saudi Arabia. In stepped the emir, who had long been looking for an international calling card to establish his tiny nation as a modern, forward-looking state. He founded Al-Jazeera Arabic, attracting many of the 250 staff who had signed up to work for the BBC.

At first, most of the big broadcasters ignored Al-Jazeera. Few western consumers knew it even existed, far less tuned in to the six hours of news it screened each day. In the Middle East most ordinary people were too poor to afford to buy a satellite dish, so audience figures remained low. Washington initially welcomed the channel as an example of burgeoning media freedom in the Arab world. Its slogan - "The opinion and the other opinion" - sounded harmless enough. That all changed after 9/11. The first time most TV viewers saw Osama Bin Laden's face and heard his voice was on Al-Jazeera on October 7, 2001. Al-Qaeda had smuggled a VHS tape from Afghanistan, through Pakistan, to Doha. As George Bush waged his "war on terror", the smuggled tapes kept arriving.

Al-Jazeera's gritty coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began to attract more viewers, especially when, as in Fallujah, its images of dead civilians contradicted official western assurances that troops were only targeting combatants. Bush and Tony Blair were so alarmed at what they regarded as anti-western propaganda that they considered - they say it was a joke - bombing its Doha offices. US missiles did hit the station's headquarters in Kabul in 2001 and Baghdad in 2003, killing one journalist. Accidents, said Bush.

In 2006 Al-Jazeera English was launched. Many doubted that the new global rolling news channel would work. They questioned whether English-speaking western journalists would go to Doha and, even if they did, whether they would stay and, even if they stayed, whether anyone would watch. At first, it looked as if the naysayers were right. With western media organisations laying off staff, journalists did arrive at TV Roundabout. Some were big names - Sir David Frost and Rageh Omaar, star of the BBC's Iraq war coverage - lured by salaries reputedly as high as $500,000. But problems soon emerged between the western expats and Arabic-speaking staff.

Many working on the Arabic-language channel complained that the westerners in their sister channel were paid more than them. Westerners whinged that local editors were pro-Arab and anti-western. Expats publicly claimed they were the victims of bullying and sexual and religious discrimination. The network was badly run, too, they said. Promised contractual perks, such as rent-free apartments and two flights home a year, were cut without warning. Many western expats left, dispirited and with far fewer tax-free petrodollars than they had hoped for. But the ship steadied. Then came the pan-Arab revolution.

Dr Mohamed Zayani has written two books on the rise of the network. Sitting in his office on the Middle East campus of Washington's Georgetown University, in Doha, he says: "Al-Jazeera has grown through a mix of creativity, boldness, commitment, controversy and good timing. It started as a voice and has become a force. The question now is: can it become an institution?"

That depends. For all its recent success, Al-Jazeera faces big challenges. In spite of senior executives' assertions that it has shed the stigma that it plays politics, it still has a long way to go. Comments by Zeidan, Fakhry and Souag in this article will focus attention on the motives of those who work for Al-Jazeera English, while the Arabic service will continue to attract strong criticism. Al-Jazeera Arabic's detractors single out its coverage of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, conducted largely from the streets of Gaza. Marc Ginsberg, a former US ambassador to Morocco, wrote last month that the Arabic service is "more a fiery instigator of public opinion and less an impartial reporter of it". Dr Zayani agrees. "One cannot say that Al-Jazeera is neutral in reporting the Palestinian-Israeli conflict."

Al-Jazeera has bias problems closer to home, too. However much it might like to portray itself as a beacon of independent journalism in a part of the world where most media are censored, tawdry and venal, one place where it is not independent is Qatar itself. It rarely carries stories critical of the country or its leaders and certainly does not campaign for democracy there. When WikiLeaks revealed documents showing that three Qataris may have been implicated in 9/11, going so far as to do a "dry run" for the bombers, the story received scant coverage on Al-Jazeera. The same goes for the increasingly detailed claims that Qatari officials may have bribed Fifa officials to the tune of $1m each to win Qatar's controversial 2022 football World Cup bid.

Al Anstey's defence - "We don't cover Qatar because it's a very small country and we are an international network, not a national network" - is neat, but a cop-out. Even some staff think Qatar gets an easy ride. "You're right. I would like to see more coverage - and even critical coverage - of Qatar, actually," says Fakhry.

Many argue that the emir of Qatar and his merry band of trouble-making journalists enjoy too close a relationship. A few weeks ago, WikiLeaks released leaked documents indicating that the emir uses Al-Jazeera as a diplomatic bargaining chip, promising to tone down coverage of certain regimes in return for political or economic favours. According to the cables, dated November 2009, Qatar's prime minister, Sheikh Hamad bin Jasim Jaber Al Thani, said: "Al-Jazeera's ability to influence public opinion is a substantial source of leverage for Qatar." Reporters privately accuse Al-Jazeera of "going easy" on Qatar's vast, powerful neighbour, Saudi Arabia, after Riyadh complained about the network's coverage. Al-Jazeera dismisses the claims. "No-one has ever told us how to report. Never, ever. We are independent," says Anstey. The emir and government ministers are reluctant to discuss the issue, or indeed anything at all to do with Al-Jazeera. Nobody from the government or the ruling family would be interviewed for this article.

Whichever way you look, Al-Jazeera is a station of contradictions, and there's one in particular that will make it hard to achieve its ultimate goal - to break the western monopoly of rolling TV news. Its "southern" perspective is fresh and is succeeding now because the hot news is on Al-Jazeera's turf. But its style and content may not have lasting appeal. Serving up a diet of stories that westerners do not want to hear or are not interested in, and doing so in language they often find confrontational, is unlikely to make the service a "must-view" in the dominant western news markets when the drama of the "Jasmine revolution" fades and the Middle East gets back to being distant, difficult and complex.

Steve Shepard, dean of the City University of New York's graduate school of journalism, argues that Al-Jazeera's prominence in covering the Arab uprisings "may not be a fair test" of its ability to penetrate the American market, since it is not focused on the main issues of interest to US viewers: Israel, and American military action, the network's coverage of which is heavily criticised.

Furthermore, Al-Jazeera is facing growing competition in its own backyard for the first time. One of the consequences of its success and of regime change in the Arab world is that the broadcast media market is suddenly open for business. There are plans, for instance, for Sky News Arabia. The rolling news channel
- a joint venture with the Abu Dhabi Media Investment Corporation - will employ 70 multimedia journalists in Abu Dhabi, with support from a network of news bureaux, including London and Washington. Iran's Press TV and Chinese networks are also investing heavily in rolling news. Frank Kane, former business editor of The Observer and now a commentator with The National, the UAE's leading newspaper, says: "Sky is a serious challenge to Al-Jazeera in its core market. Can it maintain its first-mover advantage?"

Al-Jazeera executives are not worrying about any of that for now. They're too busy enjoying their moment. A few years ago the only Arab brand anyone had heard of was Al-Qaeda. Now it's Al-Jazeera. Anstey is crisscrossing the US, working to sign the first cable deal that will see the channel beamed into millions of American homes. Meanwhile, back in Doha, editors are trying to secure the one thing they crave: the seal of editorial approval that will demonstrate they are officially part of the global news conversation.

Virtually every world leader has been interviewed on the network. Except one: President Obama. When he was elected he gave his first interview in the region to a rival station, Saudi Arabia's conservative Al Arabiya. That hurt. The most powerful new voice in world news wants to be the go-to channel for the most powerful man in the world when he wants to talk to Arab states.

For now, like the rest of Al-Jazeera's uneasy and confused new western audience, Obama is waiting to see whether the Arab uprisings and their excitable new media cheerleader foster democracy and freedom in the Middle East - or something a lot scarier.

UPDATE: The vidoes of the press conference:

Kincaid, Kenney &Timmons on " Al-Jazeera, Global Jihad, and the Suicide of the West"

Cliff Kincaid & Charles Ortel on " Al-Jazeera, Global Jihad, and the Suicide of the West"

Posted by Pamela Geller on Sunday, April 03, 2011 at 05:06 PM in Atlas events, Leftist MEDIA JIHAD aligned with Terror Force | Permalink ShareThis

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The Muslim Students Association pledge of allegiance.f4v

The good people of Yorba Linda were protesting the evil this man spews and his desire to overthrow the United States of America. The Muslim Brotherhood groups, in another sort of jihad, filmed plants and infiltrators in a gross smear of those opposing the groups that wish to destroy America.

Beyond Sedition: Obama and Global Jihad

But in the age of Obama, we are not merely infiltrated, no...that is so five years ago. They are running the show. Yes, the enemy is in control. Obama confirmed that in March 2011 with one of his most egregious acts of submission to Islam. As Congressman Peter King (R-NY) began his hearings on the radicalization of Muslims in the United States, the Obama Administration issued a statement saying: "We know there are many different reasons why individuals -- from many different faiths == succumb to terrorist ideologies."

What other faiths? It is only Islam that has inspired a terrorist ideology, as demanded, commanded by the Qur'an, Hadith and Sira. For Obama to pretend otherwise is madness. Yet on March 6, 2011, Obama's Deputy National Security Adviser, Denis McDonough, gave a speech at the ADAMS Center, a mosque in Sterling, Virginia. WorldNet Daily reported in February 2008 "Another D.C.-area mosque, the ADAMS Center, was founded and financed by members of the Muslim Brotherhood, and has been one of the top distributors of Wahhabist anti-Semitic and anti-Christian dogma."
Atlas Shrugs

Daisy Shrugged

Despite the fact that both she and radical Rauf have been fired from the Ground Zero victory mosque project, they refuse to go, so addicted to the limelight are they. The media adores them for this one thing -- a Ground Zero Islamic supremacist mosque, and Daisy loves the love of the dhimmedia right back. "We can’t step down from our very own creation. We are the vision behind it.” Uh, you've been fired.

I think she comes off quite horribly, quite deceptive, quite transparent and narcissitic here -- breathing in the putrid air of her own bubble.

UPDATE: Just as our profile of activist Daisy Khan, the woman behind the so-called ground zero mosque, was about to hit the newsstands, the controversy took another turn. On January 14, in what the New York Times described as a rift among the players behind the proposed Islamic community center, the project’s developer announced the appointment of a different imam—not Khan’s husband, the imam Feisal Abdul Rauf—as the center’s senior advisor (Rauf is still on the board). The developer, Sharif el-Gamal, also said the couple would no longer “be speaking on behalf of Park51, nor will they be raising funds for the project.”

This change in the imam’s status came as a complete surprise to Khan, who says the couple was not told about it in private or in advance; she says they only learned of it when reporters began to call. And she insists that the couple’s plan for a large, interfaith, Muslim-run community center near ground zero “will still be realized.”
Pamela Geller
Comment: This article may appear too abstract to my Twitter followers. The jihadists have finished the terror phase and currently engage in the subversion of the govt.

Jihad no Perversion They Follow Qur'an Exactly

IT IS NOT RADICAL ISLAMISTS BUT ISLAM ITSELF THAT THREATENS US.

President Obama this week once again called Islam "a great religion" which has been "distorted" by a small number of "extremists" to justify committing acts of violence against the West.

But the Qur'an (or Koran) itself, the holy book of Islam, contains over 100 verses calling for violence against Christians and Jews. To give just one example, Sura 9:5 says, "Slay the idolaters wherever you find them."


During a panel discussion sponsored by the Hudson Institute last January, retired Army Lt. Colonel Allen West, who did combat duty in Iraq, responded to a Marine who asked the question, how do you answer people who say that terrorists are following a "warped" version of Islam?

The panel consisted of a number of former military personnel, who fumbled around tying to answer the question. Col. West finally stepped forward answered the question directly and truthfully. Listen to the words of a former military man who understands the nature of the enemy we face:


Notice again Col. West's straightforward assessment: "This is not a perversion. They are doing exactly what this book (i.e., the Qur'an) says."

British salafi Abu Mounisa - The Islamic Awakening Conference

Listen to this British Muslim leader speak of "dawa." They are telling us what they intend to do. (vid hat tip Mark H.)

This is the face of Islam in the West, and Islamic supremacists and their leftist apologists don't even bat an eyelash. Speaking of dawah, let us not forget Ground Zero mosque radical Imam Rauf's book title: Call to Prayer from WTC Rubble: Dawa in the Heart of post 9/11 America is 'Sharia Compliant'

Today in Islam

Russia: Rocket-propelled grenade of peace fired at church in Muslim Caucasus

UK jihadist warns of more jihad attacks across Europe

How the jihadis stole Christmas: Coptic Pope considers canceling Christmas celebrations

Nigeria: Misunderstanders of Islam murder off-duty policeman

Islamic cleric says Egypt church bombing was in accord with Islamic teaching (links thanks to Robert)

busy busy busy little bees
Atlas Shrugs

Israel ARRESTS 2 Brit Consulate Wkers in J-m BOMB Plot

Israel says it has charged two workers at the British Consulate in Jerusalem with arms trafficking, in connection to an alleged plot by militants to fire a rocket into a football stadium.

Israel's Shin Bet intelligence agency is accusing the two Palestinians of helping two other suspects who are allegedly members of Hamas to acquire guns.

The four are being linked with an alleged conspiracy to launch a rocket attack on Jerusalem's Teddy Stadium.

Britain's Foreign Office has confirmed the arrests and says the UK is urgently seeking confirmation of the charges.

"We have been told by the Israeli authorities that the investigation into our two employees is unrelated to the work they do at the consulate," the spokesman said.

British sources in Israel say the pair are not thought to be senior members of staff. All staff at British embassies and consulates abroad are meant to undergo strict security screening.

Radical State: The Death of Europe

Excerpt from the book review by Pamela Geller
"Radical State" shows what has been the impact on daily life in Europe of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, formerly known as the Barcelona Process.

The goal of the Euro-Mediterranean cooperation is to create a new Greater European Union encompassing both Europe and North Africa, with the Mediterranean Sea becoming a domestic Eurabian sea. The goal is to establish a "comprehensive political partnership," including a "free trade area and economic integration"; "considerably more money for the partners" (that is, more European money flowing into North Africa); and "cultural partnership" -- that is, importation of Islamic culture into post-Christian Europe.

Skeptical? It’s already happening. Just read "Radical State" and you’ll see.

As Esman shows on every page, Muslims have already begun demanding special privileges and accommodations, and getting them. And the truth tellers and people wanting to be free are punished. The government of the Netherlands ought to be hanging its head in shame.

We cannot, and we must not, let the Islamic supremacists take control of Europe's destiny. We must take a strong stand. If the West is going to achieve any victory over the jihad, it will be because of the inestimable contributions of the people who are the heroes of "Radical State": Hirsi Ali, van Gogh, Pim Fortuyn, Geert Wilders, and other courageous truth tellers who have spoken out at great personal risk, and sometimes at the cost of their lives. They are the heroes not just of this book, but of this age, and we owe Abigail Esman a debt of gratitude for showing why that is so.
'Radical State': The Death of Europe
by Pamela Geller

In her powerful and sobering book "Radical State," Abigail R. Esman writes about "the larger question not even Americans have asked since the World Trade Towers fell: as we fight on to spread democracy, preserve democracy, defend democracy, no one yet, it seems, has actually defined, for all of us, what democracy actually is."

Pamela Geller - Part 2 We Are at War with Jihad

Pamela Geller - Part 1 We Are at War with Jihad

Pamela Geller speaks before the Coptic celebration of human rights.

Israeli War Crimes?

War crimes? I think not. Israel is constantly in a state of protecting itself from hostile neighbors. So, what did Pamela do? She decided to put up her own ads to counter the rhetoric.

The Seattle Transit Authority was in a bind. To avoid a hypocritical stance by not accepting her ads and to avoid the escalation of unnecessary friction by accepting the ads, they rejected the anti-Israel ads entirely, which was set for the next week.

Success.

Turning the head on politically correct arguments is her specialty. In this way, the inherent bias and ungodliness within the politically correct posture is exposed.

But week after week, Pamela unmasks the leftist radicals, stealth jihadists, & biased media in a potpourri of clever reportage and hard-hitting exposés sprinkled with biting humor.

Do you remember Rifqa Bary, the young Muslim-turned-Christian girl whose parents wanted to kill her for converting to Christianity? Thanks to Pamela’s beating the drum and calling for protest rallies – and despite the dishonest reporting of the mainstream media – a clearer picture emerged as to the dangers facing Rifqa. And now, upon turning 18, free from the threat of honor killing, Rifqa has vowed to “preach the word to all the nations.”

Another success.

It has been claimed that Pamela Geller was the one who made the Ground Zero Mosque story national news and, as a result of exposing the plans of stealth jihadists in the US, has come under such increasing opposition and actual death threats.

Fearless in the face of danger, protecting the common good, this is why I’m nominating Pamela Geller as Person of the Year.

You might, like me, pray for her protection and for her colleague Robert Spencer for all the work they undertake to preserve our Judeo-Christian heritage and to keep truth and freedom alive in America.

The reason for this pick is to encourage us all to be like Pamela Geller – because, if we all spoke out against unrighteousness, the forces that would try to derail this country would not be allowed to flourish.

Blessings, Pamela!

Why You Might not Live in a Muslim Country

Don't be lulled by this being in Sudan. This is a show of Islamic not Sudanese behavior and punishment, which prevails throughout Islamic countries.

This is what Obama and Eric Holder are protecting and promoting in the USA! Pretending to support freedom of religion and our Constitution while smoothing the way for Islamic sharia law (what part of any religion but Islam imposes whipping of women as part of their theological philosophies?)
The Jesuits and similar mindsets hundreds of years ago were harsh but evolved with civilization and stopped their savagery and brutality as mankind moved forward.

Islam has remained frozen in the dark ages of 1,400 years ago and INSISTS on imposing - TODAY - those outdated and savage customs of the culture in those long abandoned times by modern societies.

And criticizing us for not following their lead and trying to take us over and reverting us to mindless savagery.

Did you read about the Pakistan doctor arrested for BLASPHEMY because he threw a business card of a visiting salesman into his trash basket! The man's first name was Mohammad, who then went to the authorities and complained that the man had disrespected the Prophet!

In another instance, a Christian woman has been thrown into a basement in a prison and told that she has to remain there for the rest of her life - OTHERWISE, if she leaves - no one would stop her - she will be KILLED for polluting the Moslems who pass in the same air she has walked through, or where she has trodden and thus must DIE!

In Iran, when Reza Shah Pahlavi took over as Monarch, Jews were not allowed to leave their homes if it were raining outside as the rain running off them would similarly pollute where Moslems might want to walk and make them "unclean"! The Monarch put an end to that.

But our HIDDEN pro-Islamic regime in the USA under Oba-Hussein (no friend of the country) delights in using Islam as yet another tool to destroy the USA. There is not a single Moslem country that does NOT believe he is a fervent "closet" Moslem and revel in this conviction and laugh at "we the people" for being so easily fooled by his "taghiyeh" (lies allowed to protect/promote Islam).

There are terrific Moslems everywhere but as you can read in the psychological profile they have built in challenges in trying to accept or conform to Western mindsets. There are many who have changed themselves in order to live among Westerners and Islam allows them to drop many of the outward trappings of Islam in order to blend in while they still devote themselves to Allah in their hearts. This INCLUDES not having to wear Islamic clothing.

Putting to the lie that Islamic tenets and customs HAVE TO BE allowed in other countries to respect Islam. They can dress, behave and live like the rest of us in public without breaking their laws! BUT - their fanatical, jihadist fellow Moslems prevent them from assimilating - at least outwardly - as they lose power and control over them.

Anti-Mullah

Austrian MP Ewald Stadler adresses Turkish Ambassador

Austrian MP Ewald Stadler to Turkish Ambassador: "People are Sick and Tired of One-Way Street Tolerance Babble Which You Feed On"

[Play YouTube video]



Austrian MP Ewald Stadler powerful address to Turkish Ambassador. Finally ...... an eviscerating response to Turlish Islamic supremacism. Perhaps Obama will stop kissing Erdogan's ass?

hat tip Frank, vid tip Kitman

Reichstag Closed to Jihadist Threats

Germany closes famous glass dome at Berlin's Reichstag to visitors as terror fears mount TELEGRAPH

The world famous glass dome atop the Berlin Reichstag has been closed to all visitors as fears mount of an impending terrorist attack in the capital.

German parliament closed the dome, designed by Lord Foster, which thousands of tourists usually visit daily for unparalleled views of the city on Monday

The 116-year-old Reichstag building houses Germany’s parliament and is now thought to be the number one target for a commando squad plotting a Mumbai-style massacre.
Security has been stepped around the Reichstag, Germany's parliament in Berlin. This comes after fears of an attack by Islamic extremists

Security has been stepped around the Reichstag, Germany's parliament in Berlin. This comes after fears of an attack by Islamic extremists
Police officers with machine guns guard the Berlin parliament building, now closed to visitors

Last week the interior minister announced 'concrete indications' of a terror plot about to come to fruition. Security spiked at all major airports and railway stations across Germany.

Police believe at least two members of a jihadi hit squad are in Berlin.

Al Qaeda and associated Islamist groups are planning to take hostages and fire at people in the Reichstag, said news magazine Der Spiegel, citing intelligence sources.

News of the plot reportedly came from a jihadist who contacted the German authorities.

Litigation Jihad

Robert Spencer, Human Events

Islamic supremacists are at war with freedom of speech in the West: The 57-government Organization of the Islamic Conference has been campaigning for years now at the United Nations to compel Western states to criminalize “religious hatred”—that is, honest discussions of how Islamic jihadists use Islamic texts and teachings to justify violence and to recruit peaceful Muslims to their cause. One little-noted weapon in this war is the courtroom: using libel and defamation laws as weapons to cow critics and intimidate them into silence. My courageous and indefatigable colleague Pamela Geller is the latest target.

Muslim foes of the freedom of speech have used this weapon frequently over the years. The Hamas-linked Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) has sued many, and has threatened legal action against many more. In 2006 CAIR dropped a $1.35 million libel suit against Andrew Whitehead of Anti-CAIR, who had called CAIR a “terrorist front organization,” after Whitehead’s lawyers asked probing questions about the group during the discovery process.

In another notable case, billionaire Saudi Khalid bin Mahfouz sued writer Rachel Ehrenfeld in libel-friendly Britain for writing in her book Funding Evil that he was involved in funding Hamas and al-Qaeda. Bin Mahfouz denied that he had knowingly given money to either. This case became the foundation for new laws protecting American writers from libel rulings in other countries.

Now Ohio lawyer Omar Tarazi has filed a $10-million defamation lawsuit against Geller for elements of her reporting on the case of Rifqa Bary, the teenage girl who kicked off a year-long custody battle when she fled from her home in fear for her life after her Muslim father discovered her conversion to Christianity. (The battle ended when Rifqa turned eighteen and was free to live on her own as a Christian.)


[...]

“Rifqa Bary,” says Geller, “was a rebuke to all of the lies of Islamic supremacist narrative,” since she brought to national attention the Islamic death penalty for apostates, which Islamic apologists in the West routinely deny even exists. The Rifqa Bary affair, Geller explains, was a test case: Would Islamic supremacists be able to manipulate the American legal system to compel someone wishing to leave Islam to return to it, or would her freedom of conscience be upheld?

When Rifqa turned eighteen without having been forced back into her parents’ home, CAIR and its allied forces suffered a major setback. “Her victory,” said Geller, “is a stunning defeat for them and they will take it out on anyone who helped her.”

Fed Up Muslims Declare War on Australia

Muslims at Lakemba listen to speakers / Pic: John Grainger Source: The Daily Telegraph

"We want the Muslim people to have their say. We are telling them that Labor has not done the job and that it's time for them to go."

If this is not, in and of itself, concrete evidence of intent and motive, I don't know what is. It's interesting how Muslims insist upon separate status, special class, sharia, etc in their "host" countries. Parallel societies.

"A house divided cannot stand." Abraham Lincoln.

Check out the headline "fed up" -- indeed. And notice this goes far beyond "extremists." It is mainstream.

Fed-up Muslims to take on ALP Daily Telegraph (hat tip Peggy)

ISLAMIC leaders have declared war on the State Government, calling for pro-Muslim candidates to run in key western Sydney Labor seats.

Lebanese Muslim Association president Samier Dandan yesterday used the Eid al-Adha festival at Lakemba to outline his group's political ambitions.

In front of more than 5000 followers, Mr Dandan said Labor had to be kicked out of office at the March election.

"We want the Muslim people to have their say. We are telling them that Labor has not done the job and that it's time for them to go," he said.

Mr Dandan said the Labor seats of Auburn, Lakemba, Liverpool, Bankstown and Canterbury would be targeted. He did not rule out the possibility of running independent candidates at the election.

"I can't disclose our strategy but our message is clear. We need change. Our people have been marginalised and left behind," Mr Dandan said.

Mr Dandan, a member of the Arabic Chamber of Commerce who served as a Muslim Reference Group adviser to former prime minister John Howard, said councils and Labor MPs had discriminated against Sydney's Muslims.

"Enough is enough. Labor thinks these are safe seats. That's why they don't spend the money," he said.

"And the Liberal Party, why would they bother?"

Former NRL star Hazem El Masri has been sounded out by the Liberal Party to stand.

While Labor MPs were nowhere to be seen, Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell sent an Arabic-speaking spokesman.

More than 25,000 people attended the Lakemba mosque yesterday to celebrate the second most important day on the Muslim religious calendar.

Atlas Shrugs

Pamela Geller & Crew @ Texas Tea Party Event

The venue was breathtaking. The attention to detail was jaw-dropping, down to the name tags. Each one handmade with miniature Post American Presidency icons -- and the table centerpieces were handmade as well, each a huge book at the base. What heart went into this.

The crowd was electric. Good, decent concerned Americans who understand the mortal threat to the West and want to effect change.

And yes we had such a blast. Of course, I forgot my camera (slaps head), but these pics where tagged on facebook by Atlas reader Buster C., who made the trip to see us, so I grabbed his shots. Last time I saw Buster was last year, when he came to McKinney where I spoke to the Collin County Conservatives.

Speaking of Collin County, both Denise and uber mensch Katherine Park (who organized last year's McKinney event) were in attendance, as was Amil Imani, the new head of our Iran Freedom Initiative, Sid Garfield, Cathy Dunson (Atlas researcher on Obama's foreign contributions, Gaza Division) and her lovely son, Mike and Stacy, the 912 Fort Worth tea party leadership, and the Iraq war vets to whom we owe everything.
Texas event signing

Although I am a Democrat since the Harry Truman era, I am an American Jew who lives 22 miles from Egypt. As an Israeli, I am aware the sworn intent of Islam is to wipe all Jews and Christians from the face of the Earth. Whenever the possess the power to kill us, they will.
Such niceties as Mutually Assured Destruction mean nothing to Islamic Supremacists, because they have the assurances that God is on their side. The POTUS has given little evidence that he opposes the Muslim intent. Certainly, affirmative action to counter the Muslim threat is not in the Obama playbook.
Unfortunately, the threat is not a priority for the Tea Party, either.

Top Brit General Admits Muslims Will Win

The new head of Britain's armed forces, Gen Sir David Richards, has warned that the West cannot defeat al-Qaeda and militant Islam.

He said defeating Islamist militancy was "unnecessary and would never be achieved".

However, he argued that it could be "contained" to allow Britons to lead secure lives.

Gen Richards, 58, said the threat posed by "al-Qaeda and its affiliates" meant Britain's national security would be at risk for at least 30 years.

The general, who will tomorrow lay a wreath at the Cenotaph in Whitehall in memory of Britain's war dead, said the West's war against what he described as a "pernicious ideology" had parallels with the fight against Nazi Germany in the Second World War.

In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, the general disclosed that Prince William was unlikely to serve in Afghanistan but suggested that his brother Harry, training to be an Apache helicopter pilot, could return to front-line duty in Helmand province.

He said the British military and the Government had been "guilty of not fully understanding what was at stake" in Afghanistan and admitted that the Afghan people were beginning to "tire" of Nato's inability to deliver on its promises.

However, he said the sacrifice being made by the Armed Forces in Afghanistan, where 343 soldiers have been killed since 2001, "has been worth it". Progress was being made and Nato was "in the right parish". He said: "Don't give up folks, it's all to play for."
[....]

The general said: "In conventional war, defeat and victory is very clear cut and is symbolised by troops marching into another nation's capital. First of all you have to ask: do we need to defeat it [Islamist militancy] in the sense of a clear cut victory? I would argue that it is unnecessary and would never be achieved.

"But can we contain it to the point that our lives and our children's lives are led securely? I think we can."

"I think we can." Doesn't sound like a rallying cry to me.
Pamela Geller

UK Islamic Insurgency: "British Soldiers Will Burn In Hell" -- Muslims Against Remembrance Day 2010 - Atlas Shrugs

UK Islamic Insurgency: "British Soldiers Will Burn In Hell" -- Muslims Against Remembrance Day 2010 - Atlas Shrugs
British Soldiers Will Burn in Hell
On 11th November 2010, commonwealth countries will join together in a moment of silence to commemorate the sacrifices of their civilians and armed forces during times of war. For over a century these events have gone uninterrupted, as millions of people continue to reflect on the casualties of modern warfare.

Unfortunately, the bitter reality of Remembrance Day is that the majority of people (who participate in it) are blissfully unaware of the hidden truths behind this very distasteful event. Put simply, Remembrance Day is a symbol of imperialism and everything that is wrong with democracy and man-made law.

As Muslims, we can poignantly remember the victims of (British) military intervention, the bullets fired and the bombs dropped, the lands occupied and the resources stolen and in light of this find it very difficult to remember the perpetrators of such crimes without much anger and hostility.

The British military are currently at the forefront of some of the harshest campaigns against Islam and Muslims, and furthermore have played a crucial role in cementing economic and strategic interests that rob large Muslim populations of vital resources.

In light of this, Muslims against Crusades have organised an emergency demonstration, to highlight these injustices and to furthermore ensure that on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, this message is heard loudly and clearly.

[Play YouTube video]



"The Muslim Ummah is one Ummah
Our Land is One, Our Peace is One, Our War is One
Anyone of you can represent the ummah."