Islamic Jihad Against Christians

By Pamela Geller

With their typical mutual respect, devout Muslims have been celebrating Christmas the world over. Jihad bombers murdered 34 people as Christians were coming out of church on Christmas morning in Baghdad, and Muslims threatened and protested against Christmas celebrations all over the world. Two days after Christmas, Lebanon’s former ambassador to the U.S. and at least four other people were murdered in a car bombing in Beirut. That same day, jihadists killed 10 people with a bomb in a restaurant in Mogadishu and three soldiers with a homicide car bombing in Kabul.

Of course, we all know that it’s Islamophobia that’s the real problem – although I suspect that the victims might not agree. And meanwhile, on Christmas, Muslims showed the respect and tolerance they demand from everyone else at a time when Christians are being mercilessly persecuted and slaughtered under Muslim rule across the world.

In Denmark, Muslims screaming “Allahu akbar” held a demonstration on Christmas Eve. They were not the only ones: It is not unusual for Muslims to denounce Christmas. In November 2011, the Lebanese Muslim cleric Abu Musaab Wajdi Akkari said:

You cannot say: “Merry Christmas.” Not even if an alien came and said it to you – you cannot even say it to him, and say: “He’s just an alien. I’m never going to see him again. He’s not going to tell anyone.” No “Merry Christmas” – not from a Muslim and not from a non-Muslim. It’s not part of our religion – period! It is the concept that God was born on the 25th of December. That’s as polytheistic and heretic as you can get. When you say: “Merry Christmas,” you are saying: “Congratulations on your false religion,’ ‘Congratulations on your false understanding of life.” You are congratulating them on the most evil of polytheism and heresy.

In Turkey, according to ANI, “a Turkish Muslim youth group has condemned Santa Claus for bringing booze, drugs and immorality to the society. The Anatolia Youth Association held a demonstration in Istanbul urging residents to turn against Santa for contributing to moral decay, degeneration of their culture and leading to identity crises in their society, CNN reports. The group used an inflatable plastic Santa as a prop, littering the ground below it with beer cans, a syringe and a cross to illustrate the dangers of inviting Santa into Turkish homes, the report added.” Posters appeared in FYROM and Turkey of Muslims hitting Santa Claus.

Even Muslims in America denounced Christmas. The Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI, reported that “the Mufti of Washington, D.C., Sheikh Muhammad Al-Hanooti, prohibited Muslim children from having their photos taken with Santa Claus, as this is a ‘sin’ and ‘an abomination’ that contravenes the tenets of Islam. The site emphasized that the Mufti’s position does not represent the view of most Muslims living in the U.S., and that the imam of a mosque in Maryland has even urged Muslims to celebrate Christmas along with the Christians as a means of promoting their integration in American society.”

This kind of thing happens every year. MEMRI reported last year that “on New Year’s Eve, members of the youth wing of Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan attacked revelers in the city of Lahore and smashed cars to protest against New Year’s celebrations, while columnists and Islamic clerics in Pakistan and India declared the occasion as un-Islamic, urging youth to refrain from emulating the West on occasions like New Year’s and Christmas.”

Meanwhile, in Israel, Islamic jihadists did their best to start a war. After a weekend of Islamic attacks against Israel, I warned that “the savages are itching for a war – it’s imminent.” And I was right.

On Christmas Eve, Hamas shot and killed an Israel civilian who was fixing the border fence along the Gaza Strip after the storm that struck Israel the week before: “The man, 22-year-old Saleh Abu Latif from the predominantly Bedouin city of Rahat, was working between Nahal Oz and Kfar Aza as a civilian employed by the Israeli Defense Ministry on repairs to a section of the Israel-Gaza border fence damaged in last week’s storm. The fence had collapsed in three locations due to the storm.”

This was typical of Muslim warfare: They struck on Christmas Eve. Religious holidays are always a favored day for war and bloodshed for devout Muslims waging jihad.

Of course, the media didn’t report any of this, and won’t until the Israelis react (which is long overdue).

And it is demanded that we respect this.

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National ID Headed for your Wallet, Purse

Just  as you were wrapping your mind around the idea that under Obamacare and the accompanying changes in the health-care system, your medical records will be floating around in some online repository, available to far too many people, you’re being told you’ll soon have a National
Identity Card and a Western Hemisphere-compliant travel document whether you want it or not, if you plan to drive in the United States.

The federal government says it soon will be enforcing its demands
that state-issued driver’s licenses and ID cards comply with Department
of Homeland Security standards.

DHS announced  just before Christmas a final schedule for the full enforcement of the REAL ID Act of 2005.

That was set for a phased implementation beginning in January 2014
and full-scale enforcement planned no later than May 2017, at which time
 the federal government will no longer accept state-issued driver’s
licenses and ID cards that do not meet the minimum security standards
set by DHS.

For many Americans, the full implementation of the REAL ID act is
certain to trigger unfortunate memories of World War II and the modus
operandi of fascist, totalitarian states, where travelers and ordinary
citizens on the street are stopped by authorities and demanded, “Your
papers, please!”

In the U.S., the justification for the REAL ID Act of 2005 was the
concern for enhanced travel security after the 9/11 Commission
documented several of the 9/11 terrorists had valid state-issued
driver’s licenses and were able to freely board airplanes even though
they were terrorists who had entered the U.S. illegally.

Among the DHS requirements for a state-issued driver’s license to be
DHS-compliant will be the presentation by the applicant of a valid birth
 certificate, verification of the applicant’s Social Security Number or
documentation the person is not eligible for Social Security, and proof
the applicant is either a U.S. citizen or lawfully admitted to the U.S.
as a permanent or temporary resident.

Further, driver’s license and IDs issued by the states will have to
meet stringent requirements as set by the federal government.

To qualify as DHS-compliant, state-issued driver’s licenses and ID cards must have built-in security features to prevent tampering, counterfeiting, and duplication of the documents for a fraudulent
purpose.

They also must have features that establish the individual’s
identity, including but not limited to full facial digital photographs,
plus machine readable coded information in the form of a bar code that
captures the key printed information on the card, such as name of the
applicant, address, gender, unique driver’s license or
card-identification number, state of issuance, date of application, and
date of expiration.

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I Now Pronounce You Man and Wives ...

Turns out, marriage isn't about two people who love each other—it's about three or five or six. That was Judge Clark Waddoups' opinion in the most explosive ruling the media isn't talking about.

Late last week, the U.S. district judge's ruling should have kicked off the evening news in every major market across America. Instead, his 91-page pro-polygamy bombshell is nothing but a back-page blip. And that's no accident.

 When Waddoups struck down Utah's criminal ban on "plural marriages" last Friday, the networks started tiptoeing around the story like the cultural grenade it is.

Like us, they know the left's dirty little secret—that people who support same-sex marriage are saying "I do" to a lot more than they bargained for. While liberals insist that same-sex marriage is the ultimate goal, their demands only lay the groundwork for other relationships to demand the same entitlements. Once the courts and policymakers depart from the natural definition of marriage, the left has a legal foundation for any arrangement between consenting adults.

Judge Waddoups essentially admitted as much. Despite the fact that the Supreme Court outlawed polygamy years ago, Waddoups insists he can't possibly rest on that decision in modern society. In his words, America has "developed constitutional jurisprudence that now protects individuals from the criminal consequences intended by legislatures to apply to certain personal choices."

Unfortunately, the Supreme Court's ruling on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) this summer only sped the process along. Polygamists popped the corked on a little champagne of their own after the June ruling, as they wait their turn for nationwide acceptance

.

"We're very happy with [the ruling on DOMA]," said Joe Darger, a Utah polygamist, "I think [the court] has taken a step in correcting some inequality, and that's certainly something that's going to trickle down and impact us. ... I think the government needs to now recognize that we have a right to live free as much as anyone else."

Proponents of polygamy are riding the homosexual movement's wave of success all the way to legitimacy.

And that's exactly what the mainstream media is afraid of. They see the potential for this debate to sway the middle and derail the same-sex marriage train. Recognizing that their destinies are very much intertwined, polygamists are using the same playbook as their same-sex marriage counterparts. Step one: Overturn the law. Step two: Demand recognition. Step three: Force acceptance.

Ten years ago, Justice Antonin Scalia predicted exactly that in Lawrence v. Texas, the Supreme Court decision rolling back sodomy statutes. With prophetic insight, he pointed to the threat to state laws "based on moral choices" against "bigamy, same-sex marriage, adult incest, prostitution ... adultery, fornication, bestiality, and obscenity." Anyone being intellectually honest knew this was where liberals were pushing America. Of course, the media for years laughed off groups like Family Research Council who warned that the left's goal isn't same-sex marriage but any kind of marriage.

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120,000 People Displaced by South Sudan Violence: UN

More than 120,000 people have been displaced by continuing violence in South Sudan, the United Nations said, as African leaders met Friday to find a political solution to a crisis that has exposed ethnic rifts within the country.

Regional leaders under a bloc called IGAD are meeting Friday in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi to discuss South Sudan. That summit is expected to produce a roadmap for peace talks between South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and former Vice-President Riek Machar, Kiir's political rival who is accused of orchestrating a failed coup that the government says sparked unrest across the oil-producing East African country.

"We in Kenya and the region are concerned with the loss of lives and resultant humanitarian crisis and would like to see the government taking the initiative to end hostilities," Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said late Thursday.

The number of internally displaced people has been rising since fighting started on Dec. 15 in the capital, Juba, before spreading across the country. Now there are sporadic military clashes in the oil-rich states of Unity and Upper Nile, potentially endangering the oil revenues that South Sudan depends on to keep the government running.

The UN said aid agencies need at least $166 million to save lives.
Machar, the alleged leader of renegade forces now in control of some parts of South Sudan, remains a fugitive wanted by the military. At least 10 of his political allies are in detention for their roles in the alleged coup plot. Machar denies there was a coup attempt, and some officials with the ruling party insist violence broke out when presidential guards from Kiir's majority Dinka tribe tried to disarm guards from the Nuer ethnic group, leading to wider military clashes along ethnic lines.

The top UN humanitarian official in South Sudan, Toby Lanzer, said earlier this week that he believes the death toll has surpassed 1,000. The UN also is investigating alleged mass killings in the latest violence.
"We have heard reports of extra-judicial killings, arbitrary detentions of civilians, ill-treatment, abuse and also mass graves," said Hilde Johnson, head of the UN mission in South Sudan. "Our human rights officers have been working around the clock, throughout this crisis, and they are investigating these reports and allegations."

Read more: Here

Italian Kindergarten Shuts Down Nativity Recitals to Avoid Offending Muslims: Report

TURIN, Italy, December 19, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A nationalist party has launched a complaint at the decision of some schools and kindergartens in the city of Turin to shut down all Christmas Nativity celebrations, or remove all mention of Christianity from them, out of fear of “offending the sensibilities” of the schools’ growing Muslim population.

Roberto Carbonero, the director of Lega Nord (the Northern League), said that if confirmed, the decision by some school principals “would be a very serious matter which is unprecedented.”

“Such a decision is completely unacceptable,” he said, adding that the city, not the individual schools, should have competence to make such decisions.
“The ‘city of inclusion’ fantasized about on the Left cannot become a ‘city of discrimination for Catholics,’” Carbonero said.

“It is not acceptable that, in favor of uncontrolled immigration...our citizens, our children, must give up their own traditions and their own culture,” he said. “I’m not staying with the school [of thought] that we should be ashamed of the Catholic base of our society and its history.”

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Duck Dynasty Family to A&E: Dump Dad and You Lose All of Us

LOUISIANA, December 20, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Under a beautiful photo of the entire Robertson clan posted on their official webpage yesterday, the Robertson family sent a message to millions of fans noting they are standing firmly behind their patriarch Phil Robertson. A&E television network which has raked in millions of fans for the Duck Dynasty reality show starring the Robertson clan suspended Robertson in response to a GQ interview where he expressed a Biblical view opposed to homosexuality.

“We are disappointed that Phil has been placed on hiatus for expressing his faith, which is his constitutionally protected right,” the message reads. “We have had a successful working relationship with A&E but, as a family, we cannot imagine the show going forward without our patriarch at the helm. We are in discussions with A&E to see what that means for the future of Duck Dynasty.”

Millions of Americans have joined facebook and other pages in support of Phil’s stand. Sarah Palin and Governor Bobby Jindal are among the conservatives who have spoken out in support of the elder Robertson’s freedom of speech.
However, it is not only conservatives chiming in to support Phil’s freedoms and condemn the A&E network. Famed lesbian writer Camille Paglia has slammed A&E’s decision as “utterly fascist, utterly Stalinist.”

“I speak with authority here because I was openly gay before the 'Stonewall Rebellion,' when it cost you something to be so," said Paglia in an interview with Laura Ingrham. "And I personally feel as a libertarian that people have the right to free thought and free speech. In a democratic country, people have the right to be homophobic as they have the right to support homosexuality -- as I 100 percent do.”

“If people are basing their views against gays on the Bible, again they have a right to religious freedom there,” she added. Paglia bemoaned that her “liberal colleagues in the Democratic Party and on college campuses have supported and promoted” the “punitive PC, utterly fascist, utterly Stalinist” punishment meted out to Phil.

“It's the whole legacy of the free speech 1960's that have been lost by my own party," she concluded.

The family says they have “spent much time in prayer since learning of A&E's decision,” declaring that “while some of Phil’s unfiltered comments to the reporter were coarse, his beliefs are grounded in the teachings of the Bible.”


The Robertson family message remains simply Christian. “We want you to know that first and foremost we are a family rooted in our faith in God and our belief that the Bible is His word,” they said. “Phil is a Godly man who follows what the Bible says are the greatest commandments: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart’ and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Phil would never incite or encourage hate.”

 

Source

Morgentaler’s Lawyer Will Sue BC Government for Approving Nation’s First Christian Law School

TORONTO, December 19, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pro-abortion constitutional and civil rights lawyer Clayton Ruby — known for his work on behalf of arch-abortionist Henry Morgentaler and now for accused child pornographer Benjamin Levin — will make good his threat to sue the British Columbian government after it approved yesterday a new Christian law school to open at Trinity Western University (TWU) in 2016.

TWU President Bob Kuhn called it “unfortunate” that a “positive story” about a Christian university opening a law school has received such “negative attention”.

Clayton Ruby

“It’s largely an anti-Christian approach,” he told LifeSiteNews.com.

Ruby added his voice of opposition to the proposed law school along with the Canadian Council of Law Deans. Ruby had previously called the school’s Christian beliefs a “perverse” bit of “silliness”.

Ruby singled out the school’s community covenant, which requires students to reserve “sexual intimacy” for the “sacredness of marriage between a man and a woman,” something he suggested is discriminatory or “illegal" because he says it would curtail homosexual sex.

Ruby told the homosexual news service Xtra yesterday that having a Christian law school that makes its students adhere to a code of conduct is “immoral and unconscionable and we think unconstitutional”.

"We will be taking them to court,” he said, adding that he hopes the approval will be struck down.

In approving the law school, Advanced Education Minister Amrik Virk noted that TWU does not receive any government funding and that it met the “degree program quality assessment criteria for private and out-of-province public institutions”.

Continued, here.

Editor Describes Pressure After Leaks by Snowden

The top editor of the British newspaper The Guardian told Parliament on Tuesday that since it obtained documents on government surveillance from a former National Security Agency contractor, Edward J. Snowden, it has met with government agencies in Britain and the United States more than 100 times and has been subjected to measures “designed to intimidate.”

The testimony by the editor, Alan Rusbridger, gave a public airing to the debate over how to balance press freedom against national security concerns, an issue that became more acute once The Guardian began publishing material leaked by Mr. Snowden in June. 

The American and British governments have said the disclosures, which detail how the National Security Agency and its equivalent in Britain, Government Communication Headquarters, gather vast amounts of data, damage national security and help hostile governments. Journalists and transparency advocates have countered that the leak spurred a vital debate on privacy and the role of spy agencies in the Internet age. 

Mr. Rusbridger said Tuesday that the governments’ measures “include prior restraint,” as well as visits by officials to his office, the enforced destruction of Guardian computer disks with power tools and repeated calls from lawmakers “asking police to prosecute” The Guardian for disclosing the classified material in news articles. 

As he testified before a Parliamentary committee on national security, he faced aggressive questioning from lawmakers, particularly those of the ruling Conservative Party. Some asserted that The Guardian had handled the material irresponsibly, putting it at risk of interception by hostile governments and others. Others said the paper had jeopardized national security. 

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Syrian Opposition Fighters Seize 12 Nuns From Christian Village

Opposition fighters have abducted 12 nuns from a predominantly Christian village near Damascus and taken them to a rebel-held town, the mother superior of a Syrian convent said on Tuesday.
Febronia Nabhan, Mother Superior at Saidnaya Convent, said that the nuns and three other women had been seized from another convent in the predominantly Christian village of Maaloula and taken to the nearby town of Yabroud on Monday.

On the same day, Syrian rebels had captured large parts of Maaloula, around 40 miles north-east of the capital, after three days of fighting.

The state news agency Sana reported on Monday that six nuns, including the Maaloula convent's mother superior Pelagia Sayaf, were trapped in the nunnery.

A tourist attraction before the civil war erupted in March 2011, some of Maaloula's residents still speak a version of Aramaic, a biblical language spoken by Jesus. In September, rebels seized parts of the town only to be driven out within a few days by government forces.

News of the kidnapping came as Syria's state TV reported that a suicide attacker detonated his explosive vest in an unspecified government institution in Damascus, killing four and wounding 17. The TV station gave no further details about the blast in the central Jisr Abyad neighbourhood.

Continued, here.