As We Try to Celebrate Christmas

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com


Hat tip Memri and Jihad Watch


First of all, let me wish a Merry Christmas to all my Christian readers. For my Jewish readers who just recently celebrated Hanukkah, I also extend my love and best wishes.

But it is hard not to  feel a sense of anger when Christians and Jews are being persecuted around the world.

As I write, the city of Barcelona is under high alert over credible reports that an unidentified Moroccan man may be planning to strike the city on this holiest of Christian holidays.

https://www.jihadwatch.org/2018/12/barcelona-police-warn-of-muslim-plotting-jihad-massacre-on-christmas-day-city-on-high-alert

Here is a Spanish report from El Pais (Spain), which I have not had time to translate as yet.

https://elpais.com/ccaa/2018/12/24/catalunya/1545661368_910928.html


From Canada comes yet another report of a Muslim cleric urging his followers not to wish Christians a Merry Christmas. Yes, Canada has a real problem with hate being preached in many of their mosques.

https://www.jihadwatch.org/2018/12/canada-muslim-cleric-says-wishing-christians-merry-christmas-is-worse-than-murder

Also on high alert are the always beleaguered Christians of Pakistan, fearing attacks on Christmas day as one of their own, Asia Bibi, remains in hiding while Western nations (and the Vatican) studiously ignore her pleas for asylum. It is an international disgrace.

https://www.jihadwatch.org/2018/12/islamic-republic-of-pakistan-security-high-at-churches-for-christmas-asia-bibi-still-in-hiding

Meanwhile, Pope Francis continues to ignore the persecution of Christians in Muslim majority countries while lecturing Europeans that they must continue to bring in more and more Muslims, some of  whom will torment Europe's Jews and plan attacks on Christmas markets, which are now the target of choice.

And the politicians in Western Europe (with the exception of Italy, Austria, and possibly Denmark) are on the Pope's side as they continue their insane immigration policies, no matter how many people are murdered and no matter how many women are raped. Jews continue to live in fear and many are emigrating. Politicians make statements of support and place guards in front of synagogues and Jewish schools, but the importation of Jew-hating Muslim men continues unabated, thus, the threat continues to increase.

I emphasize  that I am not referring to all Muslims, but the threat is very real and deeply rooted in Islamic doctrine.

But it is not only Muslims who need to take a look in the mirror. Our political and religious leaders, both Christian and Jewish, are letting us down. They are afraid to stand up to the Islamists in our midst and call them out for their hatred. Interfaith events, which appear to be noble on their surface, are nothing more than exercises in surrender by Christian and Jewish religious leaders who allow Muslim leaders to lie to us about Islam's "peaceful" nature. Many of these same Muslim leaders have a completely different (and more hateful) message when speaking to their own followers. Again-not all, but far too many.

Praying for peace seems to be an exercise in futility, but at least we can pray that today will not be marred by Islamic terror in Spain, Pakistan or anywhere else.

Merry Christmas.

UC Berkeley Has to Pay for Abridging Free Speech

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com


UC Berkeley has learned the hard way there can be a price to pay for abridging free speech on campus. Now they are paying out $70,000 to Young America Foundation.


https://www.yaf.org/news/yaf-wins-landmark-free-speech-lawsuit-uc-berkeley-to-pay-70000-and-rescind-unconstitutional-policies/?fbclid=IwAR1rahcMqkjCI6AJv0Sd2AwxtLYUDV4g9hAeiBBE0wvTsNfGtaSVmOfr2ks

It is more subtle than a university refusing a student group to bring in a particular speaker. There are other ways a university can limit or eliminate free speech by certain speakers they don't like. They can charge outrageous security fees, for example, that they would not charge to other groups.

Several years ago, I attended an event at UC Irvine where David Horowitz appeared. Not only did the university switch his meeting room at the last minute to a more obscure part of the campus, none of the whiteboard markers had enough ink. Horowitz repeatedly laughed it off at the UCI administrators in the audience who were documenting his words on their laptops.

When Milo Yiannopoulos appeared at UCI not long ago, the event was placed in a room much too small to accomodate the hundreds of people (including myself) who were trying to get in-and whose names were on the registration list.

I salute the YAF for holding UCB's feet to the fire. These institutions all have a ready made statement they release to the media when these things happen to the effect that they are "100 committed to the principles of free speech, inclusions, etc etc etc". It is a joke. When students and assorted riff-raff rioted at UC Berkeley a few years ago forcing a last minute cancellation to Yiannopoulos's appearance, the university all but put their seal of approval on the assaults and destruction of property as campus police stood around like potted plants. Other universities, like UCI, seem to be allowing disruptions to continue for a set period of time before gently ushering the protesters out with no consequences.

Left to their own devices and with the public not paying attention, universities will continue to limit conservative speech and indoctrinate our youth. They need to be countered, and, when appropriate, sued.

SJP Conference Looms Over UCLA

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com


This article first appeared in Times of Israel.

Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) will be holding its national conference at UCLA from November 16-18. A few years ago (February 2011), SJP held its Western regional conference on the Westwood campus. That featured the anti-semitic Oakland imam, Amir Abdel Malik Ali, leading his audience in the "pledge of allegiance", which bore no resemblance to the one most of us recite here in the US. Ali's "pledge" swore to fight to the death on behalf of Islam, jihad, and all that charming stuff.

There is much opposition to this year's conference, as well there should be. SJP is anti-Jewish to its core. No matter that they have a few misguided misfits of Jewish background. They are all for the total destruction of the Jewish state of Israel.

Here is an op-ed that the feckless UCLA chancellor, Gene Block, has written in the LA Times regarding the conference.

With all due respect, Mr Block is full of it. For years, he has allowed Jewish students at UCLA to be bullied and intimidated by the likes of SJP, the Muslim Student Association, and other pro-Palestinian forces. He is hardly alone among UC chancellors. From UC San Diego to UC Berkeley and in-between, it's the same old story. For 20 years, I have seen it first-hand on the UC Irvine campus where I taught part-time from 1998-2016. In the past two years since I stopped teaching there, I have attended subsequent events where the bully-boy antics of the SJP have been on full display. Their tactics are simple: disrupt, bully and intimidate. They are a disgraceful and despicable organization.

And look who is headlining this year's freak show at UCLA. The keynote speaker is Chicago-based Palestinian activist, Hatem Abudayyeh. Here is what Discover the Networks has to say about Abudayyeh.

Abudayyeh was an outspoken supporter of Rasmieh Odeh, the Palestinian woman who was convicted of terrorism in Israel, hid that fact while immigrating to the US, and was finally deported after lengthy and costly legal proceedings. All the while, she appeared in front of the courthouse where she was being tried shouting into a bullhorn to her followers about how unjust America is. And this guy Abudayyeh was one of her biggest boosters.

Lovely fellow. Just what SJP wants to represent them. We should all draw the appropriate conclusions.

As Chancellor Block stated, SJP has the right to free speech. But make no mistake. From November 16-18, hate speech will be on display at UCLA. With the new outbreak of fighting between Israel and the Hamas regime in Gaza, no doubt the rhetoric at UCLA will get even more heated. The 2016 UC Statement of Principles Against Intolerance, which Block referenced, will be violated to the point of making it nothing more than a scrap of paper.

University of Michigan: It's Required

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com

"Speaker Emory Douglas, part of the “Penny Stamps Speakers Series Presentation” of the Stamps School of Art and Design, displayed a slide that showed a picture of Netanyahu and Hitler with the words “Guilty Of Genocide” written across their faces. Below the photo was the definition of genocide."

The University of Michigan has been in the news quite a bit lately, and for all the wrong reasons. Just recently, a University of Michigan professor made news when he refused to write a letter of recommendation for a student to study in Israel. Now comes this about a speaker who compared Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu with Hitler. That's bad enough. It was a required attendance for certain students. 


https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/252890

So here we have a former Black Panther who comes to the university to defame Netanyahu as being comparable to Hitler, and attendance is mandatory?

I invite the reader to follow the above link to the Penny Stamps site. If you are left with the impression that it is tilted way to the left, you are not alone. This reminds me of the UC Irvine New Narratives program instituted a few years ago by then Vice Chancellor Thomas Parham. In April 2017, I attended one such event which was loaded with a panel of victims including one black radical Canadian  woman who had recently moved to the US and opened her talk by saying that she had picked the wrong time to come here in referring to President Trump. I tried unsuccessfully to get New Narratives to invite a speaker who had a more favorable image of America, but all I got was a big run-around.

I wonder if the Penny Stamps Speakers Series would consider bringing in a pro-Israel speaker to provide some semblance of balance to those students who are required to sit through these lectures.

Probably not.

Professor Juan Cole's Mohammad

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com


Hat tip Campus Watch and Middle East Forum


https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/articles/2018/was-prophet-muhammad-really-illiterate-an-intervi

University of Michigan professor Juan Cole always goes to incredible lengths to defend everything that is Islamic. Now he has come out with a new book on the Prophet Mohammad entitled, Mohammad: Prophet of Peace Amid the Clash of Empires. If you had any doubts this would be a hagiographic endeavor, Cole's interview with Joseph Richard Preville erases all doubt.

How one can described Mohammad as a "prophet of peace" when he led armies to fight non-Muslims, took women and children as slaves and ordered the murders of his opponents and the beheadings of captives is beyond me. It is true that when Mohammad began his teaching in Mecca, he was peaceful. After he was driven out of Mecca, he and his followers went to  present-day Medina, where he consolidated his power and evolved into a warlord. Here are some statements by Cole that strain credulity.

JRP: You write that “Islam is, no less than Christianity, a Western religion that initially grew up in the Roman Empire” and that “Muhammad saw himself as an ally of the West.” How does your theory challenge or support other major scholarly interpretations of early Islam?

JC: The Arab Muslim sources emphasize the origins of Islam in Arabia and downplay how integrated the Arabs of late antiquity were into the Eastern Roman Empire, but Roman sources, inscriptions, and Qur'an passages give strong evidence for the Arabs as Roman citizens or  allies.  As for Muhammad being allied with Constantinople, there is some evidence for it in early Arabic sources and the eminent Princeton classicist G. W. Bowersock has hinted at it in his recent work, but I have taken the bull by the horns and said it explicitly.

It is true that all three monotheistic religions, Christianity, Judaism and Islam were born in the Middle East. While the first two successfully spread to the West ( the US is a democratic nation founded on Judaic-Christian principles), Islam's spread to the West, largely through recent immigration has hardly been successful. Assimilation has been slight and the clashes are too many to mention especially in Europe today. The fact is that Islam is antithetical to Western ideals of equality and freedom.


JRP: Many biographies portray Muhammad as illiterate and provincial.  Would you agree?

JC: The Muslim tradition calls Muhammad "illiterate," I think in part to protect him from charges by polemicists that he learned things by reading the Bible or other works.  But the tradition also says he was a successful long-distance merchant who regularly traded up to Damascus and Gaza in the Eastern Roman Empire.  Long distance merchants are always literate, and I think Muhammad could read and write Arabic, Aramaic and possibly Greek.  The Qur'an shows knowledge of the Bible, of Jewish tradition, and of classical Greek thought.  It isn't provincial.

An interesting observation and opinion on the part of Cole since he strays from Islamic teaching that Mohammad was illiterate. Also interesting is the reason Cole thinks Muslims say that Mohammad was illiterate. Critics of Islam do not believe that Mohammad truly received the word of God from the archangel Gabriel (He may have imagined he did), therefore the idea that he read the Bible and initially borrowed from it is open to question.

RP: What was Muhammad’s role in the creation of the Constitution of Madinah?  How revolutionary was this document for its time?

JC: The Constitution of Madinah was a treaty among groups in Madinah, to which the Meccan pagans expelled Muhammad in 622.  Madinah had Muslims, Jews and pagans and possibly some Christians. The treaty pledged all these groups to defend the city militarily if it was attacked.  It says that the Muslims have their religion and the Jews have theirs, so it recognizes freedom of conscience and is a political alliance.  In the Roman Empire at that time, Jews were placed under disabilities and would not have been treated as equals this way. 

And when the Jews supposedly broke the constitution, they were executed, and ever since Jews are hated within Islam. The Koran is replete with hateful verses against Jews (and Christians). Over the centuries Jewish minorities have had to live in a condition of dhimmitud, second class citizenship enshrined in the laws. It is true that in some places, Christians treated Jews as bad or worse as did Muslims, but Cole's answer leaves out tons of facts. 

JRP: How did medieval Muslim clerics slight or minimize the Qur’an’s peace verses by a theory of abrogation?

JC: Peace-making and turning the other cheek are very important themes in the Qur'an.  It allows going to war to defend yourself and innocents, but forbids aggressive, expansionist warfare.  The text was very inconvenient for later aggressive Muslim empires.  So ideologues developed a theory of "abrogation" where later verses invalidated earlier ones. They interpreted late verses on warfare as permitting aggression (they don't), and then alleged that all the peace verses were thus abrogated.  It was an intellectual and spiritual travesty.  Some Muslim thinkers, though, said only 5 verses were abrogated (not the peace verses), and rejected the procedure.   

For Cole to claim that peace making and turning the other cheek are important themes in the Koran is a hoot. Reading the Koran especially putting the suras (chapters) in chronological order contradicts Cole on its very face. The early Mecca suras do tend to be benign and peaceful, but the Medina suras are clearly not. Put in order of time, it all makes sense. Mohammad evolved from a simple preacher in Mecca to a warlord in Medina. As for the principle of abrogation (which Western-based "moderate" imams are loathe to discuss), it makes perfect sense given the transformation of Mohammad ands the obvious contradictory verses in the Koran. Keep in mind that it is the Islamic scholars themselves (not Cole) who are the authorities in Islam since Islam has no Vatican and has no popes.   

JRP: You have placed strong emphasis on Muhammad as a “Prophet of Peace.”  How do you think your book will encourage and strengthen Islamic peace studies?
 
JC: The peace verses of the Qur'an have been there all along, and have been central, but scholarship has not focused on them.  I'd like to see the kind of intersection of Peace Studies with Islam that exists with regard to Christianity.  Christians have fought a lot of wars and even been involved in genocide, but we all also know about the Quakers and Mennonites.  Only a few authors have written on the history of peace movements in Islam, which include the Murid Sufis of Senegal and the Gandhist Muslims in twentieth-century India.

Yes, the peace verses in the Koran have been there all along, but they are not central because they have been abrogated. Sura 9, the last major sura recorded is arguably the most violent and intolerable. It virtually abrogates every peaceful verse recorded earlier in time. As for Sufists and groups like the Ahmadiya Muslims, it is true they have a good track record of not being involved in the terror and intolerance we see in Islam today, but they are not regarded as Muslims by mainstream Islam. In fact, those that live in Muslim countries are persecuted. As for the wars and genocide of Christians, aside from the Crusades (in which both sides were culpable and Christians killed many Jews in the process), how many wars were fought for purely religious reasons? Genocide? I would argue that Hitler and the Nazis had no religious motivations for the Holocaust. They did not object to the theology of the Jews; they considered Jews as a race to be exterminated. And Hitler, despite his Catholic birth, was no Christian. He derided religion in general. If you want to talk about genocide in the modern sense, look no farther than today's Middle East.

If Cole wants to argue that most Muslims are leading peaceful lives and we should not blame them all for the atrocities being carried out today, that is fine. Cole, however, engages in falsehoods that are so easy to disprove just by scratching beneath the surface. If this is the type of scholarship to be found at the University of Michigan, they might as well stick to football.

Islamic Center of San Diego Looking for Immigration Interpreters

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com



This is interesting.

The Islamic Center of San Diego is issuing an urgent appeal for interpreters to assist immigration attorneys at the border (in its own words). Specifically, they are asking for interpreters in Arabic, Urdu, Bengali, Punjabi and other (non-Spanish) languages. Interpreters would be assisting the Federal Defenders of San Diego.

https://m.facebook.com/302790013065190/posts/2050542088289965/

So why is this interesting? It is because, as we have been saying for years, it's not just Mexicans and Central Americans coming across our southwestern border. People from the Middle East and the Near East are also coming via Mexico. If immigration attorneys in San Diego are in need of these kinds of interpreters, it just proves what we have been saying all along.This is nothing more than the Islamic Center of San Diego showing its obvious desire to get more Muslims into the country and now assisting those who come illegally. It is more proof that for the sake of our own national security, we need to build the wall.

A Response From UCLA

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com

On May 17, Students for Justice in Palestine disrupted an Israeli event at UCLA. Subsequently, UCLA received many letters of complaint, including one that I signed onto. Today, I received this email from UCLA in response.

Thank you for taking the time to write and share your concerns. UCLA is deeply disappointed that protesters disrupted a May 17th student event that focused on the experiences of Jewish, Armenian and Kurdish indigenous communities. This incident left many students feeling silenced and intimidated. It also dishonored UCLA’s commitment to the free and robust exchange of ideas. University officials and police arrived on the scene promptly, and the disruption ended without physical injury. Campus officials are carefully reviewing the incident to determine precisely what happened, who among the protestors are affiliated with UCLA, and how to appropriately respond to this incident. While we respect the right to lawful protest, such protests cannot prevent speakers from communicating with a willing audience.

Steve Ritea,

Executive Director

Executive Communications

2224D Murphy Hall

Comment: While I appreciate the words in the letter, this is likely the last thing we will here of this.



 "Campus officials are carefully reviewing the incident to determine precisely what happened, who among the protestors are affiliated with UCLA, and how to appropriately respond to this incident." 

First of all, the video clearly shows precisely what happened. Secondly, had campus police identified the disruptors (which I am guessing they did not) they would know who were students. As to how to respond, any students should be, at the least, suspended if not expelled and SJP banned from campus. Finally, they are not protestors. They are disruptors. UCLA is a public campus, thus open to the public. Those who enter the campus for purposes of disruption should be arrested.

Let's follow this to see what happens.

Who Is Hafiz Kazi?

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com


On Wednesday, a 51-year-old man named Hafiz Kazi, originally from India, plowed his car through the gate at Travis Air Force Base north of San Francisco, and ignited it with propane tanks, killing himself in the process.

As you will see from the below three news reports, investigators cannot state (or will not) what the motive was.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xmz45tkq3eE&feature=youtu.be


http://www.kcra.com/article/fbi-identifies-man-killed-in-fiery-crash-at-travis-air-force-base/19580976


https://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/article206625114.html

Jihad Watch, however, identifies Kazi as a Muslim.

https://www.jihadwatch.org/2018/03/man-who-exploded-car-loaded-with-propane-tanks-at-travis-air-force-base-identified-as-a-muslim-named-hafiz-kazi

But what is the basis for concluding that Kazi is a Muslim? India though not predominately Muslim, has a large Muslim minority, in the tens of millions. Here is a clue:

Hafiz is a Muslim name, meaning one who has completely memorized the Koran. This is not to say that Kazi has memorized the Koran, only that he was given that name at birth. Gates of Vienna elaborates.


http://gatesofvienna.net/2018/03/place-travis-afb-action-suicide-method-propane-and-gasoline-motive-mystery/

Before this case is forgotten, the authorities (and the media) need to clear this issue up. Was this a case of Jihad?

Reading Between the Lines in Europe

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com


This article first appeared in New English Review.


The news out of Europe continues to get more and more depressing.From Italy to Sweden, more and more refugees, migrants, and asylum-seekers continue to pour into Western Europe. (The Eastern Europeans, being more sensible, are refusing to accept them.) The predictable result is more terror attacks, everyday street crimes, rapes, and murders being committed by people almost entirely from the Middle East and Africa, predominantly Muslim, people who refuse to assimilate and do not respect the host country's culture. Not only is the continent no longer safe, but the native populations are in danger of being replaced over time. What would have been unthinkable ten or fifteen years ago is now becoming a fact almost to the point of being irreversible.

Sadly, Europe's leaders (including the EU) and media remain oblivious to the disaster. Not only do they ignore the objections of the people, they misinform them. A case in point is the media and how they report crime.

In Sweden, for example, newspapers report incidents of crime as being committed by "youths" (ungdomer). That is uniformly the case with the new Sweden. Riots, rapes and assaults in places like the  Rosengård area of Malmö  or the Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby are committed by young boys in their teens or men in their 20s. That they are immigrants or Muslims is left out of the report. Names of people arrested are not given until a conviction is obtained. If you were uninformed, you might conclude that there was a serious problem among Swedish youth. There isn't. You have to read between the lines when you see a term like ungdomer or the actual scene of the offense (no-go zones like Rinkeby) to know who actually commits the crime.

In the UK, offenders have been referred to as "Asians". To Americans, that implies Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Thais etc. To the Brits, however, their Asian population traditionally comes from South Asia, specifically India, Pakistan, Bangladesh etc. Most of the offenders, including the notorious sex groomers (who prostitute young, drug addicted runaway girls ), originate from Pakistan.

The most laughable example, however, is Germany, where a report out of Berlin or the heavily-impacted Rhineland will refer to unidentified offenders as "southerners". To the uninformed reader that might conjure up images of beer-soaked Bavarians in lederhosen and funny green hats. They are actually referring to people from "southern countries" (Middle East-Africa). Even Sgt. Schultz would blush in embarrassment.

Similarly, if you watch European cops and robbers shows, which I do regularly, you would think Europe has always had the same criminal element as we Americans. That's because the bad guys are always either natives or from the former East bloc countries, Russians, Yugoslavians, etc. (They are the most convenient targets.)  Granted, many of the crime shows available here are dated a bit, but safe to say, European shows are as politically correct as our own when it comes to casting villains.

While we don't (yet) have the same type of problems as Europe, we still lament that the enemy cannot be defeated  if we cannot name him. That is also true in Europe.

Trump Apologizes ( Fake News)

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com

President Trump today has apologized for calling Haiti a shit hole. Here is his statement:



"I want to apologize to the people of Haiti for my intemperate remarks referring to their great country as a 'shit hole".




"From this point on, I will refer to Haiti as 'the Pit of Misery".





"Dilly dilly."

* For all you UC Santa Cruz Community  Studies and History of Consciousness majors, this is a spoof. It's an inside joke among Bud Light drinkers, whoever they are.