Islam and Islamism in America in 2015: Part I – Israel News
Islam and Islamism in America in 2015: Part I
Representative André Carson (D-Indiana), a convert to Islam, was appointed to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Carson has extensive ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Officials at the Rocky Heights Middle School in Littleton, Colorado, ignited controversy when they told female students to dress according to Sharia law while visiting a mosque during a field trip.
Islamic politics “advocates the world’s greatest double standard: if you come to our country, we won’t let you worship the way you want, we won’t let you say what you want to say… However, we have come to your country, therefore we have the right to do whatever we want to do, including kill you if you make us mad.” — Former US President Bill Clinton.
Fouad ElBayly, an Egyptian-born imam who in 2007 said that Somali-born activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali should receive the death penalty for her criticism of Islam, is now a Department of Justice contractor hired to teach classes to Muslims who are in federal prison. – The Daily Caller
“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under Allah….” – Arabic rendering of the Pledge of Allegiance, Pine Bush High School, New York.
Breitbart News revealed the existence of what is believed to be the first official Sharia law court in the United States, in Irving, Texas. The so-called Islamic Tribunal settles civil disputes among the growing Muslim population.
The Muslim population of the United States surpassed 3.5 million in 2015, according to demographic projections compiled by the Pew Research Center. In percentage terms, Muslims currently comprise roughly 1% of the US population.
As in Europe, Islam was an ever-present topic in American newspaper headlines during 2015. Most news items involved terrorism-related issues — including many cases of lone-wolf terrorists — closely followed by articles about Muslim integration and assimilation.
JANUARY 2015
January 6. Officials at the Rocky Heights Middle School in Littleton, Colorado, ignited controversy when they told female students to dress according to Sharia law while visiting a mosque during a field trip. Peter Boyles, a radio talk show host in Denver, said: “Public schools are forbidden from holding girls to different standards than boys. They’re holding these girls to a different standard, it’s a religious reason. Islam dictates many … repressive practices against women…. That’s their belief … but don’t apply it to public school kids.”
January 7. Hashim Hanif Ibn Abdul-Rasheed, a 41-year-old Muslim armed with two knives taped to his legs, attempted to buy a plane ticket at the Port Columbus International Airport in Columbus, Ohio. Abdul-Rasheed was shot after he lunged at a police officer. Police said his behavior was “consistent with someone who intended to hijack an aircraft.”
January 9. Abdalah Mohamed, a 19-year-old migrant from Kenya, was arrested after he threatened to kill the owner of a Jewish delicatessen in Portland, Oregon. Police said Mohamed entered the store asking for a single cigarette. When the owner replied that he did not sell individual cigarettes, Mohamed reportedly said: “I will blow up your store. I’m going to take care of you, you mother (redacted). I’ll call my people to take care of you to shoot you! I will blow up your store in the name of Allah, I will take care of people like you!”
January 12. ISIS sympathizers hacked the official Twitter account of the US Central Command, the Pentagon division in charge of the Middle East. One tweet sent from CENTCOM’s account stated: “American soldiers, we are coming, watch your backs.” Another tweet said: “ISIS is already here…. With Allah’s permission we are in CENTCOM now.”
January 13. Representative André Carson (D-Indiana), a convert to Islam, was appointed to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Carson, who has extensive ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, is the first Muslim to sit on the committee.
January 14. Christopher Lee Cornell, a 20-year-old convert to Islam, was arrested in Cincinnati,Ohio, for plotting to “wage jihad” by attacking the US Capitol. Cornell and his accomplice, who was actually an FBI informant, planned to detonate pipe bombs and gun down lawmakers. Cornell, whose Muslim name is Raheel Mahrus Ubaydah, had bought two M-15 rifles and 600 rounds of ammunition. He had also posted messages and videos espousing support for ISIS.
image: http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/pics/1436.jpg
Left: Rep. André Carson (D-Indiana), a convert to Islam, was appointed to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Carson has extensive ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. Right: Christopher Lee Cornell, a convert to Islam, was arrested in Cincinnati, Ohio, for plotting to “wage jihad” by attacking the US Capitol. Cornell planned to detonate pipe bombs and gun down lawmakers. |
January 14. Shelton Thomas Bell, a 21-year-old convert to Islam from Jacksonville, Florida, was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for attempting to provide material support to terrorists. According to court documents, Bell “conspired to train and prepare as a combatant for overseas violent jihad, then travel from Jacksonville to the Middle East for the ultimate purpose of providing the skills to terrorists, including members of Ansar al-Sharia in Yemen.”
As part of his training, Bell conducted a late-night “jihadi training mission” that involved destroying religious statues in a multi-denominational cemetery in Jacksonville. He also uploaded training and recruiting videos onto the Internet, including one in which he makes homemade pipe bombs and another in which he burns an America flag.
January 15. Carol Swain, a prominent professor of law and political science at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, penned an op-ed in The Tennessean titled, “Charlie Hebdo attacks prove critics were right about Islam.” She wrote:
“What horrendous attack would finally convince us that Islam is not like other religions in the United States, that it poses an absolute danger to us and our children unless it is monitored better than it has been under the Obama administration?
“More and more members of the PC [politically correct] crowd now acknowledge that Islam has absolutely nothing in common with Christianity….
“It becomes clearer every day that Islam is not just another religion to be accorded the respect given to Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Baha’i and other world religions. The Jan. 7 terrorist attack resulting in 12 deaths at the Paris offices ofCharlie Hebdo, a satirical magazine that committed the apparently unpardonable sin of lampooning the Prophet Muhammad, once again illustrates that Islam is a dangerous set of beliefs totally incompatible with Western beliefs concerning freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and freedom of association.”
Vanderbilt’s Muslim Students Association said Swain’s “hurtful, inciting comments” had caused “a great deal of emotional distress and frustration.” Swain responded: “Why are today’s university students so fragile they need counseling and affirmation whenever they hear something that makes them uncomfortable? Learning how to deal with your emotions is part of growing up.”
January 15. Former US President Bill Clinton, appearing on NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers, said Islamic politics “advocates the world’s greatest double standard: if you come to our country, we won’t let you worship the way you want, we won’t let you say what you want to say, we won’t let you do what you want to do. However, we have come to your country, therefore we have the right to do whatever we want to do, including kill you if you make us mad.”
January 15. Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, canceled its plan to use the gothic bell tower of its chapel for the adhan, an amplified call to prayer for Muslims. The about-face followed criticism from many corners, including from Christian evangelist Franklin Graham, who wrote:
“As Christianity is being excluded from the public square and followers of Islam are raping, butchering, and beheading Christians, Jews, and anyone who doesn’t submit to their Sharia Islamic law, Duke is promoting this in the name of religious pluralism. I call on the donors and alumni to withhold their support from Duke until this policy is reversed.”
January 17. A conference in Garland, Texas, aimed at “defeating Islamophobia,” featured several Muslim extremists who advocate the implementation of Sharia law in the United States. The conference, titled, “Stand with the Prophet in Honor and Respect,” was billed as “not an event” but the “beginning of a movement. A movement to defend Prophet Muhammad, his person, and his message.”
January 18. The New York Post reported that Muslim groups are pressing the New York Police Department to remove a report about Islamic terrorism from its website. The groundbreaking, 90-page report, titled, “Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat,” angers critics who say it promotes “religious profiling” and discrimination against Muslims. Others argue that removing the report would send the message that the NYPD is backing down on its counterterrorism effort in the name of political correctness.
January 19. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, addressing the London-based Henry Jackson Society, warned that “non-assimilationist Muslims” pose a danger to Europe and the United States. He said:
“In America we are quite happy to welcome freedom loving people, regardless of religion, who want to abide by our laws allowing for freedom of expression and a host of other democratic freedoms. But we will never allow for any sect of people to set up their own areas where they establish their own set of laws.
“For example, Sharia law is not just different than our law, it’s not just a cultural difference, it is oppression and it is wrong. It subjugates women and treats them as property, and it is antithetical to valuing all of human life equally. It is the very definition of oppression. We must stop pretending otherwise.
“I favor robust debate on everything: on religion, on policy, on politics, on everything. It is called freedom. But when debate stops, and when a movement decides that they no longer want to debate their ideas, but rather they want to simply subdue, silence, and kill those who disagree … that is called terrorism, barbarism, and inhuman behavior, and it cannot and must not be tolerated.”
January 20. The US Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Arkansas corrections officials had violated the religious liberty rights of Muslim inmates by forbidding them to grow beards. The case concerned Gregory H. Holt, also known as Abdul Maalik Muhammad, who sought to grow a half-inch beard.
January 20. Montana State Senator Janna Taylor introduced Montana Senate Bill 199, which establishes “the primacy of Montana law by prohibiting the application of foreign law when it violates a fundamental right guaranteed by the Montana or United States Constitution.” The bill is aimed at restricting the use of Islamic Sharia and other foreign law in the state.
January 21. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) complained that the movie “American Sniper” was spurring threats against American Muslims. ADC President Samer Khalaf said it did not make sense to call for a boycott of the film, given its box office success: “If we boycott it, it will only cause people to want to see it more.”
January 22. Malak Kazan, a 27-year-old Muslim woman, filed a religious discrimination lawsuit in Detroit, Michigan, accusing the Dearborn Heights Police Department of violating her First Amendment right to religious freedom when she was forced to remove her head scarf, after being arrested for driving with an expired license. Dearborn Heights Police Chief Lee Garvin said:
“Articles such as hats, caps, hijabs, can contain concealable items that could pose a threat or chance of injury to the cops or to themselves. Our procedure is to have them take the hijab off in the presence of a female. We don’t always have enough female officers present in the station. Our number one concern is security of our officers and the prisoners.”
Kazan’s lawyer, Amir Makled, disagreed:
“The main issue here is that my client’s constitutional rights, her religious liberties, can’t be stripped at the jailhouse door. She has an absolute right to maintain her faith. We hope this cause of action will bring to light a policy that is dated and needs to be amended…. We also hope to get some further diversity training for officers in the city. Hopefully this will be a learning experience for other law enforcement agencies.”
January 23. Addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, US Secretary of State John Kerry said that Muslims should not be blamed for Islamic terrorism: “The biggest error that we could make would be to blame Muslims collectively for crimes … [that] the overwhelming majority of Muslims oppose.”
January 23. A federal judge in Denver, Colorado gave a four-year prison sentence to Shannon Maureen Conley, a 19-year-old woman who admitted to wanting to become an ISIS bride and join the jihad in the Middle East. Conley is one of the first Americans to be sentenced for conspiracy to support ISIS. Prosecutors hope her sentence has a deterrent effect.
January 23. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) filed legislation to ban American citizens who fight alongside ISIS and other terror groups from returning to the United States. The bill, known as the Expatriate Terrorist Act, seeks to strip those Americans who travel abroad to fight with ISIS of their US citizenship rights.
January 26. ISIS vowed to behead President Obama and “transform America into a Muslim province.”
January 28. The Natomas Pacific Pathways Prep, a public charter school in Sacramento,California, sponsored an official “Hijab Day” in cooperation with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). To concerns about why a public school would be hosting such an event, the school responded with charges that critics were motivated by “hatred” and “bigotry.”
January 28. The US State Department hosted a delegation of Muslim Brotherhood operatives for a meeting about their ongoing efforts to overthrow the government of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. A few days after the meeting, the Muslim Brotherhood called for “a long, uncompromising jihad” in Egypt.
January 29. The FBI added a former Northern Virginia taxicab driver to the Most Wanted Terrorists list. Liban Haji Mohamed, 29, a Somali-born naturalized US citizen, is accused of being a recruiter for al-Shabaab, a terrorist organization in Somalia.
January 30. The Refugee Women’s Alliance, one of the largest refugee and immigrant service providers in Seattle, Washington, was forced to close in anticipation of a protest against one of its head teachers, Deepa Bhandaru, who led a discussion about free speech and religious pluralism in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacre. A group of Somali immigrants demanded that Bhandaru be fired for showing some of the Hebdo cartoons in her class. Bhandaru, who has received an “excellence in teaching” award from the University of Washington, was placed on paid leave while the agency “investigates” the matter.
FEBRUARY 2015
February 2. Darlene Hider, a 32-year-old Muslim-American woman who lives in Dearborn,Michigan, said she was harassed on a Delta Airlines flight because she was wearing an Islamic headscarf: “I felt as if I wanted to defend myself but I couldn’t because of the Islamophobia going on.” Others, however, said her children were being disruptive.
The president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Samer Khalaf, said: “We encourage Delta to take immediate steps to rectify this matter.”
But Hider says she wants more than a simple apology: “I want justice for every woman who wears a scarf and who’s Muslim and doesn’t have to worry about being on a plane or in a restaurant or a mall, or walking down the street… That is what I’m standing up for and I will not be quiet.”
February 4. The Mississippi House voted 116-1 to pass House Bill 177, which bans use of foreign law. Proponents of the measure want to prevent courts in the state from referring to Sharia law when deliberating cases.
February 4. The head of the FBI’s counterterrorist division, Michael Steinbach, warned that the Islamic State is targeting and recruiting teenage Americans, including females, to carry out terrorist attacks on US soil.
February 4. A Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register Iowa Poll found that 53% of likely Republican caucus participants and 81% of likely Democratic caucus participants said they believe Islam is inherently peaceful. Only 13% of likely Democratic caucus participants said they view Islam as inherently violent, compared with 39% of likely Republican caucus participants.
February 5. US President Barack Obama, speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast inWashington, DC, attempted to downplay the dangers of Islamic terrorism by creating a false moral equivalence with the Crusades, which occurred 1,000 years ago, in response to Muslim invasions.
February 5. The Health and Human Services Committee of the South Dakota House of Representatives approved a proposal that would make it a felony to perform female genital mutilation in the state.
February 5. The Board of Education in Waterbury, Connecticut, announced that all schools in the Waterbury School District would begin honoring two of Islam’s most holy days, Eid al-Fitrand Eid al-Adha, by not scheduling tests, field trips or major school events on those days. This is the first decision of its kind in the state of Connecticut.
February 6. The FBI charged six Bosnian immigrants with terrorist related crimes: Ramiz Zijad Hodzic, 40; his wife, Sedina Unkic Hodzic, 35; and Armin Harcevic, 37, all of St. Louis County,Missouri; as well as Nihad Rosic, 26, of Utica, New York; Mediha Medy Salkicevic, 34 of Schiller Park, Illinois; and Jasminka Ramic, 42, of Rockford, Illinois. All defendants were charged with conspiring to provide material support and resources to terrorists. Ramiz Zijad Hodzic and Nihad Rosic were also charged with conspiring to kill and maim persons in a foreign country. According to the FBI, the defendants raised money and shipped weapons and uniforms and other aid to ISIS fighters in Syria.
February 6. Army Secretary John McHugh approved awarding the Purple Heart and its civilian counterpart, the Secretary of Defense Medal for the Defense of Freedom, to victims of the November 2009 shooting at Fort Hood, Texas. Thirteen people were killed and more than 30 wounded in the attack by Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a psychiatrist whose business card read “SoA” for “Soldier of Allah.” The Obama administration had classified the attack as “workplace violence,” but Congress redefined what should be considered an attack by a “foreign terrorist organization” for purposes of determining eligibility for the Purple Heart.
February 9. WFTV Channel 9 television in Orlando, Florida, investigated a school in Seminole County after parents complained that students were learning too much about Islam in a public classroom. One parent became concerned after he spotted a text on his son’s phone from a teacher reminding him to complete a prayer rug assignment and study an Islam packet. WFTV found that a textbook included a chapter dedicated to the “Rise of Islam,” including prayers and scriptures from the Quran. But the first 100 pages of the book, discussing Judaism and Christianity, were missing. Officials from the school district blamed a manufacturer defect in 68 books that are only a year old.
February 10. Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, murdered three college students at a condominium complex in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, allegedly over a dispute over a parking space. Muslim groups branded the triple-homicide as a hate crime because the three victims were Muslim.
February 12. Representatives of several NGOs in Olympia, Washington, called on Representative Larry Haler to apologize for saying in a House Judiciary Committee hearing that the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is “basically run by the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas,” with a goal “to overthrow the country.” Haler said he has already apologized twice to CAIR for his remarks: “It is unfortunate that these two instances do not satisfy their definition of apology.”
February 13. Reaz Khan, a 51-year-old Pakistani-born naturalized US citizen living in Portland,Oregon, pleaded guilty to providing $2,450 to Ali Jaleel, a terrorist who killed more than 30 people in a May 2009 suicide bombing in Lahore, Pakistan. Prosecutors presented an email in which Jaleel reminded Khan about their shared promise to seek martyrdom in the name of Allah.
February 14. Terrence Lavaron Thomas, 39, a convert to Islam, stabbed two people at a bus stop in Southfield, a northern suburb of Detroit, Michigan. Police say Thomas asked a group of people if they were Muslim and attacked those who responded ‘no’ with a three-inch knife. American media outlets, including the Washington Post, were accused of seeking to downplay the Muslim attack on non-Muslims by publishing misleading headlines.
February 16. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf, speaking on MSNBC’s Hardball, said that the solution to defeating ISIS was “a jobs program.” She said: “We need … to go after the root cause that leads people to join these groups, whether it’s lack of opportunity for jobs.”
At that point, Harf was interrupted by host Chris Matthews, who pointed out, “There’s always going to be poor people. There’s always going to be poor Muslims.”
Harf continued to argue that the US should help Muslim countries “build their economies so they can have job opportunities for these people.” She added: “If we can help countries work at the root causes of this — what makes these 17-year-old kids pick up an AK-47 instead of trying to start a business?”
February 17. The White House launched a three-day Summit on Countering Violent Extremism but refused to use the term Islamic extremism. The summit featured Islamists known for preaching anti-Western themes.
February 17. Al-Hamzah Mohammad Jawad was arrested as he tried to fly out of Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Michigan, to Amman, Joran, on a one-way ticket. According to the FBI, Jawad, who came to the US in 2013 as a refugee from Iraq, was planning to join ISIS in Iraq.
February 18. Lawmakers in the North Dakota House of Representatives objected to a Muslim delivering the chamber’s opening prayer on Ash Wednesday because some members wanted a Christian pastor to give the invocation. The Minnesota chapter of the CAIR called on North Dakota Republican Party leaders to apologize to Dr. Nadim Koleilat. House leader Al Carson said no such apology would be forthcoming.
February 18. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said his job is to “give voice to the plight of Muslims living in this country and the discrimination that they face.” He added: “And so I personally have committed to speak out about the situation that very often people in the Muslim community in this country face. The fact that there are 1.6 billion Muslims in the world and the Islamic faith is one about peace and brotherhood.”
February 19. US President Barack Obama said that Americans who criticize Islam are guilty of provoking Islamic terrorists: “When people spew hatred towards others — because of their faith or because they’re immigrants — it feeds into terrorist narratives. If entire communities feel they can never become a full part of the society in which they reside, it feeds a cycle of fear and resentment and a sense of injustice upon which extremists prey.”
February 21. The Islamist group al-Shabaab released an online video in which it called for an attack on the Mall of America, a megamall in Bloomington, Minnesota.
February 23. Sohiel Omar Kabir, 37, and Ralph Deleon, 26, were sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for seeking to join al-Qaeda and training to carry out attacks on Americans in Afghanistan. Deleon is a citizen of the Philippines who lived in Ontario, California. Kabir, is an Afghanistan-born American citizen who lived in Pomona, California, and had relocated to Kabul, but was subsequently arrested by American military personnel in Afghanistan.
February 23. Abdirahman S. Mohamud, a 23-year-old Somali-born American citizen residing in Columbus, Ohio, was charged with providing “electronic devices to persons engaged in terrorism in the Middle East.”
February 24. Jean Camara, a convert to Islam, filed a lawsuit against Costco, the world’s third largest retailer, for religious discrimination. He said he was working as a cashier at a store in Brooklyn, New York, when pork came across the conveyor belt. After Camara told his manager that it is against his religious beliefs to touch either pork or alcohol, he was transferred outside to collecting the shopping carts. After he filed a human rights complaint against the company, he says he was fired for insubordinate conduct.
February 25. The FBI charged three residents of Brooklyn, New York, with conspiracy to provide material support to ISIS. Akhror Saidakhmetov, a citizen of Kazakhstan, was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport, where he was attempting to board a flight to Istanbul, Turkey. Abdurasul Hasanovich Juraboev, a citizen of Uzbekistan, had previously purchased a plane ticket to travel from New York to Istanbul and was scheduled to leave the United States in March. Abror Habibov, a citizen of Uzbekistan, helped fund Saidakhmetov’s efforts to join ISIS. According to the FBI, Juraboev offered to kill the President of the United States if ordered to do so by ISIS, and Saidakhmetov expressed his intent to buy a machine gun and shoot police officers and FBI agents if thwarted in his plan to join ISIS in Syria.
February 25. The US Supreme Court heard the case of Samantha Elauf, a Muslim woman who said the Abercrombie & Fitch clothing store illegally denied her a job because she wears a hijab in keeping with her faith.
February 26. Abdullahi Mohamud Yusuf, a Somali-American teenager, pleaded guilty in federal court in Minneapolis, Minnesota, of conspiring to support ISIS. Yusuf, 18, was stopped by FBI agents at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in May 2014 as he attempted to leave the US for Turkey.
February 26. An annual report delivered to the US Senate by the director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, removed Iran and Hezbollah from its list of terrorism threats, after years in which they featured in similar reports.
February 27. Hundreds of Muslims attended the first ever “Muslim Day” at the Oklahoma state capitol. The event, which was organized by the Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
MARCH 2015
March 2. The director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, revealed that about 180 Americans have traveled to Syria to join Islamist militants and around 40 of them have returned to the United States.
March 3. The city council of Taylor, Michigan, unanimously approved a resolution against Islamophobia. The resolution says the city will “stand against those who preach hate and incite violence.” Resident Fred Lyons said he did not feel the resolution was necessary. “I don’t see why we need a resolution to say we’re against hate. We are,” Lyons said. “Anyone who would say you are supporting hate would be asinine.” He said he feared the resolution could lead to lawsuits against the city.
March 3. The Daily Caller revealed that Fouad ElBayly — an Egyptian-born imam who in 2007 said that Somali-born activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali should receive the death penalty for her criticism of Islam — is now a Department of Justice contractor hired to teach classes to provide “leadership and guidance” to Muslims at a federal prison in Maryland.
March 4. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that public schools in the city would begin observing two Muslim holidays, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. The change is the result of nearly a decade of lobbying by Muslim groups. Muslims make up about 10% of the students in New York City public schools.
March 4. Zaytuna College based in Berkeley, California, became the first Muslim college in the United States to receive accreditation.
March 4. Minh Quang Pham, a 32-year-old Vietnamese man extradited from the United Kingdom, pleaded not guilty to supporting al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, receiving military training from the terrorist organization in Yemen, and possessing a firearm intended for use in crimes of violence. Pham, formerly a graphic designer who lived in southeast London, was arrested at Heathrow International Airport when he returned in July 2011 from a six-month trip to Yemen.
March 4. Abid Naseer, a 28-year-old Pakistani man, was convicted in Federal District Court in Brooklyn, New York, of conspiring with al-Qaeda to bomb a shopping center in Manchester, England. Naseer, a graduate of Flushing High School in Queens, was indicted in the US under a law that allows the federal government to pursue terrorism cases even when they occur outside the country; he was extradited to the US in 2013.
March 6. The Associated Students of the University of New Mexico (ASUNM), the undergraduate student government for UNM, unanimously passed a resolution urging the UNM administration to “publicly state their opposition to Islamophobia.” The document, known as Resolution 6S, defines Islamophobia as a “dislike or prejudice against Islam or Muslims, especially as a political force.”
March 10. Diego Chaar, a 24-year-old Brazilian who converted to Islam while in prison, was arrested after stalking the Ohev Shalom synagogue in Miami Beach, Florida, shouting “Allahu Akbar” and threatening to cut off the heads of congregants exiting the synagogue.
March 12. Raees Alam Qazi, 22, and Sheheryar Alam Qazi, 32, two brothers born in Pakistan — both are naturalized US citizens who spent most of their lives in South Florida — pleaded guilty to federal terrorism charges after admitting they had plotted a terrorist attack on landmarks in New York City. Later, while in custody, they assaulted two deputy US Marshals. The younger brother pleaded guilty to an additional charge of attempting to provide material support to al-Qaeda.
March 16. Miguel Alejandro Santana Vidriales, 24, of Upland, California, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, and Arifeen David Gojali, 24, of Riverside, was sentenced to five years, for their involvement in a conspiracy to travel to Afghanistan to kill American troops.
March 16. Adam Dandach, a 21-year-old convert to Islam who also goes by the name Fadi Fadi Dandach, pleaded not guilty to charges that he provided material support and resources to ISIS. He had previously pled not guilty to lying on a passport application. Prosecutors say he obstructed justice when he allegedly asked a website administrator to delete his post history. FBI agents had prevented Dandach from boarding a Delta Airlines flight at John Wayne Airport in Orange Country, California, to Istanbul, Turkey, in July 2014.
March 16. A United Airlines jet traveling to Denver returned to Washington Dulles International Airport after passengers subdued a man who rushed toward the cockpit yelling “Jihad! Jihad!”
March 17. Tairod Nathan Webster Pugh, a 47-year-old American convert to Islam and Air Force veteran from New Jersey, was charged with trying to join ISIS.
March 18. An effort to mark national Foreign Language Week by reading the Pledge of Allegiance of the United States in Arabic ignited controversy at the Pine Bush High School inNew York. Students and parents were angered by the Arabic rendering: “I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under Allah….”
March 18. Commissioners in Clark County, Nevada, unanimously approved the establishment of the first Islamic cemetery in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. The private, nonprofit cemetery will be situated on two acres just south of McCarran International Airport.
March 19. The city council of Irving, Texas, voted to endorse a state bill that would forbid judges from using foreign law in their rulings. The move comes after Breitbart News revealed the existence of what is believed to be the first official Sharia law court in the United States. The so-called Islamic Tribunal, based in Irving, settles civil disputes among the growing Muslim population. Irving Mayor Beth Van Duyne said the tribunal “bypasses American courts” and warned that if basic rights are being violated, “I will not stand idle, and will fight with every fiber of my being against this action.”
March 19. Mohammad Yahya, 39, filed a lawsuit against the Gregg County Jail in Longview,Texas, for violating his right to observe Ramadan. Yahya, who is serving time for wire fraud, said Gregg County jailers refused to honor his right to have his meals provided before 4:45 a.m. and after 8:30 p.m. during Ramadan.
March 21. ISIS hackers called on their “brothers in America” to kill 100 US service members whose names, addresses and photographs were published online.
March 25. The US Army charged Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. Bergdahl, 28, disappeared from his outpost in Afghanistan on June 30, 2009. He has been accused of leaving his patrol base intentionally before he was captured by Taliban insurgents. He spent five years as a captive of the Taliban before he was freed in a prisoner swap that also freed five Taliban leaders from the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
March 26. Army National Guard Specialist Hasan Edmonds, 22, a US citizen, was arrested at Chicago Midway International Airport while attempting to fly to Cairo, Egypt, eventually to join ISIS. His cousin, Jonas Edmonds, 29, a US citizen, was arrested without incident at his home in Aurora, Illinois in connection with an alleged plot to carry out an armed attack on a US military facility in northern Illinois.
Reprinted with author’s permission from Gatestone Institute
Read more at http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7134/islam-islamism-america#d2HiE7zOImDVlb3q.99
http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/59770/islam-and-islamism-in-america-in-2015-part-i-opinion/?utm_source=Breaking+Israel+News&utm_campaign=686877e452-BIN_evening_1_16&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b6d3627f72-686877e452-86650005#5LUDlgAvtEiegIw8.97
President Trump Will Complete the Europeanization of America | RedState
President Trump Will Complete the Europeanization of America
There’s a reason that most countries in the world – especially in Europe – don’t really have a fiscally conservative movement like we have here in America: fiscal conservatism is a hard sell. The idea that government should spend less and do less is an idea that, for the last several decades, has been almost uniquely American in the West. Everywhere else, it is taken for granted that the government should have a massive amount more power (and economic scope) than what it does in America.
The idea that government should provide more “free” services is an almost impossible one for voters in a Democracy to resist. Any time a government can promise an immediate, tangible benefit to its citizens in exchange for some future consequence that will probably land on someone else, they stand an excellent chance of earning that citizen’s vote. Not for nothing did de Tocqueville observe that the greatest threat to a free Democracy is the ability of politicians to bribe people with their own money.
In America, we have withstood the tide of this siren call – not well, but much better than Europe has – solely because one of the major political parties in America has held fast to the idea of lower taxes and less government as a matter of necessary political orthodoxy. Up until this year, you had to at least tip a nod to the idea that taxes should be lower and government should be smaller in order to get the Republican nomination.
Trump, however, neither believes in any of that, nor is willing to even say it is a good idea. I have watched probably 30 Trump speeches in their entirety this year, and never have I heard him discuss a government program that should be cut. Never have I heard him discuss a regulation that is crippling American business that should be repealed. Never have I heard him say that taxes should be lower; in fact, when he mentions taxes, it is to note that they should be higher (on the “rich,” so that he does not have to be more openly liberal than the Democrats). Never has he said that we should bust up government employee unions (in fact he criticized Scott Walker for doing it) or reform pensions that are crippling state budgets. Never has he opposed the massive medicaid expansion under Obamacare.
Everything, in fact, that Trump says he stands for is for government to be better, classier, and bigger. That’s why he’s a huge and open fan of eminent domain abuse.
If a person can run on the idea that it should be easier for the Federal Government to forcibly confiscate your property (so they can build better and classier things in its place) and win the Republican primary, then fiscal conservatism no longer even holds a veto in the Republican party. And if it doesn’t even hold veto power there, it is dead nationwide. And if that impulse is dead as an electoral force for good and for all, then here we come Europe.
Trump likes to say that he will Make America Great again. Even if Trump can do half the things he promises, the end result of his nomination as the standard bearer of the Republican party is that we are ten years or less from joining the Brits, French, Germans, and Greeks in basically accepting that the government should run our healthcare, our workplaces, and our economic sector, and just bickering about who can do it most efficiently.
Twelve Ways Jesus Changed the World – ChristNOW
To the majority of people in the world, Jesus is an honored historical figure who was the founder of Christianity—but that is about as far as it goes. Many have no idea that his most wonderful life had an unsurpassed effect on the history of man.
In fact, without the birth, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ, life on planet earth would be incomprehensibly different from what it is today.
How different? Let’s do some deeper thinking about the impact of the life of Jesus Christ. Let’s look at twelve ways Jesus Christ changed the world over the past two thousand years. I’m not limiting Jesus’ impact to only a dozen areas, but these twelve were the first to come to mind. I welcome your thoughts as to other areas his life has wonderfully touched.
1. Individuals
“Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).
The essence of Jesus’ mission was to save the individual life of every person who chooses to put his or her trust in him. He didn’t just point the way to a set of ideals or moral principles as many other teachers did. Rather, he promised when we were “born again by his Spirit” he would come to live inside of us, guiding and empowering us to live meaningful and godly lives. At the age of fifteen I put my trust in Christ to forgive my sins and come into my life. He did.
From the very beginning I experienced his presence, power, guidance, correction, and empowering, which changed everything in my world. I was no longer the “wretched man that I am!” (Romans 7:24), but was set “free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2). There was a new dynamite—a dynamic power—to live a productive life. Over the past two thousand years, it is the Spirit of Jesus Christ in millions, and now billions of people, that has altered the landscape of history through changing individual lives.
2. Women
“There is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).
No one altered the role of women in society more than Christ. Prior to New Testament times, women labored in harsh, subservient roles, and were often nothing more than slaves to men and their families. Loren Cunningham and David Hamilton point out in their liberating book Why Not Women? that the Greek philosopher Cicero likened women to “slaves, dogs, horses, and donkeys”—all possessions to be used and cast away.
Jesus’ teachings and example reconfirmed the truth that in every way, from the time of creation, women are of equal worth as men in God’s sight, including their complimentary roles in the marriage relationship. ALL of the women’s rights we enjoy, especially in the past two hundred years, were produced by the Christian faith. Even in Muslim societies today, women are second-class citizens, not like in the Christian West where women have all the same rights as men. If you’re a woman living in a Western nation, you can thank Jesus Christ for the freedoms you enjoy.
3. Family Life
“Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord…Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the Church…Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right” (Ephesians 5:22, 25; 6:1).
The application of Jesus’ teachings also gave permanent strength and completeness to the world’s most important institution—the family. Wives were not slaves, husbands weren’t to be tyrants, and children possessed significance. The Christian truths of submission, equal worth, partnership, equality, and self-sacrificing love gave harmony and protection to family relationships that over hundreds of years became the foundation of Western civilization and culture. Are you thankful for the habits and practices of Christian families today? They were inspired by Jesus Christ.
4. The Church
“I will build my Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).
Though the Church has not always properly applied the teachings of Christ, it is also true that no group of people have made a more positive impact on the history of the world than the Christian Church. The Church—the “called out ones” (Greek = ekklesia)—transformed the Roman Empire, rescued “learning” from the destruction of the Middle Ages, raised Europe out of barbarism, pioneered the New World, and sent Christian civilization to the ends of the earth. History would be drastically different without the acts of God’s people in every century. Even today, without the compassion, evangelism, humanitarianism, and social justice works of the Church in scores of nations, the lives of millions would be without hope.
5. Civil Government
“The authorities that exist are appointed by God…he is God’s minister to you for good…an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil” (Romans 13:1, 4).
One of the things we both criticize and take for granted in the 21st century is the positive role of human governments that were shaped by Christianity. Prior to the Christian faith being applied to civil government, people lived in perpetual fear of massacres and tyrants. Your town could be here one day and be burned to the ground the next. You could be alive one day and dead the next. Power and fear ruled human societies for much of human history.
But after the coming of Christ, the biblical role of civil government began to emerge through the Magna Carta, British common law, republican governments, democratic principles, and human rights. These things weren’t just the evolutionary march of history—they were incremental applications of Christ’s teachings to human governments. Do you appreciate armies and police that protect us? Do you value the right to vote and elect your representatives? Do you appreciate the relative tranquility of a just social order? All of these things, which are not enjoyed in many non-Christian nations in the world, are the fruit of faith in Jesus Christ.
6. Education
“In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3).
Did you know that we would have lost much of the great literature of Greece and Rome (and other civilizations of the ancient world) if it weren’t for the Christian monks who preserved that knowledge through finding, preserving, and copying ancient writings during the Middle Ages? Are you aware that the first universities in Paris and London were started by believers who had a thirst for knowledge and wisdom?
Did you know that the printing of the Gutenberg Bible was considered by TIME magazine the most important event of the past five hundred years because it made truth and knowledge easily available to the masses? Have you heard that the first 120 universities in America, beginning with Harvard, were started by followers of Christ for the advancement of the Christian faith? Most of the major milestones in human education flow from one fountain: faith in Jesus Christ.
7. Business
“Do your work heartily as unto the Lord, not to men. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve” (Colossians 3:23).
Even the development of human work, labor and industry, finds its zenith in the application of Christian truths. For most of history, and still in some parts of the world, there were only a few wealthy tyrants and then teeming masses of poor people. For thousands of years there was no middle class and no freedom for individual initiative. During the Christianizing of Europe, this all changed as believers applied biblical concepts of labor and industry, which eventually became free enterprise capitalism that led the world out of its mass poverty.
As Adam Smith wisely pointed out in his book Wealth of Nations, the large and growing middle classes, the endless business opportunities, the Protestant work ethic, extensive philanthropy, and the standard of living we share today is the fruit of the teachings of Christ applied to economics. When you purchase your next gizmo or wonder drug, thank God that the free enterprise system you currently enjoy is built on faith from start to finish.
8. Science
“All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:3-4).
Rodney Stark in his marvelous book For the Glory of God rightly points out that modern science was born of the Christian faith and not in opposition to it. It was Christian civilization that proposed that “design points to a Designer” and that man was placed on the earth to discover God’s secrets in nature and use those discoveries to benefit people. From Galileo to Faraday, from Pascal to Einstein, many of the leading scientists of both the past and present have been people of faith who used their trust in God to reveal the mysteries of his creation. I recently visited the Kennedy Space Center and gazed in awe at the technology and scientific genius that put men on the moon. None of this would have been possible without believing in a God whose creation can be understood. That Creator is Jesus Christ.
9. The Arts
“Don’t be drunk with wine but be filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:18-19).
Francis Shaeffer pointed out in his landmark book How Should We Then Live? that the coming of Christ greatly influenced the arts, and that prior to Christ’s birth music was played in minor chords, showing the incompleteness and lack of harmony in life. After Christ’s death and resurrection brought wholeness to individuals and nations, people began creating major chord music and realistic art—an expression of their reconciliation to God.
Picture the totem pole faces and primitive art forms of pagan peoples; they always look wild, menacing, and evil. But after Jesus brought healing, peace, and completeness to thousands and thousands of people, artists then began reflecting that wholeness in ever expanding art forms. It’s a long way from lewd and angry totem poles to the Sistine Chapel, but Christ produced the difference. When people are changed and brought into right relationship to God, they sing, paint, and give him glory in the arts. This is why more hymns and songs have been written about Jesus than any other person in history.
10. Faith
“that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” (Ephesians 3:17).
Jesus lived a life of complete faith in the Father and imparted that faith to his followers. If Abraham is the father of faith in the ancient world, then Jesus is the engine of faith in the modern one. Faith in him has led his followers through the centuries to care for the poor; minister to the sick; start hospitals and schools; share the Good News around the world; apply Christian principles to government, economics, and social issues; and to influence every other engine of progress.
Christians are the true progressives because they see life’s challenges and opportunities through the lens of faith in Jesus Christ. “All things are possible to those that believe.” Their faith makes them the best leaders, soldiers, caregivers, and husbands and wives. Wars against evil have been won through valiant faith; individual lives have been rescued through tender faith. It’s hard to imagine a world without faith in God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Over two billion people now share that faith worldwide.
11. Love
“that you being rooted and grounded in love may . . . know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge” (Ephesians 3:17, 19).
The love of Jesus Christ has made the greatest mark upon the world. “God is love,” and Jesus’ horrific suffering on behalf of sinful people showed the world once and for all that God cares for each one of us and provided a way out of our guilt and self-destruction. For two thousand years, followers of the loving Christ have carried his compassion and care to peoples everywhere. Nations have been won through his love. The majority of hospitals and other ministries of compassion around the globe have been launched in his name. Where there has been devastation through natural disasters, wars, or famine, people filled with God’s love have run to alleviate human suffering via the Red Cross, World Vision, and thousands of other agencies. Where would our world be without the love of Christ as expressed through his people?
12. Hope
“Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).
We end with our beginning Scripture. Christ changes individuals and nations by giving them a firm hope in a future he has secured through his death, resurrection, and ascension. There is life after death. There will be a resurrection of all people. Jesus is coming again to bring his redeemed people into an eternity of love and blessing in his heavenly presence. Because of these truths, the follower of Christ lives in perpetual and mind-boggling hope in the future that Jesus Christ will provide.
Hope is not a wish or a dream—it’s as real as the nail-scarred hands and the empty tomb. Hope gets us through the day, helps us handle tragedies and death, and points our hearts upward. Jesus Christ is the only hope of the world.
Jesus the Son of God
Jesus was not just a good man who founded a great religion. He was the Son of God, sent on a mission to transform the world through changing individual lives. I want you to imagine for a moment what your life would be like if this wonderful life hadn’t appeared.
You would be powerless in your sins, separated from God forever. If you are a woman, you would have no rights or future. Your family would be broken and dysfunctional. You would have no worship or fellowship. You would be living under a tyrant, without education, and in miserable poverty. You would be fearful of nature (creation), and your art forms would express those fears. You would lack faith, hope, and love in this life—and the next.
Unfortunately, that description fits the circumstances of many people alive today who have not heard of Jesus and the wonder of his love, or who have heard but have rejected his love. Let’s be faithful to take his Good News to them.
Jesus is worthy of our highest praise not only for what he did, but also for who he is, and what he is still doing. May we awaken to Christ for all he is, and join him in bringing God’s Kingdom forth.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Ron Boehme
Ron Boehme is an ordained minister who has served with Youth With A Mission since 1974. He has ministered in over sixty nations, and speaks on revival, personal discipleship, world missions, and current events. Ron also serves as an adjunct professor in Global Leadership for Faith Seminary in Tacoma, Washington, and has written five books includingThe Fourth Wave: Taking Your Place in the New Era of Missions. You can follow Ron
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Profound Insight
3984 cdd Profound Insight
Monday January 25, 2015
Volume 17 Number 017
Today’s Author: Pastor Bill
Christian Cyber Ministries Participant C. F. from Sylvania, Ohio contributed financially in support of today’s cdd. Thank you – PTL! pb
Scripture: John 14:2-3
“In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” NKJV
The Christian Evangelist was known for challenging Christians. He used creative illustrations of how faith can offer solutions in a world of complexity. He tells a story about being in a church where he was asked to pray for a man who had cancer. The Evangelist prayed boldly for the man’s healing. That next week he got a telephone call from the man’s wife. She said, “You prayed for my husband. He had cancer.” The Evangelist thought when he heard the man’s wife use the past tense verb that his cancer had been cured by the Lord. But before he could think much about it she said, “He died.” The Evangelist felt terrible that the man had died on his watch.
But she continued, “Don’t feel bad. When my husband walked into that church Sunday, to hear you speak, he was filled with anger, frustration and unforgiveness. He knew he was going to be dead in a short period of time, and he hated God. He was 58 years old and he wanted to see his children and grandchildren grow up. He was angry that this all-powerful God didn’t take away his sickness and heal him. He would lay in bed and curse God. The more his anger grew towards God — the more miserable he was to everybody around him. It was an awful thing to be in his presence.
But the lady continued, “After you prayed for him — a peace had come over him and a joy had come into him. The last few days we had were the best days of our lives. We sang together. We laughed. We read Scripture to one another. We prayed. Oh, they were wonderful days. And I called to thank you for laying your hands on him and praying for healing.”
And then she said something incredibly profound. She said, “He wasn’t cured, but he was healed.”
Prayer: Father thank you for healing in lives we can’t even imagine. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen!
Pastor Bill Team Prayer
Father please bring 1…………. 2…………. 3………….. into your kingdom.
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen!
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Pastor Bill Christian Cyber Ministries
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