By Warner Todd Huston
The west’s current battle with radical Islam has revealed the worst in both the west and the world of Islam. Obviously from Islam we have seen the intolerance, hatred, oppression and evil in its nature. But, from the west we have seen revealed the hollowness of its soul and a complete lack of self-regard as so many western nations allow the evil of Islam to attack them from within as well as from without. The west has lost its spine to stand up for its own principles, in fact has thrown away all pretext that it even has principles worth preserving.
Ben Franklin is reported to have said that for the American people the Founders had created a Republic but he added the caution "if you can keep it." By that he meant, of course, that it was up to future Americans to maintain the system grounded upon the first principles the Founders bequeathed to us. The same can be said of any society for if a society throws away or strays too far from its beginnings it becomes a materially different entity. Now sometimes it’s a good thing when a society strays from its genesis, to be sure. Leaving behind certain prejudices, rectifying the suppression of ideas or ending the oppression of minorities is the mark of a maturing, benevolent society. But, too much change can also be a bad thing. And change merely for changes sake is not a legitimate goal.
This dual reliance on conserving tradition while moving forward to liberalize society is familiar ground for the west in general and the United States in particular. The Founders clearly believed that both liberalization and conservatism could be enshrined in a modern state. After all, the whole thrust of the Founders’ ideology was that they were combining a preservation of the best of English tradition with the liberalization of government by the consent of the people and the ideals of religious liberty.
To the American Founders, these were principles well worth fighting for.
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Posted by Walt as Cartoon Jihad, Islam at 10:52 PM EST
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Blaming last year's published Prophet Mohammed cartoons as an excuse for jihad against innocent civilians has surfaced again.
One of the main suspects, Youssef Mohammed el Hajdib who was arrested last month in Germany's failed bomb attack is blaming last year's published cartoons as an 'attack' on Prophet Mohammed. He also blames the death of al-Qaeda leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi for his failed bombing attempt..
The bombs did not explode because of faulty timed detonators. But the two men were serious about their plot, Mr Ziercke said, and had studied the German rail timetables for weeks, possibly even since the start of the row over the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed last year.
According to another account of the police findings, published today in the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, the men initially planned to strike during the World Cup football finals hosted by Germany in June and early July. (The Australian News)
If the Christians and Jews responded in like manner to the offensive anti-=Christian and anti-Jewish cartoons published published in Arab newspapers there probably would not be any jihadists left to complain. But at least the Christians and Jews have more common sense over the cartoons issue.
Posted by Walt as Cartoon Jihad, Islam, Terrorism at 9:09 AM EDT
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By:Rev. Michael Bresciani
Denmark’s Jyllands-Posten newspaper issued an apology and whisked it off to the Jordanian news agency Petra for publishing cartoons that supposedly were insulting to the prophet Muhammad. The arguments about the poor taste of the cartoonist notwithstanding, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Denmark’s prime minister says he and his government cannot apologize for the country since the newspaper is independent and not an agency of the government. To most people this makes sense but Islam is not most people.
It would seem that this entire tip toeing around Islam is far above absurdity and much closer to insanity. Can anyone remember an apology coming to Indonesia for the bombings there by radical Islamists? Did the British get an apology for the bombings of its subway? Who has heard one representative of any radical Islamic group apologize for the death and destruction wrought in America on 9/11?
Is the apology offered by the Danish newspaper for there lack of taste and discretion or is it for other reasons? Is it because boycotts of Danish products like milk, insulin and food stuffs? Or finally is it the fear or reprisals in the form of terrorist attacks on embassies, public places, schools and homes. Perhaps it is only a reasonable attempt at diplomacy that a free nation would employ under any circumstances in a civilized world.
Terrorism by any other name is still just terrorism, insulted prophets notwithstanding. If free nations have decided not to negotiate with terrorists on any level then we are forced to ask, why then are we making apologies for cartoons? Last time I looked, no cartoon had ever toppled a building or killed a child in the street.
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Posted by Walt as Cartoon Jihad, Islam at 7:02 AM EDT
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With all the reported violence in the world caused by some of the Muslims over the cartoons and 
terrorist deadly actions, it is no wonder the world’s perception of Islam is growing very negative. Granted not all Muslims are to blamed, and there are some peace loving Muslims, the violence against humanity is occurring in countries under control by Islam.
According to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll:
The poll found that nearly half of Americans — 46 percent — have a negative view of Islam, seven percentage points higher than in the tense months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, when Muslims were often targeted for violence.
These same sentiments were expressed in a recent post in Jihad Watch:
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Posted by Walt as Cartoon Jihad, Islam, Terrorism at 2:17 PM EST
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All the violent and negative behavior exhibited by Muslims throughout the world has given non-Muslims a glimpse of what Islam is all about. The following article is cross-posted from FaithFreedom.org.
By Barbara J. Stock
The Islamic Pandora’s Box has been opened and no amount of energy spent trying to push the true face of Islam back in will be successful. The inherent violence, intolerance, and inbred anger of Islam is now out for all to see. The world is watching and the “handful of terrorists who have high-jacked a peaceful religion” doesn’t pass the “laugh test” any longer.
An Islamic mob of over 500 marched through the streets of Knightsbridge , England , chanting, “Massacre those who insult Islam!” and issued warnings of further terror attacks by screaming, " Britain , you will pay, 7/7 on its way." Embassies have been burned. Nearly 50,000 Muslims took to the streets in Sudan chanting, “"We are ready to die in defense of you our beloved prophet." A Catholic priest has been killed, and churches burned. These people are not “terrorists,” but supposedly the average peace-loving Muslim. It doesn’t seem take much to turn a “peaceful” Muslim into a rampaging killer.
All of this chaos and destruction is over a few editorial cartoons.
The threats of kidnappings, riots, and boycotts are coming from Muslims all over the world. Diplomatic action against Denmark has been recommended by the Egyptian ambassador. Muslims in Norway are trying to pass laws that anything short of praise for Islam should be considered blasphemy and severely punished. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) felt it had the right to dictate to the president of the United States concerning which terms would be acceptable when referring to Islam in the State of the Union Address.
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Posted by Walt as Cartoon Jihad, Islam, Middle East Issues, Terrorism at 2:46 PM EST
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The death toll continues to climb in Nigeria. And supposedly it is over the caricatures of Muhammad. But these killings have been ongoing for many years. It is obvious that Muslims are just looking for an excuse to justify their attacks non-Muslims.
From a report in The Christian Post:
Armed with machetes and clubs, Muslim youths in the northern Nigerian city of Potiskum on Friday attacked shops owned by mostly Christians and burned churches reported resident Ibrahim Dagbugur according to The Associated Press. It took police several hours to quell the riot that claimed the lives of four people.
The violence followed weeklong protests and violence starting Feb. 18 when Nigerian Muslims demonstrating in the northern and predominantly Muslim city of Bauchi targeted Christians and killed 18 people.
Caricatures of the Muslim prophet Muhammad – first printed in September by a Danish newspaper and reprinted in European media and elsewhere – have sparked angry protests by Muslims worldwide who consider any depiction of Allah and their prophets to be blasphemy.
Recent fighting is the worst to hit Nigeria since 2004 when Muslim-Christians clashes in northern Nigeria killed more than 700 people. Nigeria is almost entirely split between a northern Muslim population and a predominantly Christian south.
Posted by Walt as Cartoon Jihad, Islam at 12:51 PM EST
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MEDIA ADVISORY, Feb. 17 /Christian Wire Service/ — In response to news reports today of a $1-million US bounty for killing a cartoonist who drew the Muhammad caricatures, Randall Terry releases the following:
The "Traditions of the Prophet" are the words (Hadith) and the deeds (Sunnah) of Mohammed, which are NOT in the Koran. Repeat: The "Traditions" are NOT in the Koran; they are recorded by ancient Islamic historians. Furthermore, the Koran, and the "Traditions of the Prophet" form the foundation of Islamic Law – the Shari’a.
Pakistani culture and law are squarely anchored in the Koran and the "Traditions" of Mohammed; their "Ideal" for justice is based on the life of Mohammed.
Following are:
1) Passages of the Pakistani Constitution which specifically mention the "Sunnah" (the "Traditions") of Mohammed as the foundation of law. (italics added)
2) Examples of Mohammed calling for the assassination or execution of a "comic" who satirized him in poetry of song.
Examples of "The Traditions" in Constitution from Pakistan
Preamble
Whereas sovereignty over the entire Universe belongs to Almighty Allah alone, and the authority to be exercised by the people of Pakistan within the limits prescribed by Him is a sacred trust;
Wherein the principles of democracy, freedom, equality, tolerance and social justice, as enunciated by Islam, shall be fully observed;
Wherein the Muslims shall be enabled to order their lives in the individual and collective spheres in accordance with the teachings and requirements of Islam as set out in the Holy Quran and Sunnah…
Islamic Provisions
227. (1) All existing laws shall be brought in conformity with the Injunctions of Islam as laid down in the Holy Quran and Sunnah, in this Part referred to as the Injunctions of Islam, and no law shall be enacted which is repugnant to such Injunctions.
In the following passage, we see that the secular government submits itself to the ruling of religious scholars and clerics who serve in the "Islamic Council."
230. (1) The functions of the Islamic Council shall be,
(a) to make recommendations to [Majlis- e- Shoora (Parliament)] and the Provincial Assemblies as to the ways and means of enabling and encouraging the Muslims of Pakistan to order their lives individually and collectively in all respects in accordance with the principles and concepts of Islam as enunciated in the Holy Quran and Sunnah… (More can be found at www.pakistani.org)
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Posted by Walt as Cartoon Jihad, Islam at 11:32 PM EST
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The war that has erupted over the publication of the Mohammed cartoons clearly shows the double standard invoked by the Muslim world. The anti-Semantic cartoons produced by Muslim countries in the Middle East prove to be more horrific and damaging then the Danish cartoons.
These anti-Semantic cartoons are the norm for the Arab world. And the Muslim violent demonstrations over the Danish cartoons is also the norm.
Now, the Iranian paper Hamshahri is sponsoring a contest to find the best Holocaust cartoons with the challenge that they are published in the same newspapers that the Mohammed cartoons appeared.
In a report on the cartoon wars, Spiegel Online reports:
In the end, it was the image of the Prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban with a lit fuse that proved perhaps most offensive. After all, as the Web site of the Arab-European League — a group supporting the rights of Arab and Muslim communities in Europe — pointed out: "The issue for us is not about depicting the prophet or any other theological consideration. It’s about stigmatizing a whole population of more than 1 billion Muslims through portraying their symbol as being a terrorist, megalomaniac, misogynies (sic) and a psychopath. This is racist, xenophobic and calling for hatred against Muslims."
That’s a valid point. But it would have been a lot more forceful had the Web site not published a political cartoon a few days earlier depicting Anne Frank in bed with Adolf Hitler, who is looking amorously appeased. As if that wasn’t offensive enough, the illustrator throws in one of the worst crimes in recent European history by name dropping Marc Dutroux, the convicted Belgian killer infamous for kidnapping young girls, raping them and then starving them to death. Hitler is saying, "Write this one in your diary Anne!"
The Anti-Defamation League website has many examples of anti-Semantic hate cartoons from the Arab world. There has been no let up of the cartoon campaign by the Arabs since 1948.
Posted by Walt as Cartoon Jihad, General Commentary, Islam, Terrorism at 9:43 PM EST
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The cartoon jihad rages on, and now an Iranian cleric is encouraging that jihad be directed at the United States. From a story in Iran Focus:
A senior Iranian cleric called on Muslims on Friday to direct their fury over cartoons of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad at the United States, rather than Denmark.
When crowds of worshipers in Tehran chanted “Death to Denmark” during his fiery sermon, Tehran Friday prayers leader Ahmad Khatami told them, “We shouldn’t say ‘Death to Denmark’. Denmark is nothing! We must say, ‘Death to America’. It’s the Americans who set up the likes of the Danes”.
The Muslims are employing a double standard which it is okay for them but not for anyone else to use political and editorial cartoons. The Muslim world is trying to force their ways on the non-Muslim world by attempting to thwart freedom of speech.
From a post on Tell Children The Truth, the path to genocide against the Jews is spelled out in Arab anti-Jewish cartoons. Examples of these cartoons can be viewed at their website.
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The main recurrent motif in Arab cartoons concerning Israel is “the devilish Jew.” This image conveys the idea that Jews behave like Nazis, kill children and love blood. The similarity with themes promulgated by the Nazis is evident. Many Arab cartoons praise suicide bombing or call for murder. The collective image of the Jews thus projected lays the groundwork for a possible genocide.
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A caricature may have as much influence on public opinion as an editorial.
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Palestinian cartoonists often place emphasis on the anti-Semitic accusation of “ritual murder” of children. This is underscored by their claim that Israelis target Palestinian children. To dehumanize Jews, Arab cartoonists often depict them as malevolent creatures: spiders, vampires or octopuses.
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Several Arab hate motifs also have permeated Western society as they resonate with the long-standing anti-Semitic prejudices of the Christian world.
The Muslims will take this cartoon jihad to the fullest extent they can, yet no one in the West is calling them on their rather inappropriate cartoons of the Jews and other non-Muslims.
Posted by Walt as Cartoon Jihad, Islam, Terrorism at 9:26 PM EST
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There is no reason for the violent riots by the Muslim world over the publishing of the Mohammed cartoon caricatures. The Muslims have been producing caricatures of Mohammed for centuries!
In a previous post, Ann Coulter, in a recent column in World Net Daily, has pointed out that the rule forbidding the drawing of Mohammed is only a recent idea.
From DiscoverTheNetwork.org, author Amir Taheri also presents evidence that depicting Mohammed in cartoons calls for jihad:
The Muslim Brotherhood’s position, put by one of its younger militants, Tariq Ramadan–who is, strangely enough, also an adviser to the British home secretary–can be summed up as follows: It is against Islamic principles to represent by imagery not only Muhammad but all the prophets of Islam; and the Muslim world is not used to laughing at religion. Both claims, however, are false.
There is no Quranic injunction against images, whether of Muhammad or anyone else. When it spread into the Levant, Islam came into contact with a version of Christianity that was militantly iconoclastic. As a result some Muslim theologians, at a time when Islam still had an organic theology, issued "fatwas" against any depiction of the Godhead. That position was further buttressed by the fact that Islam acknowledges the Jewish Ten Commandments–which include a ban on depicting God–as part of its heritage. The issue has never been decided one way or another, and the claim that a ban on images is "an absolute principle of Islam" is purely political. Islam has only one absolute principle: the Oneness of God. Trying to invent other absolutes is, from the point of view of Islamic theology, nothing but sherk, i.e., the bestowal on the Many of the attributes of the One.
The claim that the ban on depicting Muhammad and other prophets is an absolute principle of Islam is also refuted by history. Many portraits of Muhammad have been drawn by Muslim artists, often commissioned by Muslim rulers. There is no space here to provide an exhaustive list, but these are some of the most famous:
A miniature by Sultan Muhammad-Nur Bokharai, showing Muhammad riding Buraq, a horse with the face of a beautiful woman, on his way to Jerusalem for his M’eraj or nocturnal journey to Heavens (16th century); a painting showing Archangel Gabriel guiding Muhammad into Medina, the prophet’s capital after he fled from Mecca (16th century); a portrait of Muhammad, his face covered with a mask, on a pulpit in Medina (16th century); an Isfahan miniature depicting the prophet with his favorite kitten, Hurairah (17th century); Kamaleddin Behzad’s miniature showing Muhammad contemplating a rose produced by a drop of sweat that fell from his face (19th century); a painting, "Massacre of the Family of the Prophet," showing Muhammad watching as his grandson Hussain is put to death by the Umayyads in Karbala (19th century); a painting showing Muhammad and seven of his first followers (18th century); and Kamal ul-Mulk’s portrait of Muhammad showing the prophet holding the Quran in one hand while with the index finger of the other hand he points to the Oneness of God (19th century).
So why recently, is the Muslim world reacting so violent to cartoons that were published five months ago?
Posted by Walt as Cartoon Jihad, Islam, Terrorism at 10:37 PM EST
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