Monday, July 31, 2017

ISIS Supporter Arrested in Spain

Hat tip Gates of Vienna and Vlad Tepes

A 22-year-old Moroccan has been arrested in the Basque region of Spain for online support of ISIS. The below translation to English is mine.

Australia Also Dealing With Islamic Terror Plots

Lest we forget Australia while so much attention is diverted on Europe, the Aussies have just broken up a terrorist plot against aircraft this week. Four people are in custody.


http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/07/31/australia-plane-terror-plot-involved-poisoning-passengers-using-homemade-bombs-report-says.html

The country already has its own problem with so-called "boat people" sailing up to the country;'s shores. Under Obama, we agreed to accept several hundred, an agreement which Trump has grudgingly honored,.

Sunday, July 30, 2017

Robert Spencer on Campus Brown Shirts





Robert Spencer has an article in Frontpage Magazine that I am cross-posting. It concerns one of my pet topics, campus Brown Shirts who stifle free speech. Two of the biggest perpetrators are the Muslim Student Association and Students for Justice in Palestine.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/267387/new-brownshirts-thugs-vs-free-speech-campus-robert-spencer

It is high time that campus administrators start standing up to these thugs and apply appropriate punishment. It is also high time that lawsuits be filed when people's First Amendment rights are trampled upon and universities take no action.

Another Attack in Germany

An Iraqi man opened fire in a  nightclub in the southern German town of Konstanz near the Swiss border on Sunday morning. He killed one person and wounded three before being taken down by cops.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/07/30/german-nightclub-shooting-one-killed-several-hurt-after-gunman-opens-fire.html

At this moment police believe there was some other reason besides jihad behind the shooting. Just another case of cultural enrichment, but another victim on the altar of political correctness and multi-culturalism. Vlad Tepes has more from German sources.

https://vladtepesblog.com/2017/07/30/iraqi-goes-on-shooting-spree-in-german-nightclub-2-dead-several-injured/

The Military Trans-Gender Ban

This article first appeared in Eagle Rising.


President Trump has stirred up another hornet's nest with his reinstating the ban on trans genders serving in the military. Apparently, it even caught his military leaders off guard. Just another day in the White House. Obviously, the gay community is up in arms although it doesn't affect gays per se.

There are two questions at issue: Is it right and what will happen to those trans genders already in the military?

On the first count, I think the decision is proper. This has nothing to do with a trans gendered person's value as a human being. The military should not be subject to social experimentation. The purpose of the military is to be combat ready, fight, and win wars. They should not have to have their time consumed with these issues.

Not everyone should serve in the military. Specifically, people with psychological issues should not because the stress of daily life in the military will only bring those issues out and exacerbate them.

I am leaving gays out of this discussion because that battle has been thrashed out. In addition, some gays have shown that they can fight quite well, whether with their fists or with weapons. I will say, however, that while I was an Army MP in Germany during the 1960s, we had a gay guy in our unit. He never came out and said he was gay, but it was obvious. We accepted it and never bothered him about it or asked him. He was a likable enough guy. Would I have wanted to pull patrol duty with him and go into some of those tough GI bars we had to police? Not really. (I never did team up with him because we had joint patrols with another MP unit at our base.)

Trans genders, in addition to the psychological issues, also have to deal with medical issues connected to their sex change. The last thing the military needs is to be dealing with those. In addition, imagine our military having to waste time, energy and money in order to build gender-neutral latrines. I say leave that nonsense to the universities.

As for those (however many there may be) already in the military, to be fair, allow them to complete their current tours of duty and release them with whatever discharge they have earned. There may be someone who is within a few years of retirement who should be allowed to qualify for that retirement and its benefits.

This is not to trash any trans gendered people who may be in the military. Like anyone else who wants to serve their country, I salute them. I just don't think our military-especially in this troubled world- should have to sacrifice any time or resources to deal with this issue. Any unit that is involved in accommodating trans-genders and their various issues and having to worry about bathroom facilities is not combat ready.

Saturday, July 29, 2017

Another Jew Hating Sermon: Riverside Mosque

Hat tip MEMRI


"Oh Allah, liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque and all the Muslim lands from the unjust tyrants and the occupiers. Oh Allah, destroy them, they are no match for You. Oh Allah, disperse them, and rend them asunder. Turn them into booty in the hands of the Muslims."

One would think that the Islamic Center of Riverside (California) Mosque would watch its language after one of their worshipers was involved in the horrific 2015 massacre that took 14 lives in neighboring San Bernardino. Yet, as the nation's attention was directed at the words of an imam at the Islamic Center of Davis, in which imam Ammar Shahin invoked the hadith of hate that demanded death to Jews of the Day of Judgment, another imam in Riverside, Mahmoud Harmoush, had similar words to say about Israeli Jews in the wake of the strife on-going at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem,

https://www.memri.org/tv/california-sermon-jews-plotting-mecca-medina-allah-wants-jihad/transcript

Let me be clear: These words are not just being spoken in Syria, or Saudi Arabia, or Iran, or the West Bank. They are being spoken in Riverside, California, just as the call to kill Jews was spoken a week ago in Davis.

This is what is coming out of too many American mosques, and it needs to be halted.

I ask you: Where are the congregations marching out of these mosques in protest? Where are the million-Muslim marches in America against this speech?

These imams if they are not American citizens, need to be deported. If they are naturalized, they have received their citizenship under false pretenses because they are against American freedoms. They should have their citizenship revoked and be deported a'la Rasmieh Odeh.

In addition, mosques where this type of speech is emanating need to be investigated not only by the FBI, but also by IRS and their tax-exempt status revoked.


Suspected Bomb Maker Arrested in Sweden

Hat tip Fria Tider


Once again, Sweden is  reminded of the high cost of uncontrolled Islamic immigration. An Iranian man has been arrested trying to purchase 400 Kg. of fertilizer and is suspected of trying to manufacture a bomb. The below article is from Fria Tider and is translated by Yours Truly.


http://www.friatider.se/misst-nkt-iransk-terrorist-gripen-i-sm-land-f-rs-kte-k-pa-400-kilo-konstg-dsel

Suspected Iranian terrorist arrested in Smaland - attempted to buy 400 kilograms of fertilizer
Published July 29, 2017 at 18.21

DOMESTIC. A 38-year-old man has been arrested in Smaland suspected of attempting to build a bomb. The man who has Iranian origin stubbornly tried to buy 400 kilograms manure for bomb making, Expressen writes.




It was July 18th that the Security Police arrested a 38-year-old man in Nässjö in Småland and was subsequently detained on suspicion of preparation for general devastation.
Criminal suspicions apply from April 1 this year and beyond. However, the preliminary investigation is confidential and it has been unclear exactly why the man, who has Iranian origin but both Swedish and Afghan citizenship, was arrested.
Now Italy's anti-terrorist police state that the man is suspected of attempting to manufacture a bomb.
It was the Italian police who warned Säpo that the man on several occasions tried to buy 400 kilograms of fertilizer via the net.
Artificial fertilizer was what, for example, Anders Behring Breivik used when he set off a bomb at the government office in Oslo 2011.
"The effort has been made on the basis of our mission to prevent serious crimes (from being) committed and it has been done in close cooperation with local police," says Åsa Nilsson, Head of the Investigation Unit at the Swedish Security Service.
The security police are conducting the preliminary investigation, which is  led by prosecutors at the Security Unit for Security Objectives.
"Our task is to protect democracy and the security of the country and that is why we are in the forefront, Karl Melin, Press Officer at Säpo, said earlier to SVT.
The man is likely  suspected of preparing for general devastation. He denies any crime.

San Diego Case: Keeping CAIR Out of Public Schools

The San Diego Unified School District has decided not to partner with the Council on American Islamic Relations in an anti-bullying program that is really just a way for  CAIR to promote Islam in public schools. The Investigative Project on Terrorism has the report on an important victory that should be spread all over the country.

https://www.investigativeproject.org/6426/cair-loses-san-diego-schools-partnership

Kudos to all those involved in fighting CAIR's efforts in San Diego. Alleged bullying of Muslim students is an excuse for this despicable and subversive organization to force schools to accommodate Muslim holidays and give pro-Islam presentations to students.

Maxine Waters Is Reclaiming Her Time


Old Maxine Waters is just as obnoxious in House committee hearings as she is when giving speeches.

What Good Is the Republican Party?

This article first appeared in New English Review.

Image result for white elephant



This week, the Republicans in the Senate put the screws to any hopes of replacing and repealing Obama Care. First, seven Republicans joined every Democrat in voting No on a repeal of Obama Care. Then on Friday, three Republicans, John McCain, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, joined every Democrat in voting No on  a so-called skinny repeal, a lesser version. At the end of the day, Obama Care stands and the promise that the Republican party has made to its voters for seven years has been broken.

Remember the time when Republicans told us voters that we needed to give them back the House so they could oppose Obama's policies and work to repeal Obama Care? We gave them the House. Then they told us we needed to give them the Senate. We did that too. Then they proceeded to let Obama do whatever he wanted. They told us we needed to elect a Republican president. In 2016, that happened. Republicans now hold the Senate, the House of Representatives, and the White House.They still can't get anything done. Chuck Schumer basically runs the Senate.

In addition, the Republicans had seven years to design a quality plan to replace Obama Care. They couldn't do it. All they did was rush out a hastily drawn up plan that still left the government controlling too much of health care.

I ask you: What good is this Republican party?

Full disclosure: I am not a Republican. I don't belong to any political party, but I vote Republican because the Democrats are so far to the left and so corrupt it turns my stomach. But the events of this week are the reason I have never joined the Republican party.

Conservative commentator Michael Medved often points out that voting for third party candidates is an exercise in electing the one you oppose. The examples of Ross Perot and Ralph Nader are a testament to that. Without Perot, Bill Clinton would probably not have been president, and we would have been spared the tawdry career of Hillary Clinton. Without Ralph Nader, Al Gore would likely have been president. There is also the added governmental confusion that would result if we had more than two viable parties with coalition governments being cobbled together as they are in Europe.

But at some point, the two party system,which has served us so well for so long, loses it appeal if one party is so ineffective and feckless as are the Republicans. When the Democrats hold all three parts of the government, they get (bad) things done. The Republicans are getting nothing done once you get past Trump's executive orders. It is Trump who is having his federal law enforcement agencies round up MS-13, the vicious Salvadoran street gang. It is Trump who nominated Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. It is Trump who has reversed so many of Obama's executive orders.

At some point, conservatives need to bite the bullet and consider a truly conservative and committed third party. Call it the Conservative Party. Call it the Tea Party. Call it what you will, but it should leave no doubt that people like Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins and others like them are not welcome.

And while we're at it, we also need to bring in term limits, but that is a topic for a separate discussion.

Friday, July 28, 2017

The Staged "Apology" in Davis

Hat tip The Qurosi Chronicles


Today, faced with incontrovertible evidence of what he had said days earlier at a sermon at the Islamic Center of Davis (California), Imam Ammar Shahin apologized to the Jewish community. He was flanked by local religious leaders.

http://www.davisenterprise.com/local-news/community-leaders-to-speak-out-today-about-islamic-center-sermon/

To one Muslim observer, reformist Shireen Qudosi, the apology rang hollow. Shahin did not let his emotions (Jew hatred) get the best of him. He was quoting a well-known hadith from Islamic texts which quoted the Prophet Mohammed as saying that on the Day of Judgment, the Jews would hide behind trees, which would call out to the Muslim to come and kill the Jew hiding behind (the tree).

http://mailchi.mp/df5703f94583/nyts-women-in-the-world-front-page-qudosi-shreds-fgms-religious-right-3289017?e=8e3febc9ab

Just as bad, if not worse, the mosque attempted to cover for Shahin,  falsely interpreting  the words as describing the "victory of the followers of Jesus over evil". They also claimed that the imam used the word, "destroy" and not, "annihilate". And always note that the word "innocent" is always present because "Islam never condones the killing of innocent people". Unfortunately, Jews (and Christians) are not considered innocent under Islam especially Israelis, whom the imam beseeched Allah to annihilate.

The denials and explanations are  laughable.

And where was the outrage from the local Muslim community? Did anyone get up and walk out of that mosque when those words were spoken? Are local Muslims protesting in front of the mosque and demanding the removal of this imam?

As Qudosi says, the entire leadership of the Davis mosque needs to go. I will take that a step further. If any of them are not US citizens, they should be gone from the country.

San Diego State Professor Calls John McCain "War Criminal"

Hat tip Legal Insurrection

Image result for john mccainImage result for jonathan graubart sdsu

John McCain-War hero                              Jonathan Graubart-Jerk


San Diego State University Jonathan Graubart has called Senator John McCain a "war criminal".

http://legalinsurrection.com/2017/07/san-diego-state-prof-under-fire-for-calling-john-mccain-a-war-
criminal/


Here is an article on the controversy in The Daily Aztec, SDSU's campus paper. I have already entered my response in the reader comment thread.

First of all, a response to the "war criminal" charge. John McCain was a Navy pilot in the Vietnam war and was shot down on a bombing raid over Hanoi. He spent several years as a POW before being released. During that time, he was subjected to torture and other forms of abuse. At one point, he refused an early release because he was the son of a Navy admiral. He would not desert his POW comrades.

I don't agree with everything McCain has done as a senator, but that does not lesson my respect for him as a war hero. I repeat: War hero-not war criminal.

As for Graubart, he is beneath contempt. I have encountered him before. Graubart is one of those legions of university professors who attempt to indoctrinate their students against Israel. In March 2014, Graubart hosted a co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement at SDSU. I also attended and videotaped the event. The event was held as part of Graubart's class, which he opened to the public.

I don't know if Graubart has ever served in the military; I doubt that he has. He has, of course, the freedom to say what he wants about McCain. We in the public have the right to respond accordingly. Of course, Graubart already showed in 2014 that he himself cannot take the heat.




Hamburg Knife Attack Leaves One Dead




Chalk up another victim to Angela Merkel's insane immigration policy. A Muslim man went on a  knife-wielding rampage in Hamburg today leaving one dead and four wounded-all the while shouting, "Allahu Akbar"


http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/07/28/german-police-1-killed-in-knife-attack-at-hamburg-supermarket.html


Vlad Tepes has more with videos. Translations are in the works.

https://vladtepesblog.com/2017/07/28/breaking-hamburg-terror-1-dead-several-injured-as-knifeman-goes-on-supermarket-rampage/

Gates of Vienna has a short news interview with a witness. The video has sub-titles.

Thursday, July 27, 2017

Pity Poor Steven Salaita: Retiring From Academia

"Rejected on Four Continents"




Poor little Stevie Salaita. The professor who blew a job offer from the University of Illinois after he blabbed on social media wishing "all settlers would go missing" after three Israeli teens were kidnapped in the West Bank (They were later found murdered) has now given up academia after failing to get any job "on four continents". His farewell note is a study in self pity (even though he says he won't slosh around in self pity). Inside Higher Education has the sad tale.

https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2017/07/25/steven-salaita-says-hes-leaving-academe

Maybe all those universities decided they had no use for a professor who has a track record of suing universities as he did the University of Illinois after they rescinded their job offer.

I say good riddance to this jerk. Or maybe he could always try for that 5th continent. I hear there's plenty of opportunities in Antarctica.

Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Petition to Davis California Mosque

Please sign the petition telling the Islamic Center of Davis to fire the imam (Ammar Shahin) who called for Allah to annihilate the Jews.


Islamic Center of Davis: Fire Your Antisemitic Imam
https://www.change.org/p/islamic-center-of-davis-mosque-board-islamic-center-of-davis-fire-your-antisemitic-imam

It is my hope that if the imam is not fired, there will be peaceful protests in front of the mosque until they do.

Tuesday, July 25, 2017

"He Didn't Say 'Annihilate the Jews' He Said 'Destroy the Jews"

Hat tip Vlad Tepes, Holocaust Encyclopedia and Breitbart


An imam in Davis, California is under fire for a sermon he gave that has surfaced. In the sermon last Friday, Ammar Shahin reportedly read from the infamous hadith that talks about killing Jews on the Day of Judgment.

"The Prophet Muhammad said: ‘Judgment Day will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews, and the Jews hide behind stones and trees, and the stones and the trees say: Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah…’ They will not say: Oh Egyptian, oh Palestinian, oh Jordanian, oh Syrian, oh Afghan, oh Pakistani. The Prophet Muhammad says that they time will come, the Last Hour will not take place until the Muslims fight the Jews. We don’t say if it is in Palestine or another place. Until they fight… When that war breaks out, they will run and hide behind every rock, and house, and wall, and trees. The house, the wall, and the tress will call upon the Muslims. It will say: Oh Muslim… It will not say: Oh Palestinian, oh Egyptian, oh Syrian, oh Afghan, oh Pakistani, oh Indian… No, it will say: Oh Muslim. Muslim. When Muslims come back… ‘Come, there is someone behind me – except for the Gharqad tree, which is the tree of the Jews. Except for a certain tree that they are growing today in Palestine, in that area, except this form of tree, which they are growing today… That’s the tree that will not speak to the Muslims."

Oh Allah, liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque from the filth of the Jews.


Oh Allah, count them one by one and annihilate them down to the very last one. Do not spare any of them.

http://www.breitbart.com/california/2017/07/25/mosque-defends-imam-meant-destroy-jews-not-annihilate/

The words speak for themselves. The explanation by the Islamic Center of Davis is disingenuous to say the least.

He said "destroy" instead of "annihilate"? What's the difference? Maybe he should have used the expression "final solution".

Contrary to what the mosque claims, Shain was not talking about Jesus. He was not talking about the fight between good and evil. He was talking about Muslims and Jews just as that vicious hadith says.

I am reminded of the famous speech Adolf Hitler gave before the Reichstag in 1939. In that speech he threatened that if the Jews caused another world war, it would result in the "destruction of the Jewish race in Europe." (Vernichtung).

https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/media_fi.php?ModuleId=10005175&MediaId=3108

The explanation by the mosque is also self-defeating. They use the violence at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem to justify Shahin's words. Indeed, Shahin is speaking in response to the events of the past week in Jerusalem. He is invoking the infamous hadith of hate, words that supposedly came from the mouth of the Prophet Mohamed to "annihilate/destroy them (the Jews) down to the very last one".

Take your pick.

I hate to say this, but we have come to the point where the authorities need to monitor what is being said in American mosques. In far too many of them, possibly most, hate speech toward non-Muslims and the West is being preached. Often it is being acted upon. These mosques should be shut down. If the preachers are not American citizens, they should be sent packing back to where they came from.

We must not emulate the Europeans who are tolerating this hate in the very name of tolerance.


New Questions for DNC and Wasserman-Schultz

Hat tip Daily Caller


While CNN is pushing this investigation by Bob Mueller into President Trump's "Russian collusion", do you think they might be able to fit this into their daily  programming? It appears the FBI has a serious investigation going into a certain Imron Awon, a Pakistani, who was former DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz's technical aide.

http://dailycaller.com/2017/07/23/exclusive-fbi-seized-smashed-hard-drives-from-wasserman-schultz-it-aides-home/?utm_source=WhatCountsEmail&utm_medium=ICYMI%20-%20Media%20-%20Conservative&utm_campaign=ICYMI%20-%20Exclusive

Here is more from Fox News. Awan has been arrested trying to leave the country.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/07/25/feds-arrest-it-staffer-for-wasserman-schultz-trying-to-leave-country.html

Stay tuned (but not to CNN).

School System in Massachusetts Teaching Pro-Islam, Anti-Israel Propaganda to Students

Hat tip Legal Insurrection and CAMERA


I hope someone is keeping a nation-wide file on this indoctrination that our schools are carrying out when it comes to Islam. After all, it's a national problem. If it were just a case of teaching kids to respect the religious beliefs of others, that would be one thing. Teaching them outright false information is quite another. In addition, now we have a school district in Newton, Massachusetts that also teaching kids that Israel is carrying out all kinds of human rights abuses-charges they can't back up.

http://legalinsurrection.com/2017/07/case-study-biased-curriculum-on-israel-and-islam-in-a-massachusetts-school-system/#sthash.857yHdbJ.gbpl

I'm not asking that school districts teach the awful truths about Islam or take Israel's side in that conflict. Let the kids grow older and learn from world events what Islam is all about. It should suffice to teach kids to respect other people's religious beliefs. Eventually, they will ask why Islam doesn't respect their beliefs.


Muslims in Europe Slammed by Journalist

Hat tip Gates of Vienna


According to the journalist in the below video, Muslims in Europe are largely a bunch of dumb welfare recipients who have bitten the hand that feeds them. The journalist holds nothing back. Is this man an Islamophobe, a racist, somebody that the Germans or the English should throw in jail for hate speech? No, he is an Algerian-Swedish Muslim. This appeared on Algerian TV in 2012.




http://gatesofvienna.net/2017/07/algerian-journalist-on-muslims-stupidity-is-incidentally-deeply-anchored-and-rooted-in-us/

Time for Heads to Roll at State Department

This is an example of the "Deep State" that exists within our government-holdovers from the Obama administration. Here we have the State Department-supposedly in a Republican administration- removing all references to the ISIS genocide against Christians and Yazidis. It is shameful.


http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/07/25/state-department-lawyers-removing-references-to-isis-genocide-against-christians-other-religious-minorities.html

It is time for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to intervene  immediately and correct this. If he does not then I must assume it reflects his own thinking. In that case, President Trump should fire him.

Under Obama the neglect of Middle East Christians was shocking. To think it would continue under Trump is disappointing to say the least.

The Silencers Complain About Being Silenced




I just came across the below link via the blog site, Campus Watch. They have seen fit to respond to accusations of engaging in censorship against people in academia who support the Palestinian cause against Israel. The referenced article is from the blog site Mondoweiss, a rabidly anti-Israel site that I give no credibility to whatsoever.

In this posting, Mondoweiss is publicizing a new book entitled, "We will not be silenced: The academic repression of Israel's critics". This book, edited by UC Santa Barbara professor William Robinson and Maryam Griffin, with a forward by-are you sitting?- Cynthia McKinney and forward by Richard Falk,, argues that on American university campuses, those who support the Palestinian cause are under attack and being silenced by supporters of Israel. Naturally, Mondoweiss supports the book's claims.

As a former teacher at the University of California at Irvine and one who has been involved in the campus strife between Israel and Palestinian supporters, as well as seen and heard some of the people mentioned, I feel compelled to respond.

Let me begin with one of the editors ( I am not familiar with Griffin.). William Robinson is one of so many Israel-haters infesting our college campuses. He was involved in a controversy at UCSB over emailing his students his personal views on Israel. I heard him speak once in 2010 at UC Irvine, and during the q and a, I told him that I didn't consider him a teacher or a professional, rather I considered him an indoctrinator. He said not one word in response.

What can you say about the former congresswoman from Georgia, Cynthia McKinney? She has blamed Jews for her re-election defeat and joined with George Galloway in his Viva Palestina cruises to Gaza. That she could write the forward to any book is a joke. The woman is just plain dumb. She is so dumb that when she spoke at UCI (2009) and I asked her if Jews cost her her congressional seat, she played right into it and quoted the words of another anti-semitic former congressman, the corrupt Gus Savage of Chicago.

Then there is Richard Falk, professor emeritus from Princeton and former UN special rapporteur for human rights the Palestinian territories who has blamed all the ills of the Middle East on Israel. Even the Obama administration disowned his findings for the UN on the last Gaza conflict in December 2008-January 2009.

Let me now address some of the writings in Mondoweiss in support of the book's thesis of Palestinian supporters in academia being repressed. In fact, it is the pro-Palestinian lobby that holds sway throughout academia from the West Coast to the East Coast. Middle Eastern studies departments are dominated by pan-Arab, anti-Israel and anti-Western professors. At the student level, Muslim Student Associations and their sister organization, the brown-shirt Students for Justice in Palestine, have succeeded in making the Israel-Palestinian conflict one of the most emotional hot button topics in universities. Pro-Israel groups and conservative groups hold events at their peril. They are almost surely to be protested and loudly disrupted. I know this from personal experience. Just last May 10, I attended a panel discussion at UC Irvine by five Israeli Army reservists, which was loudly disrupted by SJP and others causing the campus police to be called and the audience and panelists to be escorted from the venue. A similar event was disrupted at UCI in May 2016 by SJP et al. Yet, Mondoweiss has this to say:

"There are many ways to try to silence people whose ideas you don’t like. You can bully, blackmail, violate, isolate, punish, and smear them until they shut up, back down, and/or lose the platform upon which they were speaking.
It’s not just autocratic despots or crooked attorneys who wield such strategies with tyrannical efficacy. The forces of the pro-Israel lobby have long carried out systematic campaigns of vilification and repression with a pugnacious energy that rivals even the mob’s. Anyone in the public eye who dares to level a critique of the State of Israel could find themselves targeted. And if you are a prominent and vocal Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) activist: fuggedaboutit."
When it comes to bullying and mobs, it is invariably the pro-Palestinian side that engages in it. I have never witnessed similar action by pro-Jewish students. They are generally loathe to confront the bully boys (and girls) of Hatem Bazian's SJP. Bazian, a UC Berkeley professor and Islamic activist, co-founded SJP.
Continuing.
"This climate of censorship is especially hard felt on college and university campuses where a historic upsurge in successful pro-Palestine activism has led to a corollary increase in McCarthyist pressure by the dozens of Zionist organizations who have formed into a network called the Israel on Campus Coalition. Characterized by their shameless meddling in internal university proceedings, well-organized groups like the AMCHA Initiative, Stand With Us, Campus Watch, Canary Mission, and ADL are the most visible tip of a slander-industrial complex whose mission is to purge professors and students who challenge their own narrative."
While I belong to none of the above groups, I do collaborate from time to time with Campus Watch, AMCHA Initiative, and Stand With Us. I don't know why ADL is mentioned since they rarely get involved in issues where anti-semitism comes from Islamic quarters. They certainly have been missing in action at UC Irvine. Campus Watch reports on professors who use their bully pulpit to push their own personal, anti-Israel agendas. When appropriate, they report the sayings or writings of individuals and refute them point by point. They do not try to silence them. The AMCHA Initiative is dedicated to fighting campus anti-semitism. When students like those of the General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS) at San Francisco State University display posters lauding the killing of Israelis or videos fantasizing about slitting the throats of Israeli soldiers, AMCHA writes letters to the university to complain and ask for a safe environment for Jewish students. When Professor David Klein of Cal State Northridge ( mentioned in this article) used  the university server to post his anti-Israel propaganda and disseminate it around campus, the AMCHA Initiative complained that this was a misuse of university resources. Mondoweiss is correct that CSUN supported Klein and disregarded the complaints.Apparently, they agree with Klein's views on Israel or just don't care if their university server is used for personal agendas. The salient point here is that when professors or students enter the public/political arena to lobby for causes, those who disagree have a perfect right to express their disagreement. I have accused many professors of being embarrassments to their institutions, but I have never called for one to be fired-or silenced. Our side-unlike theirs-believes in free speech. We reserve the right to argue with it.

Continuing.

"With more than a dozen essays by some of the luminaries in the movement such as Richard Falk, Saree Makdisi, Rabab Ibrahim Abdulhadi, Nadia Abu El-Haj, Steven Salaita, Joseph Massad, members of the Irvine 11, and many others—”We Will Not Be Silenced” serves as an instructive compendium of the pro-Israel lobby’s bag of underhanded tricks and an invaluable playbook for how to preempt and defeat them."

Let me tell you about some of these "luminaries". (Falk I have already mentioned.)

Saree Makdisi of UCLA is one of a team of Israel-hating professors within the UC system. I have heard him speak twice at UC Irvine. On the last occasion, in 2016, he mischaracterized the US State Department  definition of anti-semitism as defining any criticism of Israel as being anti-semitic (not true). 

Rabab Abdulhadi of SF State is the mentor of the GUPS students who have caused so much tension on that campus. Recently she has come under fire for traveling to the Middle East on university funds to attend a conference in Lebanon, which never materialized. Instead, she went to the Palestinian territories and met with her allies dedicated to Israel's destruction. Most recently, she was instrumental in arranging for SFSU to sign a collaboration agreement with An Najah University in the West Bank-described as a breeding ground for terrorists. Abdulhadi was supposed to appear with her GUPS crew at UCI in May of 2015. However, when I showed up with my video camera and the university backed my refusal to turn it off, Abdulhadi and her little rascals never materialized. The table and chairs on the stage sat empty as a hurried Skype telephone conversation was arranged with some Palestinian guy in Washington DC. I didn't bother to film because it was such a nothing burger. The highlight was when he blew cigarette smoke into the screen while answering a question.

Steven Salaita is the professor whose hiring at the University of Illinois was canceled because he had sent out some social media message about hoping that "all the settlers go missing" when the news broke that three Israeli teenagers had been kidnapped on the West Bank. They were later found dead. Salaita has sued UI, and last heard from he was teaching in Lebanon. He is no luminary other than his notorious social media comments.

Joseph Massad of Columbia University is one of the leading anti-Israel academics in the country-for whatever that's worth. As to the quality of his scholarship and teaching ability, I have no idea.

Then there is the Irvine 11. These were the UCI and UC Riverside Muslim Student Union members who disrupted and attempted to shut down the speech of the Israeli ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, at UCI in 2010. I was there and witnessed the whole sordid event. Much to their surprise and amazement, these so-called martyrs were arrested, prosecuted and convicted. Of course, they and their supporters, like Mondoweiss, argued that they were merely expressing their free speech. Nonsense. I have been to many of these events, and I know the ground rules. You let the speaker(s) speak and you can ask questions and challenge them in the q and a. These young men purposely violated that rule as they had planned to do. Their intent was to stop Oren from giving his speech. 

"In their helpful opening essay, David Theo Goldberg and Saree Makdisi discuss the alarming implications of the Hasbara Handbook that is distributed by organizations like StandWithUs to help train pro-Israel campus activists to be effective propagandists. The handbook explicitly encourages its acolytes to avoid legitimate argument and debate with pro-Palestinian activists in favor of deceitful strategies like point scoring, emotional manipulation, and name calling—to create negative connotations “without allowing a real examination of that person or idea.”

Goldberg is a UCI professor who specializes in critical race theory (whatever that is), and is also on the anti-Israel lecture circuit. He is originally from South Africa, but thinks the US is a racist society. As for the Hasbara Handbook, I have not seen it, but its suggested tactics don't sound nearly as ominous as the tactics of SJP and Jewish Voice for Peace-which is to disrupt pro-Israel events. In 2014, a SJP document surfaced from their State University of New York at Binghamton chapter that outlined disruption as just such a tactic to be  utilized.

Continuing.

"David Delgado Shorter, whose only “crime” was to offer his students the option of researching the BDS movement as a case study in his “Tribal Worldviews” course, survived a demoralizing ordeal at UCLA at the hands of AMCHA that included death threats and false accusations of anti-Semitism that damaged his professional and personal life."

I don't know  anything about death threats, which I would naturally condemn, but it seems all these people get death threats, but nobody is ever charged. But I digress. In 2012, UCLA reprimanded Shorter for using his official class website to call for a boycott of Israel. Mondoweiss makes no mention of that.

Similarly, Mondoweiss makes no mention of why complaints were made against Cal. State Northridge professor David Klein who was using his university server to voice his personal views about Israel.

"David Klein, a math professor at Cal State, Northridge and prominent BDS activist, was subjected to a similar coordinated campaign of censorship that stretched out for years and may not even be over yet. Unlike most of the scholars in this collection, Klein was fortunate that Harry Hellenbrand, the president of CSUN at the time, was an outspoken supporter of Klein’s academic freedom."

Continuing.

"What is especially disturbing is the alacrity with which many upper administrators quickly cave and often collude with pressure groups who have no interest in research and knowledge production, but rather have a vested interest in censorship and knowledge suppression."

That's a classic. The reality is that university administrators are terrified of the pro-Palestinian forces on campus, largely because many Muslims are involved., Thus, MSA and SJP get away with all sorts of disruptions, bullying and intimidation of pro-Israel students. Look no further than UC Irvine, where I taught part-time for 18 years. They are still trying to figure out how to deal with the latest SJP disruption on May 10-after they gave a warning letter to them for their May 18, 2016 disruption of an Israeli event. In addition, we have documented countless incidents of disruption and intimidation of Jewish students at universities across the country-especially within the University of California system, in which little to no punitive action was taken. The simple fact is that this type of disruption and thuggery is rarely practiced by Jewish and pro-Israel students or faculty.Yet when our side complains about anti-semitism, bullying, and abuse of university resources to advance personal political agendas, these crybabies claim they are being silenced or repressed. Nonsense.

"The Israel on Campus Coalition has shown few scruples about smearing its opponents as supporters of terror, self-hating Jews, or anti-Semites. Groups like AMCHA, Hillel, StandWithUs have worked with political allies around the clock to cement the erroneous notion that opposition to Zionism is tantamount to anti-Semitism, and that a hatred of Israel’s policies of racism, ethnic cleansing and dispossession is the same as hatred of Jews qua Jews."

First of all, if they are complaining about Hillel, they are really reaching for straws. Most Hillel chapters I have seen-especially at UCI- pressure the students to not get involved in the polemics. AMCHA does not classify mere opposition to Israel as anti-semitic, but points out that the US State Department definition of anti-semitism does include certain types of opposition to Israel, such as denying Jews the right to their own state, equating Israelis with Nazis, and assigning blame for Israel's policies to all Jews.

"Given the horrific history of anti-Semitism, and the deplorable reality of its continued existence, even among some who identify as “supporters” of Palestinian rights, the grave charge of anti-Semitism is not to be taken lightly. As several of the essayists in this book point out, this highly fraught context gives the lobbying groups the perfect straw-man weapon to combat its opponents; and they wield it with a vengeance, in reckless disregard of the lives and livelihoods ruined in the process, and in reckless disregard of the important task of defanging the real anti-Semites."

Let me address that as a gentile. Over the past decade, I have personally seen and heard anti-semitism at UC Irvine which went far beyond criticism of Israel into damning Jews as people. I have documented it on my website and in conjunction with others have researched incidents at many other universities. It is legitimate to criticize Israel's policies though I do not accept Mondoweiss's charges of racism and ethnic cleansing. To me, Israel is a nation under attack and trying merely to survive, but they will fight back. As Jews they know the lesson of history if you don't fight back.

I do not question the right of faculty and students to express their views about Israel under the First Amendment. However, when they cross the line from mere criticism of Israel into anti-semitism, we have the right to object. When professors misuse their position as faculty and utilize university resources, such as school servers to spread their personal political views, we have the right to object. When groups like SJP use tactics of disruption, bullying and intimidation against supporters of Israel, we have the right to object.

Contrary to what Mondoweiss claims, Israel's enemies dominate the discourse on college campuses. For the purveyors of this book and Mondoweiss to claim victim status is laughable. But that's what happens when the bully is finally confronted and challenged.


Monday, July 24, 2017

The Chechen "Code of Honor"

Hat tip Gates of Vienna


One of the more prominent problem groups among refugees and asylum seekers in Germany are the Chechens. Toughened by years of fighting against the Russians, coupled with rigid Islam, they are causing more than their share of problems for the overwhelmed German police.

They also enforce their own sharia within the Chechen community in Germany as shown by the below article in Gates of Vienna.

http://gatesofvienna.net/2017/07/the-violent-guardians-of-chechen-womens-virtue-in-berlin/#more-43522

Just another problem for Angela Merkel to deal with.

"What problem?"

Sunday, July 23, 2017

Swimming Crisis in Sweden

Hat tip Fria Tider, Mad Magazine and the great Don Martin


http://www.friatider.se/invandrare-kan-inte-simma

Image result for don martin cartoons


Sweden has a  problem with immigrants who don't know how to swim. The problem seems especially acute among the newly arrived immigrants. The below article is from the Swedish blog, Fria Tider. The translation is mine.

Many Immigrants Cannot Swim

Published July 23, 2017 at 12.06

DOMESTIC. Many newly arrived immigrants who come to Sweden can not swim. At the same time, statistics show that drowning accidents in the country have increased in recent years.
"We only want to swim with women or in full clothing," says an Ethiopian woman to SVT.



13


The acquaintance of newly arrived immigrants is often very low. They can not swim and go to sim school in Sweden.

But immigrant women have another problem. Because of their culture, they do not get or do not want to swim with men.

"We can not mix with others if we do not have full clothing and there is no full cover swimwear available here. We want to swim only with women or in full cover clothes, "says Badria Othman from Ethiopia to SVT News Western Norway.

Last year, Örnsköldsvik municipality started a swimming lessons for just new arrivals. But then only foreign men came and this year the interest was low. 

SVT couples the low level of swimming ability among immigrants with the increased number of drowning accidents in Sweden.

According to statistics from the Swedish Lifeguard Society, drowning accidents have increased "markedly" in Sweden, SVT writes.

Between 2007-2011, 63 people drowned in June. But between 2012-2016, 75 people drowned, an increase of 25 percent.
According to the Lifeguard Society, there are "major shortcomings" in the swimming of immigrants.