via “Sheikh Google’s” Radical Islam.
“‘Sheikh Google’s” is the real threat to young Muslims.” — Hifsa Haroon-Iqbal, British Muslim mother, Daily Telegraph.
These mild legal outcomes indicate that U.S. officials do not appreciate how inflammatory the materials are.
As informed Muslims know, present-day radical Islamists have proven adept at using the internet – far more than have their moderate and Western opponents. “Internet savvy” jihadism appears as evidence of the youthful constituency of the extremists. They have grown up with the internet, video games, and other online diversions. When fanatical ideology takes hold of them, the internet is one of the obvious places for the process to begin.
In an important 2003 article in The Weekly Standard, entitled “The Islamic Terrorism Club,” Stephen Schwartz, wrote about some of the more obnoxious pro-jihad Arabic-language websites then operating from Saudi Arabia and Iraq. The jihad-net expanded considerably in the decade that followed.
Even before September 11, 2001, however, many Muslims who opposed the fundamentalists were focusing on Islamist websites in English, as a means to anticipate threats from radicals.
With Britain targeted for recruitment to the self-proclaimed “Islamic State” [IS] and the IS’s brutal campaign in Syria and Iraq, these sites, which remain operating, are still important and accessible to both the Muslim and non-Muslim public. They are exceptionally educational about the aims and methods of Islamist demagogues.
On September 25, the London Daily Telegraph reported on the pervasive influence of radical Islam on the internet. The article quoted Hifsa Haroon-Iqbal, a British Muslim mother, who said, “the internet is the real problem when it comes to young people being radicalised: ‘The biggest issue right now is the internet – it’s Sheikh Google.'” The Telegraph went with the quote in its headline: “Forget radicalisation in mosques – ‘Sheikh Google’ is the real threat to young Muslims.”
(Image source: muslimvillage.com)
A standard source for monitoring jihadist agitation is Islamic Awakening. It has an extensive archive worth studying, and is eclectic in its postings, which are anti-radical as well as radical. On October 18, 2014, for instance, its headings under “Global Affairs” included: “America is One Sick Place,” a thread begun in 2009, and “Kurdish Murtads [Apostates from Islam] Are Going on a Rampage in Turkey,” posted a few days earlier. The latter is an explicit pro-ISIS comment that accuses Kurds of defending themselves against charges of apostasy, or leaving Islam, because their ranks include secularist “leftists.”
Another well of Islamist venom is Sunni Forum. On October 18, 2014, its lead item under “Current Affairs,” dating from July 23, 2006, was a protest in favor of Guantánamo detainees, entitled, “I Have Tried to Kill Myself Twice…” The second, first posted on July 21, 2006, is a petition defending Syed Talha Ahsan, a British-born jihadist author who was extradited from the UK to the U.S. Ahsan was tried by the American authorities and, with another defendant and UK citizen, Babar Ahmed, pled guilty to charges of promoting the Taliban when it protected Al-Qaida, and to assisting other violent groups, via the internet.
Category Archives: Culture
Tattoo Artist Turned Benedictine Monk
via Immaculate Heart Catholic Radio – Faith, Hope and Love.
Andre Love doesn’t look like your typical Benedictine monk. But for the last six years the former tattoo artist has been a member of the order at Mount Angel Abbey in Oregon, where he is an iconographer and curator of the Abbey’s art collection. The Statesman Journal recently profiled Brother Andre Love and his incredible journey to the monastic life.
Six years ago, Mount Angel Abbey’s serene hilltop campus shook, as leather-clad Bobby Love rolled in on his motorcycle. Love removed his helmet revealing pierced ears and a mop of dreadlocks. With tattoos on his hands, arms and neck, he looked like an extra on “Sons of Anarchy” not a someone attending a retreat for those who might become Catholic monks.
Love knew from a young age that he wanted to devote his life to being an artist. After dropping out of high school and serving in the army, he discovered he could make $100 an hour as a tattoo artist, and developed a reputation as a tattoo artist in New York, New Orleans, Seattle and Austin. Despite having friends and material comfort, Love was still unhappy. He told the Statesman Journal:
“Everything said I should be happy, but I felt very alone and adrift. I looked at myself and realized that I had become a product,” Love said. “I was doing art not as personal expression but for what the kids want, what the kids would shell out the coin for.”
It had become about money, brand and ego. It had become about drugs and booze. He’d left his family and divorced three times.
“I had no clue what love was. I had no clue how to love or how to let other people love me and that’s why I was miserable,” Love said.
He admitted being an addict.
“The addiction was only a symptom of a greater problem … spiritual bankruptcy,” Love said. “I came to the realization that I need God. I needed to be a whole person in the sense that it’s not just about the material or the physical, but there was a whole spiritual dynamic that I had completely ignored.”
Kurtz: Amazed at media outlets refusing to cover Gruber | Fox News Video
Burke Beu: This Democrat Is Giving Up on ObamaCare – WSJ – WSJ
When you’ve been a life-long “anything”, it’s hard to think outside your comfort-zone, but experience can open the door to truth, logic and a willingness to consider reality rather than party-line:
“I grew up in a Democratic family. I have been a registered Democrat since age 18, a Democratic candidate for statewide office in Colorado and a party precinct captain in that caucus state. I’ve volunteered for numerous Democratic candidates and contributed to party causes and campaigns. The 2014 election results were extremely disappointing for me, but hardly a surprise.
I voted for Barack Obama in 2008, then lost my job in the Great Recession. I was lucky; my brother lost his job and his house. I survived on part-time jobs while paying out-of-pocket for my health insurance.
I voted for President Obama again in 2012, then received a cancellation notice for my health insurance. This was due to ObamaCare, the so-called Affordable Care Act. However, I couldn’t afford anything else.
Midterm elections in the second term of a presidency are difficult on the president’s party, and the Obama administration’s crisis-of-the-month headlines weren’t helpful. Ultimately, though, ObamaCare was the catalyst for my party’s midterm thumping.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest speaks about Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act in July. ENLARGE
White House press secretary Josh Earnest speaks about Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act in July. Associated Press
ObamaCare is a failure. For anyone who thinks this is a misprint because no Democratic activist would make such a comment, let me add that it is too big, too complicated and too expensive. Without a public option within its network of exchanges, ObamaCare is a giant blank check to the insurance companies that pushed it through Congress. It punishes responsible consumers like me and treats younger individuals as fools who are expected to pay the bills while not paying attention.
Now we learn in videos that came to light this week that Jonathan Gruber, MIT economist and a key architect of the Affordable Care Act, proudly relied on his perceived “stupidity of the American voter” as the basis for designing ObamaCare. Such comments, along with the program’s notoriously dysfunctional website and false assurances that people can keep their previous health plans, are insults to every citizen regardless of party.
Contrary to Medicare, which was quickly accepted at a time of economic vitality as a meaningful complement to Social Security, ObamaCare was the sequel to an overpriced economic stimulus package that didn’t stimulate very much. Those least affected by the recession benefited the most from the stimulus. I think that’s called “trickle-down economics” when Republicans do it, and the economy continues to struggle for good jobs and a real recovery. ObamaCare is part of the problem, not a solution.”
via Burke Beu: This Democrat Is Giving Up on ObamaCare – WSJ – WSJ.
The Mandate: Republicans Were Elected to Stop Barack Obama, Not to Work with Him – The Rush Limbaugh Show
It is rare that a political party running for office in a midterm election not standing for anything ends up with a mandate, and they have one, and it is the biggest and perhaps the most important mandate a political party has had in the recent era, and it is very simple what that mandate is. It is to stop Barack Obama. It is to stop the Democrats. There is no other reason why Republicans were elected yesterday. Republicans were not elected to govern.
How can you govern with a president that disobeys the Constitution? How can you govern with a president that is demonstrably lawless when he thinks he has to be? The Republican Party was not elected to fix a broken system or to make it work. The Republican Party was not elected to compromise. The Republican Party was not elected to sit down and work together with the Democrats. The Republican Party was not elected to slow down the speed the country is headed to the cliff and go over it slowly.
The Republican Party was elected to stop before we get to the cliff. And that’s the mandate: to stop Obamacare; to stop amnesty; to stop the open borders policy of Obama and the Democrats; to stop the Big Government assault on the free enterprise economy; to stop national security policies that have allowed terrorist networks all over the world to pop up and fill a vacuum created by the absence of the world’s lone superpower on the world stage. That must be stopped.
The Republican Party was elected to stop the run-up of a debt greater than all previous presidents combined have created. The Republican Party was elected to stop efforts by this administration to use the IRS and other agencies of government, in violation of manners and law, in attacking political opponents. The Republican Party was elected to put an end to this incessant and divisive lie that is the War on Women. Yesterday’s result cannot in any way mean that voters want Republicans to work with Democrats. And anybody who tells you that and anybody who thinks that could not be more dangerously wrong.
You do not have election results like we had yesterday with the intent being that the voters intend the winners to work with the losers. This election was about stopping the losers, in this case the Democrats. There can be no other correct analysis of what this election was about. They were not elected to “fix a broken system.”
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America–New Beginnings–Begin With Prayer
Prayer for Those Who Govern
Come, Holy Spirit. Only in God will America live in the “peace that passes understanding”. We pray for those under Your Authority that they be peacemakers, that the walls of fear, hatred and suspicion may yield to justice and right, the “pillars of Your Throne.
We humbly acknowledge You, and pray that You reign in our hearts, for might rests not in the prowess of our arms and armies, but the succor of Heaven.
You saved the “Good Thief” for one hour’s faith, save us who look for a new beginning in Your Name and under the banner of Your Love. Amen
©2014 Joann Nelander
Be Holy! 