World Threats

The Muslim Public Affairs Council’s choice of location for its 12th Annual Conventionon December 15 is telling: The All Saints Episcopal Church of Pasadena, California. The group, founded by Muslim Brotherhood followers, says this is the “next step in its mission by crossing the interfaith line.” Yet again, the Islamists are taking advantage of naïve Christians with a desire to show off their tolerance.

The All Saints Episcopal Church of Pasadena started an Interfaith Study Groupin 2007 with the Pasadena Jewish Temple and the Islamic Center of Southern California (ICSC), from which MPAC originated. The organization was founded as a branch of ICSC in 1986 and then became independent in 1988, though the two remain intertwined. The ICSC is proud of its interfaith successes. For example, the First United Methodist Church of Santa Monica is allowing the ICSC to hold Friday prayers there every week.

The story of MPAC begins with Hassan and Maher Hathout, the former of whom died in 2009. The brothers became active with the Muslim Brotherhood at an early age, with Hassan Hathout saying that its founder, Hassan al-Banna, is “the person who most influenced my life” and that “centuries might roll over before a similar personality is produced.” Maher Hathout was arrested in Egypt, where the Muslim Brotherhood was banned, and released in 1968. Three years later, they moved to Buffalo, New York and went to California to establish the ICSC in 1978.

Click here to read the rest of my article at FrontPage Magazine for the Institute on Religion and Democracy.

Over the last few years the polling organization Gallup has been tracking the “happiness” of nations all over the world, and their just released survey results (and the following map that was created by the Washington Post’s Max Fisher) is quite telling…

Notice the concentration of the least emotional/unhappy nations in the world?

Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Belarus and other ex-members of the former Soviet Union all rank very highly on the wrong end of Gallup’s survey, while Western Europe and the America’s are all content with life and generally happy people.

I wonder if this has anything to do with the soul crushing, godless Communism that was imposed on the Soviet bloc for more then four decades?

What say you?

Today from the Kurdish outlet Rudaw comes news of a preliminary agreement regarding disputed areas in Iraq between the Iraqi Defense Ministry- overseeing security forces belonging to the central Iraqi government in Baghdad- and the Peshmerga Ministry- responsible for the forces of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). The background to this agreement has been as follows: clashes between unidentified parties in the town of Tuz Kharmuto (a town in Salah ad-Din province with a mixed Turkmen, Kurdish and Arab population), which led to the president of the KRG- Massoud Barzani- putting the Kurdish security forces on high alert (on the grounds it was a clash between Peshmerga and central government forces), Kurdish complaints about the establishment of the Tigris Operations Command by the central government in the disputed town of Kirkuk, whose status as regards provincial elections remains in dispute, and recent bomb attacks in Kirkuk that have caused several casualties, with a build-up of Iraqi army and Kurdish forces in the disputed areas.

The rhetoric- as is common throughout the region- has been quite heated too, as when Barzani accused Iraq premier Nouri al-Maliki of planning to bomb KRG sites with fighter jets and invade the autonomous region.It should also be noted that for the provincial elections next year, both the Kurdish and Shi’a parties are running on united sectarian lists in the mixed province of Diyala.

As regards the attacks in Kirkuk, however, it should not immediately be concluded that the perpetrators are Kurds and/or Arabs turning to violence to target each other in escalating ethnic tension in the city. Rather, since these attacks in Kirkuk have been part of a wave of insurgent operations across the country, it is more likely that remnants of the Sunni insurgency (whether al-Qa’ida, the Ba’athist Naqshibandi or the like) are trying to stir up animosity in the hope of creating a security vacuum and thus entrenching themselves in the city.

For all these problems, however, it is clear that there is much brinkmanship at work but not open conflict. There was a similar display of brinkmanship without bloodshed in the summer at a border crossing town between Iraq and Syria, where 10,000 KRG troops were deployed, with Maliki accusing the KRG of violating the Iraqi constitution. Note that Barzani hurled the same accusation of constitutional violation as regards the establishment of the Tigris Operations Command. There are bound to be more disputes and displays of brinkmanship in the future, especially as the Iraqi constitution as it stands is still a messy document, but both sides recognise that all-out conflict is not in their interests. Whether or not the clashes in Tuz Kharmuto were between Peshmerga men and Iraqi government forces, it is clear that the Peshmerga Ministry was keen to contain the situation rather than push for an open fight. As for the preliminary agreement reported by Rudaw, it is notable that there is a promise to reconsider the Tigris Operations Command in an effort to diffuse tension, indicating some willingness to compromise.

The possibility of an escalation with prolonged bloodletting at some point cannot be entirely discounted, of course, but it remains unlikely in the near future.

Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi is a Shillman-Ginsburg Fellow at the Middle East Forum and a student at Brasenose College, Oxford University. His website is http://www.aymennjawad.org 

Over 200,000 Egyptians protested in Tahrir Square against President Mohammed Morsi’s decree granting himself absolute power. This is the top story in the Muslim world right now, but strangely, there is nothing but silence from prominent Muslim-American groups who cheered on the revolution against President Mubarak and instantly condemned Israel for retaliating against the terrorist Hamas regime.

The websites of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Islamic Society of North America, the Islamic Circle of North America, the Muslim American Society, the Muslim Students Association National and American Muslims for Palestine aren’t speaking out against Morsi. Actually, they aren’t speaking at all about his power grab and the subsequent protests of hundreds of thousands.

Click here for the rest of my article at RadicalIslam.org.

The protests in Egypt appear to be growing with now 200,000 marching against Islamic Brotherhood dictator-lite Mohammed Morsi.

“The people want to bring down the regime!” and “erhal, erhal” — Arabic for “leave, leave” — rang out across the plaza, this time directed at Egypt’s first freely elected president.

What is even more troubling is the violence:

 Clashes broke out in several cities, with Morsi’s opponents attacking Brotherhood offices, setting fire to at least one. Protesters and Brotherhood members pelted each other with stones and firebombs in the Nile Delta city of Mahalla el-Kobra, leaving at least 100 people injured.

“Power has exposed the Brotherhood. We discovered their true face,” said Laila Salah, a housewife at the Tahrir protest who said she voted for Morsi in last summer’s presidential election. After Mubarak, she said, Egyptians would no longer accept being ruled by an autocrat.

Perhaps people in the West should have paid attention to the MB’s slogan: Islam is the Solution.

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HT: BBC News

With the country lacking a functional parliament, or operational constitution, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi is taking unpopular steps by decreeing himself more power to fill the vacuum and assaulting the judiciary’s independence by a series of decrees in recent days that have sparked protests.

The decrees include firing his prosecutor general on Thursday; giving himself full power to appoint a replacement; barring any legal challenges to his decisions or laws, and barring any court from disbanding the constituent assembly responsible for drawing the constitution.

So this is how the first democratically elected President in Egyptian history acts… By granting himself more powers by executive fiat and prohibiting any challenge to his powers?

The United States and international observers are understandably worried by Morsi’s decrees, as it begs the question if removing the dictatorial, yet reliably moderate Hosni Mubarak in favor of a new “democratic” Egypt led by the seemingly similar authoritative, and this time Islamist inclined Mursi was the right decision.

Before there were the evil Kings of Europe, or the genocidal loons of the twentieth century, there were the pharaohs of Egypt.. Your quintessential example of the supposed divine right to lead and absolute totalitarianism, and if Egypt’s first foray into democracy is any indicator, it appears they will follow their ancestors once more and be slaves.

What say you?

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) took credit for the Tel Aviv bus bombing on the day it took place. The PFLP-GC is a puppet of the Syrian regime of Bashar Assad, Iran’s closest ally. The announcement took place on Iranian television. This strongly indicates that Syria and probably Iran were involved in the bombing, likely hoping to shatter ceasefire talks.

“This is the war of the resistance alliance, the battle of us all. This war extends from Tehran to Damascus, to Gaza, to South Lebanon, and to Hezbollah,” the PFLP-GC spokesperson said. Bashar Assad and Ayatollah Khamenei couldn’t have said it better themselves.

Click here to read the rest of my RadicalIslam.org article.

On November 21, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood President Mohammed Morsi was praised for his role in brokering a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel. He had positioned himself as the moderate peacemaker worthy of the $1 billion per year the U.S. had given his predecessor. The very next day, he cashed in his good will with an enormous power grab that made him, in the words of one prominent Egyptian, the “new Pharoah.”

It is apparent that the two events are connected. Morsi’s role in the negotiations was not motivated by a desire for everlasting peace between Israel and Hamas. After all, Hamas is the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and so they share the same goals, such as the elimination of Israel. Morsi and the Brotherhood did not condemn the firing of a single rocket before or during Operation Pillar of Defense. Once it began, Morsi threatened Israel and sided with Hamas.

The ceasefire was the product of the Muslim Brotherhood’s political strategy.

Click here to read the rest of my RadicalIslam.org article.

Offices of the Muslim Brotherhood’s political wing have been burnt by protesters marching against Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi’s recent power grab. Morsi now claims to have almost total power– including that which shields him from the country’s supreme court.

An FJP official told AFP the party’s office was also stormed in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, where clashes broke out between rival demonstrators.

In Cairo, an array of liberal and secular groups, including activists at the forefront of the protest movement that forced veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak from power early last year, planned to march on Tahrir Square, Cairo’s iconic protest hub, to demonstrate against the “ new pharaoh” .

‘The New Pharaoh”

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