Free Republic

Here’s an interesting tidbit we can thank jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for: according to cables included in the recent WikiLeaks document drop, informants have told diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia that American television–particularly Fox News Channel and David Letterman’s Late Show–are proving to be powerful weapons against “violent jihad.” As the U.K.’s Guardian reports, uncensored satellite broadcasts of popular American shows–with Arabic subtitles–carried via Saudi channel MBC, have turned young Saudis into huge fans of Desperate Housewives, Friends, and Fox News: “It’s still all about the war of ideas here, and the American programming on MBC...

Google isn't carrying water for jihad. That's what the company says, and they're sticking to it. Still, many Internet surfers wonder: Is there something bad about Islam the Google search engine doesn't want you to know? Google has been accused of pandering to Muslims by censoring negative search suggestions in its main search box. Type "Christianity is" in the search bar, and Google suggests helpful endings to your query, such as "not a religion," "a lie," "a cult," and so on. Google makes similar adverse suggestions for Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Sikhism, among other religions. But type "Islam is" -...

A 15-year-old Egyptian girl, Dina el-Gohary, has written an emotional appeal to President Obama asking him to use his influence to save her father, Maher el-Gohary, who is being persecuted for his beliefs. "Mr. President Obama, we are a minority in Egypt," Dina writes, according to a report from the Assyrian International News Agency. "We are treated very badly. ... We are imprisoned in our own home because Muslim clerics called for the murder of my father, and now the Government has set for us a new prison, we are imprisoned in our own country." Dina and her father are...

Wars of Ideas and THE War of Ideas Authored by Dr. Antulio J. Echevarria, II. Added June 12, 2008 Type: Monograph 62 Pages   Cost: Free The author discusses several types of wars of ideas in an effort to achieve a better understanding of what wars of ideas are. That knowledge, in turn, can help inform strategy. It is important to note, for instance, that because ideas are interpreted subjectively, it is not likely that opposing parties will "win" each other over by means of an ideational campaign alone. Hence, physical events, whether intended or incidental, typically play determining...

the War of Ideas Military.com - Mar 24, 2008 ... arguably, one of the most critical battlefields of all: the need to counter today's totalitarian ideology, Islamofascism, emanating from Iran,

There are two recent defections worthy of notice. One is a Saudi who thought he was going to fight against us in Iraq, but his own brothers blew him up en route. The other is the founder of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, whence came Ayman al Zawahiri, currently number one (or, if you insist on believing bin Laden is still alive, number two) of al Qaeda. The Saudi is Ahmed al-Sheayea, and he went to Iraq via Syria back in 2004 to wage jihad. They told him to drive a truck bomb across town, and they exploded it before he got...

It is generally accepted that the conflict we are in is as much a war of ideas as a military one. Sadly, the United States has largely failed to wage this ideological struggle against adversaries who both understand its vital importance to the outcome and who often, like most ideologues, are very skilled in its ways. This is bad enough overseas, where adherents to one strain or another of the ideology best described as Islamofascism use various organizations, media and educational institutions to recruit and indoctrinate young people. The failure to recognize the danger such activities represent, let alone to...

INTRODUCTION "Wars of subversion and counter subversion are fought, in the last resort, in the minds of the people," a leading British authority on counterterrorism concluded in 1971.1 More than three decades later, there is growing recognition among U.S. government officials, journalists, and analysts of terrorism that defeating al-Qaida— arguably the preeminent challenge to U.S. security—will require far more than "neutralizing" leaders, disrupting cells, and dismantling networks. From its inception in the mid-1990s, al-Qaida has been both a terrorist organization and an international revolutionary movement, which today stretches across North America, western Europe, and the global south.2 That organization, driven...

In this interview, FSM Contributing Editor Walid Phares discusses the “War of Ideas.” Walid warns us; the West is not winning against radical Islam’s intent upon a new Caliphate stretching from China to Morocco. Read how he envisions defeating the new fascism that we face. Question Period: War of the Worlds By Walid Phares Walid Phares is a Lebanese-American historian who has just released his sixth book, The War of Ideas: Jihadism versus Democracy. He is a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies in Washington and a visiting fellow with the European Foundation for Democracies in...

Protests against restriction of freedom of expression have recently emerged in Bahrain, following a dance performance titled Majnoun Lilah that was held as part of the country's annual Spring Cultural Festival. Islamist circles in Bahrain claimed that the dance contained "immoral acts" that they said were against religion, against morality, and against societal custom. As a result, the Bahraini parliament decided by a majority vote to establish a committee to investigate the matter. Islamic MP Abd Al-Halim Murad explained the reasons for the Islamist opposition to the dance performance: "What happened at some of the activities of the Spring Cultural...

What is the war of ideas? Is it a byproduct of the clash of civilizations proposed by Samuel Huntington? Is it the battle for the hearts and minds of the Arab street? In The War of Ideas: Jihadism against Democracy, Dr. Walid Phares exposes a very different war of ideas waged by Jihadist groups and authoritarian Arab states to obfuscate the West’s understanding of both Jihad itself as well as the core strategies utilized by the Jihadists to confront Western civilization. ____________________________________________ What is the war of ideas? Is it a byproduct of the clash of civilizations proposed by Samuel...

It has been documented countless times that journalists in Denmark (and many other countries) to a very large degree vote for parties to the left of the center. But a totally different picture emerges when looking at their non-professional colleagues in cyberspace. The weekly Mandag Morgen has published a survey which labels 19 out of the 20 most visited Danish political bloggers as conservative or leaning towards the political Right. To Kim Møller, who runs the most popular blog in this survey, Uriasposten.net, the result comes as no surprise, but is a natural result of the grossly lopsided coverage in...

In February 2004, Iraqi and coalition intelligence intercepted a message to al-Qaida's "senior leaders." Written by al-Qaida's Iraqi commander, the now-deceased Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the letter outlined al-Qaida's last ditch "surge" plan for defeating democracy in Iraq and avoiding what it saw as a looming, devastating defeat for its totalitarian theology. Zarqawi's letter lamented al-Qaida's "failure to enlist support" in Iraq and "to scare the Americans into leaving." After Iraqis run their own government, Zarqawi wrote, "the sons of this land will be the authority. ... This is the democracy. We will have no pretexts." Fearing an American and Iraqi...

When I suggest that radical Muslims are the problem and that moderate Muslims are the solution, the nearly inevitable retort from most people is: "What moderate Muslims?" "Where are the anti-Islamists' demonstrations against terror?" they ask me. "What are they doing to combat Islamists? What have they done to reassess Islamic law?" My response: Moderate Muslims do exist. But, of course, they constitute a very small movement when compared to the Islamist onslaught. This means that the American government and other powerful institutions should give priority to locating, meeting with, funding, forwarding, empowering, and celebrating those brave Muslims who, at...

Identifying Key Partners and Audiences A critical part of U.S. network-building efforts, as well as in its broader public diplomacy and strategic communications policy, is identifying key partners and audiences. Difficulties in distinguishing potential allies from adversaries present a major problem to Western governments and organizations attempting to organize support for moderate Muslims. Work done by the RAND Corporation—in Cheryl Benard’s Civil Democratic Islam and Angel Rabasa et al., The Muslim World After 9/11—has begun to lay the framework for identifying ideological tendencies in the Muslim world,1 which is necessary in order to identify the sectors with which the United...

Just as it fought the spread of Communism during the Cold War, the United States must do more to develop and support networks of moderate Muslims who are too often silenced by violent radical Islamists, according to a RAND Corporation report issued today. “The struggle in much of the Muslim world today is a war of ideas,” said Angel Rabasa, a RAND senior policy analyst and the lead author of the report. “This is not a war of civilizations; it’s not Islam versus the West. It’s a struggle within Islam to define the character of Islam.” “We cannot come in...

Middle East scholar Daniel Pipes calls himself a "soldier" in the war against radical Islam. This description is in keeping with Pipes' belief that the "war's center of gravity has shifted from force of arms to the hearts and minds of citizens." Because so many people in the West still don't believe that they are at war, specialists like Pipes are performing an essential role by warning of the dangers of radical Islam. The most recent battlefield in the war of ideas is Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, where Pipes spoke about "Radical Islam and the War on Terror" on...

Executions of Christians spark riots Melbourne Herald Sun - HUNDREDS of Indonesians angered by the overnight executions of three Christians rioted in eastern Indonesia today, looting, throwing rocks and torching an official's home. The violence broke out after Fabianus ...

Another Perspective What Are Op-Eds For? By Iain Murray Published 2/1/2006 12:08:02 AM WASHINGTON -- Ever since the Cato Institute fired syndicated columnist Doug Bandow over the revelation that disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff had asked and paid him to write articles favorable to his clients, the Left and some in the media have launched a witch hunt against conservative writers with links to private industry. Yet, during this burning time, no one is asking the question: What are opinion pieces for? The question has not arisen because some on the Right, by acquiescing to the Left's desire for blood, are...

http://www.michnews.com/artman/publish/article_11076.shtml IRAQ: CHRISTIANS FEAR MUSLIMS Christians form a small community in New Iraq. They are daily threatened by Muslim murderers global who want to rip apart the new democracy planting. Therefore, Islamic killers international go after Christian believers, particularly their clergy and churches. Where have we gone wrong in Iraq? Well, let's just ask: Haven't we given too much power to the Muslims (VS others) there with this 'politically correctness' of appeasing them, that Islam is all fine, and only a "few extremists" need to be reformed? Is it that Bush is caught up in "not making them angry", in...