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Secretary of State John Kerry announced that he will be trying to create as broad a coalition as possible to deal with ISIS. Not all of the countries in this coalition will be providing military support. Some will be providing humanitarian aid and some will make sure Islam, “one of the world’s great peaceful religions,” isn’t tarnished by ISIS: Tomorrow, I will travel to the Middle East to continue to build the broadest possible coalition of partners around the globe to confront, degrade, and ultimately defeat ISIL. On Wednesday, President Obama will lay out in even greater detail our coordinated...

The "I" word -- Islam -- shall not be used other than respectfully, as in "the religion of peace."Do the Islamic State (IS) and its terrorist cohorts practice an "extremist" version of Islam? Does Obama know enough about Islam to decide? [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRSSn_yRrT4] Video linkSecretary Kerry (consistently with Obama's position), said “The real face of Islam is a peaceful religion based on ‎the dignity of all human beings:” “America’s faith communities, including American Muslims, are sources of strength for all of us. They’re an ‎essential part of our national fabric, and we are committed to deepening our partnerships with them. We’re ‎making these efforts to...

The latest recipients of an Islamic State threat are responding in kind, with Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov vowing that "these bastards" will be "destroyed." Kadyrov, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, went on an Instagram rant after Islamic State posted a video threatening Putin over his support for Syria's Bashar al-Assad and vowing to liberate Chechnya. The Muslim strongman, who has fought Islamic militants in his backyard for years, seemed to take special umbrage at a threat aimed at his patron in Moscow. "I state with full responsibility that the one who had the idea to express a...

As the President continues to struggle with a strategy regarding what we should do about ISIS, one of the key questions being batted around is how to define the precise level of threat which ISIS poses to the United States. It’s a valid question, actually, so it was with interest that I followed a link on this subject to an opinion piece by CNN’s national security analyst, Peter Bergen. The title gives a fairly solid summary of the contents. ISIS threat to U.S. mostly hype. ISIS has Americans worried. Two-thirds of those surveyed in a recent Pew Research poll said...

<p>ISIS has Americans worried. Two-thirds of those surveyed in a recent Pew Research poll said they consider the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria to be a "major threat" to this country. But are such fears really justified?</p> <p>Despite the impression you may have had from listening to U.S. officials in recent weeks, the answer is probably not really.</p>

The survey, by Opinium Research, found 60 per cent of people were in favour of taking action to deal with the threat from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil). Almost two thirds of the public would support some form of British military action against jihadist fighters in Iraq, an exclusive poll for The Telegraph suggests. The survey, by Opinium Research, found 60 per cent of people were in favour of taking action to deal with the threat from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil). The measures that people were prepared to support ranged from...

Amir Meshal has a fascinating history. He's originally from New Jersey, but back in 2007 he was detained and interrogated by the FBI in Kenya after escaping from Somalia. Somehow, his travels brought him to Minnesota, and to a mosque in Bloomington, which kicked him out this summer. Friday prayers bring hundreds to the Al-Farooq Youth and Family Center, which is perhaps the largest mosque in the Twin Cities. But not everyone is welcome -- not after Meshal began attending prayer and hanging out earlier this year. In June, the center called police and had Meshal, 31, removed and ticketed...

WASHINGTON, DC -- U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, announced today his intent to file the Expatriate Terrorist Act (E.T.A.) of 2014 as soon as the Senate is called back into session on Monday, September 8th. “Americans who choose to go to Syria or Iraq to fight with vicious ISIS terrorists are party to a terrorist organization committing horrific acts of violence, including beheading innocent American journalists who they have captured,” said Sen. Cruz. “There can be no clearer renunciation of their citizenship in the United States, and we need to do everything we can to preempt any attempt on their part to...

Did you know that Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS, was trained by Mossad and the CIA? Were you aware that his real name isn’t Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim Ali Al Badri Al Samarrai but Simon Elliot? Or that he’s a Jewish actor who was recruited by the Israelis to play the part of the world’s most wanted terrorist? But millions of Muslims across the globe have a soft spot for such hoaxes. Conspiracy theories are rife in both Muslim-majority countries and Muslim communities here in the west. The events of 9/11 and the subsequent “war on terror” unleashed...

Islamic State fighters executed a youth in a Syrian town Friday, after hundreds of residents demanded they leave following regime air strikes that targeted the jihadists but killed eight civilians, a monitor said. Residents of Ashara, in the mostly IS-controlled eastern province of Deir Ezzor, protested in front of an IS headquarters Thursday evening, hours after air strikes killed two children, five women and a man, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman said. In response, IS gunmen opened fire and seized several young men, the Observatory and an activist said. The air strikes were part of a...

The man believed to have 'decapitated' 82-year-old Palmira Silva in a suburban garden in North London has been informally identified by locals as a 25-year old recent 'Muslim convert', with one neighbor saying: "He was a black man young about 25 to 30 wearing all black, black t-shirt and jeans, about 5'10" and looked like he went to the gym". A police commander speaking at a press conference yesterday said: "based on what we know, we do not believe this was a terror related incident", however new details have emerged from locals who lived by, and knew, the victim and...

The world is on fire. But don’t go telling that to Secretary of State John Kerry, spending Labor Day on Nantucket, kiteboarding in his stylish bloomers before a late dinner at the Chanticleer. Talk about fiddling while Rome burns. Let them eat … whatever they want, as they can pay for it with their EBT cards. Did you ever think you would live to see the day when the United States would be in grave peril, under attack, and the White House would be treating the crisis as if it were a shortfall of three votes in a farm...

Voters regard the radical Islamic terrorist group ISIS as a major threat to the United States and are very worried that President Obama doesn’t have a strategy for dealing with the problem. They remain reluctant to send U.S. troops back to Iraq to take on ISIS, but support is growing. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 67% of Likely U.S. Voters consider the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) a serious threat to this country. Just 13% disagree, while another 20% are not sure. (To see survey questions wording, click here.) The president said last week...

After several mercifully Benghazi-free months, the 2012 attack on the diplomatic compound in Libya is about to be thrust back into the spotlight around its September 11 anniversary. The special House committee investigating Benghazi is finally expected to begin its work, in earnest, with its first hearing the week Congress returns from August recess. Meanwhile, two books promising explosive new allegations about the terror attack will hit shelves in September, and Fox News plans to air a new, one-hour documentary on the attack this week, featuring exclusive interviews with Americans who fought in the onslaught. Add that to the usual...

The UN says it has received reports from Iraq that "reveal acts of inhumanity on an unimaginable scale". Deputy Human Rights Commissioner Flavia Pansieri said Islamic State (IS) was believed to have committed systematic and intentional attacks on civilians.

It has been 13 years since 9/11 and the West is still reluctant to link the non-ending parade of jihad groups with Islam. The West is also in denial about the similarities all radical Islamic groups share. It is important for the West to realize that there is a natural division of labor between the different terror groups. Some groups specialize in terror against non-Muslims and Western governments while others specialize in terrorizing Arab governments that refused to follow Sharia. But the truly sophisticated groups are those who reside in the West, calling themselves ‘moderate’ while at the same time...

Reciting a list of assaults on Christians around the world, World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder told a large-scale gathering of Israel’s Christian allies that he would continue to speak out against the violence and oppression that is engulfing Christians, especially in the Middle East. Speaking in Budapest on June 15, Lauder said “I will speak out across the globe with world leaders and with ordinary citizens, and I will tell them that we will never tolerate any kind of anti-Christian threats, just as we will not tolerate anti-Semitism.” He was speaking at the Jerusalem Day Convention at the...

The chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said Sunday that President Obama is notably cautious — “maybe, in this instance, too cautious” — but insisted the U.S. and its allies will coalesce behind a plan to beat back the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria before their well-funded sources take Baghdad.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama faced criticism over his foreign policy from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers on Sunday as he wrestled with crises in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Ukraine. Republican lawmakers seized on Obama's comment on Thursday when he said, "We don't have a strategy yet" for confronting the Islamic State militant group, saying it suggested indecisiveness. On Sunday, influential Democrats chimed in with their own critiques of Obama's foreign policy, chiding him for being "too cautious" on Syria, and urging him to do more to help Ukraine resist Russian advances.

Former President Jimmy Carter has told a group of Muslim Americans in Detroit they should take a role in supporting peace and justice efforts. Carter delivered the keynote at Saturday's Islamic Society of North America convention at Cobo Center. The society is among America's leading Muslim groups. The Detroit area has one of the nation's largest Muslim populations. The Detroit News reports that Carter said he hopes Muslim Americans "will use the principals of Allah to bring peace and justice to all." He also spoke about his Carter Center foundation that is working toward peace in the Middle East and...