Posted on 09/13/2014 4:22:19 AM PDT by Shane
"ISIS is not Islamic," said Barack Obama as he gave yet another vapid speech to say what he will or will not do next about the threat of Islam. What he said is both idiotic and a lie. ISIS calls itself the Islamic State.
Obama used the word "war" only once, but ISIS is all about war an Islamic holy war that has been waged since 632 AD.
The one person neither named, nor blamed is the so-called prophet, Mohammad, yet everything being done by the jihadists today is being done in his name.
In his memoir, "Dreams from my Father," Obama, in the preface to its second edition, wrote: "Nor do I pretend to understand the stark nihilism that drove the terrorists that day (9/11) and that drives their brethren still. My powers of empathy, my ability to reach into another's heart, cannot penetrate the blank stares of those who would murder innocents with abstract, serene satisfaction." And therein is the problem that he, as President, and we as citizens must address.
Political correctness is so dominant in the Obama White House that no one in the U.S. government dares say anything that might be deemed critical of a so-called "religion" that sanctions beheadings, amputations, stoning, kidnapping hostages, ransoms, polygamy, and slavery. To anyone deemed an infidel or unbeliever or a Muslim who questions anything about Islam, death is the only option other than dhimmitude, a second-class citizenship.
The pure evil of Islam was seen most recently in the two videos of American hostages being beheaded by the Islamic State, but despite decades of attacks on U.S. embassies, the taking of U.S. hostages in Beirut and Tehran, attacks in Bali, Madrid and London, and the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and on the Pentagon, Americans have been slow to realize the intensity and size of the threat that the Middle Eastern and North African nations represent along with wherever else a large Muslim population exists.
As the U.S. and threatened Middle Eastern nations hurtle toward a military confrontation with the Islamic State, the name it has given to territory it has seized from northern Syria and into Iraq, a new book, Fault Lines: The Layman's Guide to Understanding America's Role in the Ever-Changing Middle East, ($00.00, Elevate, Boise, Idaho, softcover) provides one of the best, short histories on U.S. involvement and why, at this point, its influence has reached a low point.
Liebich writes of the way the U.S. policy regarding the Middle East changed over the years, particularly in the wake of World War II and the Cold War that followed as the Soviet Union challenged us for the implementation of communism worldwide. Dependent on the flow of oil from the Middle East, much of our strategic interest in the region was based on exercising our influence, often bringing about the removal of leaders whom we regarded as a threat to that necessity. After 9/11 that went into overdrive.
Liebich notes that our concept of nation-building proved costly, not just in the lives of our troops, but which included $50 billion in Iraq "and it didn't work. Before you can build a nation you have to have a nation and only the citizens of that nation can decide what kind of a country they want to have." The problem the U.S. encountered was that "In the Middle East, people related much more to the Ummah (the Muslim community) and to their own tribes."
The problem that George H.W. Bush and his son, George W. Bush, encountered was that "The Middle East is a part of the world where many odd alliances appear. One is never sure who is allied with whom and whatever one thinks may all change tomorrow."
Liebich takes note of the "Arab Awakening" that followed the U.S. invasion of Iraq that deposed Saddam Hussein. It began "with so much promise" followed by "its subsequent descent into chaos, has drastically changed the geopolitical landscape in the Middle East and North Africa."
Liebich says "My definition of a vital national interest is one that deals with an existential threat to the United States, and one for which the U.S. is willing to spill its blood and to spend its treasure in order to accomplish its objectives. By this definition, the U.S. has no vital national interest in events in the Middle East." Written prior to the emergence of the Islamic State, a new existential threat is facing the U.S.
Liebich says our strategic interests in the Middle East for many years included access to stable supplies of oil at reasonable prices; support for the state of Israel; preventing adversaries or potential adversaries from coming to power or achieving influence in the region; improving life for the people of the region; and preventing terrorist attacks on U.S. territories and citizens.
"The region has become the epicenter for terrorist groups, some of which have ambitions for a global reach." That alone will require a renewed military involvement by the U.S. as we are the only nation with the capacity to alter the facts on the ground.
It comes at a time when the U.S. is close to having developed its oil reserves to a point where the oil of the Middle East will not determine our policies, but it is that oil which other nations such as those of Europe depend upon. China and India need it as well so its protection by and for the West as well as the developing Asian nations affects our decisions. Even Russia whose economy is dependent on oil and natural gas has cast its support for Syria along with Iran.
Everything, though, depends on understanding the true nature and intent of Islam.
Liebich ends his book with a quote from Winston Churchill who said, "We can always count on the Americans to do the right thing, after they have exhausted all other possibilities."
Right now, the right thing is the destruction of the Islamic State.
The Kurds, who have been close to noble in their endeavors against ISIS and in protecting minority religions, are Moslems.
Well....................................
ANYBODY waked up yet????
ISIS is not Islamic,
Ah um
It depends on what your definition of IS is.
ISIS is not Islamic, new propaganda campaign being pushed by our elected officials in DC
Right, and there is no “moderate” version.
Dhimmitude is not merely a second-class citizenship, it is slavery and perpetual tribute paid to avoid execution on the spot.
Slavery, as an institution, was pretty much eliminated in the West over a century and a half in the past, and law codes were rewritten to support that principle. But it exists today in much of the world of Islam, where persons are held in bondage (the entire female gender), and much of the rest of those under the ministrations of Shari’ah law are subject to severe restrictions on their basic freedoms, of choice, of speech, of associating freely with others, of private ownership of means of production, and even of life itself, which may rest upon the whim of an autocratic authority figure to whom there is no challenge, no appeal, uncertain mercy, and a very skewed view of “justice”.
A few of the Noble Islamic Gentlemen at the top of the food chain may have some latitude of freedom in their actions, but even they may find themselves afoul of some obscure interpretation of the ravings of a sun-crazed old sand hermit who lived some 14 centuries in the past, and was suffering from mental derangement probably identifiable as schizophrenic paranoia. The ideology he produced was in its way much more pernicious than even the Scientology of L. Ron Hubbard, or the Hare Krishna. Both of those “new” religions will allow its practitioners to leave (though not without a lot of follow-up and attempts to re-instill the faith), but Islam, well, the price for leaving (or even attempting to bring constructive criticism to bear) is death, no excuses, no mercy, and no appeal. Well, unless some powerful force causes the small oligarchy that directs these decisions to surrender up the subject of this persecution to the more powerful force’s custody.
Broncobama thought he was going to break the chain of American crime and imperialism practiced by white men. He thought his very presence who bring peace in the world. He was wrong. He’s in a situation he despises and he’s determined to fail.
Hmmm, Gus I think that you may have missed the point of the article,or perhaps did not read it. And by the way they are Muslims, not “Moslems”
It’s Moslems not Muslims just like it’s “Peking” not “Beijing,” PC Shane.
“When Baby Boomers were children it was Moslem. The American Heritage Dictionary (1992) noted,”Moslem is the form predominantly preferred in journalism and popular usage. Muslim is preferred by scholars and by English-speaking adherents of Islam.” No more. Now, almost everybody uses Muslim.”
http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/524
See tag line.
Time to have a serious discussion about what the founders would and wouldn’t consider a ‘religion’ under the constitution.
I know - and you know - they THEY know what they are doing.
It’s so elementary it’s offensive!
Anyone buying into what Barry is saying about ISIS - and his side kick idiot of Sec of State - should never be relied on for serious and truthful opinions...
History has that Islam does exactly this - they have not changed - because they are raised in the belief that what they do to others is sanctioned by their messenger and deity...
WOW! -— My only hope is that 2014 NOV brings in new leadership as does 2016 and we continue this war against terrorism and end it once and for all!
They were Moslems for scores of years, young un.
They were also Musselmen. Which makes me wonder about Musselmen’s Applesauce, moslem?
OBAMA: ISLAM IS A RELIGION OF PEACE
OTRANTO - MASSACRE OF CHRISTIANS BY MUSLIMS
HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF
Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it. George Santayana
800 Italians Men Beheaded in Otranto in 1480 for Refusing Islam, by the Turks, with the Approval of Sultan Mehmet II
On August 14, 1480, a massacre happened on a hill outside the city of Otranto, in southern Italy, here 800 of the towns men were taken to a place called the Hill of the Minerva, and, one by one, beheaded in full view of their fellow prisoners. It became known as the Hill of the Martyrs. They died because they refused to convert to Islam. The 800 men of Otranto were martyrs. But due to their sacrifice, however, the Ottoman invasion was slowed and Rome was spared the same fate that had befallen Constantinople only 27 years before.
The city of Constantinople had been taken in 1453 and for 3 days its people were made slaves or killed or raped and the city was looted, all with the permission of the Sultan, Mehmet (Muhammad) II,who was then 21.Mehmet is the Turkish way of saying Muhammad.
The people of Otranto knew of the siege of Constantinople and that when that city fell the Muslims pillaged the city, but the key moment came when they reached Hagia Sophia.
After breaking down the churchs bronze gates, they found inside a huge throng of Byzantines who had taken refuge and who were praying that the city might be delivered by some miracle. The Christians were seized and separated according to age and gender. The infants and elderly were brutally murdered; the men, including some of the citys most prominent senators, were carted off to the slave markets; and the women and girls were taken by soldiers to be raped or sent into a life of slavery.
At Otranto, the terms of the Muslims were ostensibly generous. If the town surrendered, the defenders would be permitted to live. They said no, it was repeated and again it was no. It was the city against 18,000 Muslims and it lasted 2 weeks.
Slaughter, Sacrilege, and Slavery
Turkish troops entered and killed anyone in their path. They made their way to the cathedral. As in the Hagia Sophia, the invaders found the church filled with people praying with Archbishop Stefano Agricoli, Bishop Stephen Pendinelli, and Count Largo, the commander of the soldiers. The Ottomans commanded:
1.The archbishop to throw away his crucifix, abjure the Christian faith, and embrace Islam. When he refused, his head was cut off before the weeping congregation.
2.Bishop Pendinelli and Count Largo likewise would not convert and were also put to death, reportedly by being slowly sawed in half.
3.As was the custom, the priests were murdered and the cathedral was stripped of all Christian symbols and turned into a stable for the horses. The Ottomans then gathered up the surviving people of Otranto and took them as captives.
The people of Otranto faced the same end as the Christians of Constantinople. All of the men over the age of 50 were slaughtered; the women and children under the age of 15 were either slain or sent away to Albania to be slaves. According to some contemporary sources, the total number of dead was as high as 12,000, with another 5,000 pressed into slavery.
800 Men who Survived told to Convert to Islam or Die
The Muslim commander ordered the men of Otranto, 800 survivors of the battle, those who were not over 50 and had not been already killed in battle or later, or were not children and had not be killed or enslaved, to be brought before him. He gave them one chance to convert to Islam or die. To convince them, he instructed an Italian apostate priest named Giovanni to preach. The former priest called on the men of Otranto to abandon the Christian faith, and they would get many benefits.
One of the men of Otranto, a tailor named Antonio Primaldi (he is also named Antonio Pezzulla in some sources), came forward to speak to the survivors. He called out that he was ready to die for Christ a thousand times. He then added, according to the chronicler Giovanni Laggetto in the Historia della guerra di Otranto del 1480:
My brothers, till today we have fought in defense of our country, to save our lives, and for our lords; now it is time that we fight to save our souls for our Lord, so that having died on the cross for us, it is good that we should die for him, standing firm and constant in the faith, and with this earthly death we will win eternal life and the glory of martyrs.
At this, the men of Otranto cried out with one voice that they too were willing to die a thousand times for Christ.
The Execution
The next morning, August 14, the 800 prisoners were bound together with ropes. The victims repeated their pledge to be faithful to Christ, and the Ottomans chose the courageous Antonio Primaldi as the first to be executed.
The old tailor gave one final exhortation to his fellow prisoners and knelt before the executioner. The blade fell and decapitated him, but then, as the chronicler Saverio de Marco claimed in the Compendiosa istoria degli ottocento martiri otrantini (The Brief History of the 800 Martyrs of Otranto), the headless corpse stood back upright. The body supposedly proved unmovable, so it remained standing for the entire duration of the gruesome executions.
Stunned by this apparent miracle, one of the executioners converted on the spot and was immediately killed. The executioners then returned to their horrendous business. The bodies were placed into a mass grave, and the Turks prepared to begin their march to Rome.
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