Posted on 02/16/2015 5:26:53 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
For nearly four years, the West has largely stayed on the sidelines as Libya descended into post-revolution chaos. Now the bloody beheadings of a group of Egyptian Christians at the hands of Islamic State could draw the international community back into the densely complex tangle of fighting in the oil-rich North African nation.
Egypt, seeking retribution for the cruelly cinematic execution of 21 Coptic men who had gone to Libya to work as laborers, carried out at least two waves of airstrikes Monday in neighboring Libya. The warplanes targeted what Egypt said were training camps and weapons caches belonging to a Libyan offshoot of Islamic State, which in recent months has made inroads in several parts of the country, seizing on the power vacuum left by the chaotic but so far inconclusive struggle among an array of competing militias.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Won’t keep the One off of the golf course.
Update after Mecca is glass.
Hmmm...
Everybody else is wearing shorts in that photo.
What’s he hiding?
Not much.
One can only hope.
islamic tattoos covering his skinny legs?
I’m slowly coming to a very cynical conclusion that the USA and the world were a lot better off with Mubarek, Saddam, Ghadaffi, and Assad as heavy handed dictators that kept order in place of anarchy and chaos.
We would have saved thousands of our own American lives not to mention 10s of thousands of permanently disabled vets, and trillions of dollars that we frittered away that in my opinion as an average taxpaying schmuck did not benefit the USA one iota. The question that needs answered after the reason we invaded Iraq is how did this Arab spring actually start (some absurdly claim it was Facebook and Twitter)? and who actually benefits? It sure as hxll isn’t America.
That photo looks shopped.
What is it - Mecca????
Guys who wear mom jeans on national TV to throw out a first pitch couldn’t abide that much needle.
BTW I don’t even want to look at those aholes that rule us playing b-ball. And I sure do not want the USA involved in the crap hole called the Middle East. Let those that live there take care of their own problems, as we have more than enough of our own.
I have learned not to post photos with news stories....don’t know where it originated.
not gonna happen after all they were just giving paybacks fo the crusaders
Drawn back into Libya ... why? I thought Benghazi Clinton’s Arab Spring initiative settled the whole Middle East thingee!
What would America’s Founding Fathers say about Islam?
Dublin - In recent weeks, people the world over have heard a great deal about divisions and conflict between Muslim communities and America. Yet looking more deeply at American history shows how much American tradition actually runs in the opposite direction. In today’s seemingly divisive world, I cannot help but think of the values of America’s Founding Fathers and their faith that America would always be a place that is open to people from all religious backgrounds.
Americans and Muslims worldwide shouldn’t be surprised when they see that the writings of America’s Founding Fathers reveal an open perspective and absolute acceptance of Islam and, indeed, all religions. “The bosom of America,” wrote George Washington in 1783, is “open to receive . . . the oppressed and persecuted of all nations and religions, whom we shall welcome to a participation of all our rights and privileges . . . They may be Mahometans [Muslims], Jews, or Christians of any sect, or they may be atheists.”
John Adams, who served as vice president under George Washington, called the Prophet Muhammad one of the world’s “sober inquirers of truth”. Echoing Washington, he stated in 1797 that the US government “has in itself no character or enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity of [Muslims].” Benjamin Franklin helped fund the construction of a religious temple in Philadelphia that would be open to all faiths, “so that even if the Mufti of Constantinople were to send a missionary to preach [Islam] to us, he would find a pulpit at his service.”
In a document on religious freedom that was written for the Virginian colonial legislature in 1777, Thomas Jefferson stated that “the Jew, the Gentile, the Christian, and the [Muslim], the Hindoo [Hindu], and infidel of every denomination” are welcome. Today a statue of Jefferson stands at the University of Virginia. He is holding a tablet that reads, “Religious Freedom, 1786”, below which is inscribed Allah, alongside God, Jehovah and Brahma.
It is in the egalitarian spirit of the Founding Fathers that Akbar Ahmed, former Pakistani ambassador to the UK and current Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University, and several of his young American students travelled across the United States to explore American identity through the eyes of Muslims. Arising out of their travels was the documentary feature film Journey into America, which follows the team to over 75 cities, 100 mosques, and into the homes, schools and places of worship of Americans of all backgrounds. The film portrays how many Muslim Americans have restored the faith of the Founding Fathers, but it also goes beyond this to document how some Americans have lost sight of fundamental components of American identity such as tolerance, compassion and openness.
In my opinion, the pluralist vision of the Founding Fathers is the quintessential value which makes American identity unique among the national identities of the world. To restore their vision of America as a place where all people - regardless of religious background - can coexist, I established the initiative One Film 9/11. The goal of this project is to screen Journey into America in as many places of religious worship around the United States and the Muslim world on 11 September, 2013 in the hope of demonstrating how one film can ultimately have a positive impact on relations between Muslims and non-Muslims worldwide.
For Americans and Muslims to go forward in a mutually beneficial direction, both sides must dedicate themselves to the principles expressed by the Founding Fathers. One Film 9/11 is an important step in restoring this faith and building bridges in a world desperately in need of them.
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