Being a proud Atheist, and a freedom loving INFIDEL AKA "KUFFAR", WE are threatened by the primitive pidgeon chested jihad boys in the medieval east.
FRACK YOU!! SAY US ALL!! Don't annoy the Pagans and Bikers,, it's a islam FREE ZONE!!! LAN ASTASLEM!!!!
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National Review Online asked several writers: "Is France really banning the burqa? What does this mean? What could other Western nations learn from it?" My reply follows. For those of Raymond Ibrahim, Judith Apter Klinghoffer, Melanie Phillips, James V. Schall, Jonathan Schanzer, and Bat Ye'or, clickhere.
The French lower house of Parliament, the National Assembly, voted last week 335 to 1 to prohibit from public places all "clothing intended to hide the face," with a €150 fine per breech.
This step does not ban niqabs and burqas but constitutes one of many steps in this direction. The French Senate must pass the bill. The Constitutional Court will likely review it. Both French and Europe courts will certainly judge it. Its chances of becoming law remain unclear.
The bill, far from reflecting Gallic eccentricity, fits into a much larger pattern of Western responses to this horrid, dangerous garment. Efforts to ban face coverings have passed or are under way in Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, and Australia. (The United States is conspicuously absent from this list.) In a review of these initiatives, David Rusin of Islamist Watch dubs them the "fashion trend of the year."
Muslim-majority countries are more divided: on a single day, July 19, even as Pakistanis demonstrated against the French vote, the Syrian government banned niqabs and burqas from the country's universities.
Hoping to raise money for the Democratic Party primary to take place in Pennsylvania on May 18, Arlen Specter sent out a fundraising letter specifically to Jews. In among the cringe-inducing prose ("This is always a very special time of year for our people. The Celebration of Freedom which we call Pesach has such a deep meaning to me, as I know it also does to you") comes this reference to his opponent, Congressman Joe Sestak:
I am being challenged in the Primary by a man who has openly criticized Israel. He has also gone out of his way to speak at a fundraising dinner for the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR).
Comments: (1) The letter says nothing more about CAIR, suggesting that Specter's campaign assumes his audience both knows about the organization and dislikes it. (2) This is the first senate race I recall in which a major candidate – indeed, the incumbent – has made CAIR a political factor. (3) But it is hardly the first in which the Arab-Israeli conflict features prominently as a political issue – indeed, Specter profited significantly from Lynn Yeakel's weakness on this very topic in 1992 to such an extent that some observers credited Specter's victory then to this factor.
July 15, 2010 update: Specter's efforts came to naught and he lost the primary to Sestak. Sestak's hostility to Israel has now become an issue in the geneeral election as a new pro-Israel group, the Emergency Committee for Israel, has targeted him in an advertisement, "Sestak's Record."
Sestak protested Comcast's broadcasting the ad; Politico's Ben Smith has published a letter from Sestak's lawyer to Comcast, dated July 13, in which the lawyer, Jared G. Solomon, defends Sestak's pro-Israel bona fides (going so far as to state that, during his military service, he "was willing to put his life on the line to defend Israel").
CAIR comes into the picture, of course, and at some length:
Most offensively, the ad states that Congressman Joe Sestak "raised money for an anti-Israel organization the Federal Bureau of investigation called a 'front group for Hamas'" referring in the visuals to a group called the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR.
First, Congressman Sestak never raised money for CAIR. He once spoke at a CAIR event, but during a portion of the event explicitly free of fundraising. He has never solicited donations for CAIR. nor ever directed any of his staff, relations, or acquaintances to solicit donations for CAIR.
Also, the characterization of CAIR as an organization" the FBI called a front group for Hamas," is misleading in that it implies that the FBI had already labeled CAlR thusly at the time Congressman Sestak spoke at CAIR's event (which, as described above, is misconstrued in the advertisement as having raised money for CAIR). This characterization came a year after the CAIR event.
Further, it was not the FBI as an agency, but rather a single FBI agent who characterized CAIR as a "front group for Hamas." CAlR has never been indicted by the United States government for any crimes related to Hamas or any other terrorist organization.
This attempt to tie Congressman Sestak to Hamas is outrageous and will not be tolerated. The statement in the advertisement is at best misleading, and at worst false and deceptive.
To this, Noah Pollak, executive director of the Emergency Committee for Israel, replied today:
In March of 2007, as Politico reported, "Freshman Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) has ignited a controversy after agreeing to be the keynote speaker at an April 7 banquet and fundraiser hosted by the Philadelphia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations." (Sestak Scheduled Speech to Muslim Group Causes Uproar by Josh Kraushaar, Politico, 3/19/07 – see addendum 1)
Indeed, by serving as the keynote speaker at a banquet and fundraiser for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Rep. Sestak engaged in activity that by any standard must be considered fundraising – i.e. he raised money for the organization. No doubt if Sestak delivered a speech at a Sestak for Senate fundraiser, he would concede that he had "raised money" for his own campaign regardless of whether he solicited such donations in his speech. The notion that this portion of the event was "explicitly free of fundraising" is not credible on its face – attendees to see Sestak's speech were required to make a $50 donation to CAIR.
To the second point – our ad simply states that the FBI called CAIR a "front group for Hamas." This is factually true. The statement was made by FBI Special Agent Lara Burns during a retrial of the Holy Land Foundation case in 2008, and the charges made by federal prosecutors, and for which CAIR was named as an unindicted coconspirator, stemmed from activity that took place before Sestak's appearance at the fundraiser. (Judge due to rule on Holy Land defense evidence challenge by Jason Trahan, Dallas Morning News, 10/14/08, see addendum 2)
Furthermore, CAIR had come under scrutiny for ties to Hamas well before Sestak spoke at their fundraiser. As Newsweek reported in December 2006, California Senator Barbara Boxer had,
"rescinded an award to an Islamic activist in her home state because of the man's connections to a major American Muslim organization that recently has been courted by leading political figures and even the FBI.
"Boxer's office confirmed to NEWSWEEK that she has withdrawn a "certificate of accomplishment" to Sacramento activist Basim Elkarra after learning that he serves as an official with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) . After directing her staff to look into CAIR, Boxer "expressed concern" about some past statements and actions by the group, as well as assertions by some law enforcement officials that it "gives aid to international terrorist groups," according to Natalie Ravitz, the senator's press spokeswoman.
"CAIR, which has 32 offices around the country and bills itself as the leading Muslim-American civil- rights group, has never been charged with any crimes, nor have any of its top leaders. But a handful of individuals who have had ties to CAIR in the past have been convicted or deported for financial dealings with Hamas—another reason cited by Boxer for her action." (CAIR Play by Mark Hosenball and Michael Isikoff, Newsweek, 12/29/06, see addendum 3)
The controversy surrounding Rep. Sestak's appearance at the fundraiser makes clear that he was well aware of CAIR's ties to Hamas – ties that were so close that other US Senators from his own party had expressed such concerns publicly. Further, the effort to dismiss this "single FBI agent" who characterized CAIR as a front group for Hamas ignores the fact that this particular special agent was speaking in federal court on behalf of the FBI and as the Special Agent most knowledgeable regarding the events in question.
(April 1, 2010)
Related Topics:Arab-Israeli debate in the U.S., US policyThis text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an integral whole with complete information provided about its author, date, place of publication, and original URL.
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation and its Role in Enforcing Islamic Law
We need to get off Saudi Barbarian OIL!!!!!Support the Canadian OIL Sands,,, and visit,, Ethicaloil.org
The gravity of the existential threat we face from Islamic Jihad is truly of epic proportions. It is essentially a battle pitting free-civilized man against a totalitarian barbarian. What is at stake is the struggle for our very soul - namely who we are and what we represent. The lives that were sacrificed for individual rights and freedoms that we've come to cherish are being chiseled away from right under our noses by the stealth jihadists. And many of us are in denial and totally clueless.
The left's appeasement and pandering to evil is nothing new. What makes their utopian delusions so infuriating and unpardonable is that it is not only they who will have to pay the consequences, and deservedly, so, they are thwarting and undermining our best efforts at resistance and are thus dragging us down in the process as well.
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