Islamic Decapitation Attack in Nice, France Linked to All Saints Day

Something that is not getting much attention about the Islamic decapitation attack in Notre Dame Church in Nice, France.  It may have been timed to coincide with All Saints Day:

…Several local priests are saying that they were warned about the possibility of an attack days ago.

The timing, they say, is intended to coincide with the Catholic All Saint's Day holiday on Nov. 1. Some in terror circles are making a connection between the Day of the Dead and killing non-believers.

Also, according to eyewitness reports, the attack unfolded inside the church, during morning services, in full view of the priest and clergy. At least two of the three victims were killed inside the church.

Priests said they received threats in the days before the attack.

"We had been warned for two or three days that there might be some additional attacks with the approach of All Saints' Day, since some made a link with the Christian feast of the dead and the fact of increasing the number of dead."

So this year, I will be celebrating All Saints Day with that much more gusto.

And, yes, I may be armed.

Book Review: The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise

As a student of Western medieval history for over ten years now, the Muslim rule of Spain has been a subject that interested me, but that I had not quite gotten around to in any detail.  So when I heard good things about Dario Fernandez-Morera’s The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise, I decided to read it for myself.

The book is even better than I expected.  D. F. M. well debunks the hoary academic myth that Muslim Spain was a tolerant multi-cultural paradise. But it is the manner in which he does so that most impresses.  He begins his chapters with quotes from those holding the prominent viewpoint of the “Andalusian paradise.”  He frequently acknowledges their views, including points on which they are correct.  Also, he thoroughly documents that Christians and Jews in Spain, not only Muslims, were harsh in a number of their laws, restricted contact with each other, and were largely segregated, contributing to the lack of tolerance in Spain.  The Muslims were not the only bad guys, if you will.  So this book is no one-sided polemic.

Instead, this work is thoroughly scholarly.  D. F. M. quotes primary sources so much, it is almost overkill at times.  But he is debunking the dominant academic view of Muslim Spain; his near overkill is necessary.  Further, his notes and long bibliography take over a hundred pages!  The main text only goes to 240 pages – this is not a hard read.  But combined with the notes and bibliography, this is both a good introduction to the subject and an excellent resource for further study.

Sadly, the current state of academia is so averse to truth-telling about Islam and its history, one may have difficulty finding other books on Muslim Spain that are this good.  That makes this already (The publication date was 2016.) that much more a must have on the subject.

A personal note - I was struck while reading that the atrocities of ISIS and other Islamonazi groups are nothing new.  For example, how several medieval Muslim rulers turned executions into outlandish spectacles much like ISIS stood out to me.  These included mass executions that Muslims bragged of.  Trust that bragging is not too strong a word.  Actual history, as opposed to fashionable academic revising of it, and the view of Islam as a benign peaceful religion are not compatible.

But even if one disagrees with me on that observation, any open-minded student of Muslim Spain needs to get The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise.

Multiculturalism Kills

Multiculturalism, the delusion that all cultures are more or less morally equivalent and are to be welcomed, has once again been proven a deadly delusion.

My prayers are with the victims of the Westminster terrorist attack and with their friends and families.

Multiculturalism Kills

Yesterday in Belgium, we got another sad instance of the deadly nature of multiculturalism.

No, the terrorists were most certainly not multiculturalists.  They were/are the polar opposite.  But multiculturalism enabled the terrorists and invited them and people like them into Europe.

Multiculturalism holds that virtually all cultures are valid and good, and that a society is enriched by bringing in people from any number of cultures.  Buttressed by this view and by a mixture of both humanitarian and brazen political impulses (Remember UK’s Labour importing a more Labour-friendly electorate?), British and Europeans imported massive numbers of Muslims beginning in the Eighties.

Now anyone with common sense could have told you this was both literal and societal suicide.  Muslims from Africa, the Middle East, and Asia generally have values that are dead set opposed to Western values of freedom and (real) tolerance, not to mention what remains of Judeo-Christian heritage.  And they have a long history of violence against “infidels,” their lives, and their cultures from the very beginning of Islam.  Letting millions of such into Europe is asking for what has happened in Brussels and Paris and London, and it is asking for worse to come, both in deaths and in attacks on Western society and freedom.

Heck, it took Charles Martel to stop Muslims from subjugating Europe.  But now Europe lets them right on in? That is madness, if not treason.

But, hey, it gets Leftist political parties more votes.

And the madness is chiefly multiculturalism – a madness that considers inviting millions from a hateful, murderous culture into the heart of Western society to be the enlightened thing to do.

Multiculturalism kills.

About That Mosque Our Non-Muslim President is Visiting

President Obama is visiting a mosque today, namely the Islamic Society of Baltimore.  His purpose?  In the White House’s own words, to “celebrate the contributions Muslim Americans make to our nation and reaffirm the importance of religious freedom to our way of life.”

I guess those “contributions” must include support for terrorist groups, because the Islamic Society of Baltimore has a record of that:

An imam who served at ISB for a total of 15 years has also been a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood network and has worked for an Islamic relief group that was designated as a terrorist organization by the Treasury Department in 2004. Mohammad Adam el-Sheikh, who served two stints as ISB’s imam, from 1983 to 1989 and from 1994 to 2003, was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood in Sudan in the 1970s. He also co-founded the Muslim American Society, a Falls Church, Va.-based group that is controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood.

While in Baltimore, el-Sheikh served as a regional director for the Islamic American Relief Agency. That group’s parent organization is the Islamic African Relief Agency, which the Treasury Department says provided funds to Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda, Hamas and other terrorist organizations.

I will try to be charitable – it’s the Pre-Lent season after all – and say this shows egregious incompetence and sloppiness on the part of the Obama Administration.  After all, there are mosques in the United States that do not support terrorism.  Could the President and his people not find one?

But is it not strange that again and again the decisions of this non-Muslim President enable Islamic terror?  The Obama Administration cheerleaded the Muslim Brotherhood coming to power in Egypt.  It supported taking Qaddafi out in Libya, creating a power vacuum terrorists walked right into.  It withdrew us completely from Iraq, creating a vacuum ISIS walked right into.  It let right on in the San Bernardino terrorists.  It turned full on the money spigot to Iran.

His visiting a mosque notorious for supporting terrorist groups is just the cherry on top.

Like I said, charity calls for saying this is all just incompetence – horrible, destructive incompetence, but incompetence nonetheless.

But if he had a soft spot for Islamic terrorism, would he be acting any differently?

Leftists Yesterday After the San Bernardino Shooting

I’ve watched the San Bernardino Shooting and its aftermath closely.  I would rather not be proven right again and again about the past and present madness of importing massive Muslim populations to the West, but, sadly, I am once again proven too correct on that.

What did shock me was the behavior of the American Left.  They really should not be able to shock me anymore after the several decades I’ve been watching them.  But somehow they keep on managing so to do. 

The blood was hardly dry and the identity or origin of the shooters was almost completely unknown when the Left tried to pin this on their political enemies.  The loathsome Markos Moulitsas took the lead on this.

Yo GOP, kinda hard to talk about "keeping people safe" when your peeps are shooting up America.

— Markos Moulitsas (@markos) December 2, 2015

Who knew that a Muslim gunman and his Saudi bride were at the heart of the Republican base! 

Of course, he had no idea about the eventual identity of the perps, but he could not resist immediately using the awful event to smear conservatives.  Polite words utterly fail.

And MSNBC, CNN, and Bloomberg News were oh-so-eager to inform us that there was a Planned Parenthood clinic only about a mile away!

And, again well before we knew anything about the perps, Obama (and Hillary) jumped to advocate making it harder for law-abiding citizens to arm themselves against the jihadis he’s importing.

Then Leftists, as if they hadn’t besmirched themselves enough, mocked and ridiculed those offering prayers for the victims.

We have found out the hard way about the nature of Islam and its adherents.  We would do well to open our eyes to the nature of Leftist ideologies and their adherents as well.

Terrorists Already Have Gotten into the U. S. as “Refugees”

Christians and people of good will want to be hospitable, especially to those fleeing bad situations.  So it should not surprise that many of the same well meaning people are allowing those good instincts to overwhelm common sense and oppose efforts to stop or severely restrict bringing Middle Eastern “refugees” into the U. S.  I see this myself in a number of personal friends of mine.  They are good people.  But on this subject, they are mistaken.

I’ve already stated that the very nature of Islam makes allowing the mass migration of Muslims pretty much a death wish.  But, leaving that aside for now, it has become a meme that the U. S. screens refugees so closely that we should not be concerned and let those that pass screening right on in.

But it is already evident that whatever screens we are using, they are not working with Muslim refugees.  Kentucky knows that well:

Of the 31 states that have declared their opposition to taking in Syrian refugees, one state, Kentucky, has a specific reason to be wary of the background check process: previously two Iraqi refugees who settled in Bowling Green turned out to be al Qaeda-linked terrorists with the blood of American soldiers on their hands, an ABC News investigation found. Both pleaded guilty to terror-connected charges after trying to acquire heavy weapons while in America’s heartland.

The 2013 ABC News investigation also revealed that several dozen other suspected terrorist bombmakers, including some who were believed to have targeted U.S. troops, may have mistakenly been allowed to move to the U.S. as Iraq and Afghanistan War refugees, among the tens of thousands of innocent immigrants.

The Obama administration insists now that Syrian refugees are subjected to intense vetting before they’re allowed to settle in the U.S. and that a vast majority of the millions of refugees the U.S. has resettled since the 1970s are normal, peaceful people, but the program has had serious security problems before. In 2009, a flaw in background screening of Iraqi refugees allowed the two al Qaeda-linked terrorists to settle in Bowling Green and led to a temporary suspension of the refugee program, officials told ABC News in a 2013 investigation.

More recently, refugees from Bosnia and Somalia have been caught being involved with Islamic terrorist groups as well.

And now we are supposed to let in tens of thousands of Syrian “refugees” without letting in terrorists or future terrorists?  Why should we trust our screens when they have already failed against lesser numbers?

Should Christians desire to aid refugees who are refugees indeed?  Of course.  But aiding them and allowing masses of them to come to the U. S. even if they have problematic backgrounds (And, again, Middle Eastern Islam is a problematic background if there ever was one.) are two different things.

And I have not mentioned that the behavior of most of the “refugees” is that of economic opportunists rather than that of genuine refugees.  Why must so many of them go to countries with sweet welfare benefits, hmmmm?

I believe in prison ministry and have contributed to it and even been involved in it on occasion.  And many prisoners have good hearts and/or changed hearts.  But I have no plans to let a bunch of prisoners I don’t know move into my house.  Just no.  Sorry. 

I guess I’m xenophobic that way.

Why Mass Muslim Immigration to the West Must Be Stopped, Illustrated

Those who advocate for cramming yet more Muslim immigrants and “refugees” down the throats of the U. S. and of European countries would have us think the overwhelming majority of immigrant Muslims are good people.

Oh really?  Such a sentiment, of course, begs the question of whether bringing in all those wonderful Muslims is worth letting in a few hundred more jihadis.  But I seriously doubt whether even a majority of Muslims invading immigrating to the West are decent people.  Yes, I said it.  The following video illustrates why I say it.

At a match in Turkey, there was a moment of silence for the victims of the Paris attacks.  That may be seen when the players and referees gather around the circle.

Or at least there was supposed to be a moment of silence.  Jeers and chants of “Allahu Akbar” rang through the stadium, and not just from a few yahoos.  Watch it for yourself.

Now this is in Turkey, one of those “moderate” Muslim countries.  Turkey even has a history of secularism, at least until recent years.  Some of the insane even want to bring Turkey into the EU.  Yet a large number of those who went to this soccer match are such cretins that they loudly jeer and even shout over a moment of silence of victims of Islamic terror.

Now most of those doing the shouting would not appear on a terror watch list.  If they tried to immigrate to the West there would be no indications they are sympathetic to Islamist terrorism.  Yet they clearly are.  At the very least, they do not share Western standards of decency.

It may be shocking, but it should not surprise.  Islam contains the seeds of these attitudes.  Islam from the very beginning is a religion which blesses killing and subjugating non-Muslims.  That is exactly how Islam spread in the first place.  Early Christianity spread in the face of being killed.  Early Islam spread by killing.  (Not so early Islam as well.)  This is not disputable.  Inconvenient as it may be, it is basic history.

Most American Muslims may have completely outgrown that history and those attitudes.  But non-Western Muslims?  Not so much.  Sure, some have.  Maybe, perhaps, barely (though I doubt it), most. 

But how the heck are we to keep out the bad Muslims while letting in tens of thousands of the more enlightened Muslims?  Do we have a brain scan which detects jihadi and anti-Western attitudes?  Again, most of those who jeered in that stadium would be welcome to travel or even immigrate to the West.

Obama, Hillary, yes, Jeb!, too, Merkel etc. are wrong, dead wrong, to inflict hoards of non-Western Muslim “refugees” on the West.  Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were wrong, dead wrong, to import Muslims to shore up the Labour Party.  And the victims of the Paris attacks are only part of the dead. 

We need to – we must – stop fooling ourselves.  Non-Western Muslims as a whole are not compatible with Western values and freedom.  The vile nature of Islam ensures that.  As a whole, they should be kept out.

But they won’t be kept out.  I intend to comment on some of the possible consequences before week’s end.

Pope Recognizes Armenian Genocide, While Obama . . .

Sunday, Pope Francis called the torture and slaughter of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 “the first genocide of the 20^th Century” and called upon the international community to recognize it as such.

Predictably, the government of Turkey, which has a long and despicable  history of denial, had a temper tantrum and withdrew its ambassador to the Vatican.

I first became interested in this awful chapter in history and Turkey’s denial of it when I read this excellent (but disturbing) article in the Daily Mail back in 2007.  And let there be no mistake, this genocide contained a strong component of Muslim persecution of Christians.

Guess which side Obama is on in this controversy?  Oh, he told Armenians he would call this genocide a genocide when he wanted their votes.  But since then and now? Not so much.

Obama the Historian

When Obama finally leaves the White House, I’m sure he could get a plum tenure somewhere, at Harvard perhaps, as an authority on the history of Islam and of America’s founding . . . or perhaps not.

“Here in America,” Obama stated, “Islam has been woven into the fabric of our country since its founding.”

Nice try, Mr. President.  But, as Ben Shapiro, writing for Breitbart, notes, the first Muslims did not immigrate to the United States until well after the Civil War; and the first mosque in the United States was not built until 1915, by most reports.  Shapiro goes on to say:

“Islam had zero impact on the founders or their philosophy – less than zero, given that the founders despised the religion, or what they knew of it.”

Which is understandable given the founders, particularly Thomas Jefferson, had to deal with the Muslim Barbary pirates.  But Obama botched that bit of history as well.  Read here to get more color on that.

Christopher Johnson also goes to town on Obama’s comments.

So perhaps Obama ought to stick to community organizing after his presidency. . . . Oh heck, who am I kidding?  Higher education in the U. S. is so devolved and corrupted, any number of universities would love to have Obama use them to push his falsehoods.  Revisionist liars historians have to be combated and debunked in every generation thanks to corrupted academia.

By the way, is there any subject about which Obama will not tell falsehoods?

21 Holy Martyrs of Egypt, Pray for Us!

God’s Holy Army of Martyrs grew by 21 over the weekend at the hands of ISIS Islamonazi murderers in Libya.

Towards the end of my Morning Prayer today, I asked for the prayers of these new martyrs, Egyptian Coptic Christians, several of whom were seen praying at their execution.  And already many are asking for their prayers as well.

Indeed, those who prayed with trembling at their impending unjust execution for bearing the name of Christ now under that Holy Name pray in joy and perfect peace.

Obama-Crusade Linkfest

First, I think I owe my readers an apology.  I’ve studied medieval church history at Oxford no less and should be able to debunk Obama’s statement last week at the National Prayer Breakfast in my sleep.

But sometimes a statement that is off is wrong is so many ways that it takes a lot of time and effort to give it the thorough debunking it deserves.  I just did not feel that in me last week.

So I hoped I would come across one powerhouse article or item that would put Obama in his place and do the hard work for me.  But I just did not find it although this tweet comes very close:

Mr. President, the Medieval Christian threat is under control. Please deal with the radical Islamic threat today. http://t.co/YI7Ck4qW7r
— Gov. Bobby Jindal (@BobbyJindal) February 6, 2015

But I did come across a very good collection of links and excerpts late in the week.  So I commend these to you.

And here is a 2009 book review at First Things that is more relevant than ever.

And I hope I will be better prepared the next time the Crusades are dredged up and twisted to excuse Islamist evil.

Pope Francis Attacks Free Speech and Conservative RC Bloggers Are… Silent?

After Pope Francis’ comments which attacked free speech, practically blaming free speech for the Paris Islamonazi terrorist attacks, I thought any minute now the conservative popish bloggers will be chiming in with their usual excuses for Francis – he was misunderstood; taken out of context; misinterpreted due to language issues, etc.

Well, what I have found instead is . . . silence.  Now surely some conservative Roman Catholic somewhere has opined on the Pope’s comments, but I have searched the usual places, repeatedly, and not found anything.  The usual conservative apologists for Francis are very quiet on this matter.  (And I invite readers to post conservative Catholic blog posts on the topic in the comments.  Like I said, surely they are out there . . . somewhere.)

Now I do not want to call out any bloggers by name or presume motives.  After all, Francis has time and again put conservative Catholic bloggers in awkward positions due to his comments, and they have my sympathy.

But the silence is deafening.  Perhaps this time, Francis has gone beyond what even the most loyal conservative Catholics can defend.  If so, their response should not be silence.  Just the opposite.

For even popes need to held accountable.  And, to be frank, most of the conservative Catholic blogdom seems to be dropping the ball in so doing.

BREAKING: Duke Reverses Muslim Call to Prayer Decision

I do not yet know what prompted this other than a big stink.  Perhaps a major donor or two read them the riot act? Perhaps administration feared divisive tumult or worse on campus?

But whatever the cause Duke has reversed its decision to allow the amplified Muslim call to prayer from its Chapel bell tower.

Duke University has reversed itself, and announced Thursday afternoon it will not allow a Muslim call to prayer Friday from its iconic cathedral. [IT’S NOT A CATHEDRAL! – ed.]

The decision had met with widespread controversy.

“Duke remains committed to fostering an inclusive, tolerant and welcoming campus for all of its students,” said Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs and government relations. “However, it was clear that what was conceived as an effort to unify was not having the intended effect.”

I imagine it wasn’t.

----

By the way, yours truly made the Charlotte Observer article at the link.  Can you find me?

Duke to Broadcast Muslim Call to Prayer

Before you even think I am a Duke hater, I am a Duke alum.  I graduated with honors.  So Duke-hate, no.  Duke-disgust? Oh, yes.

Duke will broadcast, yes with amplifiers, the Muslim Call to Prayer from the bell tower of its chapel tomorrow at 1pm.

I only wish I were joking.

Look, I have no problem with Muslims being allowed to have an UN-amplified call to prayer from a site other than the iconic Chapel.  But broadcasting it like this from the University Chapel is utter submission to Islam.  Which reminds me . . . Islam means "Submission," and so does Liberalism.

And let’s cut the crap that this is about tolerance.  Well, this is about “tolerance”, but Duke has already demonstrated it is not that interested in real tolerance:

Duke University has a long history of fostering political correctness and hypersensitivity, from Chick-Fil-A’s removal from campus, to hosting a the national Palestinian Solidarity Movement conference, and to canceling a pro-life event in their Women’s Center on campus.

It is more about Duke becoming yet another politically correct bad joke in higher education.

I hesitate to say what I would do tomorrow at 1pm if I were still a Duke student.  But I do hope current students show some good gumption and visibly refuse to submit.  Given their conduct at basketball games (which goes back to my day), I am confident in their ability to be creative about that.

Muslim Nations vs. Freedom of Speech

When someone is so bold as to call out adherents of Islam for such enormities as their hostility to free speech, the enabling appeasing multicultural crowd, including that in that White House, cries, “No, those are just extremists who have little to do with Islam!”

To which I say, “Pig manure!” particularly when it comes to hostility to free speech.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), comprised of 57 Muslim-majority nations, is arguably the broadest Islamic group in the world and includes a number of relatively moderate countries.  And they have been in the forefront of trying to criminalize free speech that is not respectful enough to “The Prophet” and his foolish followers.

The OIC, whose member states range from moderate U.S. allies such as Jordan to adversaries such as Iran, describes itself as the world’s largest international body after the United Nations. For more than a decade, “the collective voice of the Muslim world” has spread the belief that any insult directed against the Muslim faith or its prophet demands absolute suppression. Quashing “defamation of Islam” is enshrined as a chief objective in the organization’s charter.

With countless internal resolutions, relentless lobbying of the international community and block voting on resolutions advocating a prohibition on defamation of religion at the U.N., the OIC continuously pushes to silence criticism of Islam.

Read Patrick Poole’s article for more details.  Or you can try to say negative things about “The Prophet” in public in “moderate” Muslim countries and see how things go.

I suggest reading the article, but that’s just me.

---

Yes, I know there are Muslims who respect free speech, one of whom I praised yesterday.

They are a minority in Islam at best.

Mayor of Rotterdam Tells Fellow Muslims Who Do Not Appreciate Freedoms of West to…

I was tempted to conclude the above headline, but I wish to avoid naughty language.  Nonetheless, I heartily concur with the Mayor of Rotterdam’s comments.  And that they come from a Muslim is so much the better.

Appearing on live television just hours after the shootings, Mayor Aboutaleb said Muslims who 'do not like freedom can pack your bags and leave'.

Labour politician Ahmed Aboutaleb, a former journalist who was appointed mayor of the Dutch city in 2008, is known for his straight-forward stance on integration.

The 53-year-old won the praise of London-mayor Boris Johnson over his comments last week, attacking fellow Muslims who move to Western nations and refuse to accept the way of life. 

'It is incomprehensible that you can turn against freedom,' Mayor Aboutaleb told Dutch current affairs program Nieuwsuur (Newshour).

'But if you don't like freedom, for heaven's sake pack your bags and leave.

'If you do not like it here because some humorists you don't like are making a newspaper, may I then say you can f*** off.

'This is stupid, this so incomprehensible. 

'Vanish from the Netherlands if you cannot find your place here. 

That so needs to be said, not just in the Netherlands and not just to Muslims.  The West, including the U. K. and the U. S., is being greatly undermined by various groups who appreciate neither the cultures nor the freedoms of their host countries and even act in opposition to them.  Such people need to be told in no uncertain terms where they should go.  

I best not expand on that (for now) lest I get on a really good rant.

Yes, I have had enough.  I am glad to see I am not the only one.