Jimmy Carter: Too many Jews on Holocaust council

Former president also rejected Christian historian because name sounded 'too Jewish' Alert Focus: A Burdensome Stone / Antisemitism 1 John 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us. WORLDNETDAILY - By Aaron Klein - January 25, 2007 -- TEL AVIV -- Former President Jimmy Carter once complained there were "too many Jews" on the government's Holocaust Memorial Council, Monroe Freedman, the council's former executive director, told WND in an exclusive interview. Freedman, who served on the council during Carter's term as president, also revealed a noted Holocaust scholar who was a Presbyterian Christian was rejected from the council's board by Carter's office because the scholar's name "sounded too Jewish." Freedman, now a professor of law at Hofstra University, was picked by the council's chairman, author Elie Weisel, to serve as executive director in 1980. The council, created by the Carter White House, went on to establish the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Freedman says he was tasked with creating a board for the council and with making recommendations to the White House on how best to memorialize the Holocaust. He told WND he sent a memo to Carter's office containing recommendations for council board members. He said his memo was returned with a note on the upper right hand corner that stated, "Too many Jews." The note, Freedman said, was written in Carter's handwriting and was initialed by Carter. Freedman said at the time the board he constructed was about 80 percent Jewish, including many Holocaust survivors. He said at the behest of the White House he composed another board consisting of more non-Jews. But he said he was "stunned" when Carter's office objected to a non-Jew whose name sounded Jewish. Freedman said he could not provide the historians name to WND because he did not have the man's permission. "I got a phone call from our liaison at the White House saying this particular historian whose name sounded Jewish would not do. The liaison said he would not even take the time to present Carter with the possibility of including the historian on the board because he knew Carter would think the name sounded too Jewish. I explained the historian is Presbyterian, but the liaison said it wouldn't matter to Carter." Freedman said he was "outraged by this absurdity." "If I was memorializing Martin Luther King, I would expect a significant number of board members to be African American. If I was memorializing Native American figures I'd expect a lot of Native Americans to be on the board. "I do not for a moment consider it inappropriate to build a Holocaust council with a significant majority of the board being Jewish," Freedman stated. Freedman describes himself as "self-proclaimed liberal." He said he decided to speak out after the release of Carter's latest book, "Palestine: Peace not Apartheid," which some have accused of being biased against Israel. This would not be the first time Carter's messages on right hand corners of letters generated a Holocaust-related scandal. Last week, in an interview with the Tovia Singer Show on Israel National Radio, a former U.S. Justice Department official said he received a letter advocating "special consideration" for a confessed Nazi SS officer accused of murdering Jews in the Mauthausen death camp in Austria. Neal Sher, who served in the Justice Department's Office of Special Investigation, said that in 1987 he received a note from Carter petitioning for re-entry into the U.S. for Martin Bartesch, who had been deported by Sher's office to Austria after it was established he served as an SS officer. Sher said his office had "extraordinary evidence" Bartesch shot Jews. Bartesch originally immigrated to the U.S. and lived in Chicago. He later admitted to Sher's office and the court he had voluntarily joined the SS as a teenager and served in its Death's Head Division at the Mauthausen concentration camp where many thousands of prisoners were gassed, shot, starved and worked to death. Bartesch also confessed to having concealed his SS service at concentration camp from U.S. immigration officials. Sher said the Justice Department obtained a journal kept by the SS and captured by the U.S. Armed Forces listing Bartesch as having shot to death Max Oschorn, a French Jewish prisoner. Bartesch's daughters, who still lived in the U.S., attempted in 1987 to appeal to politicians to allow the former Nazi officer to enter the country. They wrote a note in which they claimed it was "un-American" to persecute a man for crimes committed when he was only 17 and 18 years old. Sher said he was shocked when he received the daughter's letter replete with a handwritten note from Carter on the upper right corner stating the former president wanted "special consideration" for the Bartesch family for humanitarian reasons. The note, containing Carter's signature, was obtained this week by the NY Sun. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/staticarticles/article53954.html FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Lights 'not of this world' mystery finally solved [Maybe?]

Air Force reveals weapons tests that sparked global UFO frenzy

Alert Focus: Signs in the Heavens / As in the days of Noah / A Strong Delusion 2 Thessalonians 2:11-12 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Note: Why the "Maybe?" I will be answering this in a future post. BE/\LERT!

WORLDNETDAILY - By Joe Kovacs - January 24, 2007 -- Mysterious lights in the sky witnessed and photographed by an Air Force colonel who described them as "not of this world" apparently have an explanation of this Earth after all, WND can reveal. The strange illuminations seen Jan. 9 over western Arkansas came from special military flares that slowly parachuted to the ground as part of an Air Force training mission involving A-10 aircraft pilots at nearby Fort Chaffee, a base used by the military for testing weaponry. "We were flying A-10s in that area and they were using flares," Jessica D'Aurizio, chief of public affairs at the 917th Wing of the Air Force Reserve at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, told WND. She says the flares, which stay lit for about five minutes, produce nearly 2 million candlepower. "It brightens up the target area," D'Aurizio said. "They go down in parachutes, so they're very bright. That had to be what it was, I'm sure." As WND exclusively reported last week, F-16 fighter pilot Col. Brian Fields, now retired at 61, was at his Van Buren, Ark., home Jan. 9 when just before 7 p.m., he observed two intensely bright lights as he looked to the southeast close to the horizon. "At first I thought they were landing lights from an aircraft," he said. "As I continued to observe them they began to slowly disappear, then suddenly one reappeared, followed by two, then three. On at least one occasion four or five appeared. Each time they would slowly fade and eventually disappear. This occurred several times and when they would reappear they might do so in differing numbers and in different positions, sometimes in a triangular shape, sometimes stacked on top of each other, sometimes line abreast, etc. When the objects appeared they might stay illuminated 10 or more minutes." He added, "I believe these lights were not of this world, and I feel a duty and responsibility to come forward." Lt. Col. Pete Gauger, executive staff officer at the 188th Fighter Wing of the Arkansas Air National Guard, confirmed A-10s were on the Fort Chaffee bombing range dropping suspended flares at the time Fields documented the lights some five to ten degrees above the horizon. "They would drop multiple flares," he said. "That probably solves your mystery. It's beyond coincidence." Gauger said WND's initial report caused a lot of interest among media outlets, especially after being featured on the Drudge Report. "It was widely read," he said. "I read it, and I didn't immediately tie it in [to the training]." Fort Chaffee, which is run by the Arkansas Army National Guard, is situated on approximately 61,000 acres not far from Fields' residence in Van Buren. "Just a small portion of it is for the Air National Guard to fire and test weapons," said Kim Kimmey, chief warrant officer at Fort Chaffee. According to the Federation of American Scientists Military Analysis Network, A-10 aircraft "have excellent maneuverability at low air speeds and altitude, and are highly accurate weapons-delivery platforms. They can loiter near battle areas for extended periods of time and operate under 1,000-foot ceilings with 1.5-mile visibility. Their wide combat radius and short takeoff and landing capability permit operations in and out of locations near front lines. Using night vision goggles, A-10/ OA-10 pilots can conduct their missions during darkness." D'Aurizio at Barksdale AFB told WND there were four A-10 planes as part of the training mission the night of Jan. 9, and they used LUU-2 flares. According to GlobalSecurity.org, "The mechanism has a timer on it that deploys the parachute and ignites the flare candle. The flare candle burns magnesium which burns at high temperature emitting an intense bright white light. The consumption of the aluminum cylinder that contains the flare 'candle' may add some orange to the light." "I did not know that such 'parachute flares' existed and never considered the possibility," Col. Fields told WND upon learning the reason behind the mysterious lights. "I am grateful, however, that the truth has been determined and those that may have been disturbed by this event will be able to rest." Fields, a Christian who originally speculated his sighting might have had something to do with End Time prophecies from the Bible, still wants people to remain vigilant. "Because this event was explained does not change the fact that we live in perilous times – and we must still be awake, alert, and know that a great deception is still coming." WND's original story sparked a flurry of interest in unexplained phenomena and UFO activity, with many readers saying they had seen or experienced lights similar to those witnessed by Fields. D'Aurizio said when the flares are deployed, "It's not unusual to have people think there's something strange going on." The feedback to WND became comical at times. One reader, Jeff Anno, supplied his own image, explaining, "I looked closely at the orange picture and something looked fishy. It looked like the [Volkswagen] logo." http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53936 Previous WorldNetDaily stories: UFO frenzy ignited by Air Force officer Air Force colonel reports lights 'not of this world' 'Bright green fireball' streaks across evening sky Fireball, big bang said to shake Earth Mystery fire from sky in California Iran, Russia to study UFOs Rash of UFOs in Eastern Hemisphere Mystery lights in sky baffling Australians Infrared picks up invisible UFOs Dozens of UFO sightings excite Iran UFO blasts sky like 50,000 spotlights Cops baffled after sighting UFO Strange UFO seen in Colorado FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Australia: Islamic exhortations to violence defended

Authorities investigate sermons supporting jihad, martyrdom Alert Focus: The Fruit of Islam / A Horde of Judgment / Deception / Antichrist / Mystery Babylon Habakkuk 1:2-3 How long, O LORD, will I call for help,And You will not hear?I cry out to You, "Violence!"Yet You do not save.Why do You make me see iniquity,And cause me to look on wickedness?Yes, destruction and violence are before me;Strife exists and contention arises. 1 John 2:22 Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. WORLDNETDAILY - January 24, 2007 -- The Australian government, whose leaders have invited Muslims who believe religious law should trump the nation's secular constitution to leave, now has launched an investigation into recordings of messages urging Muslims to kill enemies of Islam. According to a report in the daily newspaper The Australian, members of the Federal Police force have begun looking into the DVD recordings by Sheik Feiz Mohamed. They collected a copy of the recordings recently from a 4,000-member Muslim youth center founded by Mohamed. Officers who arrived at the Global Islamic Youth Center at Liverpool, in Sydney's western suburbs, declined to comment, but Muslims are defending even the references to violence and martyrdom in the messages. Australian leaders, as WND has reported, have taken a much harder stance than leaders in other free nations against those would suggest that Islamic law, or Sharia, should be observed. Prime Minister John Howard has said he believes activities of those in Australia's mosques should be monitored, citing a need for the government to know if members of the Islamic community supported or taught violence. "We have a right to know whether there is, within any section of the Islamic community, a preaching of the virtues of terrorism, whether any comfort or harbour is given to terrorism within that community," Howard told Australian radio earlier. Education Minister Brendan Nelson said those members of the Islamic faith who do not support Australian values are welcome to leave. Treasurer Peter Costello, who is seen as heir apparent to Howard, also has made similar suggestions about those who do not accept Australia's Constitution and the laws created by its parliament. "If those are not your values, if you want a country which has Sharia law or a theocratic state, then Australia is not for you," he said. He continued: "I'd be saying to clerics who are teaching that there are two laws governing people in Australia, one the Australian law and another the Islamic law, that that is false. If you can't agree with parliamentary law, independent courts, democracy, and would prefer Sharia law and have the opportunity to go to another country which practices it, perhaps, then, that's a better option." Mohamed, who was described as a "firebrand" in one report, has defended the messages on the DVD, which call children to jihad, urge Muslims to kill enemies of Islam and praise martyrs. The messages include a statement that inmates at Guantanamo Bay, where those suspected of being involved in Islamic terrorism are detained, are "better" than Muslims in Australia, who would not forsake their lifestyles for martyrdom. "The brothers in Cuba are better than us," the newspaper quoted him saying. "They are being examined through the best examination (a reference to God's judgment)." Mohamed, who now lives in Lebanon after leaving Australia in 2005, said his followers should seek the honorable death of a believer. "They fight in the cause, they kill others – the enemies who fight Islam and they themselves are killed as martyrs," he said. He gives the example of a mujaheddin who fought in Bosnia in the 1990s who spoke of nothing but jihad and was killed on the battlefield. "What a beautiful person to be associated with. Would you not like to be an associate of this person?" The messages were recorded several years ago, officials said, and tell Muslims how they should live their lives. "This is our intention that we want to have children and offer them as soldiers defending Islam, loving Islam," Mohamed said. A former student of Muhamed, Zeky Mallah, described the sermon as "normal with any Islamic scholar." Muhamed denied to the Australian that his jihad references meant violence. But the newspaper reported the DVD is "littered" with references to violence and a call to arms. In a previous controversy over Muslim interactions with Australian law, WND reported that an imam justified the rape of unveiled women, after a 16-year-old girl was viciously assaulted. "The problem all began with who?" Sheik Taj el-Dene Elhilaly said earlier in a Sydney mosque, referring to the women victims – whom he said were "weapons used by Satan." The sheik said: "If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats or the uncovered meat? "The uncovered meat is the problem. If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred," he said. Australia, which has supported the worldwide war on terror, also has had other controversies over Islam within its borders. WND has reported that two Christian Australian pastors were handed convictions – and later saw those convictions overturned – of "vilifying" Muslims when they quoted from the Quran during a seminar on jihad. "There's a need to keep these vilification laws in sharp focus to reveal the problems this law is creating," said one, Pastor Danny Nalliah, from Catch the Fire Ministries. On the U.S. Jihad Watch website, where Robert Spencer monitors such activity worldwide, several readers commented on the latest developments. "Same old story. Anything a non-Muslim says, regardless of the context, is automatically viewed as Islamophobic. Everything a Muslim says is always taken out of context by non-Muslims. Who really has the phobia here?" asked a poster identified as "Dumb Ox." Said, "tblab:" "Why use the word firebrand as a adjective to describe this dreg? … How about 'Bloodthirsty cleric Sheik Feiz Mohamed.'" http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53922 Previous WorldNetDaily stories: Pastors' convictions for quoting Quran overturned Imam justifies rape of unveiled women Australia keeps terror suspect in check Missile 'embedded in U.S. cruise ship' Next for terrorists: Seaborne attacks Terror threat swells at sea Al-Qaida plans high-sea terror New al-Qaida threat: 15-ship mystery navy Australia's top mufti calls for holy war FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Kingdom and Dominion - What the Bible Teaches

Note: An excellent article by Tony Pearce that so much reminded me of my own testimony that I wanted to post it for all of you. Tony's ministry is called Light for the Last Days. Alert Focus: The Falling Away / Deception / Mystery Babylon / Antichrist 1 Timothy 4:1 But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons,... When I first became a Christian in 1970 my interest in world events caused me to study the subject of Bible prophecy. From this study I came to a conclusion which was both optimistic and pessimistic at the same time. The bad news was that the present world system is on a highway to destruction. The good news was that Jesus is coming back again. From my reading of the news and the Bible I understood that the present world system would end with the rule of Antichrist and a time of great tribulation on the earth; the final conflict would centre on Israel as the nations challenge the Jewish peoples right to settle in their Biblical homeland; this war would bring mankind to the brink of destruction, only to be prevented by the return of the Messiah Jesus, who would then judge the world and begin his 1000 year reign from Jerusalem in which there would be peace and the knowledge of the Lord worldwide (Isaiah 2, 11, Zechariah 14, Revelation 20). After arriving at this view from my own reading of the Bible I discovered it was known as the pre-millennial view of scripture (i.e. Jesus returns before - pre - the establishment of his millennial - 1000 year - rule). As it made sense to me of the Bible and the state of the world I thought it was generally agreed by Bible believing Christians. I realised this was not the case when I became involved with a fellowship connected with the Restoration movement. Here was a new viewpoint, rejecting the eschatology of disaster (i.e. that the end of this age would come with a disaster), and seeing the church go out in a blaze of glory, having demonstrated the power of Jesus Christ over Satan in a great end time revival which would sweep the earth in preparation for the Lords return. This is the post-millennial view (i.e. that Jesus returns after - post - the millennial kingdom has been established by the triumph of the church). In September 1983 one of the leaders of the Restoration movement, Bryn Jones, recorded a vision he had of this great revival taking place with the following results: Ordinary Christians would be equipped with supernatural powers, laying hands on the sick with extraordinary miracles taking place in public places. Poverty would be abolished among them as multitudes turn to the Lord and have their material needs met through his provision. The powers of darkness would be overthrown - governments and religious systems based on principles opposed to the Bible would be shaken as the Church emerges in power and glory. All nations would reach out to God as the Church is established as the mountain of the Lords house, the highest of nations. Heads of governments in despair at their own failure to solve the problems of humanity will turn to the revived church asking them to teach us the ways of God. Following this great revival the Lord will return for his glorious church and wind up history. The fellowship we were involved with looked at a commitment course for members to follow containing this teaching. One paragraph read: It is Gods purpose that His glory should cover the earth, that this world which has been so scarred by sin and Satan should once more show forth the beauty of God. The way He will do this is through His Church ... The rule of God as King is exercised through his people and it means that we must take spiritual authority over the forces of darkness now to bring to pass the will of God in the world. We are described in Revelation 5.10 as a Kingdom of priests to our God who reign on the earth. God wants us to reign now! ... All this means we have a glorious world-wide vision for the Lords people, an exciting revolutionary programme of world dominion for our God.o Laying a Foundation by John Houghton and Richard Haydon-Knowell. I could not accept that in this present age the Church is going to be involved in any kind of world dominion and questioned this whole theology. I soon found myself out of favour and considered to be in rebellion against authority and before long our family left the fellowship and began a period in which we found ourselves increasingly out of step with things being said by influential leaders of the church. We also discovered that our view of the end times was under attack from almost all wings of the church. The attack on the pre-millennial view came with a great deal of hostile material about Israel. Christians who believe the restoration of Israel is a fulfilment of prophecy were accused of accepting Israeli supremacy and terrorism as part of the fulfilment of Gods promises. (Restoration magazine May / June 1991). One entire edition of this magazine was devoted to attacking Israel politically and spiritually. It contained some of the most biased material I have read anywhere on the subject and I wrote a reply to it which is available on request. As I worked on this subject I realised that the rejection of Israel as a fulfilment of prophecy is needed by those putting forward this view because they wish to apply the prophecies which speak of the physical restoration of Israel in the last days (e.g. Isaiah 2.1-4, Ezekiel 36-37, Jeremiah 30-1, Zechariah 12-14) to the spiritual restoration of the church. According to this view the Church is now to be the inheritor and ruler of the world, not the Lord Jesus reigning through Israel during the Millennium. According to this view Jesus cannot return before the Church attains full maturity and dominion over all, and those who deny this are holding up the victory and return of Christ. Many calls to prepare for the great revival of the end times have gone out: We believe its Gods will that the righteous should reign on this earth, and were seeing people preparing themselves to be lawyers, doctors, generals, admirals, presidents, and congressmen. The righteous will rule and the people will rejoice.o John Giminez, New Wine Magazine January 1986. A new order is emerging in purity and power - the kingdom of God. The people of God, united in love and submission to Jesus Christ, will fill the earth as they take the kingdom and as all nations are brought beneath the feet of King Jesus.o David Mansell in Restoration January 1991. In order to bring this about prophecies are given of imminent revival, calls to unity across denominational barriers, regardless of doctrine, and marches take place in our cities claiming them for Jesus. As one who has become rather an outsider to all this activity I have to ask, Where is the revival? The government, control of mass media, education, law and order seem to be increasingly in the hands of forces which are anti-christian. Communism may have fallen in the Soviet Union but it is being replaced by chaos and new forms of wickedness, many of which are imported from the West, not by governments looking to the Lord for direction. Most of the people in our society mock at or totally ignore our marches, prophecies and campaigns. Many Restoration leaders have had to admit that prophecies they gave of imminent triumph have proved false, although they rarely abandon the wrong doctrine they are teaching or cease to be considered leaders after giving false prophecies. Nothing that has happened over the past 23 years that I have been a Christian has caused me to question the basic pre-millennial view of prophecy: that world conditions will get worse before Jesus returns, that there will be lawlessness, wars and a great increase in human wickedness, together with a falling away from the truths of the Bible affecting most of professing Christendom. There will be great opportunities for evangelism and the Gospel will be preached to the ends of the earth, but the aim of this is to save people from the wrath to come when God will judge this present evil world and separate those who have eternal life through repentance and faith in Jesus as Saviour and Lord from those who go to eternal hell because they have rejected Gods offer of salvation. Israel will remain the centre of world attention until Jesus returns, Gods timepiece showing us that the Day of the Lord is drawing near. In preparation for this we must repent and believe the Good News that Jesus the Messiah has come once to save us from our sins and that soon he will return in power and glory to judge all mankind according to our response to the Gospel. http://www.wps6.co.uk/~dev_lfld/view_page.asp?page_id=173§ion_id=1&menu_id=226

A World Gone Mad

Australian cleric refers to Jewish people as "pigs" and says children should be taught a love of martyrdom, while Canada goes hysterical for "Little Mosque on the Prairie" Alert Focus: The Fruit of Islam / A Horde of Judgment / Deception / Antichrist / Antisemitism Deuteronomy 28:37 "You shall become a horror, a proverb, and a taunt among all the people where the LORD drives you. Habakkuk 1:2-3 How long, O LORD, will I call for help,And You will not hear?I cry out to You, "Violence!"Yet You do not save.Why do You make me see iniquity,And cause me to look on wickedness?Yes, destruction and violence are before me;Strife exists and contention arises. 1 John 2:22 Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. Federal police investigate Sheikh's DVD ABC [Australia] - January 18, 2007 -- The Australian Federal Police (AFP) are making inquiries about a DVD in which a Sydney cleric refers to Jewish people as "pigs" and says children should be taught a love of martyrdom. A spokeswoman for the AFP says police are aware of the video showing the head of the Global Islam Youth Centre, Sheikh Feiz Mohammed. Acting federal Attorney-General Kevin Andrews says the comments are reprehensible and offensive. "We are particularly concerned about literature that can find its way into the hands of young people and children in this country," he said. "It is not something which is acceptable and it's something which obviously the authorities are looking at as part of their investigation." New South Wales Premier Morris Iemma has also condemned the Sheikh's comments. Mr Iemma says he has already spoken to the Federal Government about having the DVDs banned. "This is just more disgusting commentary from a Sheikh who has no understanding of the values that we live by," he said. "I've called on the Commonwealth Attorney-General to take whatever necessary steps are available to try and have this DVD withdrawn." Source: ABC http://www.optusnet.com.au/news/story/abc/20070118/19/domestic/1829553.inp 'Little Mosque' draws whopping two million viewers for premiere episode CANADIAN PRESS January 10, 2007 -- TORONTO -- More than two million Canadians tuned in this week to "Little Mosque on the Prairie," the new CBC comedy about a Muslim community in a rural town that has been the subject of worldwide attention. The figure - 2.1 million - is a huge one for a Canadian television show. "Corner Gas," CTV's big sitcom hit and one of the country's highest-rated shows, routinely pulls in just over a million a week. Kirstine Layfield, director of network programming for the public broadcaster, says it appears "Little Mosque" won its time slot, even besting a brand-new episode of the red-hot medical drama "House." She says the CBC is "ecstatic and thrilled" by the numbers. Layfield says of the hundreds of people who phoned the CBC on Tuesday night to weigh in on the show, the vast majority of them were positive. "Little Mosque" has been getting international buzz for weeks, with everyone from the BBC to CNN running items on the comedy by Muslim film-maker Zarqa Nawaz. Nawaz says the attention is due to the fact that "Little Mosque" is considered one of the first North American sitcoms to portray Muslims in a humourous light in a post 9-11 world. http://www.breitbart.com/news/na/cp_e011035A.xml.html Music video: 'Martyrs' get paradise with maidens Palestinian TV encourages suicide attack of Jewish 'monkeys and pigs' WORLDNETDAILY - By Aaron Klein - September 20, 2006 -- JERUSALEM -- Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' state-run television the past few weeks has broadcast a music video in which viewers are encouraged to "martyr" themselves in exchange for eternal paradise and beautiful "maidens." The Israeli-based monitor Palestinian Media Watch reports the video, airing on television controlled by Abbas' Fatah party, depicts a Palestinian woman who is shot in the back by Israeli soldiers. The woman then is transported to "paradise" where she joins white-robed "maidens" dancing in water while waiting to marry a male Palestinian who "martyrs" himself. In the next scene, according to PMW, a grieving Palestinian man is shot in the back by Israeli troops while visiting the grave of the woman killed at the start of the video. The man immediately is brought to "heaven" where he is rewarded with several white-robed "maidens," including the original woman he was mourning. "This recurring image of the martyr being rewarded by receiving the Maidens [is] part of the multifaceted Palestinian Authority campaign glorifying and encouraging terror, and promoting suicide terror as idyllic," states a PMW report. PMW cites other recent instances in which Palestinian television encouraged suicide terrorism for the reward of paradise ripe with beautiful women. In one recent video, a Palestinian about to blow himself up among Jewish civilians is depicted reciting a prayer hoping for "paradise." "Angels of mercy, escort our souls to Heaven after we fulfill this duty of crushing the descendents of monkeys and pigs. Dear father and mother, blessings of honor and respect to you, while you escort me to the Maidens of Paradise as a Martyr," states the soon-to-be suicide bomber. In a sermon broadcast on PA television, Ismail al-Radouan, a prominent Palestinian sheik, declares, "When the Shahid meets his maker, all his sins are forgiven from the first gush of blood. He is exempted from the torments of the grave; he sees his place in paradise, he is shielded from the great shock, and marries 72 Dark Eyed (Virgins)." In an interview recently broadcast on Palestinian television, the mother of a real life suicide bomber explains how she had hoped her son would "martyr" himself. "He (my son) would always dream of Shahada, it was his first and last goal in life. I told him, 'Dear, we all want to be shahids.' He said, 'In this entire world, I can't think of anyone to marry. I want to marry the Dark Eyed [Virgins or Maidens of Paradise].' I said if these are his thoughts, I wish him Shahada (martyrdom)." http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52056 Chartering in Unchartered Waters HUMAN EVENTS ONLINE - by Cal Thomas – December 14, 2006 -- Loyalty oaths in America have their roots in the Civil War era, but in the ‘50s, they were an ugly product of the “Red Scare.” Some people, including university professors, were asked to sign them as testimony to their not being a communist, or a communist sympathizer. Now comes a proposal for a different type of loyalty oath, which may help answer the question: how do we tell the difference between a peaceful Muslim and a non-peaceful Muslim who wants to kill us? Granting that the majority of Muslims are not terrorists, is there a method by which we can do a better job of exposing those who are? This week, the “Proposed Charter of Muslim Understanding” is being presented to the European Parliament. According to Gerard Batten, a member of the European Parliament from London, who contributed the foreword, and the charter’s author, Sam Solomon, a Sharia law expert, the charter will “enable Muslims from all strands of belief to make it plain that they reject those extremist interpretations of their religious texts that promote or excuse violence and bring Islam into conflict with the modern world.” The Charter calls upon Muslims to: Respect non-Muslim religions and issue a fatwa (an Islamic religious decree) prohibiting the use of force, violence or threats to their followers. Respect all civilizations, cultures and traditions and promote understanding of the precedence of national laws over Sharia law. Respect Western freedoms, especially of belief and expression and prohibit violent reaction against people who make use of these freedoms. Prohibit the issuing of any fatwa that would result in violence or threat against individuals or institutions. Request Islamic institutions to revise and issue new interpretations of Qur’anic verses calling for Jihad and violence against non-Muslims. Solomon says, “We call on organizations representing the Islamic faith … to endorse and sign this Charter as an example to all European Muslims.” By doing so, they will make it clear that “Islam is a religion of peace … and that acts of terrorism committed in its name are the acts of misguided individuals who have misunderstood and misinterpreted its teaching.” In the charter’s foreword, Gerard Batten (MEP) writes, “The Western European view of religion, achieved after centuries of bloodshed, conflict and division, is that religion is a matter of private belief and conscience. Islamic fundamentalists do not share this view. … They believe in Islamic theocracy. … Such views are simply incompatible with Western liberal democracy. … The vast majority of Muslims that non-Muslims meet in everyday life are decent, respectable, law-abiding and hardworking. Western governments and societies have to offer them their support while standing firm against the extremists.” The charter is “a great step forward in this process.” It certainly is, but what if someone signs it and doesn’t mean it? Some Muslims claim the Koran allows them to lie to “infidels.” What happens then? What would Solomon suggest be done to those who refuse to sign the charter, as many refused to sign earlier loyalty oaths? How does one encourage compliance? Sam Solomon answers that question via e-mail: “This charter is like a passport application. If someone lies, he will be prosecuted. Once agreed upon, it would give power to the authorities to bring them to justice. Though we know they can lie, this time it would not be an individual, it would be their leaders, and would be like putting their noses in the dust, and accepting it for what it is worth, that the real cause of terrorism is the interpretation of Qur’anic verses by certain factions of their religion. One way or another, they have never been challenged like this ever before.” As the European Parliament is often much slower than the American Congress, the charter begins first as a discussion document. Sponsors hope it will create interest and discussion among the European public, as well as in the European Parliament. They are hoping one of the MEPs, possibly Gerard Batten, will put forward a proposal to introduce this charter as a bill. Batten and Solomon see this as a “no lose” proposition. If the bill passes with an enforcement mechanism, Muslim leaders who sign would be held accountable under the law for any violation. If they don’t sign, the law and public opinion may have something to say about their refusal. Does anyone have a better strategy for sorting out the violent Muslims from the peaceful ones among us? And be sure, they are among us, as we experienced on 9/11. http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=18465 FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of religious, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. 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