White House advisor honors Ayatollah Khomeini
Just when you thought that the White House's groveling to the most militant Islamists couldn't possibly get worse, we find out that US Department of Homeland Security advisor Mohamed Elibiary spoke at a tribute to the founder of the 'Islamic revolution' in Iran,
Ayatollah Khomeini in 2004 (Hat Tip:
MFS - The Other News).
It has come to our attention that in December 2004, Mr. Elibiary spoke
at a tribute to Ayatollah Khomeini titled “A Tribute To The Great
Islamic Visionary” sponsored by the Metroplex Organization of Muslims in
North Texas in Irving, TX. When the event was criticized in an
editorial carried by a local newspaper, Mr. Elibiary offered the
following explanation claiming that he hadn’t realized that “the event honored Imam Khomeini”:
I have been asked whether, if I had realized before I
spoke that the event honored Imam Khomeini, I would have left
immediately. I don’t know. My activism, which is designed to bring
Muslims into the mainstream, calls upon me not to cede any territory to
radical views without presenting a moderating counterpoint. I have
learned that, to his supporters, Imam Khomeini is not the hostage
crisis, or the one who hated America as the “Great Satan,” but a
liberator from the shah’s hated dictatorship. As Natan Sharansky
correctly points out in his book The Case for Democracy, people flock to
promises of freedom, because all human beings desire to be free. I have
been asked what I would say to someone who believes that there is no
good reason to attend a tribute to Imam Khomeini. If their concerns
revolved around the American experience of him, I would say that I echo
their feelings. But if anyone wishes to learn about their opponent, they
must listen, or they’ll remain ignorant and make mistakes that cost
them in their struggle to defend their values and views. Just because I
listen to Osama bin Laden’s tapes and agree that the West routinely
insults Muslim dignity, that doesn’t make me al-Qaeda. By listening I
gain a better understanding of a philosophy I wish to counter. Just
because I agree with Che Guevara that nonregulated capitalism is
exploitive of the poorest in a society, that doesn’t make me a communist
– just one who sees the benefit of Teddy Roosevelt’s crusade against
business monopolies.
It is to at all clear to the GMBDR how Mr. Elibiary could have failed
to recognize that the event was a tribute to Khomeini given the name of
the event and the associated flyer. It is also not clear why Mr.
Elibiary agreed to share a podium with Mohammad Asi given what his own characterization of Mr. Asi:
Imam Mohammad Asi, who also spoke at the MOMIN event, is
more troubling than Khomeini, in my opinion, because his views are a
direct threat, not just a historical one, to our American way of life.
He does believe that America is the “Great Satan” and opposes the
reformers in Iran who are calling for a dialogue between Islam and the
West. He sees “Zionist Jews” as controlling the entire world (outside
Iran, of course) and strongly ridicules full political participation by
Western Muslims. I don’t know what to say about all this other than that
it’s diametrically opposed to the views of the invited speakers – Imam
Kavakci, Iyas Maleh and myself. Mohammad Asi’s beliefs run counter to
the very existence of our organizations, decades of activism, everything
we said and saw from the leadership at the MOMIN Center.
Read the whole thing. Under every stone, another worm.
Labels: Ayatollah Khomeni, Barack Hussein Obama, Iranian revolution, militant Islam, Muslim Brotherhood
Geert Wilders: 'Israel is fighting our battle'
Yedioth's weekend Hebrew edition interviewed Dutch politician Geert Wilders over the weekend. The translated interview appears at
Gates of Vienna (Hat Tip:
Tundra Tabloids). Here are some excerpts.
In two weeks Wilders is coming for a visit to Israel as a guest of a parliament member Ariel Eldad. He is invited to participate in a conference against the two-state solution.
“Israel is the lighthouse and the only democracy in this backward and dictatorial part of the world,” he proclaims. “Israel is very close to us, to our European identity. Israel fights our war.”
...
Wilders (47) is one of the most ardent and loud of Israel’s supporters in Europe, and contrary to many others he does not bother to hide this. He had even insisted on including in the platform of the new Dutch government the intention to improve relations with Israel.
“I am very glad that Israel is the only country mentioned by name in the platform; this will get it the needed attention,” he said “We are Israel’s best friends and we will support it in any way possible.” He bursts out laughing when asked about allegations of his being an “Israeli agent”.
“Common!” he says “It is obvious that I am not an Israel’s spy. It is insane. I am a Dutch politician and I work for Holland and what is best for its citizens. But I am a friend of Israel, and I am not afraid to say so. Because of my open support of Israel, people who do not like me invent these stories. The Iranian press states that I am a Mossad agent. Jordanians call me Shabak’s man. It’s nonsense.”
His romance with Israel started when he was 17 years old and came here to work as a volunteer for a year. “I enjoyed it very much, and not only because of the beautiful Israeli girls,” he recalls. “I was not involved in politics back then at all. I worked in the tourist industry in Eilat, a bakery plant in Jerusalem, and the cooperative settlement Tomar in the Jordan Valley. I went through some tense times in Tomar because the border with Jordan was not very secure. We had to take shelter from time to time when terrorists managed to cross over. We saw the arrival of IDF helicopters — for someone from the south of Holland who went to Amsterdam just a few times, those were very impressive experiences.”
Over the years Wilders visited many Muslim countries, including Iran, Iraq, Syria, Tunisia and Afghanistan. “I’ve met with some very friendly people over there, too,” he clarifies, “but the power in those countries is in the hands of the dictators. These people deserve better living conditions.”
He has many friends in Israel, and some of them are politicians. He had a very warm relationship with Ariel Sharon for example, whom he still admires. “Sharon was demonized in the West, too, but he was a great politician, and I take an example from him,” Wilders emphasizes.
“I believe that the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is not territorial. Anyone who claims otherwise has no idea what he is talking about. If you gave up Western Bank and East Jerusalem and let the Palestinians have it, that would not end the conflict. It will take some time — a month, a year, ten years — but they will demand the rest of your country, because it is an ideological conflict. The solution therefore could not be territorial; it has to be ideological.
“Palestinians believe — and this is the nature of Islam — that Israel is theirs, and through the struggle with Israel they fight the non-Muslim West. The fight against Israel is the fight against us. We are Israel. The reason for Dutch parents’ good night sleep with no worries for their children is that parents in Israel go through sleepless nights because their children are in the Army. It does not mean that Israel cannot be criticized, but I am not ashamed to fight for Israel.”
At the conference Wilders will try to convince the public that Palestinians already have a country of their own. “Jordan is Palestine,” he states. “This was true in the past after Sykes-Picot agreement, and thus it is a solution to the conflict. Even the Jordan kings, Abdulla and Hussein, said so in the past. Only after they realized that these statements could endanger their reign, because Palestinians are a majority in Jordan, did they change their minds. I am against the idea of transfer or ethnic cleansing, but if Jordan became Palestine, it would be possible to encourage Palestinians to move there. Of course I will not be the one who decides how to end this conflict. Israel is a democracy and will decide for itself which solution is best for it. It is your decision.”
Read the whole thing. He's excellent.
Labels: Geert Wilders, Jordan is Palestine, militant Islam
When will they start charging imams with inciting against Jews?
Israeli authorities have indicted the imam of a Nazareth mosque for incitement against
Pope Benedict XVI and for supporting al-Qaeda and 'global jihad' (Hat Tip:
Memeorandum).
The indictment said Nazim Mahmoud Salim, who was arrested by police a month ago, led a group of about 2,000 worshippers, and had also preached at the flashpoint al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, Islam's third holiest shrine.
Salim is charged with inciting violence against Pope Benedict during his visit last year to Nazareth, the town of Jesus' boyhood in the heartland of Israel's minority Arab population.
In his sermons and on his website over the past decade, the indictment said, Salim preached "an ideological world view identical to that of global jihad" and wrote "publications that supported and identified with the terror organisation al Qaeda."
It said Salim's teachings inspired attacks against Jews and Christians, including the murder of one Jew.
At the time of Pope Benedict's visit to the Holy Land in May 2009, the indictment quotes Salim as saying in a sermon at al Aqsa: "The pope prepares himself at the gate of the Vatican and at the head of a crusade against the Islamic world ... we will expel the pope from Nazareth."
Pamela Geller
comments:
This is what must start to happen. There have been close to 20,000 Islamic attacks (that have been documented) just since 911, each one with the imprimatur of a Muslim cleric. And no one will talk about that or address that.
Until now. We must monitor the mosques.
Well, yeah. But would he have been indicted if he hadn't incited against the Pope? Imams incite here against Jews every day (and especially on Friday) and I don't see any of them being indicted until now. Why does incitement against Jews alone apparently not matter?
Labels: incitement, militant Islam, Nazareth, Nazim Mahmoud Salim, Pope Benedict XVI
