American Glob

Hat tip to Andy McCarthy of National Review who’s featured in the video below.

In his post at NRO’s The Corner, McCarthy comments on this exchange:

Last night, I was on David Asman’s Fox Business Channel show, Scoreboard, debating Imam Dawoud Kringle of the New York State prison system, a GZ mosque supporter. Imam Kringle, who seems like a nice enough fellow, reeled off the usual talking points about how Islam forbids terrorism and, therefore, if someone commits an act of terrorism that act is, by definition, un-Islamic.

Then came the moment of truth: the very simple question, “Is Hamas a terrorist organization?”

Talk about “Talking Points.”

Raise your hand if you already want to puke every time you hear the term “bridge builder.”

Read more at Memeorandum.

Now why would someone who volunteers for an organization that supports the Ground Zero mosque attack a Muslim man with a knife? Could it be because he’s a leftist who was trying to create a narrative of anti-Muslim violence that could be blamed on opponents of the mosque? Politico reports…

The apparent anti-Muslim assault on a New York city cabbie by a man shouting “Assalamu Alaikum. Consider this a checkpoint” produced an immediate round of recriminations over its connection to opposition to a New York Islamic Center and an apparent rising tide of Islamophobia.

But as often at the intersection of politics and violent crime, the story doesn’t appear to fit any easy stereotype: The alleged assailant, Michael Enright, is — according to his Facebook profile and the website of the left-leaning media organization Intersections International — a student at the School of Visual Arts and a volunteer for Intersections, which recently produced a statement of support for the Park51 project and is funded by the mainstream, liberal Collegiate Church of New York.

Intersections did not respond to two messages, and the group does not appear to be picking up the phone. Enright did not respond to a message through his Facebook account.

If this attack was a hate crime against an innocent human being just because he is a Muslim, it is an absolutely horrible and cowardly act.

If it was a false flag attack by someone who claims to be open minded and tolerant, but would butcher an innocent human being to indict his political opponents, isn’t that worse?

Check out what other bloggers are saying about this at Memeorandum.

Terrorism expert and National Review contributor Andy McCarthy asks an excellent question about the proposed mosque near Ground Zero. How would this play out if the situation was reversed?

A friend poses the following: Imagine that there really were these fundamentalist Christian terror cells all over the United States, as the Department of Homeland Security imagines. Let’s say a group of five of these terrorists hijacked a plane, flew it to Mecca, and plowed it into the Kaaba.

Now let’s say a group of well-meaning, well-funded Christians — Christians whose full-time job was missionary work — decided that the best way to promote healing would be to pressure the Saudi government to drop its prohibition against permitting non-Muslims into Mecca so that these well-meaning, well-funded Christian missionaries could build a $100 million dollar church and community center a stone’s throw from where the Kaaba used to be — you know, as a bridge-building gesture of interfaith understanding.

What do you suppose President Obama, Mayor Bloomberg, the New York Times, and other Ground Zero mosque proponents would say about the insensitive, provocative nature of the proposal?

Do you think the State Department would make the leader of the Christian missionaries a special emissary and send him to represent the United States on diplomatic business overseas?

Read it all HERE.

Read analysis from other bloggers at Memeorandum.

I summarized in my title but that’s the basic gist of Byron York’s newest column and as usual, he’s right. Recent polls show a growing number of Americans mistakenly think Obama is a Muslim. Here’s why…

A new poll by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life shows that 18 percent of Americans believe Obama is a Muslim. That is up from the 12 percent who believed that in October 2008, just before Obama was elected president.

At the same time, the number of Pew respondents who say Obama is a Christian — in Dreams From My Father, he describes his conversion to Christianity under the tutelage of Rev. Jeremiah Wright — has declined from 51 percent in October 2008 to 34 percent now. And the number of people who say they don’t know Obama’s religion is growing, from 32 percent back then to 43 percent today.

The White House blames the situation on a “misinformation campaign” from Obama’s opponents. But Obama and his aides might also blame themselves for the way they’ve handled the Muslim issue over the years.

The question did not come out of nowhere. As Obama said, his grandfather was a Muslim. His father was raised a Muslim before becoming, by Obama’s account, “a confirmed atheist.” Obama’s stepfather was a Muslim. His half-sister Maya told the New York Times that her “whole family was Muslim.”

Obama spent two years in a Muslim school in Indonesia and later, in a conversation with the Times’ Nicholas Kristof, described the Arabic call to prayer, the beginning of which he recited by heart, as “one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.” Given all that, it is entirely accurate and fair to describe Obama as having Muslim roots.

Yet during the campaign his aides shouted down even a measured discussion of the topic, and Obama’s critics could face ostracism simply for uttering the candidate’s middle name. In December 2007, with the Iowa caucuses approaching, former Democratic Sen. Bob Kerrey, a Hillary Clinton supporter, said of Obama, “I like the fact that his name is Barack Hussein Obama, and that his father was a Muslim and that his paternal grandmother is a Muslim. There’s a billion people on the planet that are Muslims, and I think that experience is a big deal.” Kerrey’s remarks caused an uproar — one TV commentator wondered whether they were “poisoning the well” — and Kerrey later apologized.

Eighteen months later, when President Obama traveled to Cairo for a long-awaited speech to the Muslim world, the White House was saying, and the press was reporting, the same thing Kerrey had to apologize for. “President Obama is now embracing his Muslim roots,” ABC News’ “Nightline” announced. “President Obama’s speech … was laced with references to the Quran and his Muslim roots,” said USA Today. “Obama touched on his own Muslim roots,” reported the Associated Press.

Read it all.

For more analysis on this story, be sure to check Memeorandum.

This is not funny.

Because, you know… that makes perfect sense, right?

Remember – This is the cable news network that supports Obama no matter what he says or does. Video via Mediaite via Allahpundit.

And that’s kind of the point.

Can you tell I’ve been reading iOwntheWorld.com lately?

Did I drink some poison that I don’t remember now?

As usual, Captain Priorities falls back on the four words I never need to hear again. Let me be clear…

But let me be clear: as a citizen, and as President, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country. That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances. This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable. The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country, and will not be treated differently by their government, is essential to who we are. The writ of our Founders must endure.

Really? Funny that Obama didn’t seem to care about the “Writ of our Founders” when he was forcing his healthcare plan down our throats. Here’s another headscratcher from Obama’s remarks…

Like so many other immigrants, generations of Muslims came here to forge their future. They became farmers and merchants, worked in mills and factories, and helped lay the railroads. They helped build America. They founded the first Islamic center in New York City in the 1890s. They built America’s first mosque on the prairie of North Dakota.  And perhaps the oldest surviving mosque in America—still in use today—is in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Muslims helped lay America’s railroads? Were there any Irish or Chinese people in the room when the president said that?

Last time I checked, there weren’t any music groups from the middle east singing about how Poor Paddy Works on the Railway…

Read more at Memeorandum.

Huffington Post writer Kari Ansari makes a case for more mosques in America…

We ought to welcome the growth of Islam in America for one reason: Muslims in America are fast becoming the model of intelligent and progressive Islam for the entire Muslim world. Muslim Americans have all the ingredients at hand to nurture the most reasoned and learned scholars, thinkers and leaders. This is a good thing for America and the rest of the planet.

I wonder if Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the woman recently sentenced to death by stoning in Iran, would agree with that plan? Paging the National Organization for Women…

Iran has put fresh pressure on the woman it last month sentenced to death by stoning, demanding the names of those involved in the campaign for her release.

The case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani has drawn international attention after her children launched a campaign for her release. After a global outcry last month, Iran’s judiciary said Sakineh would not be put to death by stoning, but still faced execution by hanging.

Note the following line from the Huffington Post article, emphasis mine.

“Muslims in America are fast becoming the model of intelligent and progressive Islam for the entire Muslim world.”

The Democratic Party in America has already sold its soul to Progressive Socialists and Progressive Marxists. What happens to America when young liberals start identifying with Progressive Islam?

Oh right, that’s already happening.

While perusing Michelle Malkin’s website today, I found the platform of Peace Through Strength. While all 10 items on their platform list are rather inspiring, number 4 jumped off the page for reasons that should be obvious to all Americans.

4. A nation free of Shariah, the brutally repressive and anti-Constitutional totalitarian program that governs in Saudi Arabia, Iran and other Islamic states and that terrorists are fighting to impose worldwide.

Sharia law is not only incompatible with the United States Constitution, it flies in the face of every idea upon which America was founded.

Some on the left would deride this mention of Sharia law in America as paranoid and anti-Islam. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Muslims in America are free to practice their religion, just like everyone else. Let me say that again, Muslims in America are free to practice their religion, just like everyone else.

If however, religious zealots of any faith seek to impose their values on others under law, then the freedom of all Americans has been compromised and that is unacceptable.

If you think that could never happen here, you’re wrong.