Changerlain

From Bosch Fawstin. Be sure to order the book "PROPIGANDA" featuring some of Bosch Fawstin's best artwork.

(Cross-posted at The Jawa Report)

Diversity Starts With The Truth

Honoring The Fallen Of The Ford Hood Massacre

This event is an outstanding opportunity to pay your respects to the victims of Ft. Hood and to our men and women who serve the nation to protect our freedom. It is also an opportunity to hear speakers of extraordinary courage and knowledge, who can explain the real threat, which we currently are not hearing in the media because of political correctness. Click here for speaker bios.

Our leaders and our media are not telling us the truth about the threat we face. We dishonor our troops by not speaking the truth about the true nature of the enemy. How can we as a nation ask our brave young men and women to risk their lives if we as a nation are afraid to speak the truth?

Join us on November 21st to make a statement to our leaders and for freedom. Click here for tickets.

Sponsored by The Forum For Middle Eastern Understanding

(Cross Posted from The Jawa Report and SnappedShot.com)

President Hypocrite Speaketh

"Do not stand idly by when dissidents everywhere are imprisoned and protesters are beaten. Because part of the price of our own freedom is standing up for the freedom of others."

~President Barack Hussein Obama during U.N. speech, September 23, 2010

This from the President who stood idly by while Iranian dissidents were brutally beaten and slaughtered in the streets of Iran.

One dissident Obama ignored:

"The Iranian people are trying to have a debate about their future."
~President Barack Hussein Obama
Press Briefing, June 23, 2009


"I'm burning, I'm burning."
~Neda Agha Soltan
Her Final Debate, June 20, 2009
(Cross-posted at SnappedShot.com)

Judge Blocks Arranged Marriage

Well, it's happening in the West now. A 14 year old girl (13 when marriage was arranged) has been spared from a forced marriage (all emphasis mine):

The Melbourne teenager is one of a number of Australian girls forced into arranged marriages overseas each year.

Her plight came to light when child protection officers received a report in June that the then-13-year-old had been taken out of school ahead of her intended marriage.

In a landmark decision published on Monday, the Family Court barred the girl, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, from travelling abroad until she turns 18.

Federal Police were ordered to place the girl's name alongside the names of accused serious criminals and tax cheats on the official Watch List at departure points around the nation.

Her family, who are believed to be Muslims from the former Yugolsav Republic of Macedonia, has had to surrender the girl's passport and cannot apply for a new one.

The money quote:

"According to Islamic law a woman must give her consent to marriage without any form of collusion," [Islamic Council of Victoria vice-president Sherene Hassan] said yesterday.

"Sadly there are some Muslims that fail to discern [the difference] between culture and religion."

Failed to 'discern' between culture and religion? Gee, forced marriages to underage, non-consenting girls wouldn't have anything to do with THIS, would it?

Narrated Aisha:
The Prophet engaged me when I was a girl of six (years). We went to Medina and stayed at the home of Bani-al-Harith bin Khazraj. Then I got ill and my hair fell down. Later on my hair grew (again) and my mother, Um Ruman, came to me while I was playing in a swing with some of my girl friends. She called me, and I went to her, not knowing what she wanted to do to me. She caught me by the hand and made me stand at the door of the house. I was breathless then, and when my breathing became Allright, she took some water and rubbed my face and head with it. Then she took me into the house. There in the house I saw some Ansari women who said, "Best wishes and Allah's Blessing and a good luck." Then she entrusted me to them and they prepared me (for the marriage). Unexpectedly Allah's Apostle came to me in the forenoon and my mother handed me over to him, and at that time I was a girl of nine years of age.

[Sahih Bukhari 5.234]

Apparently, 'culture' only influences Muslims when it is a backward, 7th century culture. Anything more modern or humane would be un-Islamic.

(Cross-posted at SnappedShot.com)

Geert Wilders Speech At Ground Zero

Recorded on September 11, 2010.

Geert Wilders speaks about the proposed victory Mosque at Ground Zero. This is the SIOA event held yesterday in New York.Tens of thousands showed up to protest the Mosque, but the media has been virtually silent about it.

For full coverage of the event, visit Jihad Watch, Atlas Shrugs, or the Urban Infidel (which has a great gallery of images).

Special thanks to Kitman TV.

"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves."
~Abraham Lincoln

The text of Geert's speech:

Dear friends,

May I ask you to be silent for ten seconds? Just be silent and listen. Ten seconds. And listen...

What we hear are the sounds of life in the greatest city on earth. No place in the world, no place in human history, is as richly varied and vibrant and dynamic as New York City.

You hear the cars, you hear the people, you hear them rushing to their various destinations, you hear the sounds of business and of pleasure, you hear the cheers, you hear the cries, the buzzing sounds of human activity. And that is how it should be. Always.

Now close your eyes - I know it's a beautiful day, but close your eyes. I have been told that this day nine years ago was just such a beautiful day -- and remember, or try to remember, or try to imagine the sounds which were heard here on this spot under this same blue sky exactly nine years ago.

The sound of shock, the sound of destruction, the sound of panic, the sound of pain, the sound of terror.

Did New York deserve this? Did America deserve this? Did the West deserve this?

What, my friends, would you say to people who argue that New York, that America, that the West had itself to blame for those horrible sounds? There are people in this city who argue this. And they are angry because we are gathered here today to commemorate, to make a stand, to draw the line.

My friends, I have come from the other side of the Atlantic to share your grief for those who died here nine years ago.

I have not forgotten how I felt that day.

The scenes are imprinted on my soul, as they are on yours.

But our hearts were not broken in the same way as the hearts of the relatives and friends of those who lost their lives here. Many relatives of the victims are here in our midst today. I wish to take this opportunity to express my deepest and most heartfelt condolences to them and to all of the people of New York and America.

Humbly, I stand here before you as a Dutchman and a European.

I, too, however, cannot forget.

How can anyone forget?

Let me remind you of the words from Darryl Worley's 9/11 song.

Have you forgotten how it felt that day?

To see your homeland under fire

And her people blown away

Have you forgotten when those towers fell?

We had neighbors still inside going thru a living hell

Worley's response is our response: No, we will NEVER forget.

We are here today because we have not forgotten all the loved ones that were lost and those left to carry on. And neither has the world.

When the forces of Jihad attacked New York, they attacked the world.

Among those lost were people from 55 nations, people of every religion and every persuasion. No place on earth had a more multi-ethnic, multi-racial, and multi-lingual workforce than New York's proud towers.

That is exactly why they were targeted. They constituted an insult to those who hold that there can be no peaceful cooperation among people and nations without submission to Sharia; to those who wish to impose the legal system of Islam on the rest of us.

But New York and Sharia are incompatible. New York stands for freedom, openness and tolerance.

New York's Mayor recently said that New York is "rooted in Dutch tolerance." Those are true words. New York is not intolerant. How can it be? New York is open to the world.

Suppose New York were intolerant. Suppose it only allowed people of one persuasion within its walls.

Then it would be like Mecca, a city without freedom.

Whatever your religion, persuasion or gender is, in New York you will find a home. In Mecca, if your religion isn't Islam, you are not welcome.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf claims the right to build a mosque, a house of Sharia here - on this hallowed ground.

But, friends, I have not forgotten and neither have you. That is why we are here today. To draw the line. Here, on this sacred spot. We are here in the spirit of America's founding fathers. We are here in the spirit of freedom. We are here in the spirit of Abraham Lincoln, the President who freed the slaves.

President Lincoln said: "Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves."

These words are the key to our survival. The tolerance that is crucial to our freedom requires a line of defense.

Mayor Bloomberg uses tolerance as an argument to allow Imam Rauf and his sponsors to build their so-called Cordoba Mosque.

Mayor Bloomberg forgets, however, that openness cannot be open-ended. A tolerant society is not a suicidal society.

It must defend itself against the powers of darkness, the force of hatred and the blight of ignorance. It cannot tolerate the intolerant - and survive.

This means that we must not give a free hand to those who want to subjugate us.

An overwhelming majority of Americans is opposed to building this mosque. So is an overwhelming majority everywhere in the non-Islamic world.

Because we all realize what is at stake here. We know what this so-called Cordoba mosque really means.

Imam Rauf maintains that American secular law and Sharia law are based on the same principles. He refuses to condemn terrorists because he says terrorism is "a very complex question".

He says America is "an accessory to the crime that happened on 9/11." "In fact," he literally said, "in the most direct sense, Osama bin Laden is made in the USA."

He also says that "terrorism will only end when the West acknowledges the harm it has done to Muslims."

That is why this man should not play the game he has in mind here in Manhattan. His "Blame the West, Blame America"-message is an insult. Americans - and by extension, all of us whose civilization was also attacked on 9/11/2001 - are not to blame for what happened here nine years ago today.

Osama bin Laden is not made in the USA. The West never "harmed" Islam before it harmed us.

Most Americans do not want this so-called Cordoba Mosque to be built here. They understand that it is both a provocation and a humiliation. They understand the triumphant narrative of a mosque named after the Great Mosque of Cordoba which was constructed where a Christian cathedral stood before the land was conquered by Islam.

An overwhelming majority of Americans is opposed to building an Islamic cultural center close to Ground Zero. There is no lack of mosques in New York. There are dozens of buildings in which Muslims can pray. It isn't about a lack of space for prayers. It's about the symbolic meaning.

We who have come to speak today, object to this mosque project because its promoter and his wealthy sponsors have never suggested building a center to promote tolerance and interfaith understanding where it is really needed: In Mecca - a town where non-Muslims are not even allowed to enter, let alone build churches, synagogues, temples or community centers.

Ordinary Americans object to the mosque project because currently no fewer than ten major multi-million dollar mosque projects are being planned in the United States as well as dozens in Europe, while not a single church is allowed in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, while Jews are not even allowed to move their lips in prayer on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, while the oldest Christians in the world, the Copts, are not free to renovate their churches, let alone to build one in Egypt.

My friends, that is why we are here today. What happens in New York must be seen in the perspective of the world. The events nine years ago made an enormous impact everywhere. Most people shared your pain, but, unfortunately, some did not.

Nine years ago, when the news of the terrible atrocity in New York reached Europe, Muslim youths danced in the streets. In a poll, two thirds of the Muslim immigrants in the Netherlands expressed partial or full understanding for the 9/11 terrorists.

If a mosque were built here on Ground Zero such people would feel triumphant.

But we, we will not betray those who died on 9/11.

For their sakes we cannot tolerate a mosque on or near Ground Zero.

For their sakes loud and clear we say: No mosque here!

For their sakes, we must draw the line.

So that New York, rooted in Dutch tolerance, will never become New Mecca.

But, let us also express our gratitude for the heroes of 9/11, those who went down in that Pennsylvania field, those who were standing freedom's watch at the Pentagon, and those who were here in New York nine years ago to risk and lose their lives for the victims.

Friends, in honor of these victims, these heroes and their families, I believe that the words of Ronald Reagan, spoken in Normandy on the 40th anniversary of D-Day, resonate with new purpose on this hallowed spot. President Reagan said: "We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we may always be free."

And, we, too, will always remember the victims of 9/11 and their loved ones who were left behind;

We, too, will always be proud of the heroes;

We will always defend liberty, democracy and human dignity;

In the name of freedom: No mosque here!

(Cross-posted at SnappedShot.com)

You Never Can Win With A Bigot

A few years ago, Mad Magazine had a section called "You Can Never Win With a Bigot". The first scene of each cartoon showed a common, stereotypical, bigoted rant, and when confronted with a contradictory behavior, the bigot would shrug it off with another ignorant comment.


The cartoon above is one example. Another example: A waiter tells another waiter that a table of "lousy, penny-pinching" Jews will stiff him on the tip. But when the Jews leave a very generous tip, the first complains, "Why shouldn't they? They got all the money in the world!"

I was reminded of these Mad Magazine cartoons while reading this NewsBusters article about Chris Matthews. For days, Matthews has been complaining that Republicans have been too quiet on the Quran burning issue.

But after Sarah Palin does speak out against the Quran burning yet defending the Church's Constitutional Right to do so, Matthews complained:

I think it`s incredible that she would be so soft -- taking such a soft line on this guy burning the Koran, because you never attack to the right when you`re on the right. That's what I think is going on here.

He later accuses Palin of aiding in the Quran burning by linking it to the Ground Zero Mosque.

As Mad Magazine noted more than 30 years ago, you can never win with a bigot.

For the record, this is what Sarah Palin had to say about the Quran burning:

Book burning is antithetical to American ideals. People have a constitutional right to burn a Koran if they want to, but doing so is insensitive and an unnecessary provocation - much like building a mosque at Ground Zero.

I would hope that Pastor Terry Jones and his supporters will consider the ramifications of their planned book-burning event. It will feed the fire of caustic rhetoric and appear as nothing more than mean-spirited religious intolerance. Don't feed that fire. If your ultimate point is to prove that the Christian teachings of mercy, justice, freedom, and equality provide the foundation on which our country stands, then your tactic to prove this point is totally counter-productive.

Our nation was founded in part by those fleeing religious persecution. Freedom of religion is integral to our charters of liberty. We don't need to agree with each other on theological matters, but tolerating each other without unnecessarily provoking strife is how we ensure a civil society. In this as in all things, we should remember the Golden Rule. Isn't that what the Ground Zero mosque debate has been about?