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John Kiser: Abd el-Kader’s Jihad of Compassion and Courage

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Jan-Baptist Huysmans’ painting of Abd el-Kader saving Christians during the Druze/Christian strife of 1860.

If only there were more Abd el-Kader’s today.

By John Kiser, Rappnews

With radical Islam once again dominating the news, this time in France, it is important more than ever to know about the Islam of a great human being who was a Muslim and an Arab: Emir Abd el-Kader al Jazairy, the 19th-century military leader, peacemaker, reconciler, holy man, philosopher and statesman whose conduct, on and off the battlefield, remains an ever more relevant model of courage, compassion and chivalry.

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Abd el-Kader el-Jazairi

Abd el-Kader was born in 1808 in the Ottoman province of Oran, today’s western Algeria. His tribe, the Hachem, was dedicated to the study of the Koran, the traditions of the Prophet Mohammed and the settlement of disputes among the tribes. In the decades that followed, Abd el-Kader became admired from the Great Plains to Moscow and Mecca, not as a scholar but as a chivalrous David who united tribes under his leadership to resist the French Goliath who invaded Algiers in 1830. Algerians consider him to be their George Washington.

Like his contemporary, Robert E. Lee, he also knew when further resistance was a futile waste of life. Yet he won honor in France as an uncompromisingly stoic prisoner who forced its government to keep a pledge to grant him passage to the Middle East after he surrendered voluntarily in 1847.

During these years Abd el-Kader’s name would be given to a settlement in the Midwest (today Elkader, Iowa), to a champion race horse (Little Ab) in Ireland and a ship built in Newburyport, Mass. Ralph Waldo Emerson praised him as a model of reconciliation, Britain’s William Thackeray would dedicate poetry to him and his name would be placed on the presidential ballot by citizens of Bordeaux even as he remained a prisoner of the French government.

Liberated by Napoleon III in 1852 and living in Damascus under a benevolent French patronage, Abd el-Kader protected thousands of Christians during a Turkish-inspired pogrom intended to punish them for not paying the head tax. Queen Victoria and Abraham Lincoln were among the many heads of state to honor the emir’s humanitarian intervention. Upon his death in 1883, the New York Times eulogized, “. . . The nobility of his character won him the admiration of the world. . . . He was one of the few great men of the century.”

His life reminds Muslims that true jihad, or “holy exertion,” lies not in the zeal of bitterness to fight at whatever the cost, but in living righteously in accordance with Divine Law.

Unlike ISIS and al-Qaeda, Abd el-Kader treated his French prisoners respectfully, according to Islamic rules of warfare. These prohibit the destruction of nature, shooting someone in the face, mutilation of dead bodies, killing of women and children, priests and monks, rape and the mistreatment of prisoners. The emir ended the centuries-old desert custom of decapitating prisoners after they surrender. Accustomed to having the plunder distributed according their enemy headcount, the emir countered the angry protests of his soldiers by offering bounty payments for prisoners brought in unharmed. A soldier guilty of mistreating prisoners received a “reward” of 25 strokes with a cane on the soles of his feet.

During a life of struggle against French occupation, despair in prison and exile in foreign land, he never allowed the demons of hatred and revenge to trump compassion and forgiveness. The emir’s life story offers an alternative narrative about Islam, one that has been embraced by mainstream scholars today from New York to London, Lebanon and Turkey to Pakistan and Malaysia.

Read the entire article…

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    • Tanveer ¯_(ツ)_/¯ Khan

      I jumped to conclusions without knowing the full story, I’m sorry.

  • HSkol

    I kinda meant that in a different way: If voting folks, those that define popular sentiment, are so taken in by an “art”, perhaps the “art” itself should be held accountable, in part, for inciting its own viewers actions. An “art”, of course, cannot truly incite; but, an “art” should understand that its own statement just might push the intellectually retarded. We are all so polarized these days – why feed it further? I am a firm believer in free speech; but, I can smell shit when I step in it – others cannot, and nor will they wash their feet.

Media Matters: Bill O’Reilly Lies About His Role Pushing Debunked “No-Go Zones” Myth

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It is sad that Bill O’Reilly is one of the most influential news anchors on television.:

via. Media Matters

Fox News host Bill O’Reilly falsely claimed that he had no role in hyping the myth that Muslim “no-go zones” exist throughout France, just days after Fox News apologized for spreading the fiction. In fact, O’Reilly previously cited the so called “no-go zones” as one of the contributing causes of the Paris terror attacks.

On January 17, Fox correspondent Julie Banderas apologized for the network’s coverage “regarding the Muslim population in Europe” in the days following the terrorist attacks in Paris, explaining that there is no credible evidence to support the existence of Muslim “no-go zones.” Several other Fox hosts offered additional apologies throughout the day.

On the January 20 edition of The O’Reilly Factor, during a discussion about the Parisian mayor Anne Hildalgo’s announcement that she intends to sue Fox News for its “prejudiced” coverage following the attacks, O’Reilly denied that the Fox apology was about the Muslim “no-go zone” myth in France. He insisted that it was only about Steve Emerson’s ludicrous claim that the entire English city of Birmingham was Muslim-only and nobody else went to the city. O’Reilly also denied that he had anything to do with the “no-go zones” claim (emphasis added):

O’REILLY: All right, we got a minute. The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, said she’s going to sue Fox News for reporting on so-called no-go zones in Paris. They’re dominated by Muslims and police hesitate to go in there — at least that has been the reportage in some places. I didn’t have anything to do with this. But I will point out that the mayor is a socialist.

But on January 9, O’Reilly cited Muslim “no-go zones” in France as a cause behind the terror attacks in Paris (emphasis added):

O’REILLY: France brought a lot of this terrorism on itself. We just talked about the no-go zones that they allow. They allow, 10 percent of the population is Muslim. They are all in there, they’re radicalized, they don’t assimilate.

UPDATE: O’Reilly also claimed that Fox News “isn’t even seen in France, because they block it.” But The Washington Post‘s Erik Wemple reports that a Fox spokesperson confirmed that the network reaches 13,680 homes in France but has a limited reach because it is only available in English and broadcasts on a U.S.-based schedule.

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    • issyk

      Standard GOP rule book, always attack. Whether it’s true or not, always attack.

    • mindy1

      He could NEVER admit he was wrong, he’s the prophet of our times/sarcasm

Arsalan Iftikhar is Right, Gov. Bobby Jindal is “trying to scrub the brown off his face”

Jindal_Henry_Jackson_Society

Gov. Bobby Jindal’s whole career path has been predicated on how much he can suck up to the racist White establishment/privilege elements of the GOP. He is, as Hamid Dabashi notes about the neo-colonized, a Brown guy with a White mask on; for the GOP he’s the token Brown politico.

This point was made by Arsalan Iftikhar who called out Jindal for championing the laughable and debunked conspiracy theory perpetuated by Islamophobes about “No-Go Zones.”

Not surprisingly, Jindal gave his anti-Muslim speech at the British Neoconservative think tank founded by Douglas Murray, The Henry Jackson Society, a hotbed of Islamophobia. When Jindal was pressed to name any so-called “No-Go Zones,” he deflected (blaming the “radical Left”), highlighting not only that this is a subject he is ill-prepared to discuss but that these are talking points fed to him by the likes of now discredited “Fox News terrorism experts” such as Steven Emerson.

For calling Jindal out and not apologizing for his remarks, (Iftikhar said he’d only “apologize to Bobby Jindal when he apologizes to seven million American Muslims for advancing the debunked ‘Muslim no-go zones’ myth”) Iftikhar has been banned by MSNBC.

What will the consequences for Gov. Jindal be, especially considering he has not retracted his ridiculous comments but instead has chosen to double down?

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    • JD

      Except PEGIDA leader had step down amid uproar over Hitler selfie https://www.loonwatch.com/2015/01/anti-islamization-leader-steps-down-amid-uproar-over-hitler-selfie/

      Sure They never

      gave Nazi salutes while riot police separated them from rival protesters changing “down with Pegida”. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31103221

      PEGIDA marched against immigrants, foreigners, and anyone a shade darker.

      marched with banners claiming your city is overcrowded with Muslims.

      Sure they are doing nothing wrong same as Der Stürmer was doing nothing wrong when it blamed all jews for the problems of Germany and i am sure PEGIDA is going out of it was to make sure they tell everyone they are talking only about the radicals

    • Rajano

      “Accusing people of orchestrating the deaths of 3,000 people is a serious matter.”

      Yes, it is a serious matter – but this does not mean it should not be investigated.

      “It is NOT certain that they “let it happen.” That’s absurd. It sounds like something you’d hear at a Ron Paul hootenanny or on the Alex Jones show…” Do you have any argument other than an ad hominem attack? Or poisoning of the well?

Zaid Jilani: “Right Wingers Taunting Muslims with Images of Pork Are Bringing Back an Anti-Semitic Trope”

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The frequency of using pork/pigs as a form of attacking Muslims and Islam is not only ignorant but harkens back to what Zaid Jilani writes is an ancient anti-Semitic trope. It should also be noted that during the Inquisition forced pork feeding and pork identity politics were used in harassing and abusing both Muslim and Jewish “conversos.”

AlterNet, By Zaid Jilani

It is sadly common to see grassroots conservatives engage in Islamophobia – it’s one of the most acceptable types of hate for the modern Republican Party. One way of spreading this hate is to mock Muslims with pigs or pork.

Here’s one example, posted on the day of the Paris attacks, highlighted by Bloomberg’s Dave Weigel:

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What these individuals don’t seem to know is that they’re trafficking in what actually began as an ancient anti-semitic trope. Muslims don’t consume pork for the same reason many religious Jews don’t – they follow a version of kosher rules.

For centuries, these kosher rules were used by anti-semitic movements to compare Jews to pigs or to taunt Jews with pork.

In the book Anti-Semitic Stereotypes: A Paradigm of Otherness in English Popular Culture, 1660-1830, the author notes that English schoolboys would taunt Jews with a chant, “Get a bit of pork/Stick it on a fork/And give it to a Jew boy, a Jew.”…

Continue Reading…

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    • George Carty

      I would say there were also similarities between Islamophobia and anti-Catholicism, such as the “they’re outbreeding us” trope, and the notion that the religion is fundamentally incompatible with Enlightenment values.

    • Reynardine

      Praise the Lard!

    • downwithpants

      Mmmm heavenly bacon you can really taste the blasphemy.

    • Hate_the_haterz

      I don’t know what all the fuss is about. These hate mongers are just taking pictures of their relatives. Let them enjoy their family photos. Although it is a bit morbid that their killing, cooking and eating said relatives, and possibly throwing their remains at Muslims and/ or Mosques. But hey, hate rots the mind.

    • Capt. JB Hennessy

      We could retaliate against the Republicans by posting images of “Freedom Fries”.

    • Banter

      I’m not sure, i’ve read about it on muslim run media sites.

    • cmyfe .

      They like pork so much…

    • Reynardine

      In fact, my father, who was already almost fifty when I was born, recalled that when he was a student in Brooklyn, a ham sandwich order used to be called back to the kitchen as, “Douse the lights and chase the rabbi!”

    • mindy1

      Not surprised, most of the time the two are related.

    • GaribaldiOfLoonwatch

      I haven’t but it looks very interesting, I definitely follow Kundnani’s work. Has any media picked it up?

Phony Terrorism Expert “Steven Emerson” Manages To Get All Of England Laughing At Him

StevenEmersonDeception

By Emperor

Islamophobia kills brain cells, just ask Fox News “counterterrorism expert” Steven Emerson.

A regular over the years on Fox News, Steven Emerson, is a well known tool in the American Zionist establishment, beloved by AIPAC and other such lobby/advocacy organizations. Before his most recent idiocy, Emerson’s most famous gaffe was blaming the Oklahoma City bombing on Muslims, saying things like, “Oklahoma City, I can tell you, is probably considered one of the largest centres of Islamic radical activity outside the Middle East.”

Over the years Emerson has made millions from the counter-terrorism/Islamophobia industries (check out: million$$$ of reasons to promote hate and suspicion of Muslims). He has made several movies depicting Muslim Americans as a Fifth Column. His website, The Investigative Project on Terrorism is known to publish articles promoting racism and Islamophobia.

In this context it becomes understandable why Emerson would make a complete and utter ass out of himself by claiming that the English city of Birmingham was “totally Muslim,” and that there are “no-go areas” all over the place. This got all of England (and the world) laughing at him, with the satirical Twitter hashtag #FoxNewsFacts trending:

Steven_Emerson_FoxNewsFacts

Even Prime Minister David Cameron chimed in to describe Emerson as “a complete idiot“; funny how the leader of Britain understands this but the morons in Congress still bring Emerson on for “expert testimony” (i.e. bash Muslims). Emerson, used to living in his own world, may try to spin this as a compliment, after all his previous honors include being described as the “Worst Person in the World.”

Steven Emerson exposes himself as a know-nothing jackass–again:

Also Read:Apology For ‘Muslim Birmingham’ Claim

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    • YOU REBEL SCUM

      Ca-Chiiiing

    • Mifeng86

      You’re giving this guy way too much credit; This guy doesn’t seem like the employable type :P.

    • The greenmantle

      I really do hope its the end of a sad career and he can go and find something useful to do with his life . McDonalds has vacancies I am told .

      Sir David

    • wjshelton

      You notice that Emerson said something to the effect that he’s never made that type of mistake before. Has he forgotten that he blamed (and still blames) the bombing of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City ultimately upon “Islamists”, despite ALL evidence to the contrary, including admissions by those directly responsible for the attack, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols? And that is just one of many of those mistakes that he “hasn’t made” that I am aware of.

    • Iekyll

      Today at 4 o’clock.

    • Trimmercastle42

      when is his new album coming out?

    • The greenmantle

      even better are the grumpy salafists on youtube complaining that music is forbidden .I wonder if they have read the grinch ?

      Sir David

    • Jekyll

      Damn this song brings back some sweet sweet memories from high school high.

    • Jekyll

      Ugg…this crap is still available ?

    • GaribaldiOfLoonwatch

      LOLz…classic. I hadn’t seen that before.

    • GaribaldiOfLoonwatch

      What’s he rap about?

    • Lithium2006

      Murdoch owns CNN? Hmm, I knew he was planning on buying Time Warner (Cnns parent company) but last I heard he lost out on the bid. Nonetheless, the network mind as well be, it’s disgusting how low it has went to pander to the illiterate, backwater tea party crowd, and when they’re not doing that, hours of news time is spent on some celebrity’s death or an affair.

    • Iekyll

      He’s a pretty good rapper though…

    • Hate_the_haterz

      The best part is, you don’t even need any qualifications… Or education… Or brains… In fact, those things may actually get in the way of making money! Err, I mean, “exposing them evil moozlums.”

    • The greenmantle

      but although these are dark days in many ways remember we can be happy its a way of defeating evil Is it not said that a smile is a blessing ?

    • The greenmantle

      only by voting UKIP have they any hope of that

      Sir David

Fox guest: Stop appeasing Muslims and ‘exterminate this scum that is plaguing the planet’

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Sounds like some of the trolls that pop in the comment sections here.

Fox guest: Stop appeasing Muslims and ‘exterminate this scum that is plaguing the planet’

Fox News on Saturday hosted a Marine veteran who argued that countries like the United States and France were too concerned with the civil liberties of Muslims, and that governments should “exterminate” the terrorists that were “plaguing the entire planet.”

Nick Powers, who became a conservative celebrity after he threatened ISIS in a letter last year, told the hosts of Fox & Friends that French law enforcement agencies had been right to act quickly to kill the terrorists who attacked Charlie Hebdo.

“It just makes the thinks of the past 14 years that we’ve spend fighting terrorist groups, and how the rules and regulations and political correctness especially has caused us to be tied up,” he opined. “You know, our hands are tied behind our backs, and we’re fighting an organization that has no regards to human life.”

Fox News host Brian Kilmeade pointed out that many believe that the United States was “better than that.”

“They go an assassinate people on the street, we can’t harshly question people,” Kilmeade declared. “What do you say to people who question us?”

“War is never going to be pretty,” Powers replied. “And anybody who tries to make it pretty is a complete moron. You have to get dirty, you have to exterminate this scum that is plaguing the entire planet.”

Continue reading…

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    • He’s even got googly eyes and a folded hat! I served with guys who folded the brim of their ball-cap like that. They were none of them sane. And googly eyes, well, everypony has seen that.

    • “The page isn’t redirecting properly

      Firefox has detected that the server is redirecting the request for this address in a way that will never complete.”

    • Hate_the_haterz

      Speaking of “bad karma,” How much bad karma are you hindutva fecal fascists getting as a result of your past rioting mob violence, and killing innocent Muslims and other minorities in India?

    • Capt. JB Hennessy

      “Nick Powers, who became a conservative celebrity after he threatened ISIS in a letter last year. . .”

      Hopefully someone can tell me he sent that letter postage due otherwise I won’t stop laughing at him.

    • rookie

      If I had some kind of authority, I would urge all muslims in the US to vote for Robert Spencer.

  • Trimmercastle42

    You can never go wrong with George Takai

Rupert Murdoch Says – All Muslims Must Be Held Responsible for Atrocities Like Paris

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A “proverbial left uppercut”?

Rupert Murdoch Says – All Muslims Must Be Held Responsible for Atrocities Like Paris

Just as people were nodding off and occassionally checking their Twitter feed, media Mogul Rupert Murdoch threw a proverbial left uppercut that woke up many a Twitter user. This is the comment that he posted at 2 am this morning.

In fact, just yesterday evening Guardian journalist Jonathan Freedland posted this excellent article in which he stated that,

“It follows that our responsibility is to thwart that effort. For Muslims, that has meant spelling out that these killers speak only for themselves. Note the speed with which a delegation of 20 imams visited the Charlie Hebdo offices, branding the gunmen “criminals, barbarians, satans” and, crucially, “not Muslims”.

Of course they should not have to do it. The finger-wagging demand that Muslims condemn acts of terror committed by jihadist cultists is odious: it tacitly assumes that Muslims support such horror unless they explicitly say otherwise. The very demand serves to drive a wedge between Muslims and their fellow citizens. (As it happens, Jews have some experience of this feeling: we too are sometimes told we have to condemn this or that action taken by others – and over which we have no control – if our place in polite society is to be secure.)”

Twitter responses to the media mogul’s comments were if anything, gems of their own.

Continue reading…

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    • JAZ Z

      Further, if real ‘Jihad’, ‘struggle or strive’ as recommended in Qur’an and Hadeeth is observed by all human beings (irrespective of Muslim faith), the world will become a Paradise on earth. The ‘Violent only’ version to Jihad is purposefully given by the west and media to refrain non Muslims from getting closer to Islam, the Islamophobia.

    • JAZ Z

      Very correctly said, I appreciate your comprehension.

    • JAZ Z

      Moreover, the west knows ISIS Chief Abu baker Al Baghdadi better than any Muslim. Nobody knew him a year before, until America throned him out of more than a decade dominance of Iraq. How did America feed/nourish such a poisonous personality during their absoluteness?

    • JAZ Z

      Anyway, “Stupid” remains “Stupid” whether he says either “muslim” or “moslim”.

    • JAZ Z

      No Muslim is responsible for any other Muslim’s act. Don’t forget we are in 21st century, not living in 500 BC. For any crime that Government should be held responsible. If not, then what’s the duty of a Government? The perpetrators should be gunned down on the spot, to avoid “False Flag Conspiracy” or “Internal Job”.

    • Reynardine

      Well, some of the Muslim inhabitants of that city have said they’re changing the name of that city to Birming, because ham isn’t allowed.

      (Note: Turkey ham is quite tasty, and can be prepared both kosher and halal, so the name can stay the same)

    • Yausari

      You can find in any website. But it has never been accepted officially because the word conflicts with ‘jihad’. Just buy the book and see its not there.

      Still, let me ask you this. What does it mean? well according to ‘oxford’- “A person involved in a jihad; an Islamic militant.

      “Let me feed your “competent” mind why is the word so misleading then, huh?”

      http://islamicsupremecouncil.org/understanding-islam/legal-rulings/5-jihad-a-misunderstood-concept-from-islam.html?start=9 According to Islam; the word ” jihad” means struggling or striving..

      Jihad is not a violent concept. Jihad is not a declaration of war against other religions. It is worth noting that the Koran specifically refers to Jews and Christians as “people of the book” who should be protected and respected.

      So don’t think you can steal our voices. FYI, you’re evidently more incompetent than I am in this subject.

    • Friend of Bosnia

      And I talk to evil bastards as they deserve.

    • Friend of Bosnia

      Histrory shows that more people have converted to islam than have apostasized from it. And those who have did mostly under coercion, outright force, were prisoners who had no hopes to be freed. An egregious exception is Emir Kusturica but in my eyes that he is an apostate is far less important than his being a traitor to his people and his natikon in times of war, and that is punishable by death even in many Western nations. A great film director he may be but that takes nothing away from being a traitor. And for that he merits my contempt and disdain.

    • Friend of Bosnia

      Don’t you step on my toes you evil idiot. You come here only to infuriate and offend, so get the hell out of here and don’t come back.

    • Friend of Bosnia

      Look who talks.

    • Trimmercastle42

      He’s a “Keyboard” warrior trying to act like a tough guy on the internet to compensate for his lacking baggage in his pants. He’s not here to have a meaningful discussion, he’s like a house fly, he wants to pester and annoy, best to ignore him.

    • cmyfe .

      Seems more like a mole….no?

BBC: Jerusalem’s 800-year-old Indian Hospice

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“It turns out there’s an 800-year-old Punjabi Sufi hospice in Jerusalem, linked to the famous Sufi saint Baba Farid’s visit to the city all those centuries ago. Astonishing stuff — like most people, I had no idea about any of this. The article also mentions Farid’s links to Sikhism and the Guru Granth Sahib. Farid is regarded as the founder of Punjabi Sufism; he was also the direct predecessor of Nizamuddin Auliya.” (h/t: Jai Singh)

BBC,

Around the year 1200, little more than a decade after the armies of Saladin had forced the Crusaders out of the city, an Indian dervish walked into Jerusalem.

Hazrat Farid ud-Din Ganj Shakar (or Baba Farid, as he is better known) belonged to the Chisti order of Sufis, a mystical brotherhood that still flourishes today across India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Later accounts of his life said that he spent his days sweeping the stone floors around al-Aqsa mosque, or fasting in the silence of a cave inside the city walls.

No-one knows how long Baba Farid stayed in the city. But long after he had returned to the Punjab, where he eventually became head of the Chisti order, Indian Muslims passing through Jerusalem on their way to Mecca wanted to pray where he had prayed, to sleep where he had slept. Slowly, a shrine and pilgrim lodge, the Indian Hospice, formed around the memory of Baba Farid.

Baba Farid

More than eight centuries later, that lodge still exists. And although it stands inside Jerusalem’s walls – perhaps the most fiercely contested stretch of ground anywhere in the world – it is still in Indian hands.

The current head of the lodge, 86-year-old Muhammad Munir Ansari, grew up there in the years before World War Two, when Palestine seemed to end just outside the gate.

“All the residents were Indian. I felt as if I was living in India. Whenever we entered the Hospice – Indian state!” he says. “At that time people came by ship. They used to bring food, rice, even their salt. Salt! All from India. As soon as you entered the gate, the smell of Indian food, they were washing their clothes, hanging them here in the courtyard.”

The war cut off the flow of pilgrims and brought an end to the colourful scenes of Munir’s childhood.

Muhammad Munir Ansari as a boy, in about 1936

Sheikh Muhammad Munir Ansari as a boy

The lodge became a leave camp for the Indian Fourth Infantry division, whose soldiers had only just left when the first Arab-Israeli war broke out in 1948. By the time Munir succeeded his father as Sheikh – head of the lodge – in 1952, the building was scarred by shelling and overrun with Palestinian refugees.

But worse was to come.

In 1967, as the Israeli army fought its way into Jerusalem during the Six Day War, the lodge was hit by rockets.

“The ’67 war started on Monday 5 June. On the second day we found them at our entrance. By night, 50 or 60 soldiers inside the gate – Jordanians. They were in terrible condition, asking for water,” he says.

“That was on Tuesday. On Wednesday morning we went out to find not a single soldier. They ran away, leaving their uniforms and even their weapons. That day the Israelis began to prepare for entering the Old City. So these weapons that had been abandoned, some local people took these guns and started shooting. And we paid the price.”

As the Israelis bombarded the hospice, Sheikh Munir herded his family from room to room. The shells found them near the shrine of Baba Farid. The roof collapsed. Sheikh Munir, his hands and face badly burned, pulled the survivors from the rubble. His mother, his sister, and his two-year-old nephew were dead.

From a hospital in the Old City, Sheikh Munir brought his family back to the ruins. “We came home. Very sadly, I can say. Imagine how the situation was. Most of the rooms were damaged. My hands were burned, my eyes were closed, my hair was burned. It was a miserable situation.”

Miserable or not, there was no question of abandoning the lodge. Its history went back too far – to the days when Saladin was still consolidating his hold on Jerusalem.

Baba Farid arrived in a city that had just returned to Muslim hands after almost a century of Christian rule. The Crusaders, ensconced along the Mediterranean coast, had not gone away, and Saladin understood that if the Muslims were to keep Jerusalem, they would need to match the Crusaders not only on the battlefield but in their zeal for the city.

The Sufis therefore served a useful purpose.

Read the entire article…

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    • Capt. JB Hennessy

      Hopefully they remain awake. All it takes for them to go backwards is just one guy with a smile bearing gifts.

    • Friend of Bosnia

      Yes, they will have to. In this context maybe we can see the recent rapprochement between Serbia and Turkey (there are economic coperation projects, therre were joint military exercises) in a positive light, in the sense that, like it or not, the Turks might restrain the Serbs should they try to get nasty to Bosniaks again. It’s too early to tell. Let’s be optimistic but also watchful.

    • Capt. JB Hennessy

      The Serbs are going to have to get real eventually. The Russians are warming up to the Turks. The Russian South Stream pipeline project that was going to bring plenty of cash to Serbia has found its way to Turkey. And the Turks are solid supporters of Bosnia far more solid the Russian support for Serbia. All Serbia needs now is for someone to tell them that.

    • Friend of Bosnia

      I’ll endorse that.

      OK but now they’re there. The Bosniaks aren’t going away, neither are the Serbs, nor can it be that they live in enmity forever, they will have to find a way to get along. The first step for the Serbs would be to say of the Bosniaks, “All right, they exist.” From that everything else will surely follow.

    • Rajano

      Sufis are very misunderstood in the west, a lot of Americans who know that the word Sufi “has something to do with religion” are completely unaware it is a variety of Islam.

    • Capt. JB Hennessy

      I appreciate the time and effort you took to say that.

      From my research on Bosnia, well actually on the Balkans I realized that it is the Serbs who are “foreigners” to the Balkans. They were originally expelled from Russia into Bulgaria then from all the shenanigans they conducted they were expelled from Bulgaria to what is now Serbia. Secondly from what I understood the reason was also to create a burden of mass refugees on the Ottoman empire.

      The problem with Serbs is they actually don’t understand what they are talking about. They mimic supremacists who tend to be stupid to begin with.

    • Friend of Bosnia

      Aha. yes. As far as I know Bosniaks have always been there in Bosnia even though they became Muslims only on the 16th and 17th centuries. Their name is mentioned in historic documents. Yes, the Greater Serbs try to rewrite history and that’s unacceptable. Who’s to say? Not just Bosniaks, many other people became Muslims. There sure are Bosniaks who are descended from Serbs (even though most are descended from Catholics); very few are descendants of Turks or of Andalusi Muslims who came to the Ottoman Empire after being ethnically cleansed from Spain. Others may be descended from Arabs, Chechens, Hungarians, Macedonians, Bulgarians, Greeks, Albanians who settled in Bosnia. Today that is not relevant at all. A person with South Slavic language and Muslim background is a Bosniak. And that’s that. To say that Bosniaks are Serbs is like saying that Latin Americans are Spanish. Even those who are direct descendants of the first Spaniards to come to the Americas don’t see themselves as Spaniards. Bosniaks are Bosniaks. Just like Native Americans are just that, no matter where their ancestores may have come from.

    • Capt. JB Hennessy

      From what I heard these “protesters” came not only from all over Germany but from other parts of Europe as well.

      I find anyone who alters or changes history to be evil.

      I’ve talked to Serbs and each one that I talked to stated Bosnian Muslims are foreigners. They classify them as immigrants. Yet historically Muslims have been there longer than the Serbs. Serbs were expelled from Bulgaria in the 1800’s. That is similar to what zionists claim that Palestinians are immigrants. And it is similar to White supremacists who claim Europeans were in north America before us Natives.

    • Friend of Bosnia

      Not likely because the proportion of foreigners in Saxony is actually rather small. Thus there can be only a handful of Serbs there. Also I try to make the distinction; most Serbs are not actually evil, they just don’t know any better or are misguided or willfully ignorant. However, as for most of their leadership, if they had had to face the judges at Nurmeberg, it would have taken thedr judges all of 30 seconds to send thzem to the gallows, and deservedly so. The ICTY judges would be very well advised to grow some, but that’s another story. Whether a people can be said to be genocidal or not depends on the proportion that is willing to support genocidal policies. It’s difficult to say without an opinion poll; even so, the most I hear from Serbs on the www is hate speech or downright genocidal. Except for the contributions from the Serb Helsinki Committee. Xenophobia is not an exclusively Serb phenomenon but it was most notorious in the 1990s, and those who suffered because of it will feel the pain forever. And in view of the recent events and of the general feeling of anti-Muslim hostility and hysteria it can’t be ruled out that in the near future there will be pogroms, attempts and even the outlawing and ethnic cleansing of Muslims in Europe.

    • Capt. JB Hennessy

      I’ve been hearing reports that most of the PEGIDA servants in Dresden are actually Serbs.

    • Friend of Bosnia

      Hopefully. Unless several of over 600 mosques destroyed by the Bosnian Serbs.

    • Capt. JB Hennessy

      Hopefully this place still exists and has not been turned into a parking lot.

    • mindy1

      Places like that should be protected and not subject to human idiocy and hate.

UK Counter-Terrorism Law Calls On Citizens To Be On The Look Out For “Toddler Terror”

baby_terrorist_xlarge

By Emperor

I never thought our own Elmer Fudd of the American political class, Rep. Louie Gohmert, would have something in common with those oh so wise and erudite snoots in the British Home Office! But apparently both class of politicians are freaking out, granted in a slightly different way, over — terrorist babies.

“Mamma, dadda, ga ga…where’s my bomb..goo goo?”

The UK’s most recent act of stupidity in regards to the Prevent program to counter terrorism is a newly proposed law, CST 2014, that would hold British educators responsible for the ideologies of their students, and yes, that includes pre-schoolers.

The suggestion, which is part of the Counter-terrorism and Security Bill currently before the U.K. parliament, has sparked a firestorm of outrage — and has sent the satirical #ToddlerTerror trending on Twitter — since it was reported over the weekend by the Telegraph.

The bill would call on school administrators to “make sure that staff have training that gives them the knowledge and confidence to identify children at risk of being drawn into terrorism and challenge extremist ideas which can be used to legitimize terrorism and are shared by terrorist groups.”

“They should know where and how to refer children and young people for further help,” the document said.

This is all being done to promote something called “British values,” which I think is a great idea but what is it exactly? Is the UK government going to start force feeding babies gin and tonic in their baby bottles?

“We are not expecting teachers and nursery workers to carry out unnecessary intrusion into family life, but we do expect them to take action when they observe behavior of concern. It is important that children are taught fundamental British values in an age-appropriate way,” a government spokesperson told the Daily Mail. (Emphasis mine)

This reminds me of that time Rep. Gohmert had the terrorist baby meltdown:

Infants are sometimes known to be terrors in their own right, but this diabolical plan involves terrorists sending pregnant women into the US to birth their America-hating spawns. The mothers and their kids then return home where, the congressman says, the children “could be raised and coddled as future terrorists”— and later, “twenty, thirty years down the road, they can be sent in to help destroy our way of life.”

In all seriousness, the proposed CTS 2014 law is highly problematic as it opens up the possibility of taking away people’s children. The rights organization CAGE “has released an advisory document that attempts to educate public bodies on the problems inherent within the draft legislation,”

Key to the draft Bill is the ability for the government to use multiple public bodies to make decisions about the lives of everyday people, based on spurious grounds. Of key concern is where Prevent officials cannot gain consent of parents, they will have the ability to use health and social services to potentially remove children from their homes in order to implement their strategies of ‘deradicalisation’.

This CTS bill is utter rubbish and a joke just as the UK’s whole Prevent policy has been from the start.

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    • Lithium2006

      Ugh, I hate this tight jeans/tight pants trend. Thankfully it’s on its way out. Sadly, can’t say the same about Alcohol.

    • Capt. JB Hennessy

      Yet he is viewed by the media as a champion for justice. Go figure.

    • eslaporte

      It’s thinks it is …

    • Tighe McCandless

      It’s interesting how you reflexively presume that merely because I’m critical of the notion that ‘Western values’ are little more than a smoke screen to justify bigotry by some, you make the assumption that I must be in favor of the dissolution between church and state. I am not; I have contempt for theocracy the same as many other forms of -ocracy in general. But that’s rather irrelevant. Never mind the fact that the Reformation only occurred in several parts of Europe – and if we’re talking Christianity collectively, it never really hit places like Russia (where the tsar was still using caesaropapism as a ruling tool up until the Romanovs got offed) or other Orthodox nations.

      Nor was it really applicable to nations that were Catholicism was still alive and well; the Counter-Reformation was a thing. This doesn’t even begin to touch on the complex history of the Catholic Church with many nations, such as Mexico, that found themselves effectively ruled by many clergymen or gave them special privileges. Even the Protestants themselves had to grapple with this notion. After all, many settlements thought that those who were actively partook in church gatherings should lead. You correctly point out it was a long birthing process but the difference between you and myself seems to be in the presumption that Islam could not undergo something similar. Never mind the fact that it is not monolithic (come to think of it, just like Western values), but it too has changed throughout the centuries to meet local conditions.

      The West has had much of the world’s wealth throughout world history. It can afford to have liberal interpretations of its theology in the form we have today. If one is to use examples from the Muslim world, see the lavish parties that Saudi princes throw; alcohol flows freely, as do drugs, and women are freely present. It goes without saying that poverty breeds conservative interpretations of religious thought; even though the poor of the United States might, comparatively speaking, be better off than many of their brethren in other countries, it’s still noticeable even in places like this country. Stability is comforting, even if the ideas that might be found therein might be awful to some. Many Muslim nations are poor – the wealth they have going into the pockets of their local tinpot military man or spoiled monarchs.

      But I obviously support stoning gay people or female genital mutilation for having the temerity to suggest that the West might be hypocritical occasionally. You got me.

    • GaribaldiOfLoonwatch

      I never thought sophisticated analysis would be so daftly ignored for simpelton-ism… Why do you attempt to muddle that as a “justification”??? Is it so hard to understand why they would be targeted? Whether you like it or not, CH was seen as part of a war on Islam/Muslims by these militants…as part of the PR wing of an arrogant conspiracy to destroy Islam and butcher Muslims…they knew this threat themselves and if you want a connection, how about the fact that CH would still be alive if it weren’t for Bush’s war:

      Paris Terrorist was Radicalized by Bush’s Iraq War, Abu Ghraib Torture

      http://www.juancole.com/2015/01/terrorist-radicalized-torture.html

    • GaribaldiOfLoonwatch

      Immigrants brought to Europe came almost exclusively for economic reasons and were drawn and used for that purpose, you know very well that European nations face a demographic crises and for their economies to grow they brought immigrants. Once they came they were told you are not wanted anymore, you are not one of us–unless you can kick a soccer ball well.

      An honest look into these perpetrators background and history should be done in a scientific way, just as Robert Pape, Sageman, and Atran have done. The evidence is there and socio-political reasons trump ideological simplistic causation that is forwarded by ideologues of the counter-terrorism establishment.

    • GaribaldiOfLoonwatch

      I can understand your perspective, since youseem to be speaking from experience. The measures however put in place to detect ‘radicalisation’ have been shown to be often quite arbitrary, at least when it comes to Muslims. Arun Kundnani’s work “The Muslims are coming!” details this very well and he also provides some harrowing cases of harassment as result by British authorities.

    • Capt. JB Hennessy

      Dershowitz is already designing an enhanced interrogation program for toddlers.

    • The greenmantle

      As I said its not perfect BUT I can speak from Personal experiance not second hand but me that we were not just looking at Islam extreamism where I worked

      Sir David

    • eslaporte

      I have read reports of this type of discriminatory “counter-terrorism” nonsense going on in the Netherlands (the place where this crap comes from) of turning in Muslim youth who appear to be “radicalized.” The serious problem with this is that it does not involve violent conduct or engaging in violence, but ideas and expressions. “Radicalization” has now been extended into religious and social conduct of Muslims that has nothing to do with violence, but is just discriminatory.

      We also have the “personal disruption measures” in the Netherlands, which involves the police following and harassing a “terrorist suspect” at all hours of the day and night, in public and at home, usually with harassing telephone calls. This also includes harassing children of the “terrorist suspect.”

      I think it serves to further demonize Muslims to the public as “a special danger” that others do not present. It works to Other Muslims and their communities and exclude them from the mainstream. Much of Dutch “counter-terrorism” is driven by fear of Muslims and foreigners, and this type of discriminatory nonsense serves only to stoke fear of Muslims in the larger community. There is a human rights argument that must be made here with these policies in that they are discriminatory in that they treat members of a religious faith differently.

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