Holy Crap! Obama Says He's Planning to Take America's Nuclear Launch Codes With Him When He Leaves Office

This sounds like the plot of a latter-day Seven Days in May to me:

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—President Obama is planning to take the nation’s nuclear launch codes with him when he leaves office, in January of 2017, the President announced in a nationally televised address on Thursday. 

The President was quick to acknowledge that his decision to hold on to the launch codes was unorthodox, but said that he was doing it “to reassure the American people.”

“In recent weeks, there has been a rising level of alarm about who might have access to these codes going forward,” Obama said. “As a result, it occurred to me that the safest thing would be if I just held on to them for the foreseeable future.” ...

Sorry, Barry, but that unconstitutional manoeuvre is the opposite of reassuring.

Trump Vodka a Big Hit--But Only in Israel

L'chaim!

The Importance of Putting Quran 5:32 Back in Context

This letter appears in today's National Post:

True Muslims

Re: ‘Allah Told Me To Come Here And Kill People,’ March 16. 

Ayanle Hassan Ali is alleged to have stabbed two members of the Canadian Armed Forces in a federal building, claiming, “Allah told me to do this.” Funny because as a practising Muslim, here’s what I’ve constantly heard Allah has been telling us: “Loyalty to your country is part of faith.” And “Whosoever killed a person – unless it be for killing a person …  it is as if he had killed all of mankind.” The only difference is what I’ve been told is authentic, but what Ayanle has been told is perhaps only mental instability. 

Mirza Masroor Ahmad, caliph of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at, perfectly said it when he met Justin Trudeau in 2012, “Islam is an open religion which teaches mutual respect and so if you are a true Muslim you should be willing and able to integrate in any part of the world.”
Jari Qudrat, Toronto.

 Here's the letter I sent in response:

After learning that Ayanle Hassan Ali had attacked Canadian soldiers because, as he understood it, Allah had commanded him to do so, I knew it was only a matter of time before someone trotted out those lines in the Quran about how killing one person is like killing the entire world. I was also fairly certain that whoever mentioned this verse--arguably the Quaranic verse most often most quoted in the West--would extract it from its context, jettisoning the words that come before and after it, thereby distorting the words as they appear in the holy text.

 

Letter-writer Jari Qudrat, "a practising Muslim," shows us how it's done. For, in citing the line "Whosever killed a person--unless it be for killing a person...it is as if he had killed all of mankind," he neglects to mention that A) these words have their origin in the Jewish Mishnah and B) the full verse (5:32) reads as follows:

On that account: We ordained for the Children of Israel that if any one slew a person - unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land - it would be as if he slew the whole people: and if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people. Then although there came to them Our apostles with clear signs, yet, even after that, many of them continued to commit excesses in the land.

In other words, Allah is explaining that the Jews, and only the Jews, are supposed to avoid the killing. Muslims, on the other hand, not so much. And, as if to underscore this difference, in the very next verse (5:33) Allah sets out the heavy-duty penalties for non-believers who dare to oppose Islam:

The punishment of those who wage war against God and His Apostle, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter.

Now, there are plenty of Muslims who heed the line as Qudrat has quoted--or rather, misquoted--it. At the same time, however, it is worrisome when peaceful Muslims claim that their quotation fragment is the "authentic teaching" and that the violent actions of other "practising Muslims," including Ayanle Hassan Ali, are entirely at odds with Islamic doctrine. It is far better, I think, to quote the lines correctly--and disavow them--than to pretend they say something that, obviously, they do not.

Malarkey Du Jour: The UN's "Happiness Index"

This sounds like a bunch of nonsense/a semi-covert plea for socialism to me:

This year, for the first time, the World Happiness Report gives a special role to the measurement and consequences of inequality in the distribution of well-being among countries and regions. In previous reports the editors have argued that happiness provides a better indicator of human welfare than do income, poverty, education, health and good government measured separately. In a parallel way, they now argue that the inequality of well-being provides a broader measure of inequality. They find that people are happier living in societies where there is less inequality of happiness. They also find that happiness inequality has increased significantly (comparing 2012-2015 to 2005-2011) in most countries, in almost all global regions, and for the population of the world as a whole.

 "Happiness inequality"--give me a flipping break, 'kay?

And, oh yeah, if Denmark is so flipping "happy," why is its rate of suicide twice that of the supposedly far less "happy" U.S.?

Can't Help Mocking the "Shocking"

Dr. Mohammad Iqbal Al-Nadvi, the head of the Canadian Council of Imams, thinks it's "shocking"--yes, shocking!--that a 27-year old Muslim who stabbed some Canadian soldiers would say that "Allah told me to this."

Why is he so shocked?

He claims it's because the stabber "put responsibility on religious reasons" and that that's "a disturbing notion."

You can see where he's coming from. After all, the idea that a Muslim would use a religious pretext to kill non-Muslims, especially those in the military, is...about as "shocking" as "dog bites man."

So after issuing the requisite disclaimers about how Muslims denounce such actions and calling for them to assume "shared responsibility" for national security, the imam gets down to the nitty-gritty--his fears that non-Muslims will lash out as infidels are wont to do after such "shocking" incidents:

Al-Nadvi conceded that this attack may give rise to Islamophobia, but thus far, he said he’s felt that both media and politicians talking about the events at the recruitment centre have not played upon fear. 

“The response was very balanced and very focused,” he said. “I hope this kind of thing will continue. There is still a factor of Islamophobia that may be triggered by these incidents.”

What a joke!

By now it should be clear to all that "Islamophobia" is a phantom and phony fear, a self-defense mechanism that is always trotted out in the wake of these attacks.

The "Islamophobiaphobia" of our authorities, on the other hand, is genuine and rampant--and terrifying.

Update: Invaluable anti-jihad blogger Pointe de Bascule had this to say about Al-Nadvi, one of the Islamic authorities cited in the NCCM's anti-radicalization booklet (which was compiled with the RCMP's go-ahead but later denounced):

MUHAMMAD IQBAL MASOOD NADVI: An advisor to the NCCM close to the Jamaat-e-Islami

His name is spelled Nadawi in the NCCM booklet. Iqbal Nadvi was born in India in the late forties (the Calgary Herald stated that Nadvi was 54 on October 31, 2003) and went to study in Saudi Arabia in the seventies. After obtaining his Ph.D. in Islamic Law at the Ummal Qura University (Makkah) in 1991, he took a teaching position in Riyadh. He moved to Canada later in the nineties and became the Imam of the Islamic Centre managed by the Muslim Association of Calgary in 1998. He moved to Ontario in 2004 and became Director of the Al-Falah Islamic School in Oakville. This school is located at ICNA-Canada’s head office. In June 2013, Nadvi was elected Chairman of the Canadian Council of Imams for a 3-year mandate. 

On March 14, 2014, Iqbal Nadvi was back in India to give the Friday sermon at a mosque controlled by the Jamaat-e-Islami in New Delhi. The video of the event is available on JEI India’s YouTube channel (also Archive.Today). 

The JEI was founded by Syed Maududi (1903-1979) in 1941 in India. After the partition of India, Maududi moved to Pakistan. The JEI is a close ally of the Muslim Brotherhood and it pursues the same totalitarian objectives, mostly in Southeast Asia (Pakistan, India and Bangladesh). It is also active in countries where its supporters have migrated. 

In his book Jihad in Islam, Syed Maududi clearly summarized the mission of Islam, as understood by his supporters whether they are in Pakistan, India, or in Canada:

Islam wishes to destroy all States and Governments anywhere on the face of the earth which are opposed to the ideology and programme of Islam regardless of the country or the Nation that rules it. […] Islam requires the earth – not just a portion – but the whole planet. ...

Despite (or is it because of?) his ties to a radical strain of Islam, Al-Nadvi rose through the ranks to become the head of the Canadian Council of Imams.

I could say that I find that "shocking," but the truth is that I do not.

Update: Ayanle Hassan Ali, accused in military centre stabbing, once worked at Pearson airport

Trudeau Government Greenlights Resumption of UNRWA Funding

We knew it was coming. Now here it is:

UNITED NATIONS –  The United Nations says Canada will resume contributing funds to the U.N. relief agency that aids and protects Palestinian refugees. 

A statement Wednesday says Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is pleased that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government decided to restart the funding for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency. 

Canada discontinued the funding in 2010 during the administration of Conservative leader Stephen Harper amid criticism that the agency funded schools that had become hotbeds of anti-Israeli extremism. 

Ban met on Wednesday with Trudeau, who took office in November and has vowed more engagement in world affairs. 

UNRWA marked its 65th anniversary last year. Ban said at the time that the agency was never meant to exist for 65 years but "exists because of political failure."

Yes, it exists because of the Palestinians' failure--so far--to replace Israel with Palestine. Thanks to Sunny Boy Trudeau, though, Hamas-abetting UNRWA will have that much more moolah on hand in pursuit of that goal.

Mark Steyn On This Morning's John Oakley Show

You can hear it here.

Question: Why Is UJA Federation of Greater Toronto Sponsoring the "One Night Only" Appearance of Israel-Hater Tony Kushner?

I don't care that Kushner is coming here. I don't care if people are willing to fork over their hard-earned shekels to listen to this acclaimed playwright/vocal Israel-disparager. What I care about is the fact the UJA Federation, the organization that sponsors Toronto's annual Walk With Israel, is giving its imprimatur to this event (see the full page ad featuring the Federation logo on the back page of this week's paper version of the CJN.)

In my book (or play), that's frikkin' nuts.

Update: The event is mentioned on the Federation's calendar of events (see May 9).

Update: Part of the Federation's "Mission" is  to "promote Jewish/Israel advocacy." It's hard to see how lending its imprimatur to a Tony Kushner appearance does that.

Update: CAMERA has a fairly extensive selection of Kushner's anti-Israel spewage:

In Kushner's Own Words

 

1) Kushner routinely charges Israel with ethnic cleansing and dispossession of Palestinians.

 ♦ The founding of the state of Israel required the dispossession of an indigenous group, the Palestinians.
—Wrestling With Zion (Grove Press, 2003) Edited by Tony Kushner and Alisa Solomon; Introduction by the editors, p.2

 

♦ [Israel was] founded in a program that, if you really want to be blunt about it, was ethnic cleansing, and that today is behaving abominably towards the Palestinian people.
—Yale Israel Review (winter 2005)

 

(Although Kushner espouses affection for Israel in the same interview, his charge of "ethnic cleansing" is defamatory and baseless. )

2) Kushner has said repeatedly that the creation of the state of Israel was a mistake and should not have happened.

♦ I've never been a Zionist. I have a problem with the idea of a Jewish state. It would have been better if it never happened.
—The New York Sun reporting Kushner comments made at a conference in NY(10/14/02)

♦ Kushner: Establishing a state means fucking people over. However, I think that people in the late 20^th century or early 21^st century – having seen the Holocaust, having seen the 20^th century and all of its horrors – cannot be complacent in the face of that.

Ha'aretz reporter: But you are saying that the very creation of Israel as a Jewish state was not a good idea.

Kushner: I think it was a mistake.
—Ha'aretz (4/7/04)

♦ Zionism aimed as the establishment of a national identity is predicated on a reading of Jewish history and an interpretation of the meaning of Jewish history I don't share. Insofar as Zionism is an idea that the solution to the suffering of the Jewish people was the establishment of a Jewish nation, I think it is not the right answer.
—Ha'aretz (4/7/04)

♦ “I am not a Zionist, in case you haven't noticed.” Kushner cited “the shame of American Jews” for failing to denounce Israel.
—Chicago Tribune (4/10/02)

3) Kushner goes so far as to blame “the existence of Israel” for world “peril” generally:

♦ The existence of the state of Israel, because of the terrible way that the Palestinian people have been treated, is now in great peril and the world is in peril as a consequence of it. And we have now the spectacle of Jewish people all over the world, who in the past century had an absolutely magnificent tradition of rejecting barbarism and right-wing murderous politics, rallying behind Ariel Sharon who 10 years ago would never have been acceptable anywhere.
—In These Times interview (3/4/02)

4) Kushner emphatically rejects the notion that Israel represents him in any way.

♦ Israel is a foreign country. I am no more represented by Israel than I am by Italy.
—Ha'aretz (4/7/04)

♦ I have huge problems with Zionism. As a Jew, I have always said the promised land seems to me to be the Constitution of the United States of America.
—In These Times (3/4/02)

5) Kushner advocates radical policies toward Israel, contrary to the views of the mainstream in Israel and America.

♦ The Israeli-built security wall should come down, the homeland for the Palestinians should be built up, with a strictly enforced peace, not enforced by the Israel Defense Forces, but by the United Nations.
—Baltimore Jewish Times (6/4/04)

(While many Jews may support the creation of a Palestinian state under circumstances that assure the safety of Israel, few oppose construction of the protective security barrier and most reject inviting the U.N., known for its entrenched pro-Arab policies, to enforce “peace.”)

6) Kushner routinely levels incendiary and baseless accusations against Israel and its leaders.

♦ People change. I believe deeply in the possibility of people changing. But Bush? Sharon? Nine months have passed [since September 11, 2001] and look at the mess the feckless blood-spattered plutocrat and the unindicted war criminal have wrought in the Middle East....

I deplore the brutal and illegal tactics of the Israeli Defence Forces in the occupied territories. I deplore the occupation, the forced evacuations, the settlements, the refugee camps, the whole shameful history of the dreadful suffering of the Palestinian people; Jews, of all people, with our history of suffering, should refuse to treat our fellow human beings like that.
—London Times (5/7/02)

♦ Playwright Tony Kushner said Israel is involved in ‘a deliberate destruction of Palestinian culture and a systematic attempt to destroy the identity of the Palestinian people.’
—New York Sun (10/4/02)

♦ ...the savagery of Operation Defensive Shield... [launched by Israel in response to terrorist attacks in 2002].

One hardly justifies suicide bombings by pointing out that there's also no "equivalence" between a dispossessed people resisting a thirty-six-year-old occupation and a massive military machine enforcing that repressive occupation, nor by noting that IDF attacks on civilians are themselves sometimes far less than careful or innocent. (Take the official policy of house demolitions, for example. Or Chris Hedges's report in Harper's magazine that he observed soldiers taunt Palestinian boys into throwing stones and then open fire.) [see CAMERA's refutation of the fallacious Hedges account]

To avoid facing up to such atrocity, to sustain the refusal of any Israeli share in culpability, Zionism has produced a long, shameful, and debilitating history of denial...
—Wrestling with Zion – Introduction p.5

7) Kushner's ambivalence about Israel, preoccupation with his own feelings and lack of historical awareness is apparent in a typically rambling passage written as an accompanying essay for the release of a CD by the Klezmatics entitled “Possessed.”

I want the State of Israel to exist (since it does anyway) and I want the cave of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs honored and I want to shokl with Jews at the Wailing Wall and at the same time (and I'm afraid this won't help sales of your CD) I think the founding of the State of Israel was for the Jewish people a historical, moral, political calamity. Contemplating the possible destruction of Israel (civil war?) I feel at times if I could ever kill for a nationalist cause, I might kill for that one but at the same time I wish modern Israel hadn't been born; I am a diasporan Jew, not a Zionist; and I say this feeling that Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, is, its Zionist agenda and homophobia notwithstanding, Jewish history's best most eloquent single answer to Hitler and the Holocaust; and is so because it is in Jerusalem but I wish Jerusalem was an international city under a U.N. protectorate; and I wish the Museum of the Holocaust in Washington was a Museum of the Jewish-American Experience instead, with a holocaust wing, and I wish it stood on the Mall alongside museums devoted to the sufferings and triumphs of other ethnic-American groups.

I don't think Kushner is a bad person. However, he is one of those squishy "progressives" whose Israel-hate serves the eliminationist agenda, with is evil. And no way does he deserve the kavod he's getting via Federation's sponsorship.

Update: Kushner sits on the Jewish Voice for Peace advisory board along with some other infamous Israel-despisers (including Judith Butler, Noam Chomsky and Naomi Klein).

A Story No One Seems to Be Covering: Publisher of Arab Newspaper In Windsor, Ont. Who Called For Violent Jihad Against Israel Also Taught "Life Skills" to Syrian Refugees

In journalism school back in the day, that's what they called "burying the lede" (which I have now excavated--in bolds):

WINDSOR – A local publisher of an Arabic language newspaper has been suspended on unpaid leave from the Windsor multicultural council for allegedly calling for violent jihad against Israel. 

The issue was brought to light by B’nai Brith Canada, which received a tip on its anti-hate hotline about Mohamad Hisham Khalifeh, founder and publisher of the Al Forqan newspaper. 

Windsor police have also launched an investigation. 

Khalifeh was working as a life skills coach with newly arrived immigrants, including Syrian refugees. 

Kathleen Thomas, executive director of the Multicultural Council of Windsor and Essex County, said Khalifeh was suspended once the charges appeared in local media. “We immediately took action and placed the individual under unpaid investigative suspension, until we conduct an investigation into the matter,” she said. 

Khalifeh was nearing the end of a three-month contract as a life skills worker. Asked if he was associated with the council prior to the hiring, Thomas said “not as an employee.”

 

B’nai Brith has called for improved vetting of people working with newly arrived immigrants. ...

Read my lips: it's never going to happen. Not in a Trudeaupian Canada lost in the comforting but deadly fog of multiculi delusion.

What's At Stake In Safeguarding an "Undivided Jerusalem"

As Daniel Johnson sees it, what's at stake is nothing less than the survival of Western civilization (my bolds):

Jerusalem, as the prophet’s words remind us, has been through more vicissitudes than any other city on earth. The modern State of Israel was right to insist that undivided Jerusalem must be its capital, but in coming to the widow’s rescue and making her a bride again, Israel has focused the world’s attention upon itself — not to mention the insane jealousy of the other suitors. The Palestinians and their supporters won’t accept the status quo, however fairly Israel administers it, because what is really at stake here is much more than a holy city: it is the symbol of our Judaeo-Christian civilisation. The loss of Israel’s control over Jerusalem would signify the impending collapse, not just of the Jewish state but of that civilisation. Why? Not for reasons of political theology, but because Jerusalem, undivided and open to those of all religions and none, is a bastion of the free world. Israel, at once the most ancient and the most modern nation state, has become the front line of Western civilisation, whether or not the West chooses to acknowledge that fact.

The West declines to acknowledge that fact, and is therefore in decline. It also declines to acknowledge what's behind the Muslims' desire to end the Jews' sovereignty over Israel--the fact that, according to Islamic doctrine, once a piece of land has been conquered for Allah, there is no going back.

Period.

End of story.

"Allah Wants Me to Kill People"--Isn't That In the Quran?

The bearded perp who walked into a Canadian military building and started stabbing people may or may not be out of his mind. Toronto's police chief, however, wants us all to chill re the attack because the attacker doesn't seem to be taking his marching orders from one of the many groups waging holy war in our time. Also because it's really crucial that we not succumb, in the chief's words, to any of that "Islamophobia nonsense."

Yeah, under the circumstance, that would be awful.

Anyhoo, despite the assurances of our Islamophobiaphobic top cop, I happen to know that, wackjob or not, the knifer's words were not out of line with the Quran's instructions. In fact, "Allah wants me to kill people," could well be the motto of anyone waging jihad.

Here's how the Religion of Peace website unpacks it:

The Quran contains at least 109 verses that call Muslims to war with nonbelievers for the sake of Islamic rule. Some are quite graphic, with commands to chop off heads and fingers and kill infidels wherever they may be hiding. Muslims who do not join the fight are called 'hypocrites' and warned that Allah will send them to Hell if they do not join the slaughter. 

Unlike nearly all of the Old Testament verses of violence, the verses of violence in the Quran are mostly open-ended, meaning that they are not restrained by historical context contained in the surrounding text (although many Muslims choose to think of them that way). They are part of the eternal, unchanging word of Allah, and just as relevant or subject to interpretation as anything else in the Quran.  

The context of violent passages is more ambiguous than might be expected of a perfect book from a loving God. Most contemporary Muslims exercise a personal choice to interpret their holy book's call to arms according to their own moral preconceptions about justifiable violence. Their apologists cater to these preferences with tenuous arguments that gloss over historical fact and generally do not stand up to scrutiny. Still, it is important to note that the problem is not bad people, but bad ideology. 

Unfortunately, there are very few verses of tolerance and peace to balance out the many that call for nonbelievers to be fought and subdued until they either accept humiliation, convert to Islam, or are killed. Muhammad's own martial legacy, along with the remarkable stress on violence found in the Quran, have produced a trail of blood and tears across world history.

Update: The Globe and Mail offers us this hair-splitting explanation:

In cases like this, police and prosecutors are finding that religious motivations and a precarious mental state can mix in the minds of the same suspects. This creates questions about motivation and culpability, and whether crimes can truly be considered terrorism. 

“I think there’s a lot of assumptions made that people who are mentally ill can’t also be radicalized, but people can experience both. That link isn’t mutually exclusive,” said Amarnath Amarasingam, a terrorism researcher at the University of Waterloo. “The question is,” he added, “where do you place the emphasis?”

Mr. Ali is alleged to have claimed that he received direction from God. But no religiously literal Muslim claims such a thing. According to the Koran, even the Prophet Mohammed was never spoken to directly by God. 

“Conservative Muslims talk to God. God doesn’t talk back,” Dr. Amarasingam explained. “To say, ‘Allah told me to do this,’ is quite a weird way to word the inspiration.” 

Weird? Maybe. But I'm pretty sure that the dude who's running ISIS thinks his orders come directly from Allah, even if he wouldn't word it that way.

Update: Here are the ISIS caliph's very own words:

Indeed, all praise is due to Allah. We praise Him, seek His aid, and ask for His forgiveness.  

We seek refuge with Allah from the evils of our souls and the wickedness of our deeds. 

Whomsoever Allah guides, then none can misguide him; and whomsoever Allah leaves astray, then none can guide him. I testify that there is no god but Allah alone, who has no partner, and I testify that Muhammad (may the blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) is His slave and messenger. As for what follows:  

Allah (the Exalted) said, {Say, “Do you await for us except one of the two good ends while we await for you that Allah will afflict you with punishment from Himself or at our hands? So wait; indeed we, along with you, are waiting”} [At-Tawbah: 52].

Pace the Globe and Mail's "terrorism researcher," Allah sounds pretty chatty to me.