Freethought Nation

In my recently published Holy Warriors: Islam and the Demise of Classical Civilization, I have argued in detail that Islam, far from being a force for enlightenment in the so-called Dark Age, was actually responsible for the destruction of the literate and urban civilization that we now call Classical; and that, if anything, it was Islam that caused Europe’s descent into backwardness during the Middle Ages. In the same place I have argued in detail that the Islamic Golden Age of the late seventh to the mid-tenth centuries, during which the world of Islam is supposed to have basked in the light of science and learning, is a complete myth, and that no such epoch ever existed. The evidence for this is archaeological.

Until the nineteenth and twentieth centuries scholars were compelled to rely entirely on written sources for their knowledge of the ancient and medieval worlds. The competent historian of course always had the critical faculty with which to differentiate between fact and fable, between propaganda and honest reporting. There was also, from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a more sophisticated form of textual criticism. Yet no matter how discerning the scholar, in the end all he had to work with was the written word. But this all began to change in the nineteenth century. From then on, scholars had something independent with which to check the claims of the chroniclers and annalists of old: the science of archaeology....

Anti-Islam party makes major gains

The anti-Islam party of far-right politician Geert Wilders has made major gains in local elections held in the Netherlands. The party took part in two cities and has become the largest party in Almere and the second largest in The Hague.

The Freedom Party has taken around 20 percent of the vote in these cities. Geert Wilders told Dutch TV that it was fantastic day for his party.

"This is a springboard for the vote on June 9," said Wilders referring to the forthcoming national elections.

An opinion poll held at the same time as the local vote showed that Wilders' Freedom Party had the most support in the Netherlands and would be the biggest party nationally should a general election be held now, another poll put them as the third biggest party just a few seats behind the main established political parties.

Votes were cast in almost four hundred districts altogether. Turnout was 56 percent, which meant that some 7 million people voted.

The Christian Democrat CDA from caretaker prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende and the Labour Party of Wouter Bos were the biggest losers. The coalition government combining these two parties, plus the much smaller Christian Union, collapsed just two weeks ago over the question of extending the Dutch military mission in Afghanistan - it seems voters have lost much of their faith in these parties following the break.

Other parties who did well in the local elections were the centre-right D66 and the left-wing Green Left party, notably both parties have been vocal in their opposition to Geert Wilders Freedom Party.

"Harvard Goes Halal"

"With $800 billion already in Shariah assets — and $1 trillion to $2 trillion in Arab petrodollars annually looking for an investment home — the potential for billions being siphoned off for terrorism is real."

http://www.investors.com/editorial/edit ... 1200915489

GAFFNEY: Treasury submits to Shariah

"The U.S. Treasury Department is submitting to Shariah - the seditious religio-political-legal code authoritative Islam seeks to impose worldwide under a global theocracy.

As reported in this space last week, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Robert Kimmitt set the stage with his recent visit to Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich Persian Gulf states. His stated purpose was to promote the recycling of petrodollars in the form of foreign investment here.

Evidently, the price demanded by his hosts is that the U.S. government get with the Islamist financial program. While in Riyadh, Mr. Kimmitt announced: "The U.S. government is currently studying the salient features of Islamic banking to ascertain how far it could be useful in fighting the ongoing world economic crisis."

"Islamic banking" is a euphemism for a practice better known as "Shariah-Compliant Finance (SFC)." And it turns out that this week the Treasury will be taking officials from various federal agencies literally to school on SFC.

The department is hosting a half-day course entitled "Islamic Finance 101" on Thursday at its headquarters building. Treasury's self-described "seminar for the policy community" is co-sponsored with the leading academic promoters of Shariah and SCF in the United States: Harvard University Law School's Project on Islamic Finance. At the very least, the U.S. government evidently hopes to emulate Harvard's success in securing immense amounts of Wahhabi money in exchange for conforming to the Islamists' agenda. Like Harvard, Treasury seems utterly disinterested in what Shariah actually is, and portends.

Unfortunately, such submission - the literal meaning of "Islam" - is not likely to remain confined long to the Treasury or its sister agencies. Thanks to the extraordinary authority conferred on Treasury since September, backed by the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), the department is now in a position to impose its embrace of Shariah on the U.S. financial sector. The nationalization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Treasury's purchase of - at last count - 17 banks and the ability to provide, or withhold, funds from its new slush-fund can translate into unprecedented coercive power....

... After all, the object of Shariah is the supplanting of our government and Constitution, through violent means if possible and, until then, through stealthy ones. Islamists, having secured footholds via their parallel societies, inevitably use those to extend their influence over Muslims who have no more interest in living under authoritative Islam's Shariah than the rest of us do. Inexorably, it becomes the turn of non-Muslims to accommodate themselves to ever more intrusive demands from the Islamists...

It is known as submission, or dhimmitude."

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2008/no ... o-shariah/

The 300 Billion Dollar Bailout of Sharia Finance

canada free press
March 6, 2009

snip

"...But in bailing out Citigroup, the American taxpayer isn’t simply bailing out Prince Alaweed Bin Talal’s bank, who actually increased his stake at the end of 2008 when investors were jumping overboard, or protecting the investment of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. We’re also engaging in a 300 billion dollar plus bailout of Sharia finance. Because Citigroup’s Islamic Banking operation represents the world’s leading of Islamic loans and Sukuk bonds.

Citigroup pioneered the big bank embrace of Sharia finance back in the 90’s. Citigroup co-launched the Dow Jones Sukuk bond index in 2006. Citigroup continues to help bring Sharia finance across the world with its wholly owned subsidiary, the Citi Islamic Investment Bank.

And the terrorist connections aren’t hard to find either. Citi Islamic Investment Bank is overseen by “eminent” Sharia scholars. For example Nazih Hammad, President of Citi Islamic Investment Bank’s Sharia board. Nazih Hammad is a board member of the North American Fiqh Council.

The North American Fiqh Council is another one of the Saudi front groups operating in America, one of whose trustees was Alamoudi, an Al Queda fundraiser. The North American Fiqh Council’s former President, Taha Jaber Al-Alawani, was an unindicted co-conspirator in the case of Islamic Jihad leader, Sami Al Arian. And there was board member Sheikh Muhammad al-Hanooti, who had extensive Hamas ties..."

SNIP

"...Meanwhile the American taxpayer is underwriting the investment of the Saudi Prince and maintaining the number one Sharia finance bank in the world, to the tune of a sum that may exceed a third of a Trillion dollars. That means the US government now officially owns a third of the largest Sharia finance arranger in the world, together with the Saudi royal family. The conjunction of Wahhabism’s quest for global Islamic domination and the US government come together again.

And we’re not done yet. AIG is next on the bailout parade. The American taxpayer will be kicking in another 30 billion for AIG, on top of an earlier 40 billion dollars for a total of 70 billion dollars. Meanwhile the Federal Reserve will kick in another 26 billion, in exchange for a stake in AIG’s foreign life insurance operations, which operate abroad. Naturally AIG is also big into Sharia finance, even fielding Sharia finance offerings domestically.

So not only is every American living today going deep into debt to underwrite the destructive mismanagement of major financial companies such as AIG and Citigroup, but in the process is becoming deeply enmeshed in underwriting and promoting Islamic Banking.

Islamic Banking uses a Sharia board to vet permissible investments. That Sharia board is much the same for Citigroup and AIG. It consists of Saudi or Saudi affiliated “religious scholars” who have to give their okay on financial products that can be sold by a bank. This has obvious political implications.

Ever since the 70’s, Muslims have been employing boycotts as a form of aggression. The more recent blowup over the Mohammed cartoons saw Danish companies being targeted with boycotts as a means of pressuring the Danish government. Under Sharia finance those boycotts can take a much more powerful form than burning down a KFC place. Instead the Sharia board of banks such as Citigroup can bar investments from particular countries and companies. Sharia finance therefore serves as a direct way for banks compliant with Islamic law to participate in Islamic boycotts. With the US government taking a third of Citigroup, and with AIG next on line, American taxpayers will be involved in conducting Islamic boycotts as a tool to pressure the uruly infidel.

That of course isn’t all there is to it, but it’s a destructive beginning. The US government hasn’t just bailed out Wall Street fatcats, but the centers of Islamic finance, rescuing the sizable investments of Saudi Arabia and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. And American taxpayers are now in the position of funding the world’s largest Sharia arranger, as well as the importation of Sharia finance to the United States through AIG.

Lenin used to talk about the capitalists selling him the rope with which he would hang them. He had no clue that we would actually be buying the noose of Sharia Finance with which we’re being hung, and paying through the nose for the privilege...."

Please read the full article

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/9073

Bin Laden: Goal is to bankrupt U.S.

"(CNN) -- The Arabic-language network Al-Jazeera released a full transcript Monday of the most recent videotape from Osama bin Laden in which the head of al Qaeda said his group's goal is to force America into bankruptcy."

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/11/ ... aden.tape/

Study: 3 in 4 U.S. mosques preach anti-West extremism

Secret survey exposes widespread radicalism

An undercover survey of more than 100 mosques and Islamic schools in America has exposed widespread radicalism, including the alarming finding that 3 in 4 Islamic centers are hotbeds of anti-Western extremism, WND has learned [emphasis added].

The Mapping Sharia in America Project, sponsored by the Washington-based Center for Security Policy, has trained former counterintelligence and counterterrorism agents from the FBI, CIA and U.S. military, who are skilled in Arabic and Urdu, to conduct undercover reconnaissance at some 2,300 mosques and Islamic centers and schools across the country.

"So far of 100 mapped, 75 should be on a watchlist," an official familiar with the project said [emphasis added].

Many of the Islamic centers are operating under the auspices of the Saudi Arabian government and U.S. front groups for the radical Muslim Brotherhood based in Egypt.

Frank Gaffney, a former Pentagon official who runs the Center for Security Policy, says the results of the survey have not yet been published. But he confirmed that "the vast majority" are inciting insurrection and jihad through sermons by Saudi-trained imams and anti-Western literature, videos and textbooks.

The project, headed by David Yerushalmi, a lawyer and expert on sharia law, has finished collecting data from the first cohort of 102 mosques and schools. Preliminary findings indicate that almost 80 percent of the group exhibit a high level of sharia-compliance and jihadi threat, including:

Ultra-orthodox worship in which women are separated from men in the prayer hall and must enter the mosque from a separate, usually back, entrance; and are required to wear hijabs.

Sermons that preach women are inferior to men and can be beaten for disobedience; that non-Muslims, particularly Jews, are infidels and inferior to Muslims; that jihad or support of jihad is not only a Muslim's duty but the noblest way, and suicide bombers and other so-called "martyrs" are worthy of the highest praise; and that an Islamic caliphate should one day encompass the U.S. [emphasis added].

Solicitation of financial support for jihad [emphasis added].

Bookstores that sell books, CDs and DVDs promoting jihad and glorifying martyrdom.

Though not all mosques in America are radicalized, many have tended to serve as safe havens and meeting points for Islamic terrorist groups. Experts say there are at least 40 episodes of extremists and terrorists being connected to mosques in the past decade alone.

Some of the 9/11 hijackers, in fact, received aid and counsel from one of the largest mosques in the Washington, D.C., area. Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center is one of the mosques identified by undercover investigators as a hive of terrorist activity and other extremism. [the hijackers were included in a complex ops to pull off 9/11]

It was founded and is currently run by leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood. Imams there preach what is called "jihad qital," which means physical jihad, and incite violence and hatred against the U.S.

Dar al-Hijrah's ultimate goal, investigators say, is to turn the U.S. into an Islamic state governed by sharia law [emphasis added].

Another D.C.-area mosque, the ADAMS Center, was founded and financed by members of the Muslim Brotherhood, and has been one of the top distributors of Wahhabist anti-Semitic and anti-Christian dogma.

Even with such radical mosques operating in its backyard, the U.S. government has not undertaken its own systematic investigation of U.S. mosques [emphasis added].

In contrast, European Union security officials are analyzing member-state mosques, examining the training and funding sources of imams, in a large-scale project.

Some U.S. lawmakers want the U.S. to conduct its own investigation.

"We have too many mosques in this country," said Rep. Pete King, R-N.Y. "There are too many people who are sympathetic to radical Islam. We should be looking at them more carefully."

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=57141

Pa. woman charged with recruiting jihadists online

"PHILADELPHIA – A Pennsylvania woman has been charged with using the Internet to recruit jihadist fighters and help terrorists overseas.

Authorities say the case shows how terror groups are looking to recruit Americans to help carry out their goals.

A federal indictment charges Colleen R. LaRose with agreeing to kill a Swedish citizen on orders from the terrorists and traveling to Europe to carry out the killing. It doesn't say whether the Swede was killed.

U.S. Attorney Michael Levy tells The Associated Press the indictment doesn't link LaRose to any organized terror groups.

The indictment describes LaRose as in her 40s and from Montgomery County, in suburban Philadelphia. LaRose has been in custody since Oct. 15. She was in court the next day but didn't enter a plea.

Telephone calls placed Tuesday to her federal public defenders haven't been returned.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. "

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100309/ap_ ... error_plot

"Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth."

-- Omar M. Ahmad, founder of Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)

2010.03.13 (Kandahar, Afghanistan) - About thirty innocent people are incinerated by a series of paradise-seeking suicide bombers

2010.03.13 (Mingora, Pakistan) - Thirteen people at a courthouse are blown to bits by a Shahid suicide bomber pulling a rickshaw.

2010.03.12 (Zoubaa, Iraq) - Freedom fighters kill a young boy outside of a policeman's home.

2010.03.12 (Yala, Thailand) - A respected police chief is murdered by Islamic bombers six months short of retirement.

2010.03.12 (Marsa Matruh, Egypt) - Twenty-three Christians are injured when a Muslim mob attacks their community after rumors of a church construction.

2010.03.12 (Srinagar, India) - A civilian standing outside a mosque is murdered by a Mujahideen sniper.

http://www.thereligionofpeace.com

"where was Geerts great Judeo-Christian culture when Europe needed it the most?"