Muslim Training

Don’t be fooled. The Muslims are training their children how to treat non-Muslims.
This article is from Aish.com.

Although Dr. Tawfik Hamid, the author of The Roots of Jihad, won’t allow his face to be photographed and refuses to divulge where he lives, he speaks throughout the U.S. on understanding — and challenging — radical Islamic ideology.
Dr. Hamid fled his native Egypt because he espouses a peaceful interpretation of Islam based on the Koran. Today he is one of the leading authorities on the Islamic texts (Sulafi) which are responsible for the spread of jihad in the Arab world.
Before he embraced this new way of seeing, Dr. Hamid was an ideological extremist on the fast track to becoming a terrorist.
“I was eight when I first heard the teaching that says, ‘When you die a martyr, you are not dead — you are alive,'” says Dr. Hamid, who was raised in a secular Muslim family. “Dying for Allah was the only guarantee that we would not go to the grave.
“For us, the grave was frightening. Sulafi Islam teaches that only punishment awaits us in the grave. So to me, and many kids around me, the idea of dying for Allah and going to Paradise was wonderful. For me, a child, that meant eating lollipops and candy and chocolate. Believe me. This was my dream!”
The dream later changed.
During medical school, Dr. Hamid joined JI (Jaamma Islameia), an outlaw fundamentalist group calling for jihad against Muslims who have abandoned their faith (apostates) and non-Muslims.
He met Dr. Aiman Al-Zawaheri — now Al Qaida’s second in command under Osama bin Laden — in JI.
“Al-Zawaheri was a very nice man on the personal level,” Dr. Hamid says. “He was very dedicated to the concept of jihad against the U.S. He often came to the mosque I went to. We prayed together. We talked.”
Dr. Hamid describes his metamorphosis. “At first I followed the teachings of Sulafi Islam. I changed into a person that justified the killings of innocents. I thought in a totally distorted manner. I became like a beast.
Thinking is probably what saved me. I began to question.
“When it came time to go forward and commit certain acts — I was invited to go Afghanistan, to train for jihad, to die for Allah — I felt this struggle between my conscience and the religious teachings. I started to think.
“And this word, thinking, is probably what saved me. I began to question. You see, at the theoretical level things seemed okay. But at the practical level, when I was about to act…
“A friend introduced me to another form of Islamic thinking that was relatively peaceful. This sect was primarily based on the Koran. I began studying Koranic verses in a totally different manner. There are many verses in the Koran that praise B’nai Yisrael; that grant the Israelis the land. Soon I started to preach this new understanding.”
One day, he was called to preach at the mosque. “I gave a lecture, and people listened peacefully. It was good. But afterward, some fundamentalists surrounded me. They said, if you come here again we will kill you. Then they attacked me and my friend. We ran. But soon they began stoning me.”
Dr. Hamid looks at me with pained and furious eyes.
“Unfortunately, this resistance to peaceful teaching is not limited to fundamentalists. It is now at the level of the people.”
The three dominant beliefs encouraged in the popular Sulafi Islamic teachings are killing the apostate, beating women, and declaring war on non-Muslims.
“Clearly,” Dr. Hamid adds, “most adherents believe Jews are apes and pigs.”
“It is vitally important to confront Islamic organizations in the U.S. on these points. They should clarify their positions in an unambiguous manner. Of course, they will say what they say. But you must put your questions to them in a clear manner. Do not give them a chance to blame the world for their own actions. They know how to play with the words. I know, because I was one of them.
“For example, a Nazi can say Nazism is peaceful. But if they don’t denounce the Holocaust or the killing of Jews, what they say means nothing. Ask them, ‘What do you think of killing apostates? Is it correct, or absolutely wrong?’ If they say it is absolutely wrong, take them to the next question. ‘Clarify what Saudi Arabia says about killing apostates.’ (The punishment for apostasy in Saudi Arabia is death.) Tell me whether this is wrong. If they say it is wrong, ask them to please put this up on their website, or post it in their mosque, or have them sign a document stating that this is what they believe.
“The same is true of beating women: ‘Is it correct or absolutely unacceptable to beat women?’ Ask me. I could say to you, ‘Islam generally recommends dealing in a good manner with women.’ Or you may hear, ‘Oh, it’s only in rare instances.’ I know how they trick the world. I was one of them. Don’t let them betray you.”
He leans forward on the table.
“Ask Muslim kids what they think about Jews. Kids do not lie. They will tell you what they are being taught. If they say, ‘Jews are nice people and we can live with them in harmony,’ I will be the first person to congratulate their parents. But I assure you, if you ask Muslim kids living in the U.S. what they think of Jews, you will be shocked.”
“Dr. Hamid, do you hate your own people?”
For the first time, he hesitates — briefly.
“I am against them,” he says. “When you preach peace, and the whole community boycotts you and your wife and your children, it is painful. Just because you preach that killing apostates is absolutely wrong and is not mentioned in the Koran, and that Jews are not ‘pigs’ and ‘monkeys,’ and the community threatens you, it is painful. But forget my passion, my emotions. Follow the logic.”
With the publication of The Roots of Jihad and subsequent speaking engagements to large audiences throughout the US, does he fear for his life?
“Yes. But I feel obligated to expose the truth. I am morally obligated to help Muslims understand the Koran in a peaceful manner. Enabling Muslims to live in harmony with the rest of the world is far more important to me than my life. I always say that in certain times in history, there are people who stand against evil. I am honored to be among them.”
This article originally appeared on http://www.frontpagemag.com/
Published: Sunday, October 29, 2006

Holocaust Video

Here’s a link to an interesting video about the Holocaust. It’s short and didn’t take too long to load.

http://www.aish.com/societyWork/salomonSays/
Poland_Video_Log_4_The_Best_Job_in_Majdanek.asp

Concentration Camp

Here’s an interesting link to a movie from Aish.com. It loads quickly and plays smoothly, even on my dial-up.

http://www.aish.com/movies/PhotoFraud.asp

The Rules of War

This from Aish.com
The Rules of War
by Moshe Yaalon
The difference between us and the terrorists is clear: We endanger ourselves to protect their civilians. They endanger their own civilians to protect themselves.

The conflict in the Middle East is about much more than Israel and Hezbollah, or even Hezbollah’s Syrian and Iranian sponsors. What is at stake are the very rules of war that underpin the entire international order.
Sadly, judging from how most of the world has responded to Israel’s military action against Hezbollah, these rules have been completely abandoned.
The rules of war boil down to one central principle: the need to distinguish combatants from noncombatants. Those who condemned Israel for what happened at Qana, rather than placing the blame for this unfortunate tragedy squarely on Hezbollah and its state sponsors, have rewarded those for whom this moral principle is meaningless and have condemned a state in which this principle has always guided military and political decision making.
So while it is legitimate to question whether Israel should go to such extreme lengths to avoid civilian casualties, it is preposterous to argue that Israel uses excessive force.
Faced with enemies who openly call for its destruction and victimized by unremitting wars and terrorism since well before it was born, Israel has risked the lives of its citizens and its soldiers to abide by this principle in a way that is unprecedented in the history of nations.
Here is but one of countless examples: In 2003, at the height of the Palestinian terror war against Israel, our intelligence services discovered the location of a meeting of the senior leadership of Hamas, an organization pledged to the annihilation of the Jewish state and responsible for some of the deadliest terrorist attacks ever carried out against Israel.
We knew that a one-ton bomb would destroy the three-story building and kill the Hamas leadership. But we also knew that such a bomb would endanger about 40 families who lived in the vicinity. We decided to use a smaller bomb that would destroy only the top floor of the building. As it turned out, the Hamas leaders were meeting on the ground floor. They lived to terrorize another day.
Imagine for a moment that the United States had advance knowledge of the meeting place of al-Qaeda’s senior leadership. Does anyone believe that there would be a debate about what size bomb to use, much less that any leader would authorize insufficient force to do the job?
So while it is legitimate to question whether Israel should go to such extreme lengths to avoid civilian casualties, it is preposterous to argue that Israel uses excessive force. Even more absurd was the shameful statement last week that Israel appeared to have deliberately targeted U.N. officials — a statement fit for a knave or a fool, not for the secretary general of the United Nations. Rather than lead the fight against those who target civilians and use them as human shields, Secretary General Kofi Annan has strengthened them.
It is clear to any objective observer that Hezbollah is using Lebanese civilians as human shields.
It is clear to any objective observer that Hezbollah is using Lebanese civilians as human shields. It builds its headquarters in densely populated areas, embeds its fighters in towns and villages, and deliberately places missiles in private homes, even constructing additions to existing structures specifically to house missile launchers.
The reason terrorist groups such as Hezbollah use human shields is elementary. They try to exploit the respect for innocent human life that is the hallmark of any civilized society to place that society in a no-win situation. If it fails to respond to terror attacks, it endangers its own citizens. If it responds, it runs the risk of killing innocents, earning world opprobrium and inviting diplomatic pressure to stand down.
Hoping to retain its high moral standards in the face of such a cynical enemy, Israel has made every effort to avoid harming civilians. We have dropped fliers, sent telephone messages and broadcast radio announcements so that innocents can get out of harm’s way. In doing so, we imperil our own citizens since, by losing the element of surprise, we invariably allow some of the enemy to escape with their missiles.
But at Qana, Hezbollah responded to Israel’s compassion with more cynical brutality. After launching missiles at Israel, the terrorists rushed inside a building. When Israel fired a precision-guided missile to strike at the terrorists, scores of civilians, including children, were killed.
The difference between us and the terrorists is clear: We endanger ourselves to protect their civilians. They endanger their own civilians to protect themselves.
If tragedies such as Qana are not to be repeated, then, rather than condemning Israel, the world should be directing its anger at Hezbollah and at the Syrian and Iranian regimes that support it.
Terrorists are fanatics, but they are not idiots. If the terrorist tactic of using human shields helps them achieve their goals, they will utilize it. If it undermines their goals, they will abandon it.
If we want to live in a world where civilians are never used as human shields, then we must create a world in which employing such measures results in the unequivocal condemnation of terrorists and in forceful action against them by the civilized world.
If the world were now blaming Hezbollah, Syria and Iran for the innocent Lebanese killed, hurt or displaced in this conflict, then it would be sending a powerful message to every terrorist group on the planet: We will not tolerate the use of human shields. Period.
Instead, those who condemn Israel have sent precisely the opposite message. They have told every terrorist group around the world that the use of human shields will pay huge dividends, thereby providing them with a powerful weapon that endangers innocents everywhere.
Published: Sunday, August 06, 2006

Be a Star in His-Story

Be a Star in His-Story