The Caliphate Rising

Back in January 2006, I published this at my first blog site. Excerpt:

From "Reunified Islam: Unlikely but Not Entirely Radical: Restoration of Caliphate, Attacked by Bush, Resonates With Mainstream Muslims," front-page article in the January 14, 2006 edition of the Washington Post....

I concluded my blog post with this paragraph:

Are we standing before an abyss which we cannot comprehend and refuse to admit the very existence of?

Now, in 2014, Iraq seems to be falling to the jihadists.  $15 billion of our treasure, some 4000 dead American military personnel, and much blood spilled.  For what?

Syria aroil.

A dead U.S. ambassador in Libya.

Various jihad attacks are popping up all over the place.

Five Taliban commanders traded for one PFC.

"The Arab Spring," with whatever purpose it began, represents the push to establish a worldwide caliphate, something for which the majority of Muslims yearn.

And Obama has sent numerous signals that have served to embolden jihad.

Islam respects The Strong Man, and Obama has clearly indicated that he is not A Strong Man.

Clearly, the caliphate establishers are winning. 

How long before we face another 9/11 here on our soil?

Not to worry, though. Obama says (June 11, 2014), and his supporters nod their heads in agreement:

[T]he truth of the matter is that for all the challenges we face, all the problems that we have, if you had to be — if you had to choose any moment to be born in human history, not knowing what your position was going to be, who you were going to be, you’d choose this time. The world is less violent than it has ever been....

Talk about delusion! Or is it something else?

Posts for Oct 4th: Saudi child bride, Choudhry's process, AQ threatens Christians, Taliban flog drug-addicts, Mosque's hate campaign in UK, Taliban blow schools

1. Saudi Arabia: 80-year-old man marries 14-year-old and now refuses to divorce: “Her father said he does not have the money (for the divorce) and is appealing for all benevolent people to help him so he will regain his daughter…the old man has threatened that they either pay him or he will take her by force.”
2. UK: Woman stabbed MP Timms "in revenge for Iraq war vote": Jeremy Dein QC, defending Roshonara Choudhry, 21, said she did not recognise the jurisdiction of the court and did not wish her lawyers to challenge evidence put before the jury.
3. Iraq: All Christians "targets", Al-Qaeda in Iraq says: Wednesday, the group released a new message saying, “The Ministry of War of Islamic State of Iraq declares that all the centers, organizations and bodies of Christian leaders and followers have become legitimate targets by the Mujahedeens, wherever our hands will reach them.” According to witnesses, one of the attackers was 12-years-old.
4. Pakistan: Taliban publicly flog men for "taking drugs" against their diktat: Members of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan detained 65 tribesmen on the “charge” of selling and using hashish and heroin... After they were “sentenced” by the militant court, the men were taken to a ground on Sunday and each of them was given 10 lashes by Taliban fighters as a large crowd watched.
5. UK: Mosque linked to hate campaign against Ahmadiyya Muslims: Evidence shows Ahmadiyya Muslims are being demonised and ostracised by UK Islamic fundamentalist group Khatme Nabuwat, whose hardline clerics have been preaching in south London mosques.
6. Pakistan: Taliban blow up another school in Mohmand Agency: Another girls primary school was destroyed by miscreants on Tuesday. The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s attack.

Magazine: The People's Cube.

Posts for Nov 3rd: Iranians in Isle of Man, Imam condemned in Spain, Sakineh update, Malaysian blogger Kamaruddin, Iraqi massacre update, Women and the Taliban, Algeria ambush, Obama adviser on "anti-Muslim sentiment"

1. Investigation: Why did Iran register ships in the Isle of Man? File on 4 investigation has discovered questions over whether the Iranians have already sidestepped the international arms embargo, on the UK’s own doorstep by setting up companies in the Isle of Man to register ships for its fleet.
2. Spain: Cunit's imam, Benbraim Mhamed, sentenced to a year in prison for coercing a woman to wear the Hijab:The president of Cunit’s Islamic cultural association, Abderrahman el Osri, was convicted of the same crime and sentenced to nine months in prison and the imam’s daughter, Hafssa Ben Brahim, to pay a fine of 730 euros. They may not approach the victim or communicate with her for two years and must pay 1,500 euros in moral damages. If it would have been me, I would have expelled them all. They have given sufficient evidence (with death threats and intimidation to her family) that they are not succesfully integrated in Spanish society.
3. Apparently Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani was going to be executed today, but in the end she has not. But her family is also fearing for the lifes of both his son and lawyer, both arrested with two German journalists when they were trying to speak about her. When attempting to secure lawyers for the two, authorities have said that the two men did not need legal representation.
4. Malaysia: exiled Muslim blogger accused of "insulting Islam" is free to return. He has refused: “This order has lapsed but it does not stop the authorities from seeking my client’s detention on other grounds should he return,” said lawyer Jadadish Chandra. He lives in the UK now.
5. Iraq: Pope sends mesage to Syriac Archbishop of Baghdad. Meanwhile, the Vatican envoy to the UN, Archbishop Chullikatt, said that although the Holy See favors efforts to protect religion from “hate speech and incitement to violence,” his delegation was uneasy with the approach that targets “defamation of religion.” In practice, he said, measures promoted to stop “defamation of religion” have actually “served as a means for State-sponsored oppression of religious believers.” Let's see if someone really begins protesting about the abominable UN Resolution on the Defamation of Religions.
6. Afghanistan: negotiating with Taliban will crush women. "The evidence that girls will be able to go to school under the Taliban is slim. While girls might go to schools in some areas, in my experience, this is highly exceptional and by no means a uniform practice. The Taliban have been quite consistent in their beliefs that girls should not be educated and women who work outside the home deserve to die, a belief enacted in the Taliban’s murder of numerous female politicians, elections workers, policewomen and other prominent professional women. They are hardly interested in the protection or welfare of children given they regularly use children as suicide bombers and spotters and have hung boys they accuse of “spying for the Americans“".
7. Algeria: Islamic terrorists ambush soldiers: 2 killed, 3 wounded: On Oct 3rd, another 5 soldiers were killed on the same spot, a stronghold of AQIM.
8. US: Obama adviser decries "anti-Muslim sentiments".Hussain said he’s concerned about the increasing vitriol directed at Muslims, which he said may be due to their increasing visibility in the U.S. It’s a “reaction to a lot of progress made by Muslim communities,” he said.

Lastly, from Townhall.com:

Iraq: 10 Catholics killed, 30 wounded after security forces stormed Baghdad church

Iraqi Policeman inside Our Lady of Salvation Chaldean Catholic church, after security forces have stormed the building

This is an update on this story:

At least 10 Christian worshippers were killed and about thirty wounded tonight, when Iraqi security forces stormed a Baghdad church in which terrorists wearing explosive vests were holding them hostage.

The raid also killed seven Iraqi soldiers and police officers. The violence erupted just after 9pm, almost four hours after a group of between six and eight gunmen wearing military uniforms stormed Our Lady of Salvation Chaldean Catholic church in the inner-city suburb of Karrada.

Worshippers caught up in the carnage described their ordeal to the Guardian as they fled the church. They said the terrorist attack was heralded by a car bomb outside the fortified church gate at 5:30pm. The two priests, who were about to begin mass ushered at least half of their 120-strong congregation to a small room in the back of the ornate building, in a bid to protect them.

"After a while one of the terrorists opened the door and threw in a bomb," said a man who identified himself as Bassam. "There were injuries. They killed people, they injured people," he said, before collapsing on the road outside the church. "Where is our father?" he screamed," referring to his priest. "Where is our father?"

More here.

Room for Rent -- Cheap. . .

Sky News:

Revealed: Iraq Terrorists' Deadly New Tactic
Adam Arnold, Sky News Online

Al Qaeda in Iraq is renting residential buildings and rigging them with explosives in a cunning new tactic which has killed dozens of civilians, officials say.

The ploy has defied thousands of security forces in Baghdad by getting around the mass of checkpoints used to deter car bombings.

The new tactic has forced the police and army to change their own operations to counter the terrorists.

America's military has even come up with a new term - HBIED (house-borne improvised explosive device) for the attacks.

The attacks have also left hundreds of people injured in the past month in the Iraqi capital.

The HBIED phrase follows the IED (improvised-explosive device - homemade bomb) and VBIED (vehicle-borne improvised-explosive device - car bomb) into a terrorism vocabulary started in Iraq and then taken to Afghanistan.

Some 25 people were killed on election day, March 7, when explosives destroyed two buildings in north-east Baghdad.

The US military, which pointed the finger at al Qaeda, said the properties had been rented and deliberately blown up.

Another 35 people died on April 6, when explosives were planted in houses and shops in mostly Shi'ite neighbourhoods.

A number of those properties had been rented days earlier, security officials said.

Major General Qassim Atta, a Baghdad security forces spokesman, said: "Our forces are focusing on the renting of apartments and buildings."

Insurgents were continually looking to exploit gaps in the city's defences, he said.

"They change their methods periodically because most of their plans and tactics have been discovered. I believe they are already searching for another method of attack, maybe churches or bridges."

Counter-terrorism expert Brian Fishman said of the HBIED operations: "The tactic is seen as very disreputable, even among active insurgents."

But he added it allows them "to get around a lot of the tactics developed to prevent car bombs," such as the mass of security checkpoints in Baghdad.

"The Mujahideens can't be terrorists because Islam is the religion of peace"

A man accused of posting videos on the internet and of writing more than 1,500 comments on the web allegedly glorifying Al-Qaeda, named Gonzalo López Royo, defended last Monday in a court hearing, that a "mujahideen can never be a terrorist", because "Islam is the religion of peace". He compared mujaheedins with "Bosnians who defended their home, their wife and their sons".

State Prosecutor Teresa Sandoval has asked for an 18-months prison term for López Royo and for Fath Allah Sadaq, also at court hearing this Monday, for "glorifying, justifying and giving publicity to Islamist terrorist organizations, persons and deeds" since 2006 in an English-speaking website. Despite it being of restricted access, it had, at least, 1,300 users per year", according to an expert from the Civil Guard. The defense attorney is asking for a full acquittal of both defendants.

Both websurfers, of Spanish and Moroccan nationality respectively, acknowledged they publicized comments and posted videos about Al-Qaeda, Bin Laden and Islamic Jihad, although, according to Mr. López Royo's statement, his intention "was not to support damaging anyone, but to comment news in a positive and constructive way, not glorifying anyone who is a bad guy".

On the other hand, Mr. Allah Sadaq assured that he wanted to fight against "US censorship in the Iraqi war", because Al-Qaeda was an interested part in the conflict and "also the only source of information". He added he didn't know he was committing a crime and that, when he knew it, he erased the images, three months before being arrested.

According to the State Prosecutor's provisional conclusions, Mr. López Royo wrote about 1,500 comments claiming for the constitution of a Caiphate in Spain. He also acknowledged being the author of several drawings which were included in a video that Mr. Allah Sadaq made in June 2008 honoring Abu Mussab Al-Zarqawi, Al-Qaeda leader killed in Iraq.

Read more in the link above.

The psychiatric report on López Royo says that he "wanted to move away from mediocrity". Aren't there other ways to grow personally and professionally than glorifying Al-Qaeda and asking for a Caliphate?

Culturism, Iran, Iraq, and Foreign Policy

Saddam & al Qaeda, details, schmetails......

Courtesy of Powerline, it appears the media jumped the gun and skipped the details, regarding the Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda link. Not surprising, since it fits into MSM's anti-war agenda.

He quotes The Weekly Standard's Steve Hayes:

A new Pentagon report on Iraq and Terrorism has the news media buzzing. An item on the New York Times blog snarks, "Oh, By the Way, There Was No Al Qaeda Link." The ABC News story that previews the full report concludes, "Report Shows No Link Between Saddam and al Qaeda."

How, then, to explain this sentence about Iraq and al Qaeda from the report's abstract: "At times, these organizations would work together in pursuit of shared goals but still maintain their autonomy and independence because of innate caution and mutual distrust"? And how to explain the "considerable overlap" between their activities which led not only to the appearances of ties but to a "de facto link between the organizations"? (See the entire abstract below.)

And what about this revelation from page 34? "Captured documents reveal that the regime was willing to co-opt or support organizations it knew to be part of al Qaeda -- as long as that organization's near-term goals supported Saddam's long-term vision." (The example given in the report is the Army of Muhammad in Bahrain, a group the Iraqi Intelligence Service describes as "under the wings of bin Laden.")

And there is this line from page 42: "Saddam supported groups that either associated directly with al Qaeda (such as the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, led at one time by bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al Zawahiri) or that generally shared al Qaeda's stated goals and objectives."

Really? Saddam Hussein "supported" a group that merged with al Qaeda in the late 1990s, run by al Qaeda's #2, and the New York Times thinks this is not a link between Iraq and al Qaeda? How does that work?

Anyone interested in the "strong evidence that links the regime of Saddam Hussein to regional and global terrorism" -- that language comes from this report, too -- should read the entire thing for themselves, here.

For the rest of us, for whom details are important, there's a lot more information at the Powerline link above.

Al-Qaeda: hunting down beggars and mentally disabled

to use them as suicide terrorists. US commanders in Iraq consider that it's possible that AQ has infiltrated the records of psyquiatric hospitals.

Iraqi Government is trying to stop this, retiring these groups of
people from the streets... But where are they going to live afterwards?
Because they are not very protected in those psyquiatric hospitals...

Lastly Karrar, the chief of Al-Qaeda's network in Diyala, who was the responsible for the suicide of two mentally disabled women in Baghdad has been killed by Coalition forces.

Iraq: The Children

Today I want to talk about a topic that is the most important with regards to the future of Iraq. The children. For it is they who are the vessels of hope for Iraq and it's future.
To be a child in Iraq during this time must be a mixed bag. Fear and sadness combined with hope and happiness.

For a lot of our soldiers, it is the children that give them strength. Many of them go out of their way to bring a smile to the children's faces.

Somehow, the children must come through this as unscathed as possible. And there are things going on in Iraq to help and signs that they are working.

War, kindness and trust

From No End But Victory:

A Soldier back from Baghdad tried to explain to me the nature of our situation on the ground in Iraq. He, like so many, arrived in theater with blood in his eyes, his mission being to kill the enemy and secure the peace. This is what we train our Men and Women to do. They have been thoroughly trained, and are fully prepared to be ever vigilant; to protect and defend, and to do so with honor and integrity. They have done this in spite of the challenges they faced, and have won the war. This enemy is defeated in Iraq militarily. However, there is an inevitable transition in a theater of operations that requires our Soldiers to then “Win the Peace”, and this work continues in Iraq with many setbacks but many MORE successes.

He realized soon after arrival that the “blood in his eyes” mentality would not serve him well in winning the peace; that what he needed instead was solemnity, humility, respect and empathy and an open-mindedness that is at times hard to muster when you are being shot at and you are watching IED’s take out your brothers and sisters in the streets of Baghdad and surrounding areas. The balance of mind, the strength of conviction, the well-trained inclination to revert to a battlefield mentality, and the critical need to recognize each situation accordingly, react appropriately, AND know the difference, is the job description of our Soldiers in theater. I know almost no American citizen today that I would entrust my life to with these things as their responsibility, yet I completely trust our American Soldiers to do this routinely and as a matter of course.

As they do this work, our Soldiers live among the every-day average Iraqi citizen; the men, women, and children on the streets and in their homes, at school and work, in hospital, and in their house of worship. They have come to know each other, each with a tempered suspicion and a varying degree of mistrust and apprehension. Over time, these feelings have softened to an extent, and the Soldiers and the citizens have forged relationships; bonds of mutual reliance and shared need to rebuild lives and move ahead with the business of rebuilding a country.

The country we are rebuilding is unimaginable to anyone that has never been there. As described to me, many of these people are living in the sixth century; mud huts, no sanitation, no utilities to speak of outside the major city, or far enough removed from one of Hussein’s palaces. They live this way both mentally AND physically. They have been trained and have been led to believe that any non-Iraqi or non-Muslim “outsider” comes armed with a sword to behead them, and plunder and pillage their women and children and their ways of life. This is ingrained in them from birth, and reinforced throughout their relatively short lives; life expectancies hovering around 50 years. The parents, like parents in any society, are the teachers and trainers of their children and they merely pass along to the subsequent generations the wisdom and ideals they have grown to believe and presume to be correct. The story of the child bringing the note from the woman rings louder upon reflection;

[...]

A Soldier working to rebuild schools there tells of a day where a 2 ounce bottle of body lotion probably saved his life, and the lives of the soldiers attached to this mission. A fundamental element of a Soldier’s life in this Theater is to try and establish a relationship with the citizens; to show we are trying to help them, and guide them ever-so-slowly back on track and to pick themselves up and move forward with rebuilding a country that has never known even the simplest of things we take for granted every day. This Soldier gave one of his small bottles of body lotion to a local Iraqi woman, out of kindness, and in so doing introduced her to a small luxury she had never known before. She smiled appreciatively and went on her way. These bottles of body lotion are gold to a Soldier in Iraq and while relatively inexpensive, have saved many a chaffed hand or arm, and have even given a small taste of heaven out in that miserable desert with a thorough rubbing of the feet.

Several hours after this small act of kindness, an Iraqi child approached this Soldier, gave him a piece of paper with something written on it, and pointed to the Iraqi woman who had reappeared on the street. After the required 2 translators to verify the contents of the note, it was apparent she had offered information on the location of a weapons and ammunition cache. Upon investigation, it turns out her information was accurate and the weapons and ammunition was seized and ultimately destroyed. Countless lives were saved by that gesture of appreciation. These stories abound, and are increasing in number every day. From a small act of kindness comes an exchange of cooperation that saved lives and built lasting friendships while further strengthening a bond of trust and confidence.

[...]

this story could just easily ended in the death of that Soldier at the hands of a remotely detonated suicide vest strapped to that child, but it didn’t. It is highly likely that that Soldier WOULD have been felled by this child a few short years ago.

The future of this Iraqi child is uncertain, however, you can be sure he will carry with him the memory of that small contribution to breaking the circle of violence and hate and mistrust. He will remember that day, he will remember and recount to his peers the appreciation from the Soldier who’s life he helped protect, and the expression of gratitude from that Iraqi woman that he helped facilitate. So it is with countless more children in Iraq, and so will it be for our Soldiers when they return home.

Save the Children

Many people have written about how they can help the children in Iraq. I began vetting, or scoping out NGO’s (Non Government Organizations) who have a firm foundation and strong programs. In addition, I have met with “up and coming” NGO’s who are developing strong programs but are still getting established, including training on organizational management and governance (more about these organizations in future posts).

I visited with Kurdistan Save the Children whose work expands Kurdistan and includes Baghdad. They are strong in education, youth centers and cultural centers, which they call Kaziwa which means ‘dawn’ in Kurdish. I visited one center in Sulaimaniya and was so pleased at the hard work four young men have
accomplished over the years.

They have developed a large youth center with many activities including sports, art, computer training, English classes, music rooms, computer rooms, internet café (the young people pay tiny fee which teaches them respect of equipment) exercise workout room (for both girls and boys, scheduled appropriately), a media and film department, cafeteria, and a huge center hall with a circle upper balcony, perfect for drum circles. He was very open to different activities including the drum circles that I suggested. Music and art in addition to other activities is strongly encouraged.

The manager of this center is a young man with his 3 associates and they have the drive and good hearts to help the children in the city. I was amazed at the dedication these people have given to develop this center for the youth. On the tour, he showed me one room after another, for different activities including dialogue groups and outside is a sports field and a beautiful garden.

His wish for the youth is an LCD and laptop for the classes and trainings, movie DVDs for the developing media department, additional books for the library, especially in English (books appropriate for 14-26 year olds, perhaps some American classics), musical instruments and… visitors, who are willing to spend time with the young people, whether through an activity, lecture or discussion.

Kurdistan Save the Children has other youth centers including Darbandikhan, Raniya, Koya, Kalar, Khanaqeen, Baziyan and Kirkuk and cultural centers in Halabja, Kirkuk, Qaladiza, and Raniya. In addition, they have Children’s homes in both Baghdad and Kirkuk which help Iraq’s growing number of street children, those affected most by the conflict and in need of the most help.

Read the rest here. If you can help, please do.