'76 Blog

(Opening Remarks at Campus Ceremony, Sept. 12) How should we approach our commemoration of September 11, 2001, here at Colorado Christian University?  Here are some thoughts from my perspective as director of the Centennial Institute, our public policy center at the university. On the second Tuesday in September ten years ago, Islamist fighters from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon and the UAE, trained in Afghanistan by the Al Qaeda revolutionary organization under Osama Bin Laden, took over four US airliners and turned them into missiles of war for an attack on New York City and Washington DC. The twin towers of the World Trade Center, symbolizing American free enterprise, were destroyed.  The Pentagon, symbolizing American military might, was gravely damaged.  A direct hit on the United States Capitol or the White House, which would have decapitated American self-government, was narrowly averted by the heroism of passengers on board Flight 93. The strike was brilliantly planned and barbarically executed.  It hit us like a lightning bolt from a clear sky.  Two thousand nine hundred and seventy-seven lives were lost that day, many of them massacred unawares, but many others in sacrificial efforts of resistance or rescue, with acts of magnificent courage.  Thousands of families mourned the loss of loved ones. The nation’s anger was roused, but our confidence was also shaken.  Voices of self-doubt and self-reproach were heard among our own elites.  Voices of condemnation from Muslim leaders were hesitant and few.  Street mobs celebrated in the home countries of the 9/11 attackers.  What did it all mean? Some Americans said it meant we had cultural fences to mend and yet another criminal-justice job to do.  But most Americans understood it meant we were at war.  Arguably that war had been going on in one-sided fashion against us from the Islamists since at least 1979 when the US embassy in Iran was seized.  The war continues today – punctuated by progress in Iraq, progress in Afghanistan, the killing of Osama Bin Laden, and more than 60 intended or actual jihadist attacks upon the US homeland over the past 3600 days. Disturbingly, however, what America clearly understood as a long and deadly-serious war ten Septembers ago is now too often blurred and misunderstood as nothing more than one horrific day of terror, trauma, and tragedy.  Fellow Americans, fellow patriots, brothers and sisters – this must not be.  This must not be. The consequences of 9/11 WERE tragic in terms of the lives lost, the economic cost, the emotional cost, the compromising of civil liberties.  But the event we are gathered to commemorate this evening was no mere tragedy.  A tragedy is something that just happens – the result of fate or bad luck or bad judgment.  The 9/11 attack did not just happen.  It was a heinous atrocity brought to our shores by a determined enemy.  It was a deliberate and unprovoked act of war by forces with a definite address and an agenda of total conquest, total world domination.  Does America remember that and realize that, today in 2011?  Parts of America unfortunately do not. But this Christian university and this assembly of wide-awake citizens do remember.  Absolutely we do.  We have not forgotten and will never forget why 9/11 happened, what 9/11 cost, what 9/11 still demands of us.  We come together to honor the dead and keep their memory alive by living worthily of them -- which includes focusing our minds and devoting our energies and uniting our purpose in such a way as to keep AMERICA alive. Let us use our time this evening to say not only, “Wasn’t it!” but also, “Isn’t it!” Let us not just look back with remembrance, but let us, even more, look ahead with resolve.  Wasn’t it awful that day?  Wasn’t it sad?  Wasn’t it horrifying?  Wasn’t it a more innocent world before the planes hit the towers?  Yes, it was, and to reflect on that at a decade’s distance is fitting. Yet to stiffen our spine now in the present, and set our faces to the future, and rededicate ourselves unswervingly to duty, truth, and honor, is more fitting still.  Isn’t it imperative, isn’t it urgent, isn’t it nobly incumbent on us to preserve the America our enemies wanted – and still want – to destroy?  Isn’t it unacceptable that we should lapse back into the softness and complacency they exploited so lethally on that September morning.  Isn’t it a great and high calling for each of us to accept, that the decades ahead should be a better, freer, stronger time for these United States and all the friends of freedom than the decades just behind?  Yes, it is.  It is!  

Are many Muslims devoted to a doctrine called jihad, which commands violence against infidels, and another doctrine called sharia, which forbids obedience to the U.S. constitution or any other civil government?  Do many Muslims interpret the Koran to require brutal abuse of women, gays, Jews, and Christians?  Have a number of Muslim charities and mosques in this country been unmasked as fronts for radicalism?  Did a Muslim man from Aurora, Colorado, named Najibullah Zazi, plead guilty in 2010 to a terror bombing plot against the New York subway system? The answer to all four questions is Yes.  But you would never know it from reading the three-part Denver Post series on Muslims in Colorado since 9/11, Aug. 19-21.  Relevant as these matters might seem to be for a serious exploration of his subject, reporter Eric Gorski confronts none of them.  Instead, throughout his lengthy front-page articles, Gorski repeatedly implies that even asking such questions betrays ignorance, intolerance, bigotry, and xenophobia.  As a result, the series reads more like puffery than journalism.  It would be interesting to know what "assistance" the Denver Post received on this project from CAIR, the Hamas-linked Muslim Brotherhood propaganda group that was designated an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism trial in federal court. Regardless, no matter if the series was CAIR-orchestrated or merely a self-deluded exercise in political correctness, it ill serves the public interest.  Coloradans concerned about homeland security, the rule of law, social cohesion, and the trustworthiness of their neighbors deserve "the rest of the story" on the Muslims among us. 

(Centennial Fellow) Nearly flawlessly executing the operation in Pakistan to raid the compound where Osama bin Laden was living – among the military and police leadership of Pakistan by the way – the U.S. Navy’s SEAL Team Six along with elements of other U.S. government assets killed America’s most wanted man.  This is a victory for all of us – no doubt.  A tremendous Bravo Zulu to the men and women who made it possible and gave the operation the best chance of success.  Bin Laden is dead.  What I am hearing from the media, the government, and our President, however, is making me queezy. In announcing the killing of bin Laden, President Obama said we are at war with Al Qaeda.  We killed the head of Al Qaeda – our enemy.  Today, many in the media and elsewhere are making statements that can only be considered irrational, naive, and simply wrong with regards to the war in which we are engaged.  I fear America will refocus its energy on Al Qaeda, while the enemy’s main focus of effort, the Muslim Brotherhood Movement in the United States, will continue to move forward at light speed unimpeded by anyone in the U.S. National Security apparatus. Let's review the Muslim Brotherhood’s objectives and doctrine: - “The Muslim Brotherhood is an International Muslim Body, which seeks to establish Allah’s law in the land.”   MB By-Laws - MB Goals: “Insist to liberate the Islamic nation from the yoke of foreign rule…the need to work on establishing the Islamic State…the sincere support for a global cooperation in accordance with the provisions of the Islamic Shariah.”   MB By-laws - “…Jihad is our way and martyrdom in the way of allah is our highest aspiration.”   MB Creed - “Against them MAKE READY your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into the hearts of the enemies…”    MB Logo – 2 crossed swords under a Quran with the phrase “Make Ready” under it.  MB has openly said/written it refers to the above quote (Quran 8:60) - “Jihad is an obligation from Allah Almighty on every Muslim and cannot be ignored.”   Founder of MB Hassan al Banna from “Book of Jihad” - “Jihad means to war against non-Muslims.”   Islamic Law, Umdat al Salik, certified by key MB entities IIIT and Fiqh Council of North America as MB doctrine - “The Islamic nation must be fully prepared to fight the tyrants and the enemies of Allah as a prelude to establishing the Islamic state.”    MB By-laws - “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.”  MB Founder Hassan al Banna (quoted in the Hamas Covenant (1988) - “The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) is one of the wings of the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine.”Hamas Covenant (1988) - “The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind the stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Muslim, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.” Hamas Covenant.  Remember, Hamas IS the Muslim Brotherhood. - “The Process of Settlement is a “Civilization-Jihadist Process” with all the word means. The Ikwan (MB) must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within and “sabotaging” its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”    An Explanatory Memorandum. MB strategic document for North America. -  From the “Underground Movement Plan” – the MB’s 5 Phase plan“Phase One: Phase of discreet and secret establishment of elite leadership.Phase Two: Phase of gradual appearance on the public scene…establishing a shadow government.Phase Three: Escalation phase, prior to conflict and confrontation with the rulers.Phase Four: Open public confrontation with the Government through exercising the political pressure approach.. Training on the use of weapons domestically and overseas in anticipation of zero hour. It has noticeable activities in this regard.Phase Five: Seizing power to establish their Islamic Nation.” - “Lying is permissible if the goal is permissible…and obligatory is the goal is obligatory.” Islamic Law, Umdat al Salik, certified by key MB entities IIIT and Fiqh Council of North America as MB doctrine From the overwhelming evidence entered at the US v Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development trial (HLF) it was revealed that the Muslim Brotherhood Movement in the United States has significant infrastructure here and that the most prominent Islamic Organizations in the U.S. are controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood to include the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), the Muslim Students Association (MSA), the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), the Fiqh Council of North America, and the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Hamas entity. We know from the MB itself and from a large amount of evidence, to include the US v Sabri Benkhala case, that the Muslim American Society (MAS) is a significant MB organization founded by three key MB leaders. Because they are ALL Muslim Brotherhood entities, the aforementioned doctrine is what these organizations hold as their objectives and doctrine.  So why are they (1) allowed to operate in the United States and (2) why would any government entity at the state or federal level meet or work with them?  Why would leadership of our National Security apparatus seek guidance from them, speak at their conferences, or in any way give them credibility – since they seek our destruction. As a reminder, the Muslim Chaplain program was founded by an Al Qaeda operative (Alamoudi) and the current certifying agency for Muslim Chaplains in the Department of Defense and the Bureau of Prisons (ISNA) was revealed to be a Hamas support entity, which is why they are an un-indicted co-conspirator at the largest successfully prosecuted Hamas trial in U.S. history – US v HLF. Why do we have Muslim Brothers representing the above groups sitting on advisory committees for DHS?  Why are Directors of ISNA meeting with and advising the Secretary of State? Why is the MAS primarily meeting with and advising the DHS Secretary? Why is the FBI giving senior Muslim Brothers awards at FBIHQ? Osama bin Laden is dead, but this stuff is making me quite ill.  

(CCU Faculty) On the Sunday night news coverage on the killing of Osama bin Laden, all the networks showed people gathering at Ground Zero, in Times Square and around the White House.  Most of those people were in a celebratory mood: singing and chanting about the death of bin Laden.  The event struck me as odd.  In the few days since, two thoughts come to mind: first, some thoughts on the Christian attitude toward celebration of anyone's death and second, the reality of what bin Laden’s death means and doesn’t mean. Ezekiel 33:11 says “Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, people of Israel?’.” According to this passage, God’s greatest rejoicing is not with the death of an evil person, but when the evil turn away from themselves and towards Him. God is a God of justice, however, and he does indeed delight in justice being served.  All must agree that bin Laden’s end is indeed just.  However, Ezekiel 33:11 creates a hierarchy as to God’s greatest joy.  Wouldn’t God have found greater pleasure (and shouldn’t we all?) had bin Laden surrendered, repented and turned his life to the true and living God?  This interpretation provides some context upon which we might temper our joy on this occasion. With regards to what bin Laden’s death means to our country and the war on terrorism, I began by thinking of the famous scenes of celebration in Times Square following both V-E and V-J Days.  Both days marked the end of, and ultimately, the formal surrendering by our enemies in the Second World War.  In contrast, our war with radical Islam is not over.  The death of bin Laden is indeed a huge moral victory, but its impact on the war remains to be seen. In President Obama’s address to the nation on Sunday evening, announcing the successful military operation, he stated: “His death does not mark the end of our effort. There’s no doubt that al Qaeda will continue to pursue attacks against us. We must and we will remain vigilant at home and abroad.” These two points are in no way intended to denigrate the success of this mission, including the leadership of President Obama, the amazing performance of our intelligence community, and most importantly the Navy Seals who performed the mission. My joy, nonetheless, is restrained. 

('76 Contributor) This evening, for the second time in a decade, I decided to add some of my own thoughts to our family's Seder.  I love to hear myself talk of course, but I’m completely unqualified for actual sermonizing.  Believe me, it’s a bit of a relief not to have a rabbi as a guest this year.  But I do follow the news occasionally (ok, compulsively) and that made me feel a few additions were called for.I gave my additions after we shared–abbreviated for the kids’ benefit – the story of Passover, how the Jews were enslaved in Egypt and how G-d came to our aid -- a story which is, of course, is about freedom -- and before we came to the portion of the Seder involving the three matzos on the table.  I began by asking: Why are there three?  One is are that there are three kinds of people – those who are unfree, those who don’t care about the freedom of others , and those who are free and work to help others become free.We are fortunate to live in a country where, for all our domestic political squabbling, freedom is still a central value.  For the Jewish people as a whole, we are able to count on the State of Israel as a beacon of freedom – sometimes the only safe haven for Jews in lands that oppress them.  And because of the shared centrality of liberty, Israel is America in the Middle East.Just as in the time of Moses and Pharaoh, there are many who don’t want the Jews to be free.  With respect to Israel, the first approach was military.  Israel has survived existential attacks including the Sinai War in 1956, the Six Day War in 1967, and the Yom Kippur War in 1973.Next came terrorism.  Nine years ago, as part of the second Intifada, Hamas launched a brutal attack at Netanya on a Passover Seder much like this one – a peaceful gathering of friends and loved ones – killing 30 people and injuring 140 others.  And if something in my remarks makes you angry let it be this:  Not even three weeks ago, the Palestinian Authority celebrated the attacks and awarded the family of mastermind Abbas Al-Sayed an official, festive plaque celebrating the anniversary of the attacks.  Of course, terrorism is ongoing.  Eleven days ago an Israeli school bus was shot with an anti-tank missile, and a month ago an Israeli family including a baby and two small children was brutally stabbed to death as they slept in a West Bank settlement.But what I want to talk about today is delegitimization.  Delegitimization is the organized –and you’d better believe it is organized – effort to undermine the moral standing of Jews and of Israel – including especially Israel’s right to exist, its right to exist as a Jewish state, and its right to defend itself and its citizens.  Golda Mier famously said, “Better a bad press than a good epitaph,” but today, survival as a member of the global community depends upon the acceptance of the global community.Of course, delegitimization is nothing new – in 1975, the UN passed an abominable resolution declaring that Zionism is racism.  But in recent years it has moved from a fringe tactic to a mainstream strategy.  Some of it is petty – like anti-Israel students at Columbia protesting the presence of Israeli hummus in the cafeteria.  Much of it is small scale – a campaign by the anti-war group Code Pink to boycott Ahava skincare products because they are made on a Jewish settlement in the West Bank – but clearly exhibit the double standard inherent in delegitimization – do CodePink’s leaders seriously believe it is a human rights violation to respond militarily to thousands of rockets being fired at civilians?  Would they feel the same way if Vancouver were shelling Seattle? Of course not, but somehow defending Jewish lives is less worthy.Twenty-first century delegitimization can be deadly serious.  Isn’t it something new and frightening when the government of Turkey supports the dispatch of a flotilla of armed radical Islamist fighters, some seeking martyrdom, with cargo to Hamas in Gaza with the purpose of providing a confrontation with Israel and calls it “humanitarian”?And of course I want to talk today about the Goldstone Report.  This was the document produced by the so-called United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict.  I say “so-called” because there was very little actual fact finding.  Taking you back, from 2005 through 2008, Palestinian – mostly Hamas – forces in Gaza had fired about 3,000 rockets at civilian targets in Israel.  At the end of 2009, Hamas launched “Operation Oil Stain,” firing 87 mortar shells, Katyusha and Qassam rockets at Israel in a single day.  The next day, then prime minister Ehud Olmert went on al-Aribiya television giving a final warning to Hamas to stop the shelling – this warning was answered with more Qassam rocket fire.  The Israeli military then initiated Operation Cast Lead against Hamas in Gaza, hoping to put an end to Hamas’ attacks on Israel’s innocent citizens.  After the end of hostilities, the UN Human Rights Commission – consisting of such even-handed pillars of human rights as Pakistan, Cuba, Algeria and Saudi Arabia, decided to “investigate” the conflict.  The truth of Israel’s conduct of its military operation, and I’m quoting here directly from the former head of British Forces in Afghanistan, is this: “During Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli Defense Forces did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare. Israel did so while facing an enemy that deliberately positioned its military capability behind the human shield of the civilian population. The truth is that the IDF took extraordinary measures to give Gaza civilians notice of targeted areas, dropping over 2 million leaflets, and making over 100,000 phone calls. Many missions that could have taken out Hamas military capability were aborted to prevent civilian casualties. During the conflict, the IDF allowed huge amounts of humanitarian aid into Gaza. To deliver aid virtually into your enemy's hands is, to the military tactician, normally quite unthinkable. But the IDF took on those risks.”  Perhaps no one should have been surprised, but the UN report, which came to be known as the Goldstone Report after the judge who led the team, had a different finding.  It was nothing short of a blood libel: that Israel specifically and purposefully targeted civilians for military strikes as a matter of policy.  Of course, that conclusion was false.  In fact, two weeks ago, Judge Goldstone himself retracted his finding that Israel targeted civilians.  But the damage is done.  The report shocked the world, and led many governments to take specific anti-Israel actions undermining Israel’s legitimate sovereign rights.  These bodies included the governments of the European Union, France, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, China, Nigeria. Global NGOs such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch used the report as an excuse to ramp up their criticism of Israel.  The damage to Israel’s legitimacy is incalculable, and Hamas and other terrorists and enemies of freedom have pointed to the Goldstone report time and again to incite or justify violence. And, while the accusations bear the full imprimatur of the United Nations, the recanting was accomplished with nothing more than an op-ed in the Washington Post.  Indeed, the UN human rights council spokesman said, "the UN will not revoke a report on the basis of an article in a newspaper.”A great president once said, “freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction” - - and that was never more true than today for the Jewish people.  We must be the people of the third matzo – those who work for the freedom of others.YES – it matters that Columbia students have the choice to eat Israeli hummus.  YES – it matters that Jews in the West bank be free to sell skincare products.BUT YES YES YES –it matters that there is no moral equivalence between disciplined, restrained self defense and the brutal murder of infants asleep in their beds or children riding on school buses.  According to Isaiah,  “I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”  Isaiah responded, “Here am I. Send me!” But my answer is, send all of us. All I ask of you is to speak up.  Don’t let these dangerous, bigoted strategic slurs go unanswered.  Use your voice.  Say something.  Be firm.  Be loud. The freedom of the next generation depends upon it.

Here are my notes from a briefing by Dr. Bruce W. Assaf on “Understanding Radical Islam,” presented by the Centennial Institute on the campus of Colorado Christian University, March 9, 2011.  An audience of about 100 students and community members attended. 1.  Islamic Jihadists exist within Islam. Islam is not purely a religion but also a political program for world dominance.  Jihadist leaders and their followers are sworn enemies of Western civilization. They seek to destroy the US especially because we represent the supreme achievement of Western/Judeo-Christian civilization, expressed in freedom and capitalism. They also seek our destruction because we are Israel’s principal supporters. The 9-11 attack was the Jihadists’ de facto declaration of war. 2. Islamic Jihadists want to impose Shariah law worldwide (“Triumphalism”).- Sharia law encompasses Mohammed’s views on God and government, not separable.- Unlike our religious tolerance, Islamic Fundamentalists do not tolerate any other religious practitioners, not even other Muslim sects.- All non-Muslims are infidels, to be eradicated.- Even moderate Muslims must be corrected. 3. Mohammed introduced Islam to unify and motivate Arabs,- Before Mohammed, Arabs were tribal and pagan, those tribes engaged in constant internecine battles and worshipping numerous local deities.- He recognized that a single compelling religion, defining all others as enemies, would unify them.- In those times, people expected/needed strong, unquestionable leadership, which continues to be Muslim cultural tradition. 4. Jihadist Muslims detest Jews and Christians.- Jews and Christians are Islam’s religious competition.- Jewish and Christian traditions promulgate individual freedom and democratic governments.- Jews and Christians share the same historic roots but gleaned a different outcome.- Jews and Christians share the same scriptural tradition but derived a different world-view.- Americans, Europeans and Israelis experience freedom and prosperity.- Islam 5. History documents Islam’s Anti-Western jihad. a. After Mohammed, Islam overran the non-European lands from West Africa to north-central India, plus much of Spain. b. The Islamic takeover of Europe was halted in northern Spain and in the Balkans. c. Recently Jihadists have resumed their assault.- Amin al-Husseini, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, encouraged Hitler’s “final solution.”- Yasser Arafat, a protégé of al-Husseini, instructed Arabs to vacate Israel upon its establishment, thus creating the persistent refugee problem which he then used (through his PLO) for leverage in the UN.- In 1991 GHW Bush tried for peace by pressing for recognition of Palestinian territory, but the PLO and its supporters want dominance, not peace.- Clinton and GW Bush have also tried, even compelling Israel to leave Gaza.- Now Obama (pro-Muslim whether intentionally or through naivete) openly proclaims his preference for the Muslim perspective and demands that Israel capitulate.- Because European nations host huge Islamic populations (see below), these nations’ policy-makers have become pro-Muslim, and thus UN decisions favor Muslim demands. - Appeasement a la Chamberlain only encourages bullies.- Jihadists use our tolerance and our freedom of speech to undermine us.- d. Current Mideast turmoil repeats the pattern of Iran in 1979.- Muslim Brotherhood and related Jihadist groups promulgate revolt, inviting media coverage (always hungry for “crises”).- Then they intensify the turmoil by haranguing protesters about their grievances and promising them freedom and prosperity if they follow these “leaders.”- Once the established government collapses, the fundamentalists (e.g., Khomeini, Taliban, Muslim Brotherhood) take control to restore order but do so through totalitarian oppression.- The objective is dominance of the oil and gas fields and the Suez Canal, crucial for commercial shipping and naval maneuverability, thereby crippling Western economies. e. Additionally, Muslim leaders encourage large families.- In impoverished regions, the resultant hunger fuels resentment.- Overpopulation motivates migration - “Fatwa” = immigration/infiltration as a technique for surreptitious conquest. 6. Quote from Omar Ahmad, Chairman of Council on American-Islamic Relations: “Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faith but to become dominant.” – San Ramon Valley Herald, July 4, 1998. 7.  Quote from then-Senator Barack Obama, “America is no longer a Christian nation.” – email to CBN News Senior National Correspondent David Brody, July 2007. Born in Canada of Lebanese Christian parents, Bruce Assaf now lives in Atlanta. For more on his work, and to order his book, Behind the Veil of Radical Islam: The Coming War, go to www.blowthetrumpetintl.com.

Centennial Review, the monthly speech digest from Centennial Institute, welcomes comments and concerns from our readers.  The current issue on "Sharia Law or the Constitution? America Must Choose," by Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, US Army (Ret.), drew adverse reactions from James Moore of Lakewood, Colorado, on a side issue in the discussion (polygamy) and from Karen Stein of Dakota Dunes, SD, on the General's main argument about limits to religious freedom.  Col. Moore's letter regarding who is a Mormon and what Mormons believe or permit, is posted here. Moore Disputes Boykin Feb2011 Ms. Stein's remarks were as follows: Just as Islamic extremists pervert Islam, Boykin perverts both US Constitutional Law and the commands of Christ to love our neighbors as ourselves.  His calls to prosecute Islamic leaders and imams for advocating Sharia law and to investigate Mosques and "find" violations of law, because of their rhetoric, are shocking travesties of fundamental rights of free speech and free exercise of religion that should make all freedom loving Americans gag in revulsion.   If we turn his comments around and say that churches should be investigated and closed (or at least have their tax exempt status forfeited!)  for advocating, say a ban on gay marriage based on moral law, his anti-American, anti-US Constitution bent becomes clear.  We don't prosecute people in this country for advocacy. We don't investigate organizations for rhetoric.  We don't go searching for "violations of law" in order to find reasons to close meeting places.  The solution to wrongful advocacy is advocacy for moral truth and reason.  The solution to hateful rhetoric is preaching the love and truth of Jesus. The solution to violations of law is even-handed law enforcement.  If we no longer can rely on those truths, then the cliche really will apply: the terrorists have won. (Contact her at ellesmere@astound.net) John Andrews, director of Centennial Institute and editor of Centennial Review, commented: "I thank Col. James Moore, who happens to be a personal friend as well as a former member of the Colorado General Assembly, for his civil and military service to our country and his clear statement of official LDS policy.  In Gen. Boykin's defense, it should be noted that "Mormon" is indeed a nickname or informal description for a varied spectrum of Joseph Smith's followers, including not only the main church body of Latter Day Saints whose stand against polygamy is clear, but also some splinter groups and fundamentalist sects that do in fact advocate and undertake plural marriage, legal or not." Andrews continued: "I also thank Karen Stein for her heartfelt and closely reasoned objection to the Boykin recommendations on legal sanctions against Sharia.  Her hypothetical example involving (once again, interestingly) marriage -- specifically, legal sanctions against religious objection to same-sex marriage -- should indeed give us pause.  Centennial Institute's Kevin Miller similarly warns against the two-edged sword of "virtue politics" in his new book, Freedom Nationally, Virtue Locally - or Socialism.  In my view, however, Boykin is not advocating the sort of virtue cram-down against which Stein and Miller have written.  Rather he is challenging us to think hard about the manifest incompatibility between a Koran-mandated legal-political-governmental-judicial system of Sharia and our U.S. Constitution.  As I put it in the sidebar article alongside Boykin's essay, the central and unavoidable (though painful) question is whether a good Muslim can be a good American.  Ms. Stein seems to think the answer is yes.  I remain unconvinced."          

In light of recent events in Lebanon, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, and elsewhere, it is important to understand that the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) is at the root of these events, and is simply following their strategic plan.  The Global Islamic Movement (led by the MB) is now seizing power in these countries according to their World Underground Movement Plan (see below).  What we are witnessing in Egypt is simple to understand when done so in light of the Brotherhood’s stated objectives, documents, and the writings/speeches of their key leaders. These are the facts surrounding the events in Egypt that may be helpful in understanding what is actually happening there: The Muslim Brotherhood was created in Egypt in 1928 as a global revolutionary Sunni Islamic Movement to re-establish the Global Islamic State (Caliphate) under which Shariah (Islamic Law) is the law of the land All authoritative Islamic Law mandates Muslims to wage “Jihad” - only defined in Islamic Law as “warfare against non-Muslims” - until the world is claimed for Islam The MB’s Creed is:  “Allah is our goal; the Messenger is our guide; the Koran is our law; Jihad is our means; and martyrdom in the way of Allah is our inspiration.” The Muslim Brotherhood has published strategic documents detailing how they infiltrate societies and replace the governmental systems (non-adherent Islamic systems and non-Muslim governments) with Shariah (Islamic Law) The MB’s document, “Phases of the World Underground Movement Plan” defines five (5) phases of the MB’s infiltration into a society: o I.     Discreet / Secret establishment of elite leadership o II.   Gradual appearance on the public scene & utilizing various public activities o III.  Escalation phase, prior to conflict/confrontation with rulers, utilizing mass media o IV.  Open public confrontation with the government through political pressure approach o V.   Seizing power to establish the Islamic Nation In October 2010, the international leader (Supreme Guide) of the MB, Mohammed Badie, accused Arab & Muslim regimes of not following Islamic Law, and called for Jihad against Israel & the U.S. On January 8, 2011, Dr. Imad Mustafa (Al Azhar) issued a fatwa calling for “offensive jihad” January 15, 2011:  Tunisia in turmoil as the President flees January 24, 2011:  Protests break out in Egypt February 2, 2011:  Jordan’s King fires his Cabinet following public protests February 2, 2011:  Yemen’s President Saleh says he will step down in 2013 The “unrest” in Egypt is being orchestrated by the Muslim Brotherhood Egypt is in Phase 5 of the MB’s Plan The Muslim Brotherhood’s overt/violent operation in Egypt seeks to replace the current government with one which will fulfill the MB’s objective – to ensure the full implementation of Shariah (Islamic Law) in Egypt In 1980, the Egyptian Constitution was amended to make Shariah (Islamic Law) the primary source of legislation in Egypt, therefore, Egypt is already an Islamic State The greatest friction point between the MB and the Mubarak regime has been the regime’s failure to support the full implementation of Islamic Law in Egypt per the Constitution Senior U.S. leadership has stated Egyptians “want what we want.”  Western media portrays the demonstrators in Egypt as people who want “democracy” and “freedom.”  The Egyptians themselves, however, overwhelmingly support Shariah, and many support terrorist organizations (see below) A 2010 Pew Research Poll revealed the following about Egyptians views: o 95% believe Islam should play a “large role in politics”o 49% believe Islam only plays a “small role” in Egypt todayo 84% believe apostates from Islam should face the death penaltyo 82% believe adulterers should be stonedo 77% believe thieves should be flogged or have their hands cut offo 54% believe men and women should be segregated in the work placeo 49% have a favorable opinion of Hamaso 30% have a favorable opinion of Hizbollaho 20% have a favorable opinion of Al Qaeda The aforementioned poll indicates a vast majority of Egyptians do not, in fact, believe in Western principles of individual liberties, human rights, or governance. Egypt is a member of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the second largest international body in the world - the UN is the largest.  The OIC member states include all 57 Islamic States in the world, including Egypt The OIC officially served the “Cairo Declaration” to the UN in 1993 which specifically defines “Human Rights” as those rights defined by “Shariah” Critical Linkage:  It can be demonstrated that many Muslim advisors to the U.S. government are Muslim Brothers or sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood cause.  The most prominent Islamic organizations in the United States, with which the U.S. government outreaches, are all controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood.  These include hundreds of groups, but specifically all of the Islamic organizations working with the U.S. government including, but not limited to: o Islamic Society of North America (ISNA)o Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR)o Muslim Student Association (MSA)o Muslim American Society (MAS)o Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA)o Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA)o North American Islamic Trust (NAIT)o International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT)o Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) This document is meant to put the current events around the world in a new light for those who read it.  What we are witnessing may be the overt revolutionary overthrow of governments around the world by the International Muslim Brotherhood and their collaborators.  This is the same Muslim Brotherhood advising the U.S. National Leadership and our National Security apparatus on how to respond to the events in Egypt and elsewhere.  John Guandolo is vice president of the Strategic Engagement Group in Washington DC (www.StrategicEngagement.com), a former counter-terrorism expert for the FBI, and a Centennial Institute Fellow  

Eric Metaxas gave a talk on his book "Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy" on Tuesday night at the John Paul II Center here in Denver. An overflow crowd of over 300 people showed, including Bill Armstrong, the President of CCU, John Andrews, the head of the Centennial Institute, Charles Chaput, the Bishop of the Arch Diocese of Denver, as well as a representation of Orthodox Priests and others. Metaxas was funny, profound, and made many points that hit home!  It is clear to me that the relation of Bonhoeffer to the German church in the 1930s, which accommodated the growing evil of Hitler with rationalizations and willful blindness, is the SAME relationship WE have to our secular society! Our secular government treats the growing evil of the vicious totalitarian Salafist Islam with the same politically correct rationalizations and willful blindness!   Many churches indulge in the same moral relativist reluctance to name and stand up to evil, glossing over everything with the bland "loving forgiving God" that requires nothing of us: what Bonhoeffer called "cheap grace"! It's clear to me that we in the Counter Jihad are called to follow in Bonhoeffer's footsteps in his uncompromising stand against the growing evil and to work to defeat it.  Bonhoeffer's prominent family had many Jewish friends. He was aware of the (then secret) "Final Solution" in progress, and helped Jewish friends and their families escape, as well as participating in the plot to kill Hitler. He was hanged by the Gestapo three weeks before the end of the war. Interesting: one man stood up and demanded to know how Bonhoeffer, as a Christian, could countenance the killing of Hitler?  The answer was superb: "was it right for David to kill Goliath?"  The question was a perfect example of the formalist church rationalizing its inaction in the face of evil. Two books highly recommended:  "Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy" by Eric Metaxas. "The Cost of Discipleship" by Bonhoeffer himself

So Muhammad Ali Hasan,twice an unsuccessful Republican candidate (treasurer this year, legislature in 2008) says he is done with the GOP and now getting chummy with Nancy Pelosi. "GOP Loses Hasan," the headline says. No, I would say a better term would be the GOP has finally gotten rid of the man! In light of world-wide Islamic Jihadist violence, Mr Hasan's continual whining about Muslim "persecution and discrimination" has worn a little thin. To disagree with him in any way is to trigger shrieks of "racism", which is no more than meaningless name calling. After all, Islam is a belief attribute, NOT a biological one. He says the GOP doesn't "work for immigrants and Muslims". If he means we object to flooding our country with illegal immigrants, and fail to continually kow tow to "Muslim sensibilities", which means the implementation of their Shari'ah Law to our own detriment, then Mr Hasan is correct. For him to say he has no knowledge of Muslim persecution of gays or the Qur'anic concept of Taqqiya (permissible lying) is beyond belief! Does Mr. Hasan really think that if he ignores it, it will go away? The release of the information about Mr McInnis' business dealings with the Hasan family was precisely timed to destroy Mr McInnis' bid for Governor and throw the race to the Democrats.  It's hard to see how the Hasan family has been much of a Republican asset. Here is the story in full:Colorado GOP loses Hasan Colorado Independent by John Tomasic on 12/9/10http://coloradoindependent.com/69449/colorado-gop-loses-hasan Muhammad Ali Hasan, a member of the wealthy and influential ColoradoRepublican Hasan family and a past state House and treasurer candidate,said he is switching parties. Speaking at the University ofColorado-Boulder on his experience growing up Muslim in the AmericanWest and later in conversation with the Colorado Independent, Hasansaid he is ending his affiliation with the party for the bigotry hebelieves has shaped Republican politics over the last year. The FOXNews regular and founder of Muslims for Bush said he met recently withHouse Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the controversial Democratic leader wonhim over. “I met her in Los Angeles. For a Republican that’s like He-Man [meetingwith] Skeletor,” he said, referencing the Masters of the Universecartoon arch-enemies. “I am impressed by her vision. She convinced methat the Democrats will work to protect and further the interests andopportunities of minority Americans. That matched with the politics ofReagan for me. He was a champion of the American dream, the idea ofAmerica as a shining city on a hill. He expanded opportunities throughsmall business credits and amnesty for immigrants. It was all aboutopportunity. “I have three top political heroes: Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush andnow Nancy Pelosi. She has such a spine, like Reagan and Bush, they allhave that in common: a spine of steel that comes from conviction.” Major financial backers of conservative causes and candidates in thestate and friends to national GOP leaders and successive Republicanpresidential administrations, the Hasans have publicly struggled withthe post-Bush Palin-era GOP. Matriarch Seeme Hasan during the “GroundZero Mosque” debate said she didn’t recognize the party. Ali Hasan’sdefection comes in the wake of news that state GOP lawmakers willintroduce tough Arizona-style immigration legislation and held a highprofile hearing on the topic with a slanted roster of experts thatfeatured almost no immigrant rights groups but several with ties towhite supremecist organizations. A hardline fiscal conservative and champion of Constitutional equality,Hasan says Republicans have merely paid lip service to the former andhave effectively come to oppose the latter. “Look at what the state Republican party thinks of Doug Bruce,” he saidreferring to the controversial anti-tax crusading author of Colorado’sTaxpayer Bill of Rights. “And there is no record of fiscalconservativism on the federal level. So that’s one side and then Ithink ‘I believe in the American dream for everyone and which party isfighting for immigrants, gays, Muslims?’ The GOP has attacked them.Democrats want to work for them. ” State convention whisper campaign Hasan said he felt alienated between national Republican leaders on oneside railing against the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque” and gays andillegal immigrants and, on the other, state Republican delegatesconvinced that as a candidate for treasurer he was angling to installsharia finance laws. He said the GOP convention in May was a low point. “You experience bigotry sometimes but I often just think it’s probablymy personality that the person doesn’t like. At the convention, though,that was the first time I felt the real thing. It was the worstexperience of my life.” Hasan suspects a whisper campaign swept the convention, sounding awarning against placing a Muslim in charge of investing the state’srevenues. “Some goons were telling people that there’s a passage in the Koranthat encourages Muslims to lie, that lying is considered a good thingin the service of advancing a Muslim or sharia agenda. I don’t know whowas behind the rumor, but I’ve read the Koran, and I don’t know whatthey were talking about.” Hasan said in the run up to the convention he personally called the3,500 delegates and talked to roughly 1,500 who said he could count ontheir vote. He said he ran this “informal survey” through his pollster and thenumbers made sense because Hasan was getting heavy support from theWestern Slope where he lives and has been active while his opponent,J.J. Ament, was pulling well from the eastern Front Range districts. “In the end, we guessed we’d get 40 percent support at the conventionas a basement estimate.” That didn’t happen. Hasan drew roughly 20 percent of delegate support,missing the cut off to make the ballot by 10 percent. He said the weekend of the convention he watched hundreds of supportersfall away. Delegate after delegate approached him and mentioned theKoran and said in so many words that they weren’t sure they could trusthim. “It hurt. People who had said they were voting for me were now comingup to me and saying ‘You know, I hear you could be lying to us.’ I wasshocked. I got the courage to approach some of them, people I hadtalked to and who said they were voting for me. Here they were wearingJ.J. Ament stickers. I was like, you know, wow, and they said ‘But howdo I know you’re not going to assert some form of sharia law againstColorado?’” Hasan said he was deflated after talking to one woman at length. “I told her I started Muslims for Bush. I’m proud of that. I told her Ihave been a vocal fiscal conservative for years. I said I’ve given toRepublican candidates on the federal and state level. I helped getRepublican candidates elected to House seats in 2008 when Democratswere winning everything… Finally I asked her ‘There’s nothing I can sayto win your vote because my name is Muhammad, am I right?’ and she said‘Yeah, that’s probably right.’” Hasan said he met time and again with Republican voters and leadersacross the state in campaigning for treasurer and that “in groups of20, the fact that my name is Muhammad was never a bad thing, but at theconvention, there were 5,000 people who were all suddenly suspicious ofMuslims.” As the Colorado Independent reported at the time, the Ament campaignclearly traded on anti-muslim sentiment or at least on domestic fearsof Muslim rule in the Mahgreb. Ament claimed in campaign literature,for instance, that Hasan would lift Colorado overseas investrestrictions and put taxpayer cash to work for the “genocidal regime inSudan” and to further Iranian nuclear ambitions. Yet Hasan said he doesn’t blame Ament for what happened at theconvention. The thing that got him, he said, was that GOP delegateswere so willing to believe the ridiculous rumors. In fact, he said, he shouldn’t have been surprised. Muslim cowboy Hasan said that when he was considering running for House District56three years ago, an adviser told him that his being Muslim was muchless an issue than the fact that he was a filmmaker and not a rancher.“You gotta go work on a ranch to be able to relate to these people,”the adviser told him. So Hasan did. Dressed in a suit, cowboy boots andmatching turquoise bolo tie and enormous belt buckle, Hasan said he isproud of the work he did just bringing salt licks out to the animalsand watching the weather. “What I learned is that a cowboy is a person who says the same thing nomatter the setting. I also learned that nature is the same way, honest.” In 2008, Muhammad Ali the Rancher won the support of lots of voters onthe Western Slope. He lost to Democrat Christine Scanlan by a fewpercentage points, and the problem, he said, was Republicans. “I would have won if not for Republicans. Polling was through the roofwith independents and we made huge inroads with Democrats. But we neverbroke 65 percent with Republicans, who cast between 90 percent and 95percent for [U.S. Senate candidate Bob] Schaffer and [presidentialcandidate John] McCain. You need that 90 percent to win. “Republican voters cost us 56. I should have learned from that.” The “Ground Zero Mosque” Hasan said that although his experience at the convention wasdispiriting, it wasn’t actually a turning point. He said he’s forevergrateful to the 20 percent delegates who voted for him and who woreHASAN tee-shirts around the convention and notes that in the weeksafter the convention he enthusiastically endorsed GOP primary winnerWalker Stapleton and gave generously to GOP candidates across the state. It was national politics that set him over the edge. “When Bush left, it seems like a vacuum opened up and into it rushedbigotry.” He ticks off topics that have shaped national GOP politics this year:Support for anti-gay marriage Proposition 8 in California; Arizona’stough SB1070 immigration law; support for repealing the naturalizedcitizenship granted by the 14th Amendment; and what he calls “theMosque issue.” He said he couldn’t believe the way the plans to build the CordobaCenter Mosque escalated. “I dismissed it as a joke. It was crazy people. Then it was oneRepublican leader after another looking to strip Constitutional rightsout of just bigotry.” He pointed out the change that had come over leaders like Newt Gingrichand Sarah Palin, onetime Muslim defenders, he said, whom he now sees onthis topic as the worst kind of pandering politicians. “The ‘Ground Zero Mosque’ was never about the mosque, which was reallyjust a health club, a swimming pool…. That was all about rallying thebase.” He eventually wrote a popular blog on the topic for the Huffington Postcomparing the move to ban the mosque to so-called red-lining racistzoning laws in the pre-Civil Rights era. “I was okay after the convention. I decided all that was just anaberration and that I would just let it fade. But the 14th Amendmentdebate, the ugly mosque politics, that just killed my hopes.”   The Polis-Pelosi connection In the wake of the mosque flap, Hasan said he emailed his friendCongressman Jared Polis, a man he said he has admired for years. “If you want to convince me to become a Democrat, you have your chance.” Polis said he had someone he wanted Hasan to talk to and then he set upthe meeting with Pelosi. “I thought to myself, ‘Well, I’m not a socialist, so I don’t think Ican be a Democrat,’” Hasan said, joking. “But Nancy Pelosi’s peoplecalled me up and said she wanted to meet with me and I talked about itwith my mom. She said ‘Baby, when the third most powerful person in theworld asks you to join her party, you better think about it.’” Hasan said his mother said she was committed to the Republican partybecause she wants to work to change it but she told Hasan that hisopportunities lie with the Democrats. “You can’t win office as aRepublican,” she told him. “You deserve a chance to win.” Hasan said he knows he has to put in the same “blood and sweat” for theDemocratic party now that he has put into the Republican party over theyears. He’s looking at running again for office in six to eight years.He said he’s “thinking in election cycles.” His first step is going tobe to form a group to fight to protect the rights of and expandopportunities for minorities. “If we fight on a Constitutional basis and not on emotion, we willwin,” he said. “I don’t defend Muslims because I’m Muslim. I’m not evena good Muslim. I’m a sinner. I’m a political hack and an interfaithpractitioner…. I defend Muslims because I stand against bigotry,because I don’t want bigotry to exist.” [