Monthly Archives: January 2015

Islamic Extremism, Oh My!

Our government is tripping all over itself not wanting to attribute ‘violent extremism’ to the Islamic religion.

In a meeting on Friday, January 23, 2015, held in Davos, Switzerland, our Secretary of State, John Kerry spoke in front of a group of our allies at a World Economics Forum.  In his speech, he said that extremists who are killing children and others in Iraq, Syria, Nigeria and other parts of the world may cite Islam as a justification, but the West should be careful about calling them Islamic radicals. He went on to say that it would be a mistake to link Islam to criminal conduct rooted in alienation, poverty, thrill-seeking and other factors.

Kerry also said, “We have to keep our heads.  The biggest error we could make would be to blame Muslims for crimes…that their faith utterly rejects.  We will certainly not defeat our foes by vilifying potential partners.  We may very well fuel the very fires that we want to put out.”

These comments irritated our allies from France and England, as our administration has yet to use the term, ‘Islamic extremism.’    The British Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, stood next to Kerry and urged the defeat of what he called “the scourge of violent Islamist extremism.”

Hurray for our allies!  At least, they have the guts to place the blame where it rightly belongs.   So why does our government do the ‘two-step’ shuffle to assure the three words ‘violent Islamic extremist’ never appear in the same sentence.  Could there be an unknown Islamic influence in our highest government?

Just look at what has happened recently.  There was the shooting, in Paris, of magazine employees and Jewish customers in a deli.  The people that carried out those attacks were Muslim.  There happened the beheading of at least one Japanese citizen, which was broadcast on the internet by, right again, Muslims.  There are atrocities of dynamic proportions taking place in Africa.  These include murder, rape, and selling women into slavery.  This, too, is being done by Muslims. All of the past bombings of US embassies and of the World Trade Center were done by Muslims.  The Boston Marathon bombing and the carnage caused at Ft. Hood were all carried out by Muslims.

These events are just the tip of a very deep iceberg, and yet our government, in light of all these events, is incapable of blaming the ‘violent Islamic extremists.’

I have researched until I am blue in the face and I cannot put one of these events onto the shoulders of any mournful Methodist, bible totin’ Baptist, or a perturbed Presbyterian.  There is not even a Hindu, Mormon, Catholic, or Jew in the bunch.  Nope.  Try as I may, they are all being done by Muslims!  And only Muslims!  All of these atrocious events are being done by members of the second largest, fastest growing religion in the world!

I believe much of this ‘Islamic-led’ violence is for money.  You don’t kidnap a village full of women and sell them into slavery because there wasn’t a good soccer game on the TV.  You don’t run amok and conquer oil fields for the sake of admiring a landscape full of oil derricks and sand..  ISIL has been pumping that oil and selling it for……money!  So, admittedly, there are many of these events taking place for greed.  Lets face it, some of these people that are being recruited into these land-grabbing, oil well-thieving, slavery-selling ventures are being paid quite well for their efforts.  Probably much more than they can get paid in a democratic, capitalistic society.

Then you have the zealots.  These are the ‘Mohamed inspired’ nut jobs that are the suicide bombers.  (Even though we have now learned that Saddam Hussein was paying money for suicide bombers to bomb Israel.)  These are the people that follow Sharia Law to the ultimate degree.  Kill anyone who does not believe in Mohamed!  Kill anyone who leaves the Muslim religion!   All religions other than the believers of Mohamed are infidels and deserve to die!  If you don’t know about Sharia Law, I cannot advise strongly enough for you to acquaint yourself with the tenants of Sharia Law.  (I published a blog called, What Flavor of Islam Do You Like, in September, 2014.  You will want to read it.)  When you combine the Islamic zealotry with the Islamic ‘money mongers’, it produces a combustible mixture of Islamic-inspired extremism.

So why are there so many of these people flocking to ISIL, Al Qaeda, Boko Harem and similar organizations?

Have you ever used Wikipedia?  Did you know there is a WikiIslam?  It is a website full of information targeted to the peoples of the Islamic religion, just as we Americans use Wikipedia.

John Kerry may have hit upon something when he said that the criminal conduct of these misguided Muslims was because of ‘alienation, poverty and thrill seeking.’  Because, as a major religion, the adherents of the Islamic religion are the most illiterate in the world.

Need proof?

According to WikiIslam, the whole Arab world of almost 1.5 billion people translates about three hundred books annually.  The country of Greece translates fives times that number alone.  The 10,000 books translated into Spanish every year exceeds the total number of books translated into Arabic over the last millennium!   The Arab world’s total investment in research and development is less than one seventh of the world average.  Fifty-seven Muslim majority (all members of the OIC, Organization of Islamic Conference) countries have an average of ten universities each for a total of less that 600 universities for 1.5 billion people. The country of India has 8,400 universities.  The United States has 5,758 universities.  Six out of ten Muslims cannot read!  In Christendom, the adult literacy rate stands at 78 percent.  Nearly half of all Arab women are illiterate.  There were no statistics available for how much “brainwashing homeschooling” that goes on over there.

Here are some disturbing statistics from specific countries.

Denmark – Two thirds of all immigrant school children with Arabic backgrounds are illiterate after ten years in the Danish school system.  Muslims make up 5% of the population but receive 40% of social-welfare outlays.

Nigeria – Illiteracy among Nigerian women of child-bearing age is three times as high among Muslims (71.9%) as among non-Muslims (23.9%).  Two-thirds of Nigerian Muslim women lack any formal education.

How about our Islamic progressive ally, Saudi Arabia – Saudi Arabia did not have a high school until after 1930.  Its first girls’ school was established after 1950.  The Saudis have only 250 public libraries to serve a population of 26 million.  The Saudis spend millions to translate the Quran into other languages, without a similar effort for foreign books.  The youth unemployment rate in 2009 was over 30%!

Tajikistan – Official figures show there are more mosques than schools in this country.  There are 3,425 regular mosques, 344 cathedral mosques, and 40 central cathedral mosques.  There are 3,793 overcrowded schools, with up to 40 students per classroom.

United Kingdom – In 2004, one-third of Muslims of working age in Great Britain had no qualifications, the highest proportion for any religious group!  They were the least likely to have degrees or equivalent education.  Thirty-five percent of all Muslim children are growing up in a household where no adult is in employment, compared with 17.6% of all dependent children.

Yemen – A shocking 65% of married Yemeni women, age 15 to 24, are illiterate.

The Middle East has the highest rate of unemployment in the world.  It is habitually over 10% compared to 6% for the world.  Three-quarters of Arab youth want to migrate to countries out of their region, due to rising unemployment in Arab states.  Unemployment among the youth group in Arab countries is over 26%!  It is typically over 40% for people under 25 years old.

These facts and statistics can all be found on WikiIslam.  (Hopefully, Homeland Security does not find me by knocking on my door for using the site!)  I could go on and on, but you certainly have been able to connect the dots.  The lack of education prevalent throughout the Islamic culture results in many, many disaffected youths.  These people want to leave the Islamic, especially the Mideast, countries for better opportunities.  Unfortunately, they are uneducated and unqualified to hold anything other than a menial job – if they can even get that.  They will then take advantage of the social-welfare programs or possibly become terrorists, or both.  Think about this.  With that background, what would their other options really be?

In November, 2011, the Arab League held a conference in Qatar for member-countries.  Khalid Al Wahishi, director of Population Policy and Immigration at Arab League, said the following:  “We at Arab League have been warning member states at all our meetings to empower the youth.  Unemployment, alarmingly high at 26%, poor participation of youth, and illiteracy are major hindrances to population policy development and implementation.”

I could not agree more.  So what has been done since then?  Well, since you are attempting to reconfigure the mindset of people who have been indoctrinated by a centuries old religion, you can imagine what corrective measures have taken place.  Not many, if any.  This would require the 1% ‘haves’ to spend some of their massive wealth on the ‘have nots.’  They would have to purchase one less Rolls Royce or solid silver Mercedes to build a school or two, and that is not likely to occur.  The ‘haves’ don’t want to share.  And, as long as the Islamic terrorist groups do not directly attack them, they are rather indifferent about the terrorist group.

The only changes that have occurred is that there are more and larger ‘Islamic extremist organizations,’ and there are employment opportunities galore for unemployed and uneducated Islamic youths.   Luckily for the extremist organizations, they have a large uneducated, unemployed labor pool from which to garner employees.

Connect the dots.  The oligarchys that are governing these Muslim countries in the name of Islam need to make a more concerted effort to educate their populace and provide greater opportunities to the young people.  Otherwise, the Western civiilizations will be facing Islamic extremists for a long, long time.

The murder, rape, slavery, and extortion business is profitable, and it appears that business has been booming.

The Fable of the Tortoise and the U.S.

I am amazed at how quickly some issues can be resolved, seemingly faster than the Starship Enterprise at warp 9.  Alternately, I am also amazed at how slowly some issues get resolved.  These issues move more slowly than a centipede in maple syrup.

As I am writing this, there is all kinds of terroristic turmoil taking place in Paris.  As you are likely aware, there was a very well planned attack executed on a French magazine.  Their crime?  They (the press) had the audacity to exercise free speech and to make cartoons that satirized the Islamic religion.  (This is very similar to the Danish cartoonist that is still under 24/7 security protection for cartoons he drew ten years ago!  This was discussed in a previous blog.)   Three shooters entered the magazine publishing offices and killed a dozen innocent people.  They obviously had training, as they were quick and precise in their attack.  The hub-bub on TV now was that two of the attackers had taken hostages in one location, while one of their sympathetic friends took hostages at another location:  a Jewish deli.  Two hostage situations at the same time within 24 hours after the initial attack on the magazine.  What a nightmare for French security forces!  Ultimately, the three gunmen were killed, but sadly, hostages at the Jewish deli were also killed.

The point is this, the French security apparatus moved quickly and decisively in handling these situations.  Although innocent lives were unfortunately lost during the assault, the rapid security efforts should be commended as both decisive and timely.

Need an example of a slow response situation for comparison?  Remember Benghazi?  Oh yes, we all suffer from short term memory on occasion.  On this occasion the American ambassador in Libya came under attack.  The compound that he was occupying was attacked by a group that was a little too organized to be a random crowd of displeased Libyans.  This was the initial report from Washington.  The attack took place because disaffected Muslims were upset about some movie.  Yeah, right.  Another DC cover-up.  Unfortunately, this was a very feeble attempt at a cover-up.  The real story is that this attack, which took place on September 11, was conducted by a militia that was originally organized to combat Gaddafi.  The Ambassador to Libya, another embassy employee and two former special forces personnel were killed during this attack.  The U.S. response to the attack?  There wasn’t a response.  No attempt was made by our government to save our citizens in Libya.  Rumor has it that the military had a reaction force and airstrike on the way, but were called back at the insistence of then Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.

A quick French security action versus a slow, non-action on the part of the United States.  Who would have thought that?

Need another example?  Recently, the computers were hacked at Sony.  This hacking allegedly took place because Sony was going to release a movie entitled The Interview.  The plot of this movie included the assassination of the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-Un.  Consequently, some group calling itself the Guardians of Peace hacked personal information of various actors and actresses and intercompany messages with the warning that the movie should not be released.  Supposedly, over 100 terabytes of information were stolen from Sony.  I have difficulty fathoming a terabyte, but it sounds like a boatload of information to the average person.

Anyway, when personal emails were released, that is when the proverbial defecation hit the ventilation.  Someone had the audacity to say that Angelina Jolie was a ‘spoiled brat’.   Other personal messages mocked the POTUS for being black, even though the ‘mockers’ were significant Democrat supporters.   But it was amusing to an outsider like me to see that no one was really concerned about the hacking of the Sony computers until the comments about Angela Jolie became public. 

We have an example of two quick responses to a situation.  The first decisive and quick action was by the hackers.  They also displayed no small measure of technical expertise.  The second quick response was by the actors and actresses that came to the defense of Sony, in general, and Angelina Jolie, specifically.  If there was a red ICBM fire command button located in Hollywood with the missiles aimed at North Korea, someone would have pushed it!  Some of the idiotic comments that came from Hollywood celebrities concerning this event were priceless.  The media took great efforts to suppress the stupidity.  It was indeed entertaining.

Another example of slow?  Do you recognize the names of Nadal Hassan and Dzhokhar Tamerlan?  I know you would instantly recognize them if I mentioned Fort Hood shooter and Boston bomber.  Yup.  These are them.  Nadal Hassan, an American citizen born in the US, killed 13 military personnel and wounded 30 others on November 5, 2009.  His court martial finally took place four years later, without much fanfare and little publicity.  As a matter of fact, I was unaware it had taken place.  He was found guilty on August 23, 2013, and sentenced to death on August 28, 2013.  It took almost four years to try this monster for killing thirteen people!

The jury is still out on Tamerlan, as it has not yet convened.  Tamerlan and his brother took the April 15, 2013, occasion of Patriot Day in Boston to set off a bomb filled with ball bearings inside a pressure cooker.  Three people were killed and 264 wounded.  Many of these wounded were injured seriously, as many of them lost one or two limbs.  So here we go again.  Two terroristic activities that should be cut and dried, but have taken forever and a day crawling their way through the judicial process.  Wouldn’t you think we would have passed laws after 9/11 that would have expedited the judicial process for terroristic acts?

Are we all tired of the gridlock in Washington, DC?  Time for a federal budget?  Time to address social welfare programs?  We were so tired of gridlock under the former congress that we voters gave the Republicans control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives in the last midterm election.   Last Tuesday, January 6, 2015,the new legislators were sworn into office.  Bill Maher, that great political pundit and part-time comedian, chided the new congress on Tuesday night for not having accomplished anything as of yet.  Now that would be fast!

But you do know who is speedier than a little bunny on steroids.  That would be our President, Barack Hussein Obama.  How fast is he?  He is so swift, that before one piece of legislation has been forwarded to him, he threatened on Wednesday, one day after the new congress was sworn in, to veto any legislation being proposed by the Republicans.  Now that is quick!  (Not to mention incredibly stupid!)  What are the principle issues causing the ‘veto’ threat?  The first is the proposal to proceed with the XL pipeline project.  As one senator pointed out, the XL pipeline proposal has been on the table longer than it took the United States to win World War II!  The second item of contention is the Affordable Care Act, aka, Obamacare.  It appears the Republicans want to repeal the law.  It only took a majority to pass the act, but it will take 2/3 to repeal it.  Even if the numbers are there, Obama has threatened a veto.  After all, his name has now been associated with the act.  There are other issues that will be proposed by the new congress, but rest assured, the POTUS will put jet fuel in the inkwell of his ‘veto pen’.

But wait – there’s more!  President Obama has not only placed the threat of vetoes on a fast track, he has also been on the fast track in issuing executive orders  since the midterm election.  Realizing that congress would be controlled by the Republicans, he loaded up his executive order pen with rocket fuel!  Do you know how many executive orders the POTUS has issued between the midterm elections and the three months before the new congress convenes?  Two?  Three?  No, our over-achieving, fast-moving POTUS managed to squeeze in six executive orders before the new congress convened.  Does illegal immigration and amnesty ring a bell?  Now that’s prompt – and efficient!

So, I have come to the conclusion that speed can be attained when necessary, and slow can be attained when convenient.  In the meantime, if you were hoping for the government to achieve results with compromise and eliminating gridlock, you may once again experience an example of stagnant, feet-dragging inefficiency.