Economic Terrorism:

(Compiler's note: Must read This is a real homeland security issue. rca)

The Radical Muslim War Against the Western Tax Base

Mr. Shawn O’Connell

This article was published in the July 2005 volume of the SWJ Magazine.

INTRODUCTION: This paper outlines a theory concerning why Muslim terrorists attacked the World Trade Towers on Sept. 11, 2001, bombed London’s subway during the G-8 economic summit on July 7^th, and detonated blasts in an Egyptian resort on 23^rd July. The reason for these attacks was to create ‘Economic Terrorism.’ Economic Terrorism is defined here as the attempt to assault and destroy a foe through decimation of the enemy’s tax base via rank economic sabotage. Such attacks on economic infrastructures lower net tax yield, thereby shrinking the capital pool for military spending. There is historical warrant for the belligerent use of strategic economic destruction. This is detailed in an iconoclastic book on the Roman Empire’s demise, by peerless Orientalist Henri Pirenne, called ‘Charlemagne and Muhammad’ (1943). This work challenged Gibbon’s thesis that Germanic barbarian assaults doomed Rome, posited in the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776). As we shall see, ‘Economic Terrorism’ is the most potent weapon for Muslim radicals can deploy in their siege against the West. There is hard evidence Islamicists employed Economic Terrorism on Sept. 11 to mangle the US economy, which vicariously damaged the tax base. By extension, this was meant to prune U.S ability to pursue aggressive foreign policy, mount defense and wage war. Radical Islam has long reacted with ambivalence and rage towards capitalism.[1] Framing this debate is a larger ideological struggle, pitting ‘atheistic’ Western capitalistic economics against the Islamic idee fixe – the formulaic Muslim theocracy. Accordingly, a famous radical Muslim intellectual felt that, “…democracy is a form of idol worship. So, too…capitalism, which is…is a form of idolatry.”[2] We now know Al Qaeda was fixated on casing New York financial institutions for years before they attacked. If Islamic terrorists further pursue Economic Terrorism without an organized Western response, the impact upon economy and tax-derived defense will be massive. Also, such attacks won’t be isolated,[3] but recurrent -- given the small cost of assaults and massive potential reward. Therefore, we must study Economic Terrorism and prepare an answer. Ultimately, as the poor and overmatched Islamic terrorists pursue their struggle against the West, they realize this is the best ‘small war’ strategy of all.

WHAT IS ECONOMIC TERRORISM: Let’s here better define ‘economic terrorism.’ First, according to Webster’s, terrorism is: “The state of being terrorized or the act of terrorizing; the use of intimidation to attain one’s goals, or to advance one’s causes.”[4] So, ‘Economic Terrorism’ is the act by any group or state for the sole and illegal purpose of creating economic chaos and collapse as a means of destroying the attendant society, for military, social, political, or religious purposes. This definition is meant to ameliorate certain potential problems in definition. Certainly, Economic Terrorism goes well beyond any simple boycott, embargo, tariff, or trade war between two countries. This would not merely be a case where one country cried ‘foul’ over another’s unfair or even illegal commercial activities. Such actions would have to be shown to be the result of an outright attempt through some malign person or group to create economic chaos meant to undermine the ability of a country to mount a defense or even exist. Some might ask if, for example, perhaps the U.S. could be guilty of Economic Terrorism in its embargo and boycott of Cuba because, after all, our activities badly damaged Cuba’s ability to exist. The simple answer to this is -- No, because America had principled and arguably just reasons for embargoing Cuba that are based upon respect for human rights found nowhere in Marxist countries.

CLASH OF WORLDVIEWS: But, arguendo -- who decides the standard should a dispute erupt between two countries, at say – the United Nations? Radical Islam and the West diverge upon the Western doctrines of freedom and human rights that form the foundation for international law. Therefore, in the name of human rights and freedom, we must insist that whatever country is trying to practice those humanistic doctrines must be favored versus those in opposition, because to not follow this logic is to buy into the terrorist’s insistence to reject human rights, dignity and freedom. The goals of Economic Terrorism are therefore summed as threefold: First, actual attacks upon capitalist citadels meant to inflict maximum real damage. Second, to produce a shockwave of hopelessness and fear meant to remove from businessmen and consumers ease and confidence while conducting or contemplating trade. Third, to inflict such damage upon the money holding and capitalistic organs of society that tax receipts no longer cover any but the most basic expenditures. After this point such a society will become from a practical military sense – de-clawed and toothless.

STRIKE AGAINST CAPITALISM: So, the Sept. 11 terrorists specifically targeted American, and now European capitalism. But, let’s ask specifically -- Why? For several reasons, the first being pragmatic, the second ideological. First, as a doctrine of war, damaging the industrial and economic infrastructure of your opponent means limiting their ability to attack and defend. Hence, such was executed during U.S. General Sherman’s ‘March to the Sea’ in the Civil War, and also employed in the strategic bombing of Dresden, Germany during WW II. Both came as classic examples of economic destruction as a component of ‘Total War.’ But there is also an ideological component of Islamicists opposing capitalism that must be reckoned. The free market philosophy of capitalism generally opposes the theocratic Muslim concept of the perfect Islamic state, where all human decisions are pre-formatted. It is unsurprising then that Sayyid Qutb, a highly influential modern Islamic Intellectual referred to as “the brains behind bin Laden[5]" wrote a book called The Battle between Islam and Capitalism. [6] Of course, a preemptive act of sabotage would appeal to terrorists for predictable reasons. For one, it would be an audacious way to land an unguarded strategic blow. Therefore, the impact would be magnified, both psychologically and in fact. It was also an inexpensive way to hurt a rich country, and perhaps the best way for poor, unarmed terrorists to take on a superpower. Further, we know the Sept. 11 terrorists specifically concentrated on economic targets. This news was announced when the Washington Post wrote of an intelligence coup gleaned from a captured computer in the aftermath of a failed assassination against Pakistani President Musharraf. The captured materials tell of Al Qaeda’s American, pre-9-11 surveillance, the Post remarking, “Perhaps the most important break from Khan's arrest was the discovery of a laptop and computer disks containing scouting reports and hundreds of photographs of financial institutions in the United States -- targets that officials said were exhaustively surveilled by al Qaeda in 2000 and 2001.”[7]

RADICAL MUSLIM GOAL: The current U.S. administration’s claim that the Islamicist attack upon America are a ‘rejection of Western values’ finds merit here. On September 20, 2001, President Bush asked rhetorically -- “"Why do they hate us?"…They hate our freedoms: our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote…,” etc. This approach sagely sidesteps tendentious (and to Westerners -- inexplicable) terrorist religious motivations, instead focusing upon the main Muslim terrorist goal. This goal is the economic ruination of Western economies, and thereby their military and societal expressions. It was the Islamic terrorist’s studied intent to cripple America via a brutal attack on the heart of American economic infrastructure and international capitalism. This was symbolically raised against the World Trade Towers. The notion of the military value of such attacks was foreshadowed by Professor Henri Pirenne’s description of the terminal collapse of the Roman Empire being precipitated not, as commonly claimed, by the inexorable onslaught of Germanic tribes. Instead, Pirenne believed it was the asphyxiating impact of the Muslim Saracens in the guise of insatiable pirates driving a stake into the heart of Christendom, thereby precipitating the “Middle Ages” period of European decline. Pirenne believed Muslim pirates attacked so many ships, trading posts and caravans around the Mediterranean that commerce around that body of water literally evaporated, as traders and caravan organizers found the risks of continuing too great. So literally, Rome collapsed as she lost her trading centers and routes, then the attendant tax base.

ATTACK UPON TAXES: One key goal of the terrorists in their Sept. 11 attack upon the World Trade Towers was to reduce tax collection. In fact, this could be argued their main goal. While this may not seem obvious at first, it almost goes without saying upon further reflection. America’s ability to be the preeminent world military power is based first upon its status as being and remaining the preeminent world economic power. It is only by maintaining this that the U.S. can afford all the many expenditures associated with a high-powered, state of the art, rapid response military. Hurting the American economy would not achieve the goals of the terrorists Muslims unless it also reduced our tax base. These fanatics were also interested in destroying the American way of life, thrilled at the idea of proving America a flaccid entity run by infidels. Yet the destruction of the tax base was their real goal. Reduced taxes means an overall trimmed budget, which yields smaller military expenditures, and in the long term it would mean a decline in American ability to put their convictions into concrete actions. Henri Pirenne claims a similar thing happened to the Roman Empire.

THE WEST, ISLAM, ECONOMICS & PIRENNE: Modern Islamic terrorists are not nearly as unschooled in Western liberal arts traditions as popular culture claims, especially in world history. In fact, many 9-11 terrorists were university educated. It is a conflict truism that the worst mistake participants make is underestimating their opponent’s abilities. Yet, in reducing the profile of terrorists Muslims to those of illiterate, fanatically religious peasants, we overlook an opportunity to understand the ideas and motives which animate them. Accordingly, this paper’s theory of the Muslim terrorist’s mindset goes like this. Given the terrorist’s Muslim pride in their great historic moments, and how famed Pirenne’s thesis became, it’s highly unlikely they didn’t know of his theory. Especially that he posited Muslim aggressions and piracy precipitated Rome’s fall. Further, it’s not relevant whether Pirenne’s Roman decline thesis is entirely correct. Instead, it’s merely helpful to explain the terrorist’s actions. This is almost certain, especially considering the last thousand years of Islamic frustration, which naturally encouraged their emphasizing Islam’s great ‘Golden Age.’ This recounting covers a period of Islamic genius fostering an Augustan epoch of unparalleled achievement in science, arts, literature, and military prowess – and lionizes figures like Saladin, who bested the Crusaders.[8] Beyond this, granting how the wide array of possible targets they had in New York alone, it is more than coincidence that the eponymously named World Trade Towers were chosen. But, for skeptic’s sake, it’s possible that the terrorists were wholly ignorant of Pirenne’s “Mohammed and Charlemagne.” Yet, even if historically ignorant, they clearly were still motivated by Economic Terrorism to attack the World Trade Towers, bomb London’s ‘Tube’ during the G-8 summit, and shatter the Egyptian Sharm el-Sheikh resort.

EFFECTS OF THE SEPTEMBER-ELEVEN TERRORIST ATTACKS: The impact upon the American economy, and by osmosis, the rest of the Western economies from the 9-11 attacks has been staggering. Entire market areas, like the airline industry, were destabilized overnight. The industries affected by the terrorist attack have been many, including travel, banking, stocks, national and international trade, and many others. The impact on the U.S. economy was certainly in the billions of dollars, and around the world many times this. This was exactly the intent of the terrorists. They knew with very limited means (and strictly speaking -- no military resources) they wouldn’t be able to do much damage to the U.S. So they decided to maximize the impact of their efforts. Had they attacked a military facility alone, even the Pentagon; or simply a symbolic target, like blowing up the Golden Gate Bridge, or leveling the Statue of Liberty, they wouldn’t have created nearly the damage they did going after the added capitalist infrastructures. To begin, they were able to make the key emotional point of terrorism, the infliction of overwhelming fear, by letting Americans know that the terrorists would make no distinction between military and non-combatants. So public or private sites, secular or religious targets, or even the most well established non-players -- killed at the terror sites -- women, children, including even other Muslims, were targets. But beyond this symbolic terrorism, the Islamic terrorists did major damage to the American economy, and by doing so, shrank our tax base. And to state the obvious, our military and defense are wholly derived from taxes.

PIRENNE’S THESIS ON THE FALL OF ROME; BACKGROUND: In 1922 the Belgian historian Henri Pirenne published a short paper, Mohomet et Charlemagne, briefly detailing his thesis that Muslim pirate activities inadvertently starved to ruin the Roman Empire by decimating trade. He followed this by writing a book, the rough draft finished on the eve of his sudden death. His son then published the book, using the same title, which appeared in 1939. The impact of this work upon the academy and larger world were nothing short of sensational. His thesis is as follows. The celebrated Roman Empire was Mediterranean in character, a mare nostrum, or for all purposes, an inland lake.[9] Trade was the lifeblood of the Empire, and it made their greatness possible.[10] Roman commerce had declined since Diocletian, but was making a comeback in the 4^th century.[11] This was despite the fact the Germania was testing the strength of Rome.[12] The Germans did not hate the Romans, but actually admired and wanted to mimic them.[13] They only desired peaceful lives within the Empire, enjoying all the benefits, and their main motivation for moving inside Roman borders appears to have been the encroachment of the loathed Huns.[14] The Hun’s utter lack of civilization and even their appearance seem to have rendered their opponents spellbound in their impending charge, making them seem an encroaching invincible plague.[15] The Germans did war with the Romans, and made many sizeable conquests, but their successes were mitigated, as they were always eventually metabolized back into Romania.[16] As a whole, three preeminent aspects of the Barbarian kingdoms established within Roman territory were noticeable: absolutist kingdoms, secular government, and the instrumentality of the government appearing as fisc and treasury. These three were also the defining aspects of the Roman Empire.[17] What the Barbarians destroyed in their invasions was not Rome, but simply the absolute hegemony Rome once enjoyed. The invaders became established, but developed no innovations, being content to exist as a kind of incorporated foederati.[18] Most strikingly, Mediterranean unity was sustained, making continuing trade along the mare nostrum easy, nourishing the great mother Rome, allowing her to continue in unabated, if not somewhat modified splendor.[19]

ISLAM, THE MEDITERRANEAN & EARLY REJECTION OF THE WEST: The Germanic versus Islamic invasions into the Mediterranean are studies in opposites. The German attacks were a long developing, pragmatically driven incremental flow into Roman territory, whereas the Muslim invaders hit like an enervating firestorm.[20] If the Muslims benefited from anything outside their dogma, it was the gift for timing (which some call ‘luck’). Every kingdom they attacked seemed already precipitously on the verge of collapse.[21] But their victories were not simply the result of sheer good fortune. Instead, especially compared to the Germans who had no real dispute with the Romans per religion,[22] the Muslims were vociferously opposed to any creed that denied Mohammed’s revelations of Allah.[23] This utter disagreement on religion meant that the Muslims would never assimilate into Romana as had the Germans. Pirenne writes, “Islam had shattered the Mediterranean unity which the Germanic invasions had left intact.”[24] Instead, they adopted all the arts, sciences, and institutions of the societies they subjugated, merely consecrating them to Allah.[25] It was the ambition of the Muslims, after the death of Mohammed in 637 A.D. to expand their kingdom, especially into the Mediterranean. This was increasingly attempted in the latter half of the 7^th century. Rhodes, Crete and Sicily were nabbed.[26] Africa became a battlefield between the Byzantines and Arabs, and around 700 A.D. Muslims achieved supremacy there, establishing a headquarters at Tunis.[27] The Muslims then became enamored of continental Europe and set their sites upon it, taking Spain and Italy, and encroaching into France. While Charles Martel decisively defeated the Saracen Muslims at Tours-Poitier in 732 A.D., his grandson Charlemagne was worn out by constant battles with Muslims. The Islamic Saracens may have been driven from France, but they stayed in Spain for hundreds of years, where Charlemagne ceaselessly engaged them.[28]

ARAB PIRACY AND THE MEDITERRANEAN: If the Muslims were unsuccessful in conquering all of Europe, they managed to assert a compelling presence in the Mediterranean Sea that caused a disruption in the Empire, effectively severing its ties to the past. Pirenne calls this change, “The most essential event of European history which had occurred since the Punic Wars. It was the end of the classic tradition. It was the beginning of the Middle Ages.”[29] This event did not initially end all trading in the Mediterranean, of course, as items like spices and papyrus were initially still moved.[30] What quickly changed were the actual trade routes themselves, as the immensity of the Muslim conquests, and the capitalization of Damascus dictated a new direction of trade flow. [31] Travel over the old byways would have simply been too dangerous, given lack of protection, and the presence of many fierce pirate ships.[32] Spain was conquered in 711 A.D., and generally trade had broken down in the whole of the Western Mediterranean by the late 7^th century.[33] African commerce became decimated by continual conflict.[34] Pirenne writes, “We may therefore say that after the conquest of Spain, and above all of Africa, the Western Mediterranean became a Musulman (Muslim) Lake.”[35] By the beginning of the 8^th century, except for the Byzantium coast, trade had ceased in the Mediterranean, and one Arab writer even said, “The Christians could no longer float a plank at sea.”[36] Eventually, even such irreplaceable products as spice and papyrus vanished, not returning till the 12^th century.[37] But even gold disappeared (returning only when spices reappeared) and loans ceased (although the Church’s position on usury also affected this).[38] What caused this loss and eventual cessation of trade? Simply that when the Muslims established Mediterranean hegemony, they focused on plundering instead of capitalism, as the merchants of the Byzantine Levant were irreplaceable compared to Muslim opportunism.[39] It appears that only the Jews continued to trade and we owe to them the continuance of any economic link between Islam and Christendom.[40]

HOLY PIRATES: But were Muslims really pro-piracy, and if so -- Why? According to the Qu’ran, the Muslims lived in warring times, and part of the motivation and reward of risking oneself to fight for Allah was keeping the material goods of the enemy, and even the enemy themselves as slaves. In chapter 8 of the Qu’ran, titled ‘The Spoils,’ Mohammed wrote “Enjoy, therefore, the good and lawful things which you have gained in war, and fear Allah.”[41] A logical reason for the rightness of taking from unbelievers is added in the same chapter when Mohammed writes, “The unbelievers expend their riches in debarring others from the path of Allah. Thus they dissipate their wealth: but they shall rue it, and in the end be overthrown. The unbelievers shall be driven into hell.”[42] One must see this from the Muslim worldview, where all people were broken down into either believers or infidels. But we also need to reckon with the Muslim motivations as part of a larger impulse to spread the word of Allah throughout the world. Mohammed writes again in chapter 8, “Make war on them (unbelievers) until idolatry is no more and Allah’s religion reigns supreme.”[43]

IMPACT OF MEDITERRANEAN ISLAM: Trading as a profession eventually ceased around the Mediterranean. Pirenne writes, “One consequence of the suppression of the Oriental trade and maritime traffic was the disappearance of professional merchants in the interior of the country (Italy).”[44] Muslims did not trade with Christians, and as the impact of this set in, the power centers of the Mediterranean shifted North, especially in France.[45] To sum up the next signal events, we can briefly say that as trade centers were abandoned around the Mediterranean, the populace became increasingly impoverished, and the economy suffered, directly shrinking the tax base. The populations became more tied to land for sustenance, and returned to it,[46] abandoning urban centers, while the people eventually evolved into a feudal class, completely beholden to land owners for protection. The royal government itself took a huge hit, as Pirenne writes, “But the treasury, which was the actual basis of the royal power, began to dwindle in the course of the seventh century...”[47] The church was also devastated, Pirenne saying, “It was due, of course, to commerce. And we must agree that as commerce diminished the indirect taxes – that is, the tolls or dues (for the Church) – must have diminished in proportion.”[48] When they stopped minting gold coinage we realize that the economy was in freefall.[49] The end result of this was a creep into a human abyss, as education was too expensive for the fragile economy and with the denouement easy to auger - lawlessness reigned as the very glue of society dried and disintegrated.[50]

DESTRUCTION OF THE OLD EMPIRE: When the Mediterranean was turned into a lawless sea, trade dried up to nothing, the government shriveled, and people hunkered down as they headed into a long season of human impoverishment. This article argues that the Muslim terrorists would like to again push the West in this direction, and if they cannot completely collapse Western capitalistic representative democracy, they would like to at least wound us so badly that we can no longer express our political, economic, theological and humanistic convictions in concrete terms. In doing this they would certainly employ ‘Economic Terrorism’ as their main tool. Muslim terror cells could be called upon to assist, like those operating in countries like Afghanistan, Bali, Britain, France, Germany, Iraq, Iran, Morocco, Palestine, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, the United States, and many others.[51]

WAS SEPTEMBER 11 ECONOMIC TERRORISM? Some will undoubtedly dismiss out of hand the notion the Muslim terrorists who destroyed the World Trade Towers were engaging in anything as sophisticated, or historically derivative as Economic Terrorism. To such folks, the terrorists were probably fairly random in choosing targets, and any big building in New York would have worked. But this simplistic analysis must be mistaken, as a careful reading of the facts will prove that they must have been trying to achieve a major economic hit. Let us recall that the terrorists spent years planning these attacks (as noted above) and so nothing about them was either random, or without good strategic reasoning behind it. Specifically: First, every target chosen by the terrorists was picked for a specific reason, combining both symbolic and practical value. Targeting the Pentagon, the titular U.S. military command center, made clear this attack was a preemptive act of war, and was also meant to destabilize the machinery of battle, limiting any response. The plane that crashed in Pennsylvania was thought on its way to the U.S. Capitol Building, or the White House, both symbolic and actual loci of top American government. Hitting either would have caused widespread fear, chaos, and panic, and if accurate enough could have decapitated the government. The third choice of the Trade Towers received the most material attention -- two planes, and so these were the most important targets, at least for use of ‘resources’. They were picked for a combination of symbolic and practical importance. As we know, they were ostensibly called the ‘World Trade Towers,’ and because of their name and location in Manhattan, N.Y., the West’s banking and economic center, and they symbolized Western capitalism. But these towers really were also very important to world trade, and many international businesses had offices there, so destroying these really would hurt international business. The terrorists Muslims believed this last fact was most crucial.

ISLAMICIST ATTACKS ON LONDON & EGYPT: The most recent assaults upon Britain and Egypt again richly illustrate Economic Terrorism, and can only be understood through that prism. The initial flurry was launched upon Britain’s ‘Tube’ subway system in an astute, multiplied, and diversely targeted salvo. First, Europe and Britain was hosting the G8 world economic summit in Scotland, a few miles down the road. It was during the day of the meetings that the bombs were detonated. This was a shot across the bow to alert Europe that capitalism itself had been placed in the docket and found wanting. But beyond this, London was wildly celebrating hours after receiving confirmation of their unexpected Olympic bid when the terror struck. This was profound psychological theatre as it deflated England’s sense of joy over receipt of the 2012 Games before it could be even celebrated. This planted several malign messages. The first was the Islamicists could attack any time they wanted, even upon the heels of the greatest moments of victory. Yet it also telegraphed that the Olympics themselves were not safe, planting 7 long years of psychological anxiety. Beyond this, the terrorists slipped a stiletto into the illusion of safety associated with London -- Europe’s banking and commerce center. Here they boldly informed the traders, marketers, business people and all others that the main mass transit thoroughfare was a ticking bomb. Also, London is always a major world destination for tourists, and every would-be traveler around the globe now realizes ‘it could have been me!’ sitting next to the bombers. But, can anyone imagine what would happen to London if broad support and trust for the London Tube collapsed? The economic effect would be utter enervation, and no doubt the bombers – if unchallenged would mount and destroy the bus system as well. Likewise, the attack of the Egyptian resort was another savvy broadside against world tourism, coming against arguably the greatest center of archeological antiquities in the world. Those attacked were visitors, and here the message is that no country can safely plan for tourism. Beyond this, one Muslim group lets another know that even they are not safe against the Jihad. Finally, it lets any Muslim country know that conspiring with the enemy West will be punished harshly.

HYPOTHETICAL ECONOMIC TERRORISM: A few theoretical examples of Economic Terrorism follow. Consider a concerted, massive, and totally debilitating Internet attack upon computer servers in a specific country upon a signal industry, like banking. This could destroy any company using that bank, or the entire economic sectors if other related banks began to topple domino-like (similar to a failing power grid). Another case might be planting a dread disease in an important farm animal, such as cattle, the public knowledge of which could plummet the entire industry into bankruptcy after the public loses their taste for beef. Simply such a rumor such as Muslim terrorists claiming to have widely planted ‘mad cow’ disease might do the trick. Another could be badly poisoning or infecting the water supply to a strategic city, such as New York in a manner so random that everyone in the city felt an overwhelming urge to leave. Or consider the sabotaging of every large car or computer chip factory in the U.S, at once? Again, contemplate a computer virus sent to the IRS that was so destructive all records were wiped out and the government had no idea who owed what? Or, perhaps starting a string of wildfires during the summer season to provide devastating results. Ponder the horror of blowing up a toy store full of kids before a busy holiday, like Christmas. Perhaps even selectively destroying high power electricity towers in remote areas would have an enormous impact. Recently someone suggested the ease of poisoning the milk supply.[52] Of course, it would be hard to improve upon simultaneously collapsing the Trade Towers, given what a nest of international businesses were there.

NEED FOR RECOGNITION & RESPONSE: But beyond all of these individual events, we ought to bear in mind several things. Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter whether these terrorists were inspired by the Saracen Muslim pirates to attack their enemies because it is abundantly clear they deployed a textbook case of Economic Terrorism. This was meant to rip the capitalistic viscera out of an unsuspecting and softly naive Western business underbelly. The main point is the Muslims terrorists were unquestionably engaging in Economic Terrorism when they attacked these different targets and will undoubtedly do so repeatedly. Why? Because it is cheap, easy, can have a staggering payback for their efforts, and is a well-established part of their historical military repertoire. And terrorists Muslims are more historically minded and motivated than virtually any other group of people in the world. The most important thing is that we understand what the Muslims tried to do at the World Trade Towers, how they attempted to repeat this during the European G-8 summit, and in Egypt and how we can be prepared for the next strike. We need to develop doctrines and laws to help us survive these coming attacks in a way that the great world empire of the Romans did not.

SUGGESTED REMEDIES: The Bush administration in concert with the U.S. Armed Forces, Justice Department, CIA and FBI, has already made substantial changes meant to detail and confront the clear and immediate danger of continued terrorism. But these need to be broadened, at least doctrinally, and we need to add serious checks to help ward off economic terrorist centered war. What can be done? There should be a national quorum of leaders of all the major business types in the U.S. meeting to discuss biggest dangers and remedies in each field. At a series of national meetings meant to dissect the industries & their typology, an outline of possible responses will be offered for the most trenchant specific possibilities for terrorism. Having done this, the group should then draft a bill outlining general and specific suggested anti-terrorism guidelines for the different industries. Specifically we must map out the exact response to the most damaging types of attacks in each industry, and then the ingenuity, will and industrial might of America must be committed to this project. This ought to include a communitarian aspect where each participant, if called upon during an emergency, agrees to forego any excessive remuneration for their fees much beyond basic costs. This in itself will do much to develop goodwill and foster esprit des corps. Needless to say, it would be wise for tax breaks to be included, also. For an example, American interstate highways are essential to U.S. industry. Yet, many of them have strategic weak areas, such as singular high mountain passes, or other spots of vulnerability, often in remote regions. Should the Islamic terrorists blast such a location in a key spot, it might normally take months to repair. But with a new anti-terrorist industry protection bill, the Army Corps of Engineers, along with construction leaders of every state would agree to unleash a lightning quick response to any such attack. The upshot being that even the worst act of anti-capitalist destruction would have a crack team trained & ready to rebuild within a matter of days, or weeks. Of course, not every attack would have such a speedy recovery, but if we organize the infrastructure already existing into theoretical units, it will be not only literally a response to Economic terrorism, but will help stabilize bond & stock markets all over the world. Ultimately, the captains of each industry will know best how to frame a responsive outline for their own fields. This is not to suggest that the government hasn’t made any plans along these lines, but plans have not been detailed nearly to the pragmatic optimum. While this might seem like more ‘red tape’ to be avoided, this reaction is extremely naïve, and ultimately horrifically naïve and shortsighted. Currently, we are experiencing a lacuna of terrorism in the United States which is a blessing that may not last. Now is the time to develop deep & infinitely well-considered long-term defensive strategies for the private sector. We need to take this time and use it to seriously examine our response to Economic Terrorism, because it is inevitable that the terrorists will return, or the ones here become active again. They have undoubtedly already hatched many plots and are waiting for them to come to fruition. For instance, imagine the aggravation and expense of having to post guards every mile along a major oil pipeline! But, conversely, how much more expensive would it be to have to repair a blown up and burning pipeline. Examples such as this abound.

WORLD ECONOMIC TERRORISM BILL: A world Economic Terrorism bill would be framed along the same lines as the American, bringing to the table experts on all of the world’s important industries, and a similar book of suggested safeguards to shield against Economic Terrorism. As we see how ripples from each attack spread from one country to another -- we must now admit that an assault against one is a battle against all. Therefore our opposition must be unified too. Important truths are waiting acknowledgment. First, we must stop buying into the argument that any of the violence is justified, and strongly oppose craven sympathy for the murderers. This only confuses the issue, aiding and abetting the attackers. Second, in refusing to condemn the terrorists for fear of reprisals we give the killers victory. Instead condemnation against future attacks must be voiced loudly. In unity there is safety. In this new, bold environment some wonderful things will occur. The peaceful yet timid will grow brave in their resistance of evil; the formerly silent will become encouraged to stand up and speak out; and the many silent Muslims who fearfully oppose the radicals will be emboldened to plot a different future for Islam.

Professor Shawn O'Connell is an Adjunct professor of Rhetoric at St Thomas University in Miami, FL. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a BS in Philosophy; and from Regent University with a joint degree -- a JD in law and an MPP in Government. He values your comments. You may contact him at hibernian1@gmail.com.

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[1] For example, the website Islamic Invitation Centre, a British Muslim reference site had this, “Q: Is Islam against Capitalism? A: Yes. Capitalism is based on the concept that economics is that which examines man's needs, which are unlimited and how to satisfy these unlimited needs. The system depends upon the separation of church and state or in other words, the separation of the Creator from life's affairs. The concept of freedom plays a major role in the Capitalist ideology.” Found at: http://www.islamicinvitationcentre.com/FAQ/Economic/FAQ_Economic.html.

[2] Land of the Free, National Review Online, by Dinesh D'Souza, published on July 02, 2004, 12:30 a.m. , found at: http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/dsouza200407020030.asp; and alternatively at: http://www.papillonsartpalace.com/landof.htm .

[3] This article was originally penned before the London transportation massacre.

[4] Webster’s Dictionary 400 (1987).

[5] Land of the Free, National Review Online, by Dinesh D'Souza, published on July 02, 2004, 12:30 a.m. , found at: http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/dsouza200407020030.asp; and alternatively at: http://www.papillonsartpalace.com/landof.htm .

[6] See the interview ‘Sayyid Qutb and His Influence, Interview with Professor Ibraham Abu-Rabi,’ from the Religioscope.com website, interview occurring on November 8, 2001; and found at: http://www.religioscope.com/info/dossiers/textislamism/qutb_aburab . This book has never been translated into English. Qutb lived from 1906-1966, and died by government execution.

[7] ‘Al Qaeda Showing New Life, U.S. Surprised by Signs of Regrouping,’ By Dan Eggen and John Lancaster, Washington Post Staff Writers; Saturday, August 14, 2004; Page A01; found at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A63897-2004Aug13?language=printer

[8] Edward Gibbon, The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire 2081 (1946).

[9] Henri Pirenne, Mohammed And Charlemagne 17 (trans. Bernard Miall 1939).

[10] 17.

[11] Ibid, 19.

[12] Ibid, 20.

[13] Ibid, 21-22.

[14] Ibid, 22-23.

[15] Ibid, 23.

[16] Ibid, 34-36.

[17] Ibid, 58.

[18] Ibid, 140.

[19] Ibid, 143-44.

[20] Ibid, 147-49.

[21] Ibid, 149.

[22] Edward Gibbon, The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire 567 (1946).

[23] Henri Pirenne, Mohammed And Charlemagne, 150 (trans. Bernard Miall 1939).

[24] Ibid,164.

[25] Ibid,149-50.

[26] Ibid,152-53.

[27] Ibid,154-55.

[28] Ibid,158-59.

[29] Ibid,164.

[30] Ibid,164.

[31] Ibid,164-65.

[32] Ibid,248-49. Writes Pirenne, “The Carolingians had no fleet, and therefore could not clear the sea of the pirates who infested it.” He added, “It will be understood that under these conditions the ports were closed to all traffic.” These were not just Muslim pirates, but any ship in the world hearing of the lawlessness promulgated within the Mediterranean could have steamed towards this enclave of theft and attempted to have plied their calling there.

[33] Ibid,165-66 Pirenes states, “The conquest of Spain in 711, and the conditions of insecurity obtaining on the coast of Provence immediately after this conquest, absolutely put an end to any possibility of sea-borne trade in the Western Mediterranean.”

[34] Ibid,165.

[35] Ibid,162.

[36] Ibid,166-67.

[37] Ibid,168-72. The Carolingian tractoriae mentions all kinds of foodstuffs, but no mention is made of any kind of spice.

[38] Ibid,173.

[39] Ibid,173-74.

[40] Ibid,174. If these newly ensconced Mediterranean Muslims did trade, it was only amongst themselves, as no record of anything else exists, and even theories of internal trading are highly speculative, as no evidence has been discovered to support such a practice.

[41] Mohammed, The Koran, (Chapter 8) 311-312 (trans. N.J. Dawood 1956).

[42] Ibid, (Chapter 8) 309.

[43] Ibid.

[44] Henri Pirenne, Mohammed And Charlemagne 173 (trans. Bernard Miall 1939).

[45] Henri Ibid,187. Pirenne writes, “It was on France that the future depended. But France, as she appeared at this moment, was very different from the France of the Merovingians. Her center of gravity was n o longer “Romania,” It had shifted towards the Germanic North, and with this new France there appeared, for the first time…But all the traditional conditions were overthrown by Islam.”

[46] Ibid,197. Pirennes says, “The urban life which had been maintained by the influence of commerce was obliterated. The Mediterranean sources of commerce, which the invasions of the 5^th century had not seriously affected, were dried up now that the sea was closed.”

[47] Ibid,192.

[48] Ibid,193-94.

[49] Ibid,242. Pirenne sums up this sad state of affairs up, writing “If we consider that in the Carolingian epoch the minting of gold had ceased, that lending of money at interest was prohibited, that there was no longer a class of professional merchants, that Oriental products (papyrus, spice, silk) were no longer imported, that the circulation of money was reduced to the minimum, that laymen could no longer read or write, that the taxes were no longer organized, and that the towns were merely fortresses, we can say without hesitation that we are confronted with a civilization which had retrogressed to the purely agricultural stage; which no longer needed commerce credit, and regular exchange for the maintenance of the social fabric. We have already seen that the essential cause for this transformation was the closing of the Western Mediterranean by Islam.”

[50] Ibid. Again, Pirenne, “Now, as we have already seen, the decline of commerce must have begun about the year 650, a date which exactly corresponds with the progress of anarchy in the kingdom (France).”

[51] A place of exquisite opportunity for the Muslim radicals is Nigeria, whose antinomian views of government, peopled by so many shady characters and outright con artists makes it a nirvana of graft and unethical deeds. The mixture of illegal monies collecting in Nigeria to be washed and reused for other illegal (if not terrorist purposes) makes the place a nightmare for regulators, international business people, and strategic planners against the worldwide Muslim terror networks.

[52] From the article, Analyzing a Bioterror Attack on the Food Supply: The Case of Botulinum Toxin in Milk, by Lawrence M. Wein and Yifan Liu, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This article was roundly condemned by those who felt it gave aid to the enemy.

New Mexico-born Imam: Muslims should leave U.S., for "the punishment of Allah is hovering over America"

by Robert Spencer

Anwar al Awlaki, an American-born imam of Yemeni descent who now lives in Yemen, sees Allah's avenging hand in the economic crisis, and advises Muslims to leave America. Few Muslims, of course, will heed his words, given the fact that an America in economic collapse is still likely to be a more pleasant place to live than his own Yemen or most countries in the Islamic world. And then there is always the Muslim Brotherhood's grand jihad to eliminate and destroy Western civilization "from within" -- can't do it from Yemen.

"Is the Franklin morphing into the Washington?!," by Anwar al Awlaki, October 6:

[...] Brothers and Sisters this leads to the belief that the punishment of Allah is hovering over America. When? And how? Allah knows best.

So if you are one of those unfortunate folks who turned out to be living in the wrong place at the wrong time then it is advisable for you to leave. That is obviously if you take heed. Many don’t and are still living the utopia of the American dream. I am not talking about Mo and Mike who are still shaking to the tunes of MTV with their coke and big mac and are only Muslim by name, but I am talking about the practicing Muslims who sadly enough still think that the America of George W is the Abyssinia of the Negus.

Early in the history of Islam, when tensions were high between the Muslims and the pagan Quraysh tribe of Mecca, Muhammad sent some of the Muslims to Abyssinia, where they were welcomed and found refuge.

Hijra [flight, emigration] for the sake of Allah will continue until the day of Judgment. If you leave with the intention of forsaking the people of sin and protecting your family from evil you would be rewarded abundantly. But not everyone has the capacity to make hijra just like there were some Muslims who could not make hijra from Makkah [Mecca] at the time of Rasulullah [Prophet of Allah, i.e., Muhammad]. So for those who cannot they should pray to Allah to make a way out for them and protect them from the people of transgression.

If you are a person whom Allah has bestowed wealth upon then you should avoid owning property in the US and you should diversify out of the dollar into gold and silver. Gold and silver have retained there value over history and there is no reason to think that they would not do the same in the future. In addition to this being the prudent thing to do from a financial point of view, it is also the recommended thing to do Islamicly. Muslims should not be supporting the economy of a nation that is fighting them.

Finally, for those who are contemplating purchasing a home in the US based on mortgage which is a clear form of Riba [usury] they should fear Allah. In addition to it being one of the most evil sins in Islam it is putting money in the wrong place. Allah says that He will destroy Riba. It is a promise from Allah. There is no blessing in anything based on it. What is happening in the US nowadays is a testimony to that....

China stiffing America for $100 billion in debt

Yet U.S. taxpayers helping Beijing as part of trillion-$ credit bailout ....

Surprise… Obama’s Muslim Outreach Advisor Is Caught Meeting With Hamas & Hezbollah Supporters

Obama Camp pushes “Get Out the Radical Islamist Vote”…

Obama’s Muslim Outreach Director met with Hamas and Hezbollah supporters last month in Virginia.

Here is one of the radicals in question who attended the Obama event…
Mahdi Bray shows his support for Hamas and Hezbollah at a 2002 rally:

Allah Akbar.

More hope and change for AmeriKKKa.
The meeting was not advertised and attendees were sent directions by text message.
MSNBC(?) reported:

On September 15, newly named Muslim outreach director Minha Husaini spoke to a small group of Muslim leaders and potential Obama supporters at a hotel in Springfield, Virginia, several meeting participants and the campaign said. Two other Obama-affiliated Democratic Party workers joined Husaini and also spoke to the crowd. Some Virginia and Washington, D.C.-based Muslim activists and interested citizens attended, and flyers were passed out from “Arab Americans for Obama” stating Sen. Obama’s goals for achieving peace in the Middle East, protecting the civil liberties of Arab Americans and ending the war in Iraq.

Several participants told NBC News that Husaini and other speakers delivered a standard Obama campaign pitch. “They said, ‘We’re here to get the concerns of Muslim voters and let everyone know that the Obama campaign does want the support of the Muslim community,’ ” recalled one participant, who requested anonymity. The meeting was not advertised and some attendees got text phone messages notifying them that day of the meeting’s location, the participant said.

Nearly a month later, the meeting is drawing controversy–and not because of anything said at the meeting itself.

The attendees
One meeting attendee was Mahdi Bray of the Muslim American Society, several of the participants said. The MAS website describes Bray as an imam and “long time civil and human rights activist.” Bray’s critics say he has a history of defending terrorists. They point to a video of Bray at a rally in 2000, for example, in which he can be seen pumping his fist in the air in support of the terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah. In a 2004 interview, he called the Israeli assassination of a Hamas spiritual leader an “unlawful, cowardly and dangerous act of state-sponsored terrorism.” Bray did not return a call requesting comment.

Also attending the meeting was Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. CAIR is a Muslim-American civil rights group that has, as its website states, “consistently and persistently condemned terrorism and the killing of innocent civilians.” Nonetheless, the group has many critics, especially in law-enforcement circles, and is an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing case.

Allah Akbar, Obama.
Surely, it must have been an accident that these radicals were texted directions to the meeting.
“This is not the radical Hamas supporter I once knew.”

More… Via Mere Rhetoric and LGF, FOX News reported on the Obama campaign events:

Related… The Hezbollah and Hamas supporters aren’t the only anti-Semitic radicals backing Obama.

Obama tried to sway Iraqis on Bush deal

At the same time the Bush administration was negotiating a still elusive agreement to keep the U.S. military in Iraq, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama tried to convince Iraqi leaders in private conversations that the president shouldn't be allowed to enact the deal without congressional approval.

Mr. Obama's conversations with the Iraqi leaders, confirmed to The Washington Times by his campaign aides, began just two weeks after he clinched the Democratic presidential nomination in June and stirred controversy over the appropriateness of a White House candidate's contacts with foreign governments while the sitting president is conducting a war.

Some of the specifics of the conversations remain the subject of dispute. Iraqi leaders purported to The Times that Mr. Obama urged Baghdad to delay an agreement with Mr. Bush until next year when a new president will be in office - a charge the Democratic campaign denies.

Flash Cards Designed to Teach English Translations

We’ve all seen flash cards used to teach math functions and simple words. But we’re sure you haven’t seen flash cards like these!

One of our chapter leaders happened to be in a Barnes & Noble bookstore in Minnesota, and saw a package of flash cards apparently intended to help someone translate Arabic words and phrases into English.

What he saw when he bought the cards was, to say the least, far different than what he expected.

Here is a sample of some of the English words and phrases translated from the Arabic in this flash card set.

“assassination attempt”
“counter strike”
“attack”
“air strike”
“enemy”
“The army seized power”
“We buried the dead man yesterday”
“to seize power”
“martyr”
“to die in a battle”

To see a PDF image of the actual flashcards, designed by Fethi Mansouri, please click here. You will need Adobe Reader or similar software to view the image.

I guess we’re pretty straight-laced here in America. Our flashcards designed to teach English have such controversial words and phrases such as “thank you,” “could you please help me?”, and “what time is it?” I don’t think you’ll find an English translation flashcard set with words like “assassination attempt.”

One has to wonder who would need an Arabic flash card set that translates “assassination attempt” into English. Then again, maybe we shouldn’t have to wonder at all.



Guy Rodgers
Executive Director

Black Racists Recruited to Guide the Jihad

(Compiler's note: Must read. rca)

By John Perazzo

Black Muslim lawyer Khalid Abdullah Tariq al-Mansour recently made news when it was revealed that he was a patron of Barack Obama and recommended him for admission to Harvard Law School in 1988. Back in the 1960s, al-Mansour, whose “slave name” was then Don Warden, was deeply involved in Bay Area racial politics as founder of a group called the African American Association. A close personal adviser to Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, al-Mansour helped the pair establish the Black Panther Party but later broke with them when they entered coalitions with white radical groups. After becoming a Muslim, al-Mansour found not only an ideological justification for his racism but also a political purpose. That was, in the words of a memorandum produced by the Muslim Brotherhood and seized by the FBI as part of its probe of the Holy Land Foundation, to “eliminate and destroy the Western civilization from within.” Many black racists like al-Mansour are key figures in this “stealth” jihad, whose prime recruiting grounds are the U.S. prisons and mosques where inmates and worshippers alike are taught to embrace a radical Islam engaged in an apocalyptic battle against America.

Al-Mansour met Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal in the mid-1970s and formed a relationship that led to al-Mansour’s hiring as attorney to King Saud. He has since been an adviser to Saudi billionaires who fund the stealth jihad and spread Wahhabi extremism in America.

Other black racist Islamists play less glamorous but equally significant roles as Imams at major mosques in the U.S.; as chaplains in prisons and jails; and as radical figures who haunt American higher education by advising and speaking for organizations such as the Muslim Students Association (MSA) on campuses across the nation. Whatever audience they target, they speak a lingua franca of anti-white, anti-Semitic, anti-American hatred—all in the name of Allah.

And why is it that black racists such as al-Mansour constitute a significant proportion of these hate mongers? In large part, it is because blacks have been specifically and aggressively targeted for recruitment by leaders of the worldwide jihad, just as they were targeted for recruitment by the Communist Party USA in the 1920s. Black grievance, combined with the evangelism of the Nation of Islam over the last seventy years, has established an audience for the ideology of hate.

The prison, as the last bastion of racism and racial separatism, has become a prime recruitment center for radical Islam. Al Qaeda training manuals found by U.S. troops in Afghanistan reveal that America’s black prisoners, who constitute nearly half of the nation’s two million inmates, are viewed by terrorists as a potentially bountiful source of new jihadi recruits. The immensely wealthy Saudi government, which has made the propagation of radical Islam in America a top priority, has shipped tens of thousands of copies of the Koran to U.S. jails in recent years. Through the National Islamic Prison Foundation, Saudi money finances an extensive “prison outreach” program that seeks to convert inmates to Islam and to anti-Americanism. Prison chaplains are typically Wahhabis (practitioners of Saudi Arabia’s most extreme, fundamentalist form of Islam) who have been certified and trained as religious officials by either the Islamic Society of North America or the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences, both of which are currently under federal investigation for ties to terrorism. Islam expert Stephen Schwartz states that “radical Muslim chaplains … acting in coordination to impose an extremist agenda … have gained a monopoly over Islamic religious activities in American state, federal, and city prisons and jails.” Some 135,000 inmates convert to Islam annually, and almost all of these converts are African Americans.

Focusing their efforts and fortunes not only on prisons, the Saudis also have spent many millions of dollars funding a majority of America’s mosques, and have dispatched Imams from a number of Middle Eastern nations to settle in the U.S. as missionaries. Faheem Shuaibe, an Imam at a predominately black mosque in California, says that Saudi Arabia has set up “a very deliberate recruitment process … trying to find black Muslims who had a real potential for Islamic learning and also for submission to their agenda” of Wahhabi extremism. According to Islam scholar Daniel Pipes, there are approximately “a million American-born converts to Islam (and their descendants) in the United States and most of them have shifted allegiances away from their native country.” Pakistani religious leaders Sami ul-Haq and Fazrul Rehman predict that “in the next 10 years, Americans will wake up to the existence of an Islamic army in their midst—an army of jihadis who will force America to abandon imperialism and listen to the voice of Allah.”

The racial composition of this jihadi army is, of course, influenced by the Saudi targeting of African Americans. According to Reza Safa, an authority on Wahhabism’s spread throughout the world, “as many as 90 percent of American converts to Islam are black.”

The somewhat shadowy Khalid Abdullah Tariq al-Mansour embodies the marriage of racism and Islamism that characterizes the stealth jihad. Using his legal training to leverage his standing in the Islamic world, al-Mansour is a black nationalist and an outspoken hater of the United States, Israel, and white people generally. In recent years he has accused the U.S. of plotting a “genocide” designed “to remove 15 million black people, considered disposable, of no relevance, value or benefit to the American society.” He has told fellow blacks that “whatever you do to [white people], they deserve it, God wants you to do it and that’s when you cut out the nose, cut out the ears, take flesh out of their body, don’t worry because God wants you to do it.” Alleging further that Palestinians in Israel “are being brutalized like savages,” he accuses the Jews of “stealing the land the same way the Christians stole the land from the Indians in America.”

Other black racists who echo al-Mansour’s ideas include Imam Abdul Alim Musa, founder and director of the As-Sabiqun movement, which aims to “enable Islam to take complete control of … the lives of all human beings on Earth.” In 2004 the San Francisco Bay View described Musa as “one of the highest-ranking Islamic leaders in the Black community, nationwide and specifically in the Islamic movement.” Born in Arkansas as Clarence Reams, Musa was raised in Oakland, California. During the 1960s, he embraced the violent ideology of the Black Panthers. He went on to become a leading cocaine-exporter in Colombia, a crime for which he eventually was incarcerated. While in prison, he converted to Islam and took his present name. An avid supporter of Iran’s lateAyatollah Khomeini, Musa calls for Islam to “take over America.”

He praises Muslim suicide bombers as “heroes” who courageously “strike at the heart of Zionism.” He predictsthat “this way of life known as Islam will dominate all other ways of life.” He lauds those who seek to honor Allah by means of violence. He says that America holds values and attitudes consistent with those of the Ku Klux Klan. He has praised Osama bin Laden, Hezbollah, and Hamas. And he holds that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were orchestrated jointly by the U.S. and Israeli governments in order to provide a pretext for waging war against Islam.

Warith Deen Umar (formerly Wallace Gene Marks), who was repeatedly incarcerated as a teenager, is a retired Muslim cleric who spent two decades helping to run New York’s Islamic prison program. A confidante of Nation of Islam kingpin Louis Farrakhan, Umarpersonally recruited and trained dozens of chaplains. With help from the Saudi government, he brought that country’s fanatical brand of Islam to New York’s Muslim inmates. Hebelieves that the 9/11 hijackers should be honored as martyrs, and that the U.S. risks further terrorist attacks because it oppresses Muslims around the world. Viewing black prisoners as potential soldiers in such attacks, Umar says, “Prisons are a powder keg. The question is the ignition.” He wrote in an unplublished memoir, “Even Muslims who say they are against terrorism secretly admire and applaud” the hijackers. The Koran, he added, does not condemn terrorism against oppressors of Muslims, even if innocent people are killed in the process. “This is the sort of teaching they don’t want in prison,” he said. “But this is what I’m doing.”

Sheikh Khalid Yasin is a U.S.-born, Atlanta-based Muslim convert (and a Malcolm X disciple) who has been a popular guest speaker at Muslim Students Association (MSA) events across the United States. He candidly states that America one day will be governed by Sharia (Islamic Law); that Muslims should steadfastly refuse to become friends with non-Muslims; that 9/11 was orchestrated by the U.S. and/or Israel; that homosexuals should be killed in accordance with Koranic mandates; and that AIDS was invented at a U.S. government lab for the purpose of killing nonwhites around the world.

Former Nation of Islam member Amir-Abdel Malik-Ali is a black Imam in Oakland who also has become a familiar figure on U.S. campuses where he speaks for the MSA. A passionate supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah, he endorses suicide bombings as a legitimate “resistance” tactic of Muslim “martyrs.” He calls for “an Islamic revolution” that will lead to the creation of “an Islamic state” where “Allah controls every place—the home, the classroom, the science lab, the halls of Congress.” He maintains that “the Zionist Jews” were responsible for the Danish cartoon controversy that sparked Muslim riots around the world in 2006. He accuses the “apartheid State of Israel” of carrying out a “holocaust” and a “genocide” against the Palestinian people. Referring to Jews as “new Nazis” and “a bunch of straight-up punks,” he warns Jews: “[Y]our days are numbered…. We will fight you until we are either martyred or until we are victorious.”

Muhammad al-Asi is another black preacher of hate who is frequently invited to speak at anti-Israel rallies hosted by the MSA and its allied organizations. Al-Asi became radicalized by the 1979 Iranian Revolution, and to this day he remains a great admirer of the late Ayatollah Khomeini. Advocating an “Islamic World Order,” he predicts that Muslims ultimately “will deal the deathblow” to Jews; that Jews “have a psychosis … that is unable to co-exist equally and brotherly [sic] with other human beings”; and that the 9/11 attacks were actually carried out by Israeli Mossad agents seeking to “criminalize Muslims.”

Such are the commitments of the figures who have become the spearpoint of the Islamic jihad in America. Moving out from the hidden corners of American society into universities and other public places, these preachers of hate have made racism and Islamism into a potent toxin that they release under the cover of diversity and religious pluralism.

---

John Perazzo is the Managing Editor of DiscoverTheNetworks and is the author of The Myths That Divide Us: How Lies Have Poisoned American Race Relations.

Obama 'Lying' About Muslim Past, Expert Says

By: David A. Patten

Sen. Barack Obama “is lying” when he insists that he has never prayed in a mosque and was never a Muslim, a prominent Middle East expert and journalist says.

Daniel Pipes, founder of the Middle East Forum think tank, says he fully accepts that Obama is a Christian now. But there is strong evidence that Obama received a Muslim upbringing during his years in Indonesia, Pipes said.

“It’s fine with me that he was a Muslim and a convert to Christianity,” Pipes told Newsmax. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal “is a convert from Hinduism. I have no problem with his conversion. What I have a problem with is that he’s lying” when he says he was never a Muslim.

Newsmax asked whether Pipes is alleging outright that Obama has lied about having a Muslim upbringing.

Pipes’ response: “The evidence suggests to me that he is lying, yes.”

Pipes told Newsmax, “It would start with the fact that his father was a Muslim — granted, not a practicing Muslim, but in the Muslim world, if your father is a Muslim, you’re a Muslim. His father named him Hussein, which is a name only given to Muslim babies. He went with his stepfather to a mosque. They celebrated certain Muslim holidays at the mosque together. He had knowledge of the Koran. He had knowledge of Muslim prayers. You put all this together, he was a Muslim.”

Pipes contends that a Nov. 12 post on Obama’s Web site headlined, "Barack Obama Is Not and Has Never Been a Muslim," stated: "Obama never prayed in a mosque. He has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim, and is a committed Christian."

Today, that post bears the same headline, but does not include an assertion that Obama “never prayed in a mosque” and “has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim.”

The page now bears a quote Obama made during the Jan. 15 debate on MSNBC: “In the Internet age, there are going to be lies that are spread all over the place. I have been victimized by these lies. Fortunately, the American people are, I think, smarter than folks give them credit for.”

The current post, which includes links intended to debunk any Muslim connection, is headlined “Obama Has Never Been A Muslim, And Is a Committed Christian”.

Several media outlets, including the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, have reported on Obama’s schooling in Indonesia, where he lived from 1967 to 1971, which included Muslim religious studies.

It is known, for example, that Obama’s designation as a Muslim while attending a Catholic school may have simply reflected the fact that his stepfather, Lolo Soetoro, was Muslim.

Still, Obama was grouped with Muslim students at the school and engaged in weekly religious studies, including studying the Koran and learning Muslim prayers.

In 1970, Obama’s family moved and he was enrolled in a public school where children such as Obama who were identified as Muslim spent two hours a week studying Islam. [Editor's Note: Read the Los Angeles Times report on Obama's Muslim upbringing -- Click Here Now.]

A March 2007 Chicago Tribune article by Kim Barker, which stated several accounts had “distorted the reality” of Obama’s years in Indonesia, reported that he did irregularly attend Muslim prayer services at the local mosque.

Obama’s third-grade teacher at the Catholic school, Fermina Katarina Sinaga, told Barker that Obama accompanied his stepfather to pray at the mosque, doing so “rarely.”

Pipes said Barker’s story bolsters his position that Obama was raised as a Muslim while he lived in Indonesia. His accounts of Obama’s upbringing have received a “very severe reaction from the left” and threats from some Muslims, he said.

“The Islamists murmur and threaten,” Pipes said, declining to specify the threats he has received.

Pipes sees a whopping double standard in how the mainstream media has reported on Obama’s past.

“It’s been quite fascinating to watch the careful picking over of Sarah Palin’s record, down to her library policies as mayor of Wasilla, and her possible false pregnancies, and so forth, an analysis that involved excruciating details in her case.”

He contrasts that to the “the general pass” the media has given Obama, whether over his career in the Illinois Senate, the Annenberg library papers, or his upbringing in Jakarta. Pipes said his reports have “simply been dismissed as untrue without any facts to counter it.”

The McCain campaign “has been very cautious about looking into Barack Obama at all,” said Pipes, adding that the GOP has demonstrated a general reluctance to raise questions about Obama’s past.

Pipes has posted four articles on his Web site, “DanielPipes.org”, defending his view that Obama was a Muslim. The articles include the assertion that “for some years (Obama) had a reasonably Muslim upbringing under the auspices of his Indonesian stepfather.”

As a measure of the interest in Obama’s background, Pipes’ articles have attracted close to half a million hits. One point of contention they raise: When someone is born of a Muslim father, do Muslims automatically consider him a Muslim?

A group of more than 50 scholars recently posted a statement on tabsir.net, a Web site dedicated to fostering an understanding of Islam, that seeks to refute that assertion. The statement maintains that distortions about Obama’s past are “part of an Islamophobic hate campaign that fuels prejudice against Americans who practice their Islamic faith and Muslims worldwide.”

Their statement says, “The vast majority of Muslims accept the Qur’anic message that there is no compulsion in Islam. Since Senator Obama was not raised as a Muslim, he cannot be held accountable for the religious status of his father.”

That assertion sounds logical to Western ears, but Pipes’ rejects it flatly.

“There is no doubt: It is a fact in Islam that the religion passes on through the father,” he told Newsmax. “And yet it’s denied as a falsehood by people who know better. They know better. It’s Islam 101.”

Supporting Pipes on that point is Shireen K. Burki, an adjunct professor of political science at the University of Mary Washington. Burki, who spent her childhood studying Islam at a school in Islamabad, Pakistan, has first-hand experience as the daughter of a Muslim father and a Christian mother.

“According to Islamic jurisprudence,” she wrote in a May article in the Christian Science Monitor, “children of a Muslim father — even an apparently nonpracticing one, such as Obama’s father, and irrespective of the mother’s faith — are automatically Muslims. Most Muslims around the world agree: A child of a Muslim father is a Muslim. Period.”

Given that Obama’s profession of Christianity is essentially uncontested, one might wonder whether it really matters whether Obama once was Muslim.

To many of the world’s approximately 1.4 billion Muslims, it apparently would matter a great deal. Experts on Islam generally agree that someone who is born a Muslim (in effect, someone who had a Muslim father), who later renounces Islam, is considered an apostate.

Burki writes, “Should Obama become U.S. commander in chief, there is a strong likelihood that al-Qaida’s media arm, As-Sahab, will exploit his background to argue that an apostate is leading the global war on terror (read: attacks against fellow Muslims). This perception would be leveraged to galvanize sympathizers into action.”

She suggests the apostate tag would be a powerful propaganda weapon that al-Qaida could wield to marginalize America’s Middle East allies, causing “enormous difficulties” in the war against terror.

For insensitivity, Wachovia refuses to be outdone

by David Lazarus

As ailing Wachovia Corp. waits to see whether it will be acquired by Wells Fargo & Co. or Citigroup Inc. -- possibly with taxpayers paying the tab for hundreds of billions of dollars in bad loans -- some of the company's top brokers are preparing to depart Saturday for an all-expenses-paid cruise of the Greek Isles.

The weeklong trip for up to 75 employees of brokerage A.G. Edwards, which Wachovia acquired last year for nearly $7 billion, will also include spouses and significant others, said Teresa Dougherty, a Wachovia spokeswoman.

"This is one way that we recognize our top financial advisors," she said.

Word of the Wachovia junket follows reports that senior executives of troubled insurance giant AIG attended a $440,000 company retreat last month at Southern California's swanky St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach just days after being bailed out with $85 billion in taxpayer funds.

A White House spokeswoman Wednesday called the AIG outing "despicable." Yet even as the Bush administration was wagging its finger at AIG, the Federal Reserve was announcing $37.8 billion in additional loans for the company.

Moreover, a spokesman for American International Group said the company was going ahead with plans to host a three-day confab for about 150 insurance brokers at the Ritz-Carlton Resort in Half Moon Bay next week. About 50 AIG employees also will attend.

"This is an annual affair," said AIG's Joe Norton. "It's a key meeting."

Such five-star shindigs have long been a standard practice for the U.S. financial industry. They serve as incentives and rewards for top performers, and as regular get-togethers for senior execs.

But the gatherings raise ethical questions at a time when many institutions are turning to taxpayers to cover their bad mortgage bets, and when millions of Americans are tightening their belts.

"It's clear that these executives don't get it," said Stephen Conroy, an associate professor of economics at the University of San Diego who focuses on business ethics. "These are the same excesses that got them where they are today."

Conroy acknowledged that companies still need to recognize their biggest moneymakers during hard times, and that such events are typically scheduled months in advance. But he said the only prudent thing to do when a company faces troubles like AIG or Wachovia does is to behave with some humility.

"Some expenses are clearly valid," he said. "But things like the Ritz-Carlton are hard to justify."

As I reported Wednesday, AIG spent more than $440,000 wining and dining salespeople and company managers at the St. Regis. The bill included nearly $200,000 for rooms, $150,000 for meals, $23,000 in spa charges and almost $7,000 for golf outings.

Responding to outrage over the wingding, AIG said the company's CEO, Edward Liddy, sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson explaining the nature of the event. Liddy was quoted as saying that AIG was "reevaluating the costs of all aspects of our operations in light of the new circumstances in which we are all operating."

Be that as it may, AIG's Norton said next week's Ritz-Carlton retreat would proceed as planned. He said the event would introduce new insurance products to salespeople who specialize in wealthy clients.

Norton declined to provide a price tag for the event. A Ritz-Carlton spokeswoman also declined to comment.

The hotel's website describes the facility as "an elite golf and spa resort" where guests can "enjoy soothing coastal breezes and captivating ocean views," and "estate-style accommodations."

Rates vary from $399 a night for a run-of-the-mill room to more than $1,000 for a suite. In other words, just the place to bask in what's now more than $100 billion in taxpayer cash pouring down on AIG.

In Wachovia's case, the company declined to say what cruise line the Edwards workers would be taking or what islands they would be visiting.

Dougherty called the cruise a "recognition trip" and said such things "are common practices around brokerage firms."

Wachovia agreed last week to be purchased by Citi for about $2 billion. Under terms of the deal, Citi said it would assume the first $42 billion in losses related to Wachovia's stinkiest mortgages, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. would shoulder all losses above that amount -- possibly as much as $270 billion.

Days later, though, Wells Fargo stepped in with a

$15-billion offer that wouldn't include taxpayer funds. Citi and Wells then unleashed their lawyers on each another.

A compromise was expected to be reached by Wednesday. The two sides now say they'll try to cook something up by Friday.

Sounds like stressful work. What these guys need is a little vacation.

Consumer Confidential runs Wednesdays and Sundays and occasionally in between.

THE OBAMA-AYERS CONNECTION

(Compiler's note: Quoting Jack Cashill, "That Obama had anything to do with this man should disqualify him for
the presidency. At the end of the day, the only difference between Bill
Ayers and Tim McVeigh is competence."

By DICK MORRIS

In the best tradition of Bill Clinton’s famous declaration that the answer to the question of whether or not he was having an affair with Monica depended on “what the definition of ‘is’ is,” Barack Obama was clearly splitting hairs and concealing the truth when he said that William Ayers was “just a guy who lives in my neighborhood.”

The records of the administration of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC), released last week by the University of Illinois, show that the Ayers-Obama connection was, in fact, an intimate collaboration and that it led to the only executive or administrative experience in Obama’s life.

After Walter Annenberg’s foundation offered several hundred million dollars to American public schools in the mid-’90s, William Ayers applied for $50 million for Chicago. The purpose of his application was to secure funds to “raise political consciousness” in Chicago’s public schools. After he won the grant, Ayers’s group chose Barack Obama to distribute the money. Between 1995 and 1999, Obama distributed the $50 million and raised another $60 million from other civic groups to augment it. In doing so, he was following Ayers’s admonition to grant the funds to “external” organizations, like American Community Organizations for Reform

Now (ACORN) to pair with schools and conduct programs to radicalize the students and politicize them.

Reading, math and science achievement tests counted for little in the CAC grants, but the school’s success in preaching a radical political agenda determined how much money they got.

Barack Obama should have run screaming at the sight of William Ayers and his wife, Bernadette Dohrn. Ayers has admitted bombing the U.S. Capitol building and the Pentagon, and his wife was sent to prison for failing to cooperate in solving the robbery of a Brink’s armored car in which two police officers were killed. Far from remorse, Ayers told The New York Times in September 2001 that he “wished he could have done more.”

Ayers only avoided conviction when the evidence against him turned out to be contained in illegally obtained wiretaps by the FBI. He was, in fact, guilty as sin.

That Obama should ally himself with Ayers is almost beyond understanding. The former terrorist had not repented of his views and the education grants he got were expressly designed to further them.

So let’s sum up Obama’s Chicago connections. His chief financial supporter was Tony Rezko, now on his way to federal prison. His spiritual adviser and mentor was the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, of “God damn America” fame. And the guy who got him his only administrative job and put him in charge of doling out $50 million is William Ayers, a terrorist who was a domestic Osama bin Laden in his youth.

Even apart from the details of the Obama/Ayers connection, two key points emerge:

a) Obama lied and misled the American people in his description of his relationship with Ayers as casual and arm’s-length; and

b) Obama was consciously guided by Ayers’s radical philosophy, rooted in the teachings of leftist Saul Alinksy, in his distribution of CAC grant funds.

Since Obama is asking us to let him direct education spending by the federal government and wants us to trust his veracity, these are difficulties he will have to explain in order to get the votes to win.

Now that Obama is comfortably ahead in the polls, attention will understandably shift to him. We will want to know what kind of president he would make. The fact that, within the past 10 years, he participated in a radical program of political education conceptualized by an admitted radical terrorist offers no reassurance.

Why did Obama put up with Ayers? Because he got a big job and $50 million of patronage to distribute to his friends and supporters in Chicago. Why did he hang out with Jeremiah Wright? Because he was new in town, having grown up in Hawaii and Indonesia and having been educated at Columbia and Harvard, and needed all the local introductions he could get to jump-start his political career. Why was he so close to Rezko?

Because he funded Obama’s campaigns and helped him buy a house for $300,000 less than he otherwise would have had to pay.

Not a good recommendation for a president.