Let us begin by observing the riotous torching of a KFC restaurant in Tripoli, Lebanon, on the excuse of a recently prominent Youtube video that mocks the prophet of Islam:
 |
| A KFC restaurant in Lebanon was torched by Muslim rioters protesting a YouTube video that neither KFC nor the Franchise operator would credibly have had anything to do with. Geller's caption: >> Lebanese protesters attack American fast food restaurants after Friday
prayers, pouring petrol on the restaurants and setting them on fire in
the northeastern city of Tripoli, Lebanon, Friday Sept. 14, 2012.
According to security officials no one was hurt in the attack which is
part of widespread anger across the Muslim world about a film ridiculing
Islam's Prophet Muhammad. (AP Photo)>> |
The sort of mentality that sees itself justified in rioting, wanton destruction of property belonging to people who have nothing to do with the alleged matter of complaint and with murders of innocents, speaks for itself.
All civilised people concerned to avoid mob rule should condemn such behaviour and should demand its cessation, backed up by full policing power.
U/D: Australian police in Sydney show how:
 |
| Australian police on guard against rioters in Sydney |
Handing over policy and punishment power to frenzied mobs whipped up by agitators -- including religious speakers in what ought to be houses of worship -- is a surrender to anarchy and terrorism of the worst kind.
Period.
For a few days, I refrained from commenting on the wave of riots and terrorist attacks -- the raid on the US Consulate in Benghazi is an obvious al Qaeda-linked strike done under cover of the protests timed for the 9/11 anniversary. (E.g. since when do mere rioters walk with and know how to use RPG 7 rocket launchers and know where safe houses are to raid them? And the talk of accurate mortar fire targetting the safe house points to highly trained military tactics, not a mere riot.) The timing (a 9/11 anniversary) was also highly suspect to my mind.
I was looking for a pivotal indicator.
Now, Pam Geller -- and, yes she is sometimes too shrill, but she is vigilantly patrolling a news beat that the major news organisations either will not touch or will not report on accurately -- tells us an important perspective on how the other shoe drops.
She cites a key bit of observation by one of her readers, from a report by CNN's Nic Robertson:
On
the morning of September 11, 2012, CNN foreign correspondent Nic
Robertson filed a piece on a supposed ‘peace plan’ from Mohamed
al-Zawahiri, the brother of al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Zawahri
takes Robertson on a tour of the protest site, and clearly states that
the focus of the protest is the imprisonment of Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman
(a.k.a. the ‘Blind Sheik’), who is serving a life sentence in US prison
for his role in organizing the 1993 World Trade Centre bombings.
Robertson also talks to Rahman’s son, who states the same aim.
What is remarkable is that this tour happened before
the September 11 Cairo protests that turned violent – the same violent
protests that we were later told were spontaneous protests over the
‘offensive’ video of Mohammed posted to Youtube in July. This was not a
spontaneous, unorganized protest.
For the Islamists, the Youtube video is just a convenient excuse that guilty white liberals will easily swallow . . . .
CNN has protest organizer on tape stating that the aim is to free a convicted terrorist, yet the media – including CNN – swallows the line that the West has somehow sparked these violent protests?!?
CNN did post a story on Robertson’s piece early on the afternoon of the 11th, but there is no mention of Rahman. The focus is solely on Zawahiri’s ‘piece plan’ (http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/10/world/meast/zawahiri-peace-plan/index.html).
They have not used the video since. It seems to be buried by a
narrative that runs contrary to Robertson’s piece (i.e. that America
triggered this).
Why is the mainstream media completely negligent reporting on this matter? Why is CNN ignoring their own evidence? [Clips are linked, but were not working when I tried the download.]
Now, maybe this is totally off the wall and utterly inaccurate.
(Though, I doubt that. [Here's a link on why, and here's a second. The fingerprints of Al Qaeda and associated groups are all over this. Notice, (1) months after Al Qaeda's no. 2 -- Al Libi (the Libyan) -- was hit by a US Drone, under (2) the cover of mob violence on the anniversary of 9/11, (3) a military-level assault was made that (4) just happened to target and kill the US Ambassador to Libya. As in, connect the numbered dots, please.)
That leaves the July YouTube vid on the table.
It has about the production values of a badly done amateur church play, and was sitting there on Youtube unremarked for some time. It fictionalises on Mohammed's life story to mock him, which is patently unwise and ill-considered.
However, the truth on generally undisputed facts from his career that trace to the Muslim biographies and to what can be discerned from the Quran and hadiths, are every inch as unflattering once soberly assessed; especially regarding his behaviour once he fled to Yathrib, subsequently renamed Medina.
I therefore now speak out under the doctrine of fair comment grounded on well-established though painful facts.
Please understand, I am not writing out of spite or rage, but out of concern for truth, and to open the way to listen to the counsels of Him who is Prince of Peace.
I apologise in advance for the pain caused by lancing an abscess, but call for understanding that this is to be preferred to blood poisoning.
As antiseptic preparation, kindly pause and breathe the refreshing air of the Sermon on the Mount, now.
That should help set our frame of mind to deal with the sad things we have to now turn to.
First, as can be documented say from Nehls and Eric here (and many other responsible sources), soon after he took power in Medina, Mohammed took up raids on caravans from Mecca passing on trade routes, provoking counter attacks. He waged war on three Jewish tribes in and around Yathrib, eventually slaughtering 600 - 900 surrendered men of the third tribe and reducing its women to slavery. He had opponents and critics assassinated, including poets who composed satirical verses against him. He obtained special revelations that allowed him to have altogether something like twenty wives and concubines. [Cf. video 39 here.] He did marry Aisha at six or so years of age, taking her from her dolls to his tent to consummate the marriage when she was about nine years of age. (In fairness, this sort of thing was apparently the common practice at the time among the powerful elites of Arabia, and he literally died with his head in then eighteen-year old Aisha's lap nine years after the consummation of their marriage.)
Much worse -- given their bloody consequences for 1400 years, are these words from the chronologically last or last but one surah [= chapter] of the Quran (which, in Islamic theology, gives these words the power to abrogate the earlier more irenic verses that we may hear cited):
The Sword Verse, Q 9:5: And when the sacred months
have passed, then kill the polytheists wherever you find them
and capture them and besiege them and sit in wait for them
at every place of ambush. But if they should repent, establish
prayer, and give zakah, let them [go] on their way. Indeed,
Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.
The Verse of Tribute, Q 9:29: Fight those who do not
believe in Allah or in the Last Day and who do not consider
unlawful what Allah and His Messenger have made unlawful and who
do not adopt the religion of truth from those who were given
the Scripture - [fight] until they give the jizyah willingly
while they are humbled. [Both Sahih Int'l, cf here. NB: The Quran is not presented in chronological order.]
All of these are easily enough confirmed as credible facts of Mohammed's career.
Such speaks for itself, and clearly sets the precedent for threatening and carrying out violence against critics.
Which is exactly what we see happening again and again.
For instance, only a few days ago, we had to note on how, after years of international pressure, Pastor Nadarkhani of Iran was finally released from a death sentence for the "crime" of becoming a Christian. The three years he sat in gaol under the shadow of a noose that could have been put around his neck at any time, were then written off as served time for the "crime" of bearing witness to the gospel.
For shame!
Yes, shame!
This is inexcusably, disgracefully, inexplicably shameful!
Conscience and soul should be as free as the air!
And, tellingly, we saw no mass rallies across the Muslim world to protest such a manifestly shameful outrage.
It is high time that decent Muslim people band together with other civiilised people from across the world and say, enough is enough.
This should serve as an utterly telling contrast to what we have been seeing instead, riots on the excuse of insults to the Prophet of Islam.
That is the context against which we should evaluate these murderous riots and the actions of those who stirred them up. Save, that we also need this telling counsel from the Apostle John:
1 Jn 3:10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.
11 This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 15 Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.
This should tell us precisely what spirit animated the murderous riots. And plainly, it is not the thrice Holy Spirit of God.
This should never happen again on any excuse, much less in the name of serving God.
We next need to ask, second, how did an obscure, badly produced YouTube video suddenly get catapulted to the sort of iconic excuse for rioting, willful destruction of property and outright murder we are seeing?
The blog of Walid Shoebat (a former PLO Terrorist and terrorism analyst), gives us a key clue:
Wisam Abdul Waris and Nader Mahmoud Abdulsalam Bakkar told us exactly
what this was about. Here are the translated words Wisam, on September
9th:
We have moved to review… all the legal procedures today
by which we created The Voice of Wisdom Coalition (I’itilaf Sawt
al-Hekma); it will hold accountable everyone who insults Islam locally and internationally, in accordance with every country’s laws.
We all know the problems Yasser Al-Habib had in London and after that
in Berlin… in Germany, an extremist group was allowed to publicize
cartoons that insult the prophet in front of the Salafist Mosque in
Berlin, through a legal decision. So what we did was to ask Sharabi
Mahmoud to reject this legal decision on behalf of the Egyptian people
who are Muslim; for this reason, we created this coalition. We also made
an official request from the Church in Egypt to issue a public
announcement, to state it has nothing to do with this deed.
When Carney says the ‘disgusting’ video is the reason for the riots
and when Barack Obama attempts to get the video pulled from YouTube,
they’re reacting exactly how Wisam wants them to act. The video is a
means, an excuse to further intimidate other countries into making it a
crime to insult Islam and the reactions from the White House prove it.
At one level, this is a part of the ongoing international effort to suppress criticism of Islam and also of IslamIST terrorism -- note the difference -- sponsored by many Islamic leaders. Criticism, even when well-warranted, is being demonised and used as an excuse for rioting.
This intimidation and attempted censorship must not stand.
Caroline Glick of the Jerusalem Post peels back another layer of this rotten onion:
On June 4 the White House confirmed
that the US had killed Abu Yahya Al-Libi - OBL's Libyan lietenant who
had moved into Al Qaeda's #2 spot after Ayman Zahawiri after the Navy
SEALs whacked OBL.
On Tuesday 9/11, a tape was released
of Zawahiri announcing that Libi had been killed earlier this year by a
US drone attack. The Zawahiri tape was made during Ramadan which ended
in the middle of last month. Zawahiri called for his terrorist
underlings to avenge Libi's death and especially exhorted Libyans to
take revenge.
The attack in Libya was well
planned and executed. It wasn't about a spontaneous protest against some
ridiculous internet movie of Muhammad. The assailants came armed to the
teeth, with among other things, RPG 7s. They knew that the US
Ambassador was in Benghazi rather than Tripoli. They knew how to track
his movements, and were able to strike against him after he and his
colleagues left the consulate building and tried to flee in a car. As
Israel Channel 2's Arab Affairs Correspondent Ehud Yaari noted this
evening, you don't often see well trained terrorists participating in
protests of movies.
Telling, a terrorist raid under cover of a provoked riot. That calls for the sort of geographically wide-spread co-ordinated timing that is an Al Qaeda trademark, as was ever so evident eleven years ago on 9-11. And BTW, so is the clever use of talking points and images that play on the West's sense of guilt over its colonial past.
This ongoing set of events has Al Qaeda's fingerprints all over it.
And, it has one of their goals clearly in view: spreading of extreme IslamIST regimes and politics across the Middle East, antecedent to the re-creation of the caliphate under the end of days global conquest Islamic figure, the Mahdi.
For, in Egypt, when the US Embassy was invaded, and the flag taken down and destroyed, what was run up in its place?
Nothing, but: the Black Flag of the armies of Islam.
So, we must note from the earlier KF post on its significance:
. . . let's
pause a moment, to hear Sheik Muhammad Hisham Kabani – a chairman of
the Islamic Supreme Council of America -- on the relevant hadiths
(traditions of Mohammed):
“Hadith indicate that black flags
[the flags of the army of Islam; now often seen in street protests]
coming from the area of Khorasan will signify the appearance of the
Mahdi is nigh. Khorasan is in todays Iran, and some scholars have said
that this hadith means when the black flags appear from Central Asia,
i.e. in the direction of Khorasan, then the appearance of the Mahdi is
imminent.”
[The Approach of Armageddon? (Canada, Supreme Muslim Council of America,
2003), p. 231. (NB Others point out that Khorasan formerly referred to
areas E & NE of Persian Empire; and point to the Taliban as the
probable black flag army.) [HT: J Richardson, Will Islam be our Future?] ]
Then, let us hear no less than the Government of Iran speak, from the
words of an official message to the world at Christmas 2007 in a Shiite
IslamIST variation on the above Islamic traditions [note my
distinctions], so that we can connect a few dots:
[T]he
exploitation of the weak, the unjust system of distribution and denial
of the rights of nations [i.e. inter alia Iran's "right" to break its
former commitments under the Non Proliferation treaty, and access the
technologies for the weapons that would equip it to "wipe Israel from
the face of the map"], will end with the reappearance of Imam Mahdi
(AS). In the government of the Imam man will witness real economic
welfare throughout the world without any discrimination
. . . . Imam Mahdi and steadfast devotees will gather in Mecca . . . .
Imam Mahdi sends troops who kill the Sofyani in Beit ol-Moqaddas [i.e.
Jerusalem], the Islamic holy city in Palestine that is currently under
occupation of the Zionists. . . . Imam Mahdi will be the leader while
Prophet Jesus [NB: the Islamic end times no. 2 to the Mahdi: Isa, not
the Biblical Jesus!] will act as his lieutenant in the struggle against
oppression and establishment of justice in the world. Jesus had himself
given the tidings of the coming of God's last messenger and will see
Mohammad's ideals materialize in the time of the Mahdi. The seat of the
Mahdi’s global government will be the city of Kufa [a Shiite city and
centre of pilgrimage in Iraq] . . . .From here he will dominate the east
and the west to fill the earth with justice.
And what will happen when Jerusalem is captured?
For that, we observe Egyptian authors Muhammad ibn Izzat and Muhammd ‘Arif, writing in Signs of Qiyamah (Islamic Book Service, New Delhi, 2004), p. 40:
The
Mahdi will be victorious and eradicate those pigs and dogs [this is an
allusion to an Islamic tradition that Jews were punished by Allah by
being transformed into pigs, apes etc] and the idols of this time so
that there will once more be a caliphate based on prophethood as the
hadith states… Jerusalem will be the location of the rightly guided
caliphate and the center of Islamic rule, which will be headed by Imam
al-Mahdi… That will abolish the leadership of the Jews… and put an end
to the domination of the Satans who spit evil into people and cause
corruption in the earth, making them slaves of false idols and ruling
the world by laws other than the Shari’a [Islamic Law] of the Lord of
the worlds. [HT: JR]
Genocide, in one word. Or, as a notorious hadith that is cited verbatim in Hamas' charter, Clause 7, puts it:
"The
Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews
(killing the Jews). When the Jew will hide behind stones and trees, the
stones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdulla [= slave or servant of
Allah], there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharqad tree would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews." (related by Sahih al-Bukhari and Muslim).
Islamic
tradition pictures the Mahdi as joining with the army of Muslim
warriors carrying black flags. The Mahdi will then lead this army to
Israel and re-conquer it for Islam. The Jews will be slaughtered until
very few remain and Jerusalem will become the location of the Mahdi’s
rule over the Earth.
In short, our civilisation now faces an ideology
driven by an end-times global conquest mindset; one that is now on the
verge of not only ballistic missiles but the nuclear bombs to put on
them. One committed to the genocide of the Jews of Israel, and the
conquest of the whole earth until it is duly submitted to Allah, to
Allah's Prophet, to Allah's Law, and to Allah's Warriors led by Imam
Mahdi.
And, in the same post already cited, Glick peels back yet another layer, one that answers just how this obscure amateurish YouTube video has gained international prominence:
You may be wondering how some movie no one's heard of has caused
such a hullabaloo. Well, as it turns out, the film was screened on an
Egyptian Salafist television channel. Obviously the Salafists -- many of
whom, like Zawahiri were released from prison by Morsi, wanted to stir
up anti-US violence on the eve of 9/11. So if the film is responsible
for the violence, a finger needs to be pointed to its chief distributor
-- Al Qaida's Egyptian friends and members.
With
these facts in hand, it is clear that the attempts to present these
acts of war against the US as the consequence of some stupid nothing
movie are obscene attempts to deflect the blame for these unwarranted
attacks onto their victims and away from their perpetrators.
I'll bet we would not have picked this pattern up from our usual regional and international news sources. Which goes to their credibility -- or, rather, their utter want of it.
Where does this all leave us?
First, we need to pray for God to pour out his grace that softens hearts across the Middle East and elsewhere, and to send forth the good news of the prince of peace, who will help us all find peace with God and with our fellow man.
Then, we must become willing to be a part of the answers to our prayers, starting with even simple things like this blog post.
That is in the end, our real hope. Maranatha! END
________
PS: Some thought provoking corrective comments on veiled islamisation and associated manipulation in Australia's education system. Relevant all over the world, and speaks to the "standard" presentation of Islam in the media also.
F/N: Truth, worse than fiction: a comparison between the objectionable movie and the actual historical record. Note, however, this comment by a former Muslim who is highly informed; the movie is in no wise to be approved or recommended, its spirit is simply wrong -- anger leads to folly -- and there seem to be questionable factual matters in it, notwithstanding the comparison as linked. This as already linked is sufficient for most, on the significance of Mohammed's example given that in Q 33:21 & 68:4 he is being identified as an ideal man. The chief problem here is that he embodied in one person the founder of a new religion, an accepted prophetic voice, an oriental despot and a warlord in a rough time and place; roles that are plainly in tension and possibly are incompatible. (By contrast, (i) Abraham and Moses were primarily not warlords, but religious founding figures, (ii) David was indeed a warlord but not a religious founder, and his sins and blunders are held up as examples to avoid, (iii) the prophets are not warlords, (iv) Jesus is not a warlord or revolutionary figure leading a band of rebels, and similarly (v) the apostles are examples of peaceful witness under the premise of freedom of conscience, are founders of voluntary fellowships and are peaceful martyrs.) For us, the contemporary challenge is that in that multiple persona, he has become exemplar for the IslamISTS, who make no bones about their latter-day global subjugation ambitions. (Cf also the HLF trial "settlement-jihad" document here.) In their hands, Islam is seen as a religiously motivated, global conquest ideology under Mohammed's example of C7 Arabian peninsula rules of warfare; which, in light of Q 9:5 & 29, we may descriptively call JihadISM or -- following the Algerian moderate Muslims -- IslamoFASCISM.
