Dreams Into Lightning 2

The Second Conversation

I've re-posted my piece The Second Conversation, which was originally published on August 19 in the now-defunct Media Tapper. Events since then - the Benghazi consulate attack and the attacks on Buddhists in Bangladesh - only further illustrate how eagerly Muslim extremists will seize on some perceived (or imagined), purely symbolic "insult" to excuse their own acts of violence. This must not be rewarded or tolerated.

New Piece in Media Tapper

I've had the honor of being added to the list of contributors to Media Tapper. My first article is here:

Jihad, Counter-Jihad, and Why You Should Care

Morsy Un-Dissolves Parliament

'Cairo (CNN) -- Egypt's newly elected president announced Sunday that he's overriding a military edict that dissolved the country's elected parliament and calling on lawmakers back into session in defiance of the generals. ...'

YNet: 'Egypt's official news agency says President Mohammed Morsi has ordered the return of the country's Islamist-dominated parliament that was dissolved by the powerful military. ...'

A friend on Facebook comments: 'MB would never do this unless they were confident. Look to the Obama administration to have their back on this. It's inconceivable this could happen without a green light from the US.' I'm afraid he's probably right.

Obama invites Egypt's Islamist leader to US: 'President Barack Obama has invited Egypt's newly elected Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi, to visit the United States in September, an Egyptian official said on Sunday, reflecting the new ties Washington is cultivating with the region's Islamists. ...'

Judge Stops Murfreesboro Mosque

Pamela at Atlas Shrugs:

We won, and I suspect that when the judge issues a stop work order and they realize that they cannot occupy the building while it's going through the appeal process, the threats will start up again.

"The Court denied the Stay the County requested so the injunction against the Occupancy Permit stands and the Court will issue a Ruling on the Stop Work order soon." ...

Morning Report: 2012-06-08

Russia tests ICBM. Video at Breitbart.

Walter Russell Mead: Good news from California. At Via Meadia, electoral reform in California shakes things up; "We’ll see if this helps."

Gay pride celebrations begin in Tel Aviv. 'The streets of Tel Aviv were filled with rainbow-colored pride flags on Friday as thousands of people were taking part in the annual Gay Pride March. The festivities began at 10 a.m. with a community happening at Meir Park with musical performances, celebrity appearances and speeches by public figures such as Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai, Meretz MK Nitzan Horowitz and Labor leader Shelly Yechimovich. ...'

French anti-Semitic attacker turns himself in. 'Israel Radio reported late Thursday that the lead suspect in last weekend’s anti-Semitic attacks in Lyon, France has turned himself in to police. The suspect and 10 others attacked three people as they left the Beit Menachem Jewish school on Saturday night. The French Interior ministry said the assailants wielded a hammer and an iron bar. ...'

State Department purges religious freedom from human rights reports. Via Counter Jihad Report:

The U.S. State Department removed the sections covering religious freedom from the Country Reports on Human Rights that it released on May 24, three months past the statutory deadline Congress set for the release of these reports.

The new human rights reports–purged of the sections that discuss the status of religious freedom in each of the countries covered–are also the human rights reports that cover the period that covered the Arab Spring and its aftermath.

Thus, the reports do not provide in-depth coverage of what has happened to Christians and other religious minorities in predominantly Muslim countries in the Middle East that saw the rise of revolutionary movements in 2011 in which Islamist forces played an instrumental role. ...

"And so I did a lot of bad things, thinking they were good things."

Eric Allen Bell comes clean about the Murfreesboro mosque and the film "Not Welcome."

Morning Report: 2012-06-02

Al-Monitor on Egyptian elections. Al-Monitor:

Barbara Slavin moderated a panel of leading experts on Egypt, co-sponsored by Al-Monitor, at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on Thursday to debate these questions and what they mean for Egypt.

Despite their varying views, all three panelists seemed to agree that the choice Egyptians are left with is, for the most part, one between the lesser of two evils. On the one hand, there is the Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammad Morsi. On the other, former Mubarak player, Ahmad Shafiq. Samer Shehata, an Egypt scholar at Georgetown University, put his money on a win for Morsi, saying he could not imagine a Mubarak remnant taking power after the revolution. Michael Wahid Hanna, an analyst with the Century Foundation, appeared to lean toward Shafiq, after initially ducking the question. And Marina Ottaway, a senior associate at Carnegie, put the question to rest when she said, “It doesn’t matter who wins.”

Even if Morsi wins, she said, the bureaucracy that was in place under Mubarak is still intact. ...

Video at the link.

US drones kill 'good' Taliban commander. Long War Journal:

The US killed a commander loyal to 'good' Taliban leader Mullah Nazir in a drone strike in South Waziristan. Today's strike is the first in South Waziristan since mid-March.

The remotely piloted Predators or the more deadly Reapers fired missiles at a vehicle and a motorcycle in a village near Wana. Dawn reported that the strike took place in the village of Doog and killed two Taliban fighters, while Geo News said the strike occurred in Khawashi Khel and killed four fighters.

According to Dawn, Rahmanullah, "a key commander of the Mullah Nazir group and a brother of commander Malang of the same group," was killed in the strike. Nazir administers the Wana area and supports and shelters al Qaeda leaders and operatives. ...

What's so "good" about Mullah Nazir? Good question. 'Mullah Nazir has openly supported Taliban emir Mullah Omar and al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and wages jihad in Afghanistan. In an interview with the Asia Times, Nazir rejected claims that he opposed al Qaeda, and affirmed that he considered himself to be a member of the global terror organization. ... Pakistan's military and intelligence services consider Nazir and his followers "good Taliban" as they do not openly seek the overthrow of the Pakistani state.' Go to the link for the full article.

Russian defense spending. Stratfor (requires login for non-subscribers) notes that Russia's finance ministry has proposed a federal budget cut of $125 billion, mainly in defense, while Vladimir Putin wanted to increase the defense budget by almost as much. The finance ministry is concerned about the price of oil (Russia depends on oil revenues), the financial crisis in Europe (including the possibility of a Greek withdrawal from the Eurozone), and keeping a balanced budget.

India's economy stumbles. The Economist: 'But India's GDP figures, the worst for at least nine years, will have a deep impact on the sub-continent. The country was meant to grow in its sleep—regardless of what happens in the rest of the world. A quick bounce back looks unlikely. The central bank has cut interest rates a little this year, but will struggle to loosen policy further given high inflation. The ruling coalition keeps on promising a bout of reforms to boost confidence, but it is so divided, its behaviour so erratic and its record of delivery so poor that few believe this will actually happen. Expectations for growth over the next couple of years will probably slip further, to 6%. ...' This may suggest that India's rapid growth spurt of 2004 - 2007 was a blip, not a trend.

Death threats for Robert Spencer. 'Robert Spencer, director of the website “Jihad Watch,” questioned the source of Islam in a new book, “Did Muhammad Exist? An Inquiry into the Obscure Origins of Islam,” published by ISI Books. Spencer is also the author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades), The Truth about Muhammad (both New York Times best-sellers) and is a columnist for FrontPage Magazine. But upon publication of his latest book, which theorized that the founder and prophet of Islam, Muhammad, did not really exist, Spencer was threatened with a violent death. ...'

BBC on 'New York's Republican enclave', Brighton Beach. A refreshingly sympathetic piece on Republicans from the BBC: 'These are people who remember the Soviet Union all too well and resist what they see as big government and anti-business programmes. They may be liberal on social issues, like abortion, but anything that feels like socialism - even if it is not - makes them queasy. In Brooklyn, Republicans have found a home by the sea. ...'

Cinnamon Stillwell at Berkeley: Imaginary Islamophobia vs. Real Islamism

Cinnamon Stillwell at FrontPage:

The Islamophobia Research & Documentation Project (IRDP)—a program of the University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Race and Gender (CRG)—recently held its third annual conference, “Critical Discourses on Islamophobia: Symbols, Images, & Representations.” As in previous years, speaker after speaker decried an imaginary racist, imperialist, Orientalist Western juggernaut, while disregarding the very real predations of Islamism.

The first day of the conference brought in approximately eighty people at its peak, including a number of women in hijab (head scarf), typing furiously on laptops. Others sported keffiyehs and dreadlocks; a smattering of Arabic and French could be heard; and a scruffy, bearded fellow wandered around with what appeared to be a journal under his arm, Historicizing Anti-Semitism, that one suspects is not exactly kosher. It was just another day in Berkeley. ...

Read the rest at the link.

Eurabia

Andrew Bostom:

Serendipitously, perhaps, in the midst of Geert Wilders’ visit to the U.S., warning of the consequences of Europe’s ongoing Islamization, today I came across a State Department memo from the U.S. embassy in Madrid, dated September 19, 1974 (1974 Madrid 05880), declassified June 30, 2005. This document reveals that the U.S. was fully aware of the advent of “Eurabia,” precisely as self-characterized in an official European socio-political journal bearing the title Eurabia.

Eurabia was the title of a journal published in the mid-1970s by the European Committee for the Coordination of Friendship Associations with the Arab World. ...

Go read the rest.

Geert Wilders: Speech at Gatestone Institute, New York

Geert Wilders:

It is great to be in America, the beacon of liberty, the land of the free, the land where people are still allowed to speak freely. I know what I am talking about. I was acquitted after a legal ordeal that lasted almost 3 years. I had been brought to court for criticizing Islam.

Though at the end of the day I was acquitted, the court case had been a disgrace. It was a time-, money- and energy-consuming nightmare. This charade that happened in the Netherlands for the last few years could not have happened in your great country, where the First Amendment guarantees people the freedom to express their opinions.

The first Amendment is what we need in the Netherlands and Europe.

I am in New York for the release of my book "Marked for Death". It explains why Islam is the largest threat to freedom which the world is currently facing. It argues why Islam is a totalitarian ideology rather than a religion. It reveals how Islam has already profoundly changed Europe in the last decades. It exposes the cultural relativism which has affected Europe so deeply that many in Europe refuse to stand for liberty and prefer to appease Islam.As you know, people who speak out like myself and I pay a steep price for speaking these truths. Apart from legal attempts to silence me, there are also the threats by radical Muslims to kill me. I have been living under permanent police protection for almost eight years now. People like me pay this price for speaking the truth about Islam. But I do not regret one word. I see it as my duty to warn the West. ...