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Palestinian Columnist: Israel, Not ISIS, Perpetrated Brussels And Paris Attacks As Revenge For Europe’s Hostility Towards It

March 28, 2016

Palestinian Columnist: Israel, Not ISIS, Perpetrated Brussels And Paris Attacks As Revenge For Europe’s Hostility Towards It, MEMRI, March 28, 2016

Muwaffaq Matar, a columnist for the Palestinian Authority (PA) daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, wrote that ISIS by itself lacks the power and ability to carry out massive attacks like those that occurred recently in Paris and Brussels, and that they were actually orchestrated by Israel, using ISIS as a tool. He claimed that Israel carried out the attacks as revenge for Europe’s recent moves against it, such as the EU’s decision to mark products manufactured in the occupied territories, and the French initiative to convene an international conference for resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and, if it fails, to recognize a Palestinian state.

The following are excerpts from Matar’s column:[1]

27400Muwaffaq Matar (Image: Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, PA)

“The statement of French President [Francois] Hollande – that terrorism struck Belgium but hit the heart of Europe [as a whole] – is perfectly true. [2] However, the day will come, [perhaps] in a quarter of a century, when a French president will declare [the true identity of] those who struck the heart of Europe using the weapons and the tools of ISIS. Following a thorough examination of the situation and the unfolding of events, one definitely realizes that there are no coincidences and that the terror attacks in the capital of Europe were not just a reaction to the arrest of the mastermind behind the Paris attacks, Salah Abdeslam. They came at precisely the right moment for the real element that decided to target the heart of Europe while hiding behind the slogan of ISIS.

“I do not want to point fingers, but why is it that ISIS’s crimes and massacres in France and Brussels coincided with Europe’s first attempt to liberate itself from Israel’s blackmail and from the [guilt] complex over the persecution of the Jews in Europe? [Why did they coincide] with the European parliaments supporting the Palestinians’ right [to a state], for the first time? Was it not France that conceived the idea of an international conference that would lead to ending the conflict and the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories? [France] was also the one that threatened to recognize a Palestinian state if Israel refused to turn towards peace with the Palestinians, [peace] that would guarantee their rights as recognized by the UN. [And] was it not the European Union, headquartered in Brussels, that decided to mark the products of the Israeli settlements, thereby [adversely] affecting Israel’s economy?

“Have you heard of the European boycott of Israel, of the effective and impressive activity of [European] activists, and of Israel’s fear of this activity that is gaining momentum? Why then should we not regard this background as the reason [that prompted] those who are harmed by the new Europe [namely Israel] to strike at the heart of Europe, even though the one who physically carried out [the attack] was a barbaric ISIS criminal completely devoid of humanity? The lesson [to be learned] from a crime does not lie solely in its details, in the tools [used to perpetrate it] and in its appearance, but also in the motivations behind it, the circumstances that enabled it, and the [identity of] the true hidden criminal. This is doubly true when it comes to the motivations of those who committed a historic crime against an entire people… and who do not eschew the use of terror, in all its guises and slogans, as a means and a tool to kill three birds with one terror attack: the Palestinian bird, the Arab bird and the European bird.

“Let’s not forget that the compartmentalization that characterizes the activity of the global terror organizations [actually] makes it easy for security apparatuses to infiltrate them and manipulate their members for their own ends. ISIS does not have the ability to strike wherever and however it pleases. Some element or elements have infiltrated it to the core, and are using it as their current tool to take revenge on Europe and rip out its heart.”

 

Endnote:

[1] Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (PA), March 24, 2016.

[2] Apparently refers to statements made by Hollande in a March 22, 2016 press conference, a few hours after the attacks. Hollande said, inter alia, that “terrorism struck Belgium, but it was Europe that was targeted.” Nytimes.com, March 22, 2016.

Categories: Brussels terror attack, Islamic terrorism, Israel, Palestinian media, Paris Muslim attack
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Two left feet: Obama’s week of ‘bad optics’ really just bad leadership

March 28, 2016

Two left feet: Obama’s week of ‘bad optics’ really just bad leadership, New York Post, Kyle Smith, March 27, 2016

obama_us_analysisBarack Obama shakes hands with Cuban President Raul Castro. Photo AP

To be a president means regularly to find oneself caught off balance. Sometimes you want to chill at the same moment your enemies move to kill. You may find yourself doing an innocent photo op reading a book to little kids when terrorists launch a coordinated attack on the country.

So let’s have a little sympathy for President Obama this week. It has to be frustrating when you set out to make nice with the leaders of a mass-murdering fanatical regime and at the exact same time a mass murder is carried out by a completely different group of fanatics — the ones you keep saying are no big deal.

It has to get under your skin when you bring a planeload of fanboy hacks with you to a tropical paradise on the understanding that they’ll write nice stories about your kicking back with one half of a pair of homicidal brothers when instead people get all distracted about the tiny detail of 31 people getting killed by a different pair of homicidal brothers.

The president whose acolytes call him No Drama Obama aren’t quite right, but they are on to something. The president does get angry, but not at terrorists, dictators or mass murderers. Every time rage sneaks into his face, he’s talking about his domestic political opponents. He’s talking about budgetary disputes, federal appointments, Constitutional interpretation.

Blood literally running in the streets of Belgium? Heads being cut off by sabers? A movement that wants to kill every Jew and Christian? Shrug. Obama spoke about the ISIS mass murder briefly.

Then he did “the wave” with Raul Castro.

cuba_obama4Obama and Castro wave to the crowd during a exhibition game between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Cuban national team.

As one newspaper headline put it, juxtaposing a photo of Obama doing the tango in Argentina against an image from the latest ISIS atrocity, “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?” That’s the polite way of referring to the words that are ordinarily indicated by “WTF?”

There are often no great options for a president in times of strain; if President Bush had, when informed that the second plane had hit the World Trade Center, scared the kids by throwing down his copy of “The Pet Goat” and said, “Holy s–t! We’re under attack!” he would have been criticized even more heartily than he was for continuing to read for seven more minutes. (Though it’s hard to grasp exactly what exactly liberals find so outrageous about that notorious delay: Would they be happy if Bush had invaded Afghanistan seven minutes sooner than he did?)

Once Obama decided to go to the ballgame, his only choices were to stick with it and risk looking out of sync with the world’s mood, which is what he did, or ruin his fun day out with a new pal who once ordered up the execution of hundreds of political enemies.

Hey, at least Raul Castro never did anything really vile like declining to appear on a television program with Obama. (In January, The Hill reported, the president grew “visibly angry” when he mentioned the NRA at his gun-control town hall.)

Maybe Obama was invisibly angry with ISIS after the Brussels slaughter. But if you were looking for a signal that he was taking it seriously, you were disappointed. “We defeat them in part by saying, ‘You are not strong, you are weak,’” was his message, reverting to his default reasoning about how terrorism is really all a matter of adjusting your perceptions because the bad guys obviously can’t hurt us if we keep saying we’re not hurt.

usa-argentina_3Obama tangos in Argentina.Photo: Reuters

It’s the same logic you heard in high school from your highly educated feminist English teacher, the one who drove a rusted Chevette with a bumper sticker reading, “It will be a great day when schools get all the money they need and the Air Force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber.” She told you the best way to beat bullies was to deny them any satisfaction, i.e. to pretend they weren’t pummeling you. “Just curl up into the fetal position, Johnny, you’ll have the last laugh when their punching muscles wear out in an hour or two.” Roughly at the same time, you developed strange new respect for your meathead gym teacher, the one who taught you how to throw a punch in such a way that it would definitely make a nose bleed.

What this week really demonstrated was not that Obama has a wee problem with “the optics” of his job, but that he’s stuck forever in campaign mode, confusing rhetoric with leading. ISIS just laughs and reloads when the president chides them.

Beginning to normalize relations with Cuba is a good idea — but Obama loved the picture of himself giving a speech in Havana so much that he skipped over the part where he’d win concessions from the regime. Giving away the game was his opening bid.

We have the kind of president who would drive away from a car lot congratulating himself on his sweet deal after paying the sucker’s price — plus extra for the “protective undercoating.”

 

Categories: Brussels terror attack, Cuba, Free world, Islamic terrorism, Obama and Cuba, Obama and Islamic State, Obama and Islamic terrorism, Obama's leadership
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Here Are the Moderate Muslims; Where are YOU?

March 27, 2016

Here Are the Moderate Muslims; Where are YOU? Clarion Project, Raheel Reza, March 27, 2016

(The author is active in the Islamic reform movement, is doing good works and should be listened to by our “leaders.” However, her views on the Islamic roots of Islamic terror seem a tad off base. — DM)

Freedom_go_to_hell-640(Photo © Voyou Desoeuvre – Flickr: “Freedom go to hell”, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24190977)

Following the Brussels attacks, I’ve been glued to mainstream media listening very attentively to political pundits, intelligence agencies, experts and analysts. Something in what they are saying sounds familiar. Oh yes – it’s the same rhetoric that we heard since 9/11. Fifteen years down the road from the first mass attack on the West, and all we seem to be able to do is parrot the same questions.

  • Why do they hate us?
  • Why are there so many siblings involved?
  • Why is there lack of co-operation from ‘the community’?
  • Where are the moderate Muslim voices?

For the fiftieth time let me take it from the top.

  • They hate us because they don’t want to accept their own inadequacies and failures. They hate that we have freedoms they do not have and they hate us most because we are a successful liberal democracy while they have not invented or created anything new in the past 100 years. So they fall back on grievances – real and imagined to create a monster they call the West. Also they have declared the West as the land of war (not my words) and they feel justified to attack us. Even Achmed the dead terrorist gets it when he says “I will keel you” But you don’t.
  • Why is the question of sibling involvement so hard to comprehend? Siblings and close friends are the easiest to radicalize because they are close to you and open to your ideas and suggestions. In case of the San Bernardino terrorist couple, we know the wife radicalized the spouse. This is common in close knit communities. So when groups are ghettoized and shut themselves off from the mainstream, this is bound to happen.
  • The community has also been brainwashed by invoking Colonial oppression, invasion of Muslim lands, Afghanistan, Iraq and of course the lightening rod which is the Arab-Israeli conflict. None of these by the way have any bearing on why the radical Islamists are attacking the West because there are few terrorists that come from Afghanistan and Iraq. Pakistan has not been invaded, yet there is a direct link to this country in terms of radical Jihadists.
  • Where are the moderate Muslim voices? Well let me tell you that reform-minded and progressive Muslims have been speaking out since 9/11 and telling you that there is a global Islamist jihadist insurgency that will invade and attack us unless we wake up and smell the coffee.

So let me ask you. We are speaking out but what are you doing? What actions have the law enforcement agencies, the governments of the Western world and its leadership taken to stem the ideology that is being exported to the West?

We have explained time and again that the Islamists (ISIS and their ilk) are not Muslim fanatics like most people think. They are criminals. Their ideology has nothing to do with the spiritual message of Islam. It’s a politically-charged message infecting the minds of millions of Muslims.

You say that’s too high a number? Well watch the documentary By the Numbers and you will know better.

So ranting about the Quran and Mohammad has really no value in how to deal with the problem at hand. Ignorance and bigotry will not solve the problem of radical Islam. In fact knee-jerk reactions and racist remarks only fuel the Islamists and justify their ideological mandate that the West is against Islam. We must have a more intelligent, in-depth and long-term strategy.

The Islamist ideology comes from one of three sources:

1.    Muslim Brotherhood

2.    Wahhabi/Salafi doctrine from Saudi Arabia

3.    Khomeni-ism

It’s frustrating to hear the Boston chief of police say they will use sniffer dogs at airports. Sniffer dogs can’t sniff out an ideology. Speaking of dogs – when a dog gets rabies and bites someone, the victims need injections to get rid of the venom. This radical ideology is the venom that needs to be treated. But how are we going to do that when you are not able to isolate the poison and call it what it is?

So I have a challenge for the experts and political leaders of the West. Why did you allow no-go zones to exist in the first place? In Toronto there is an almost no-go zone at Thorncliffe Park where the mosque runs a madrassah. In the same area, Friday congregational prayers are offered at a public school where girls having their periods are lined up at the back of the room.  A local Islamic school was exposed spreading ant-Semitic literature. Were they charged? No – because we are such nice people.

Why are we not exposing these problems and eradicating the spread of this ideology? If we know about the imam who spreads hate and anti-Semitic rhetoric, why don’t the intelligence agencies know about this? And if they do, why haven’t they done something about it, like deport him? Why are 80 sharia courts allowed to operate in UK? We can only expose the problems – it’s up to policy makers and law enforcement to make the change.

Regarding law enforcement, we spent time with a regional police force suggesting we enlighten them about where the problems lie and help them identify the people and places where the Islamist ideology is spread. No response. Yet this month they are hosting a conference on Islamophobia with the very same organization that has ties to CAIR, which has been labelled a terrorist organization by The United Arab Emirates. The organization hosting this event with the police force has recently changed its name but that doesn’t change who they are.

The West has caved in to the Islamophobia industry and panders to the Islamists’ cause over and above a concern about the security and safety of the land in which we live. What we should be discussing at round tables is why public places like airports are so porous and easily accessible? Last time I travelled (which is not long ago) I see that the domestic arrivals lounge at Toronto’s Pearson airport has a door with no security, which allows anyone to enter the domestic baggage hall.

Have we not learnt anything in the past decade? Whose responsibility is this? Not the moderate Muslims surely.

Please be assured that these attacks will continue unless action is taken. It’s time to stop the ad-nauseum analysis and do something. Our enemy is the ideology. Take action to stop the flow of these messages and foreign funding into our organizations and places of worship. We know where the ideology is coming from and yet we have opened the flood gates and have allowed this ideology to flourish and foment in our very midst. Why?

These ideas are not politically correct but they will save lives.

Before asking where we are, let’s examine where all of us are on this urgent issue. We are speaking out. Now it’s YOUR turn to take action.

Categories: Islamic reformation, Islamic terrorism
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Belgian Soldiers Deployed to Fight Terrorists had no Bullets in Rifles

March 27, 2016

Belgian Soldiers Deployed to Fight Terrorists had no Bullets in Rifles, Front Page Magazine, Daniel Greenfield, March 27, 2016

iran-white-flag

Much of counterterrorism is really security theater. TSA searches that have yet to stop a terrorist. Bombing raids that don’t drop bombs. Soldiers standing with rifles that have no bullets in them. It looks impressive. But there’s no substance behind it.

Rabbi Menachem Hadad of Brussels’ Shomre Hadas haredi Orthodox community said that soldiers who were posted outside a synagogue and the city’s Chabad House following the slaying of four Jews in Brussels’ Jewish Museum of Belgium in 2014 told him that for months, they used to guard the area with no bullets in their rifles. “It was just a show.”

Of course it’s just for show. Anything else would be too much. Western governments don’t want to actually stop Islamic terrorism. They want to look like they’re trying.

It’s not just Obama. It’s the whole system.

After every terror attack, there’s security theater. Empty reassurances that the guys running everything are really taking it seriously. But there’s no there, there. Instead they’ll keep on bringing huge numbers of Muslims, creating the next wave of terror, even while they put on a show of being serious about the latest attack.

Being serious about Islamic terrorism means ending Muslim migration. Any government that doesn’t want to do that is also not going to do much to fight Islamic terrorism except go through the motions.

Categories: Islamic immigration, Islamic terrorism, Security theater
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USA Today: U.S. cities face anti-Muslim backlash

March 27, 2016

USA Today: U.S. cities face anti-Muslim backlash, Jihad Watch, Robert Spencer, March 26, 2016

Here we go again. After every Islamic jihad massacre, the mainstream media acts as if Muslims, not non-Muslims, were killed. Notice that while this headline portends Muslims being persecuted all over the nation, the article doesn’t give any examples other than vague and unsubstantiated assertions from the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which wants and needs hate crimes against Muslims, because they’re the currency they use to buy power and influence in our victimhood-oriented society, and to deflect attention away from jihad terror and onto Muslims as putative victims. Hamas-linked CAIR, designated a terror organization by the United Arab Emirates, and other Muslims have on many occasions not hesitated to stoop even to fabricating “hate crimes,” including attacks on mosques. Most notably, in February, a New Jersey Muslim was found guilty of murder that he tried to portray as an “Islamophobic” attack, and in 2014 in California, a Muslim was found guilty of killing his wife, after first blaming her murder on “Islamophobia.”

sad-Muslims

“‘Islamophobia’: U.S. cities face anti-Muslim backlash,” by Mike James and Linda Dono, USA TODAY, March 24, 2016 (thanks to Christian):

WASHINGTON — Cities across the USA are preparing for the next phase that inevitably follows a terror attack: anti-Muslim backlash.

Across social media, in public forums on college campuses, and even in mainstream political rhetoric from presidential candidates, anger over the deadly terror attacks in Brussels has spawned discontent and suspicion directed at Muslim groups. After the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks, leaders in California, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and spoke out quickly to dissuade anti-Muslim sentiment.

The aftermath of an attack “is always a difficult time for Muslims in the United States,” said Nabil Shaikh, a leader of the Muslim Students Association at Princeton University.

“On Princeton’s campus, students took to anonymous forums like Yik Yak to comment that there are Muslims at Princeton who are radical and would therefore condone yesterday’s attacks,” Shaikh said. “These comments not only are appalling and inaccurate but also threaten the well-being of Muslim students.”

Unlike in Belgium and Paris following the November terror attacks, the backlash in the U.S. is not as confrontational.

Europe has seen occasional anti-Muslim rallies in Flemish cities such as Antwerp and Ghent. Some Muslim leaders have accused police in Europe of overtly targeting Muslim communities in lockdowns and raids of homes.

“The average Muslim still feels intimidated, still feels scared, still feels insecure.” Khusro Elley, Chappaqua, N.Y.

Muslim communities in the U.S. face opposition more in the form of rhetoric — but in an election year, such rhetoric can lead to sweeping change.

The day of the Brussels attack, Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz said that the U.S. needs to “empower law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized.” His comments struck an already raw nerve in Muslim communities throughout the U.S. although Donald Trump praised Cruz’s idea.

President Obama called the approach “wrong and un-American.”

“I just left a country that engages in that kind of surveillance, which by the way the father of Senator Cruz escaped, to America, the land of the free,” he said, referring to Cuba.

Politics plays a role in fostering anti-Islamic sentiment, said Khusro Elley of Chappaqua, N.Y., a trustee at Upper Westchester Muslim Society in Thornwood, N.Y.

“The average Muslim still feels intimidated, still feels scared, still feels insecure,” especially in a political climate where it’s become common to depict Muslims as terrorists, he said.

While brutal attacks on Muslims in the United States haven’t been reported to the Council on American-Islamic Relations since the Brussels attack, bullying and hate speech are growing, said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Washington-based civil-liberties group.

“For girls, it’s pulling on the hijab and calling them terrorists, and for boys it’s saying that they have a bomb in their backpack and calling them terrorists,” Hooper said. Some politicians make the problems worse. “They really have mainstreamed Islamophobia.”

Children hear the hate speech on TV and hear their parents agreeing with it, he said. Increasingly, they’re taking the language to school.

In Louisville, more than two dozen Islamic leaders gathered Wednesday to condemn the attacks and urge the public not to link all Muslims with terrorism, describing a growing level of Islamophobia.

“I do feel that with the attacks in Brussels and especially after Paris, people feel like they are entitled to speak hatefully. It’s actually a lot worse than what happened after 9/11.”
Maira Salim, Muslim Student Association at Wichita State University

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer, a Democrat, called some Republican political candidates’ responses in wake of the Brussels attack “naive and unrealistic.”

“For them to play to people’s basest fears” to gain political support is “contrary to American values,” Fischer said at an interfaith prayer vigil, contending that such candidates are “masquerading as presidential timber.”

Muslims in Louisville haven’t felt fearful, especially since non-Muslim volunteers came out in force to paint over anti-Islam graffiti two days after the Louisville Islamic Center was vandalized Sept. 16, said Mohammed Wasif Iqbal, head of the center. But Iqbal said some have criticized Islamic leaders for not condemning attacks strongly enough.

“We will stand here every single time and condemn it,” he said, arguing that extremists should not define the Islamic religion.

Muhammad Babar, a Louisville Islamic leader with Muslim Americans for Compassion, called the Brussels attack heartbreaking.

“Do not see us through the actions of ISIL,” he said. “We are as American as you are.”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Florida chapter has seen a fivefold increase in reports of hate incidents during 2015 compared with 2014, 26 vs. five, said Hassan Shibly, the chapter’s chief executive director. A grand majority occurred in the final two months of the year, after the Paris terrorist attacks.

“Unlike what happens after the mass shootings committed by white supremacists that happen almost daily in America, whenever an act of terrorism involves those who identify themselves as Muslims, politicians respond by calling for the curtailment or the rights of American Muslims,” he said. “Our enemies can never destroy us. We can only destroy ourselves if we allow fear and hate to turn us against each other.”

The national Council on American-Islamic Relations, founded in 1994, called for Cruz to retract his demand for law enforcement to secure Muslim neighborhoods.

“Mr. Cruz’s call for law enforcement to ‘patrol and secure’ neighborhoods in which American Muslim families live is not only unconstitutional, it is unbefitting anyone seeking our nation’s highest office and indicates that he lacks the temperament necessary for any president,” the national council’s executive director, Nihad Awad, said in a statement.

Awad called Cruz’s plan fascist-like.

“I do feel that with the attacks in Brussels and especially after Paris, people feel like they are entitled to speak hatefully,” said Maira Salim, president of the Muslim Student Association at Wichita State University. “It’s actually a lot worse than what happened after 9/11. … I’m all for free speech, but hate speech is not OK.”

Categories: CAIR, Islamic terrorism, Islamophobia
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So agreeable: Hillary Clinton nods almost non-stop during roundtable

March 25, 2016

So agreeable: Hillary Clinton nods almost non-stop during roundtable, Washington Free Beacon via You Tube, March 24, 2016

 

Categories: Hillary Clinton, Islam - the religion of war, Islamic culture, Islamic immigration, Islamic slaughter, Islamic terrorism, Islamisation
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You Know What Plays Right into ISIS’ Hands? Muslim Immigration

March 25, 2016

You Know What Plays Right into ISIS’ Hands? Muslim Immigration, Front Page Magazine, Daniel Greenfield, March 24, 2016

2015-09-09_0134_1

After every Muslim terror attack, the media starts claiming that anyone warning about Muslim terrorism is “playing right into ISIS’ hands”. Google and you’ll see too many examples of this meme to count after the Brussels attacks.

“Playing right into ISIS’ hands” is another version of “Shoot the messenger”. If you point out the problem, you’re responsible for it. If you talk about Muslim terrorism, ISIS will be able to recruit more terrorists. Unlike when Obama decided to ignore them and they seized major parts of Syria and Iraq.

Warning that there’s a problem is the only way to solve it. Pretending the problem isn’t there solves nothing. The technical term for it is cover-up.

Muslims don’t join ISIS because people warn about Islamic terrorism. They join ISIS because they believe in rebuilding a Caliphate and living under full Islamic law. They aren’t jobless, marginalized or desperate youth. They’re fanatical killers.

But do you know what really plays into ISIS’ hands? Muslim immigration.

ISIS does not care what Americans say about it. It cares a great deal about the strategic problems of carrying out attacks abroad. The only way to do that is Muslim immigration, in the past, present or future tense. Without it, ISIS has no way of doing anything here. With it, it can strike anywhere that the Muslim settler population is embedded.

Warning about Muslim terrorism doesn’t play into the hands of ISIS. Bringing millions of Muslims to as a recruiting base for Muslim terrorists does.

Categories: Islamic immigration, Islamic terrorism
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Report: Belgian Muslims Refuse to Help Police Find Terrorists

March 25, 2016

Report: Belgian Muslims Refuse to Help Police Find Terrorists, Truth Revolt, Tiffany Gabbay, March 24, 2016

(Here’s a video of Donald Trump addressing Muslim lack of cooperation with police to identify terrorists.

— DM)

 

brussels_terror_neighborhood_mail

There is a reason why Israel razes the homes of terrorists. It is because Israelis know that a terrorist cannot plot and carry out an attack without the knowledge and help of his or her immediate relatives, and further, the entire community. Punitive home demolition is meant to serve as a deterrent, the idea being that a would-be terrorist’s family will fear losing their home and thus persuade him or her against the attack.

In fact, knowing that it “takes a village” to aid and abet a terrorist is precisely why the terrorists responsible for the Paris and recent Brussels bombings could operate “right under the noses” of their victims. And it is why some are calling for heightened scrutiny of Muslim communities across the West, and right here in the U.S., despite cries of Islamophobia.

The MailOnline reports that police in Molenbeek — a district known for spawning jihadis like the France and Brussels attackers — have pleaded with local Muslims for help in finding the terror suspects only to have their pleas rebuffed:

The seeds of the terror blasts that shook Europe were planted by a brotherhood of childhood friends who grew up just a few doors away from each other in a part of Brussels dubbed the ‘crucible of terror’.

Police following the trail of the terrorist murderers behind the atrocities in France and Belgium have repeatedly arrived at a single block of housing in Molenbeek, a district of Brussels known as a hotbed of jihadism.

The centre of the deadly network is the Abdeslam family home, a first floor apartment on Gemeenteplaats, behind the local police station – and just round the corner from the home of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the brains behind the Paris attacks. Abaaoud, the linchpin of the terror cell, was killed in a furious shootout with police in Saint-Denis, Paris, in the aftermath of the November massacres. He has emerged as the group’s ringleader, along with Salah Abdeslam.

Brothers Salah and Brahim Abdeslam were involved in the carnage in Paris, in which Brahim, 31, was killed in a suicide attack on the Comptoir Voltaire restaurant. It is understood that Salah, 26, went on the run without detonating his suicide vest.

Salah, who is accused of making the bombs used in the attacks, was arrested last week round the corner from the family home in a frantic police raid after four months on the run. He is also thought to have been involved in the Brussels attacks with a ‘new network’ of fanatics.

Just a few doors down from the Abdeslam and Abaaoud apartments is the family home of Mohamed Abrini, 30, who drove the Abdeslam brothers to Paris to carry out the attacks and is accused of being involved with the Brussels plot. He remains at large, and police are desperately trying to track him down.

Abrini is a childhood friend of Salah Abdeslam, and it is thought that the two became radicalised together. Moreover, Abrini’s younger brother Souleymane, 20, died in 2014 in Syria while fighting in the same ISIS military unit as Abaaoud, [sic] […] The tight-knit network doesn’t end there. A short distance from the Abdeslam and Abrini residences is the home of Ayoub El Khazzani, the terrorist who launched the botched gun and bomb attack on the Amsterdam-to-Paris express train in August last year.

The above passage is just meant to provide insight into how entrenched these terror networks have been and how interconnected members of the community truly are.

Police meanwhile are running into a brick wall because Muslims in the towns of  Molenbeek, and also nearby Schaerbeek, where the bomb factory used by the el Bakraoui brothers is located, simply refuse to help.

During a recent raid near the Ahl Allah mosque following the Brussels attack, police were met not with cooperation, but rather, hostility. They were verbally assaulted and taunted by throngs of angry young Muslim men.

“There is no terrorist on this street. The police are making it up to make Muslims look bad,” said 27-year-old Mohammed.

“It is a set-up.” The Mail continues:

The local community there views police with contempt, they added, and are unlikely to report terrorists to the authorities even if they do not have jihadi sympathies themselves.

‘Frankly I wasn’t surprised,’ a policewoman who wished to remain anonymous told MailOnline. ‘Nobody takes what happens in this district seriously. Every day we arrest well-known criminals and the next day they are back on the streets.

‘It is frustrating that we are doing our work but the justice system doesn’t back us up.

‘These people are not being prosecuted or fined, they are just being released. We arrest them and nothing happens to them.

‘One or two hours later they smile and mock us, believing they are on the winning side.’

The ‘lack of respect for police and for Belgium’ in the local multicultural community meant that the terror cell could operate without fear of being reported, she added.

This made Schaerbeek – which has been ‘off the radar’ for terror police – the ideal place for a deadly jihadi to hide out.

‘We have been asking for the higher authorities to take this district more seriously but it hasn’t happened,’ she said.

Her commanding officer, who also did not want to be named, agreed. ‘We have not been blind to the fact that something serious has been going on here,’ he said.

‘We have several people under surveillance but there are others that are unknown and blending in with the wall.

‘They are deeply embedded in the local community. They know each other and have family here, but nobody says anything.

According to Mohammed Abdeslam, one of the suspect’s brothers, speaking to reporters or authorities will get a community member into “very big trouble.”

“I can’t tell you if my brother was supposed to be involved in today’s attack because if I told you I knew, I’d be in very big trouble right now,” the man told The Mail before speeding off in his BMW.

And that, folks, is why the myth of the “small minority” is just that, a myth. Terrorism and radicalism goes far beyond just the person willing to the pull the ripcord him- or herself; it goes also to those who aid and abet those who pull the trigger. It extends even to those who simply turn a blind eye and refuse to help authorities stop the carnage when they’ve valuable information that can save lives. There are few innocents here in these Muslim enclaves, despite what the apologists will tell you. How our respective leaders chose to deal with that truth will make the difference in thwarting or not thwarting future attacks.

Categories: Brussels terror attack, Donald Trump, Islamic terrorism, Islamisation, Moderate Muslims
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The Obama Doctrine Applied

March 23, 2016

The Obama Doctrine Applied, Power Line, Scott Johnson, March 23, 2016

In the immediate aftermath of the terror attacks in Brussels yesterday, President Obama gave a previously scheduled speech in Havana “To the People of Cuba.” The speech contrasts rather starkly with the speech suggested by Professor Carlos Eire in “The speech never given,” to the detriment of Obama’s speech.

Obama’s speech wasn’t all bad. Though full of nauseating palaver, it had a good paragraph or two. To the mostly nauseating palaver and gratuitous autobiographical reflections in the prepared text of the speech, Obama tacked on formulaic vacuities to acknowledge the morning’s events in Brussels:

Before I begin, please indulge me. I want to comment on the terrorist attacks that have taken place in Brussels. The thoughts and the prayers of the American people are with the people of Belgium. We stand in solidarity with them in condemning these outrageous attacks against innocent people. We will do whatever is necessary to support our friend and ally, Belgium, in bringing to justice those who are responsible. And this is yet another reminder that the world must unite, we must be together, regardless of nationality, or race, or faith, in fighting against the scourge of terrorism. We can — and will — defeat those who threaten the safety and security of people all around the world.

That’s it. The White House posted video of Obama’s remarks on the attacks here. The video runs for 51 seconds.

Having given the speech, President Obama kept his previously scheduled date with Raul Castro to attend the Rays-Cuba baseball game in Havana. At the game Obama schmoozed with Castro. What a sickening sight. On the plus side, however, Obama didn’t throw out the opening pitch.

Obama commented on the attacks in Brussels to ESPN during the game (video below, about ten minutes). He didn’t appear to be to broken up about them.

“This is just one more example of why the entire world needs to unite against these terrorists,” Obama said. “The notion that any political agenda would justify the killing of innocent people like this is something that’s beyond the pale.” Obama imputes a simply “political agenda” to the attack. Their religious inspiration has been drained from them.

Obama explained why he attended the game as planned: “It’s always a challenge when you have a terrorist attack anywhere in the world, particularly in this age of 24/7 news coverage, you wanna be respectful and understand the gravity of the situation but the whole premise of terrorism is to try to disrupt people’s ordinary lives.”

 

 

One of the illuminating passages in Jeffrey Goldberg’s compilation of the wit and wisdom of Barack Obama addresses the subject of terrorism. When it comes to terrorism, this is “the Obama doctrine.” Cool out and learn to live with it. His attitude is complacent. His take on ISIS to Valerie Jarrett represents it: “They’re not coming here to chop our heads off.”

Goldberg adds: “Obama frequently reminds his staff that terrorism takes far fewer lives in America than handguns, car accidents, and falls in bathtubs do. Several years ago, he expressed to me his admiration for Israelis’ ‘resilience’ in the face of constant terrorism, and it is clear that he would like to see resilience replace panic in American society. Nevertheless, his advisers are fighting a constant rearguard action to keep Obama from placing terrorism in what he considers its ‘proper’ perspective, out of concern that he will seem insensitive to the fears of the American people.”

Islam must of course be kept out of the equation. Obama hesitates to confide in us regarding the contribution of Islam to the jihad with which we are contending. We can’t be trusted to deal fairly with it. Goldberg reports that those who speak with Obama about jihadist thought say that he possesses a no-illusions understanding of the forces that drive apocalyptic violence among radical Muslims, but he has been careful about articulating that publicly, out of concern that he will exacerbate anti-Muslim xenophobia (i.e., “Islamophobia”).

The ESPN interview adds Obama’s irritated observation on the role of cable news in aggravating our concerns about terrorism. Taken together, his comments to the ESPN interviewers perfectly represent the application of the Obama doctrine on terrorism to the Brussel attacks.

Race is never far from Obama’s mind. Let me insert here this stray quotable quote from the ESPN interview (my transcription): “Now we still have a long way to go. You know, that’s true in everyday life; it’s true in our sports. You know, if you look at the number of African-American managers, if you look at the number of Latino managers, in baseball, or owners, obviously there’s still a carryover from the past.”

Via Daniel Halper/Weekly Standard.

Categories: Brussels terror attack, Cuba, Foreign policy, Islamic jihad, Islamic slaughter, Islamic terrorism, Islamism, Obama and Islam
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Abdelsalem capture laid red herring for double terror attack in Brussels

March 23, 2016

Abdelsalem capture laid red herring for double terror attack in Brussels, DEBKAfile, March 22, 2016

BrusselsTerrorAirportKotere480t

The capture of the ISIS Paris master planner Salah Abdelsalem by Belgian anti-terror police, after four months on the run, was initially hailed as an enormous stroke of luck – that is until Tuesday, March 22. The high-profile Islamic State terrorist, who planned the triple attacks on a Paris stadium, bistro and concert hall, that left 130 people dead last November, had instructed jihadist bombers under his command to carry out deadly explosions at Brussels airport and subway on that day, while he was in custody.

He staged his capture as a trick to misdirect Belgian and French intelligence and anti-terror agencies and lull them into a state of false security.

Abdelsalem, 26, a French citizen of Moroccan origin, was the only survivor of the Paris attack five months ago. The other seven terrorists were killed, including his brother. He was finally run to ground on March 18 at his safe house in the Brussels district of Molenbeek, a notorious hotbed of jihads ideology, and taken in after a shootout with the police. The master terrorist had evaded capture by skipping across European borders, which proves little challenge for ISIS operatives on the move.

Three other suspects were also arrested in the Molenbeek raid.

French President Francois Hollande and Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel took turns congratulating each other at a joint press conference which they called immediately after the Abdelselam capture. They were certain that his interrogation would yield valuable information about the arcane workings of the ISIS web across Europe and bring to light future terror plots in good time.

But DEBKAfile’s counterterrorism sources believe that Abdelsalem let himself be nabbed as part of a larger plot. Before he was captured, he had left instructions with a team of bombers for the attacks on Brussels international airport and the Maelbeek subway station near the European Union’s headquarters, with possibly more to come, on lines similar lines to the multiple assaults in Paris.

brussels_train_22.3.16

He relied on the French and Belgian leaders and their anti-terrorist advisers resting on their laurels, the while letting down their guard and missing the trap, before it snapped back in their faces four days later.

After the attacks, the Belgian prime minister realized that more terror might still be in store.

The Brussels twin terrorist hit was planned in detail. DEBKAfile’s counterterrorism sources report that the two explosions at Brussels airport were caused by suicide bombers. The discovery later of an unexploded bomb belt indicated a terror team of three (see picture).

What happened to the third bomber?

Belgian authorities are trying to disguise the fact that, while one explosion was caused by a suicide bomber in the departure hall, a second terrorist was able to reached the tarmac and detonate his bomb belt near the airliners.

They may have beaten security by using an airport staff employee to smuggle the three bomb belts into the targeted areas and conceal them, allowing the terrorists to come out clean from security checks. The third bomb belt may have been abandoned – either because the third terrorist failed to turn up, or he changed his mind at the last minute and and ran, after dropping it.

By Tuesday afternoon the death toll from the two attacks had climbed to 34 – 20 dead at the Metro station and 14 at Brussels airport, with scores of people injured, including reportedly two Israel passengers.

The scenes in the Belgian airport capital were chaotic. Terrified passengers fled in every direction in the absence of anyone in charge to provide information or guidance. Police tried to tell them to drop their hand luggage before escaping, but no one heeded them. Hundreds waited on the tarmac hopelessly for instructions until they were eventually bussed to a village outside the capital. They were stranded there, after all incoming and outgoing flights were cancelled and all public transport suspended.

Brussels, in a state of shock and confusion, found itself unwillingly dubbed the front line of Europe’s war on terror.

Categories: Brussels terror attack, Intelligence, Islamic invasion, Islamic State, Islamic terrorism
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