The Last Crusade

PRIEST LATEST VICTIM IN CHRISTIAN KILLINGS

By

Paul L. Williams, Ph.D.

A Roman Catholic bishop has been stabbed to death in southern Turkey. The incident marked the latest in a string of attacks on Christians since the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkinma, AKP) gained control of the government in 2002.

The AKP was formed and remains under the control of Fethullah Gulen, who has been called “the most dangerous Islamist on planet earth.”

Gulen, who has amassed more than $25 billion in financial assets, resides within a 45 acre fortress in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania.

Bishop Luigi Padovese, the pope’s apostolic vicar in Anatolia, was attacked in his home in the Mediterranean port of Iskenderun.

The suspected assassin is the bishop’s Muslim driver who had worked for him for the past four-and-a-half years.

NTV television said the priest had died in a hospital.

There was no immediate word from the Vatican.

Other attacks on Catholic clerics in Turkey have captured international headlines.killing is the latest in a string of attacks in recent years on Christians in Turkey, where Christians make up less than 1 percent of the 70 million population.

In February 2006, an Italian Catholic priest was shot to death in his church in Trabzon by a youth who was angered over the caricatures of the Muslim prophet in Danish newspapers.

In December 2007, a 19 year-old stabbed a Catholic priest outside a church in Izmir. According to newspaper reports, the Muslim assailant, who had been arrested, admitted that he had been influenced by a recent television program that depicted Christian missionaries as infiltrators who take advantage of Islamic people.

The same year, a group of men entered a Bible-publishing house in the central Anatolian city of Malatya and killed three Christians, including a German national.

The five alleged killers are now standing trial for murder.

The killings — in which the victims were tied up and had their throats slit — drew international condemnation and added to Western concerns about whether Turkey can protect its religious minorities.

Roman Catholics also have had their property confiscated by the government. Many of the churches have been transformed into mosques.

Christians in Turkey now constitute less than one half of one percent of the country’s population. 99% of the population are now Muslim – - 75% Sunni and 24% Shiite.

Less than a century ago, Christians dominated the intellectual and commercial life of the Levant, comprising more than a fifth of the population.

Under the AKP, Turkey has transformed from a secular state into an Islamic country with 85,000 active mosques – - one for every 350- citizens – - the highest number per capita in the world, 90,000 imams, more imams than teachers and physicians – - and thousands of state-run Islamic schools.

Abdullah Gul, Turkey’s first Islamist President, is a Gulen disciple along with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Yusuf Ziya Ozcan, the head of Turkey’s Council of Higher Education.

Despite the rhetoric of European Union accession, Turkey has transferred its alliance from Europe and the United States to Russia and Iran. It has moved toward friendship with Hamas, Hezbollah, and Syria and created a pervasive anti-Christian, anti-Jewish, and anti-America animus throughout the populace.

WAKE-UP AMERICA

FAISAL ABDUL RAUF IN ARABIC

“OUR GOAL IS TO ESTABLISH SHARIAH”

By Walid Shoebat

MAY 26, 2010

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Little is known regarding the founder of the Ground Zero Mosque Faisal Abdul Rauf or his views on Islam. Many view him moderate and others connect him to his father’s affiliation to the Muslim Brotherhood. While others object that this would be guilt by association.

For that we searched Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf’s own words – in the Arabic and not what he says in English to the western media. It should shock every American to find out that Faisal Abdul Rauf stated to the popular Islamic media Hadiyul-Islam (www.hadielislam.com) on May 26th, 2010 in an article by Sa’da Abdul Maksoud.

In it he states that an Islamic state can be established regardless of the government being a kingdom or democracy. In another article titled “I do not believe in religious dialogue” should alarm the ardent skeptic on the mindset of the Islamic visionary who advocates establishing Islamic lobbies throughout the West.

He also admitted that “[In the West] they have separation of church and state, this of course does not exist in any Muslim country. About 99% refuse to separate religion from state and many call for establishing an Islamic Caliphate.”

Regarding religious dialogue Abdul-Rauf stated “this phrase is inaccurate. Religious dialogue as customarily understood is a set of events with discussions in large hotels that result in nothing. Religions do not dialogue and dialogue is not present in the attitudes of the followers regardless of being Muslim or Christian. The image of Muslims in the West is complex which needs to be remedied.”

And when asked about his view regarding an Islamic state he responded that “throughout my discussions with contemporary Muslim theologians that an Islamic state can be established in more then just in a single form or mold. It can be established through a kingdom or a democracy. The important issue is to establish the general fundamentals of Shariah that are required to govern.

It is known that there are sets of standards that are accepted by [Muslim] scholars to organize the relationships between government and the governed.” When questioned that “the current governments are unjust and do not follow Islamic laws” Abdul Rauf commented “new laws were permitted after the death of Muhammad, so long as these laws do not contradict the Quran or the Deeds of Muhammad…so they create institutions that assure no conflicts with Shariah.”

U.S. PRESIDENT OBLIVIOUS TO NUCLEAR THREAT FROM BRAZIL AND NEW “AXIS OF EVIL”

By

Paul L. Williams, Ph.D.

At the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, U.S. President Barack Obama gave a warm embrace to Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (Lula).

The embrace came despite the fact that Lula opposes unilateral nuclear disarmament and says that it is “unacceptable” for some countries to be “armed to the teeth,” while others remain without a nuclear arsenal.

At the conference, Lula further expressed his opposition to the imposition of sanctions against Iran, arguing that the Persian nation has the right to develop atomic weapons because it feels “threatened by Pakistan and Israel.”

Before engaging in the bear hug, Mr. Obama said of Lula: “That’s my man right here. Love this guy. He’s the most popular politician on earth.”

“I Love This Guy,” Barack Gushes

Mr. Obama made no mention of the fact that Brazil, like Iran and North Korea, purchased its centrifuge technology from Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Dr. Strangelove of the nuclear age, and remains in the process of highly enriching uranium to produce a stockpile of nuclear weapons.

Mr. Obama further neglected to make mention of the fact that Brazil refuses to grant International Atomic Energy (IAEA) inspectors the right to conduct a full investigation of the Resende nuclear facility. The inspectors were merely permitted to view parts of the centrifuges while the Resende officials kept other parts under cover.

The secrecy surrounding the Resende facility has caused Constantine Menges, a senior fellow of the Hudson Institute, a think tank in Washington, DC, and a former national security advisor to President Ronald Reagan, to express fears that a nuclear-armed axis of evil between Brazil, Venezuela, and Cuba was taking place within the Americas.

“Lula’s a supporter of terrorism,” Mr. Menges said. “He will, I believe, permit covert support to be given to bring about anti-American regimes in Bolivia, Columbia, Ecuador, and Peru.”

A lifelong Marxist and ally of Fidel Castro of Cuba and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Lula is the cofounder of the Forum of Sao Paulo, a group that supports anti-American activities throughout the world.

He is also Latin America’s sharpest critic of the U.S.-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

While campaigning for Brazil’s highest office, he criticized his country’s compliance with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty by saying: “It is not fair that developed countries, which have nuclear weapon technology, demand that others not have them or deactivate what they have. All of us developing countries are left holding a slingshot while they have atomic bombs.”

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OBAMA OBLIVIOUS TO RADIOLOGICAL INCIDENT

SOURCE OF MATERIAL UNKNOWN

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While President Barack Obama was engaged in hosting a Nuclear Security Summit in Washington DC, a major nuclear incident occurred in India that escaped the attention of the international press.

Five people suffering from serious radiological burns were hospitalized in West New Delhi this week from contact with nuclear material in a Delhi scrap market.

The material has been identified as Cobalt-60 which may be used for making a dirty bomb.

Indian police sectioned off the 200 market stores in the thickly populated city of 14 million and sealed nearby establishments within a one-kilometer radius.

Scrap dealer Deepak Jain and his helpers lost consciousness when they came into contact with an irradiated piece of scrap metal. A white fluid oozed out causing the burns, Jain’s hair fell out and within minutes his skin turned black. His workers immediately manifested signs of radiological poisoning, including severe nausea and discoloration of the skin.

With the opening of the summit on Monday came word that Mr. Jain had died and the change of recovery for the four workers remained slim.

Nuclear scientists from the Baba Atomic Research Center and Narora Atomic Power Plant identified the material and have been working around the clock to locate its source.

German chancellor Angela Merkel has asked to talk with Obama about the dirty bomb terrorist threat when they meet on Tuesday.

Cobalt-60 is used in radiotherapy for treating cancer and welding steel.

A 2009 US report recommended monitoring this material along with Caesium-137, Strontium-90 and Plutonium to effectively counter nuclear terrorism.

Unlike a nuclear bomb, a dirty bomb does not involve nuclear fission and can be used like a conventional weapon.

Ahead of the Washington conference, US president Barack Obama called nuclear terror “the single biggest threat to US security, short term, medium and long-term.”

AN EASTER EGG AND ARMAGEDDON

CHRISTIAN HOLY SITE CLAIMED BY ISLAM

thelastcrusade.org

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Saturday that the Palestinian people will celebrate the Holy Fire vigil in Jerusalem next year.

Speaking at the end of Easter celebrations in Bethlehem, Fayyad announced, “Next year, Inshallah (God willing), we shall celebrate in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in east Jerusalem, the capital of the Palestinian state.”

“Our people, joined by all humanity, will celebrate the creation of the Palestinian independent state on all 1967 borders, a state whose capital shall be Jerusalem,” the Prime Minister added.

The creation of an independent Palestinian state along the 1967 borders has been endorsed by US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

“The United States will be vigorously engaged in the pursuit of a two-state solution every step of the way,” she said. “The inevitability of working toward a two state-solution is inescapable.”

During his address last year at The University of Cairo, Mr. Obama said that the United States would not turn its back on the “legitimate” Palestinian aspiration for a state. He told the Islamic crowd that the creation of an independent Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as its capital, represents the “only resolution” to the conflict with Israel.

In his Easter Virgil speech, Mr. Fayyad further said: “The Palestinian state is being built these days brick by brick, step by step and we continue to broaden services for our people to fortify its standing, especially in the areas which have been damaged by the fence and the settlements.”

Earlier on Saturday thousands of Christian pilgrims gathered at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for the Holy Fire ceremony.

According to Christian tradition, Jesus was crucified and buried at the site and the fire burns above his grave on the Saturday before Easter.

DOME OF THE ROCK TO BE DEMOLISHED?

ARMAGEDDON NEXT YEAR?

thelastcrusade.org

A major campaign is underway for the construction of the Third Temple in Jerusalem.

Posters are plastered on buses and buildings with the catch phrase, “May the Bais Hamikdosh be rebuilt speedily and within our days.”

One major sponsor of the campaign is the Our Land of Israel group, which is led by Rabbi Shalom Dov Volpo and activist Baruch Marzel.

But there’s a problem.

The new temple must be built – - according to Jewish scripture – - on the site which presently contains the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, the oldest Islamic structures in the world.

The Our Land of Israel group and other Jewish organizations are now calling for the levelling of these structures.

The Muslims are responding by throwing eggs at the buses brandishing the call for the construction of the third temple as the vehicles travel through the predominatly Arab neighborhoods of east Jerusalem.

Rabbi Volpo says that Israel and millions of Jews are waiting breathlessly for the coming of the messiah and the rebuilding of the temple.

“The Arabs and President Obama know that the Temple will be built on the Temple Mount,” he said. “Instead of the temporary buildings that are there today.”

His words, according to Israeli sources, have resulted in a group of Palestinians hurling rocks and stones at non-Muslim visitors to the Temple Mount.

Despite the threat of violence, the Our Land of Israel group says that the new Temple will rise within a year.

“When we reach the end of the Pessah Seder tomorrow night,” Mr. Marzel said, “We’ll say, ‘Next year in a rebuilt Jerusalem.’ What does ‘rebuilt’ mean? It means with the Third temple intact.”

Mr. Marzel brushed off the furor the ads have evoked from theMuslims, saying, “It upsets them that we’re alive, and that we’re living here. If such a basic point is going to piss them off, then we mine as well say what we truly believe and what we pray for three times a day. That is to rebuild the holy temple on top of the Temple Mount, and tomorrow – not to wait any longer.”

The Temple Mount is the most sacred site in Judaism. It is allegedly the place where God made Adam from the dust of the earth and where He chose to “dwell.” The Temples of Solomon was built on this site circa 1000 BC. It was razed by the Babylonians circa 580 BC. The second temple was completed by King Herod in 19 BC. It was destroyed by the Roman troops under Titus in 70 AD.

“A SCLEROTIC GOES TO WAR”

Joseph Wouk’s excellent website

“Son of novelist, Herman Wouk. Columbia College. Columbia Law School. Private pilot. Israeli Navy. Owned a Dive Shop in Eilat. Moved to LA. Self taught computer geek. Film,theater, TV producer. Moved back to Israel. Moved to Santa Cruz in the Redwoods. And now….”

(drum roll)

Progressive Relapsing Multiple sclerosis !

(An excellent source for unique, up to date information on the Arab-Israeli conflict,,,,,,,,,,Visit often, they deserve your support!)

http://warsclerotic.wordpress.com

“NOT A VERY SMART MAN”

thelastcrusade.org

Obama Foreign Policy: One-Third of Its Term Done; Not A Hundreth of the Lesson Learned

By Barry Rubin

Thinking about the Obama administration’s foreign policy makes me keep coming back to the following joke:

Three men are on a small plane, the pilot, a very important person (various names are used when people tell this joke), and a young hiker. The plane’s motor goes out and it is going to crash. The pilot tells the two passengers: Sorry but we only have one extra parachute.

The celebrity sneers, “I should get it because I’m the smartest person in the world.” He grabs a pack and jumps out of the plane.

“Sorry, son,” says the pilot. “We don’t have any more parachutes.”

“Oh, yes we do,” answers the teenager, “the smartest man in the world just jumped out of the plane with my backpack.”

If I were a cartoonist illustrating the joke in this case, I’d show a smug Obama jumping out of the plane with the backpack labeled, “U.S. national interests.”

This reflection is prompted today by a very predictable story—predicted by me repeatedly—that the administration is now further, and futilely, watering down projected sanctions on Iran in hope of getting Russian and Chinese support. Spring 2010 has arrived and after fifteen months higher sanctions, or indeed any credible U.S. deterrent, on Iran hasn’t. Even now it isn’t clear if the Obama administration can get the nine votes needed in the UN Security Council to do anything.

Note that this is probably the last material effort the West will make to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons. Even if it takes Tehran a couple of years to do so, it’s unlikely–given how long and hard it is to get even some symbollic sanctions adopted–that low administration will-power and international support will lead to anything else being done.

Incidentally, the administration was supposed to be ready for this step, according to its own statements in September and then December 2009. That it still hasn’t worked out a broadly based plan is a sign of its incompetence. And remember this was a presidency which supposedly enjoyed strong international support.

Some are saying that sanctions wouldn’t deter Iran any way, therefore implying it doesn’t matter if nothing much is done at this point. There is some truth in the first part of that statement but not in the second portion. By implementing strong sanctions, an effective president would be forging an international coalition to get tougher down the road, reduce the assets available to Iran in order to slow down their project, scare large elements of the Iranian elite so they would be more cautious even when they get nuclear arms, make the Gulf Arabs more likely to resist Iranian demands and influence, along with other benefits.

That the administration seems to understand none of these points is part of the problem. Here’s a statistic that might shock you: the Obama administration is almost precisely one-third of the way through its term. If it hasn’t learned how to understand the world by now, prospects aren’t good for the remainder of its term. The best hope of improvement–that the administration itself wakes up to the problem–is just about gone.

Let’s put it bluntly: The foreign policy of the Obama Administration, especially in the Middle East, is a disaster and a future of very dangerous problems is completely foreseeable. Indeed, all of this was pretty obvious before the last Election Day.

About the only point the administration and its supporters can claim–even the Guantanamo prison is still open!–is that this administration has made the United States more popular in the world. Actually, the polls don’t reflect that assertion to an impressive degree. Even when the numbers went up, they are Obama’s personal popularity, not that of the United States. And in key countries—Turkey and Pakistan come to mind but there are many others—the changes have not been big ones.

And even then, there is the point that popularity doesn’t get you anything material, as the lack of a consensus on Iran shows. In addition, the country which stands up for its interests is always going to be less popular in many places than the one which asks for nothing and gives away too much.

In the Middle East, U.S. policy is bad for Iranians who want to be free of their oppressive regime; for Turks who don’t want to live under an increasingly Islamist government; for Arabs who don’t want to face Islamist rule, growing internal instability because of a revolutionary challenge, or to bow down to Iranian power.

It is also bad for Israel, but that is scarcely an isolated case. Even if U.S.-Israel relations were perfect every other problem would still be there.

By systematically showing weakness, by favoring enemies over friends, the administration is destroying U.S. credibility in the region. By unintentionally encouraging enemies, the government is inspiring them to strike harder and faster. By unintentionally discouraging friends, the government is signalling them to shut up, back down, and even appease the radicals.

In Iran, the lack of White House support–despite formal statements about repression there–encourages the opposition to give up. In Turkey, the rivals of the regime believe that U.S. policy is on the side of their own government. In the Arabic-speaking world, the process of avoiding trouble with Tehran and its ally Damascus because the United States is not seen as a reliable protector is well under way.

Israel will make the small, relatively costless concessions necessary to maintain normal relations in the hope that this will satisfy an administration that just wants to look good. If the White House proves vindictive beyond rational considerations, Israel will ride that out. Of course, the more the U.S. government bashes Israel, the more it convinces the other side that it doesn’t need to make any concessions for peace. Indeed, it gives them an incentive to be more intransigent, since they know that U.S. frustration at the failure to make any progress in a peace process will be taken out on Israel.

If one were to continue this survey elsewhere in the world, the situation would be parallel if less dire. Central Europeans fear Russia; Latin Americans are annoyed at perceived U.S. favoritism toward Venezuela. China is angry about various U.S. actions and worried about holding so much of the American debt. Russia is almost openly contemptuous.

Yet the pretense continues in all too many places that things are going fine.

A hope that should not be ignored is that the action of radical forces themselves will force the administration to take notice and revise its behavior. No matter what the White House thinks, it doesn’t want to look like a failure having made a big mess, suffered losses, and been defeated.

The next best hope is that a wave of public criticism and congressional complaints—which many think will be intensified by the results of next November’s election—will force the administration to be more restrained. Obama has other items on his agenda, especially domestically, that he does not want to compromise by getting Congress angry with him. The most likely beneficiary of this process would be U.S.-Israel relations but it is unlikely to help a great deal on other issues.

The problem is that such factors can stop the White House from doing mistaken things but cannot force it to take productive steps. Perhaps the best one can hope for is the lack of any big and open crisis in the world, allowing the administration to muddle through and claim that it has kept the United States out of trouble. But some very big trouble is building up, have no doubt about that.

Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley), and The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan). His new edited books include Lebanon: Liberation, Conflict and Crisis; Guide to Islamist Movements; Conflict and Insurgency in the Middle East; and The Muslim Brotherhood

UPDATE!!!

Rush Limbaugh suggests Israel should just change its name to Iran. It’s the key to be treated well by the U.S.: No pressure, no impolite diplomatic language, no pushing it to give up land.

FAU PROFESSOR AND BOCA MOSQUE DIRECTOR, BASSEM ALHALABI, SUBJECT TO ARREST

thelastcrusade.org

Tallahassee, FL) A warrant has been filed for Bassem Abdo Alhalabi, the individual who attacked Americans Against Hate (AAH) Chairman Joe Kaufman and another individual earlier this month, during Muslim Capitol Day in Tallahassee, Florida.

Alhalabi, an associate professor at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) and a director of the Islamic Center of Boca Raton (ICBR), was charged with one count of battery.

According to an official from the Leon County State Attorney’s office, Alhalabi needs to turn himself in or he is subject to arrest.

On March 11, 2010, Alhalabi grabbed Kaufman’s arm in the Rotunda (lobby) of the Florida State Capitol Building. The incident was caught on camera.

Alhalabi was in Tallahassee as a member of United Voices for America (UVA), a political front for the Hamas-related Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). UVA’s event was titled ‘Muslim Capitol Day.’

The other attack perpetrated by Alhalabi, which happened about an hour after the assault on Kaufman, is still pending. During that attack, Alhalabi violently grabbed the video camera of cameraman Mark Campbell.

Prior to these incidents, Alhalabi, in June 2003, was found guilty of illegally exporting a $13,000 military-grade thermal imaging device to Syria, a state sponsor of terrorism.

Additionally, when Alhalabi applied for a position at FAU, he used convicted terrorist Sami al-Arian as a reference.

Joe Kaufman is available for interview. E-mail: info@americansagainsthate.org.