Imam of mosque that failed Oregon jihadist attended: “there were wasn’t anything that would prompt me to think he would plan this. It’s completely, clearly, textually denounced in the Islamic religion”
Wanly did not offer chapter and verse in this report, but we’re probably going hear a lot about apologists’ favorite verse to cherry-pick, Qur’an 5:32 (no one ever includes 5:33 for fuller context, of course), which reads: “We decreed for the Children of Israel that whosoever killeth a human being for other than manslaughter or corruption in the earth, it shall be as if he had killed all mankind, and whoso saveth the life of one, it shall be as if he had saved the life of all mankind.”
“For other than…”: “That’s the problem: there is always an “except,” an “unless,” a “but.” Conveniently, the imam utterly leaves out the complete, clear, textual exhortations (to paraphrase his emphatic, threefold modifiers) to open-ended warfare (9:5) to subjugate unbelievers (9:29) and the Qur’an’s denunciation of them as apes and swine (2:63-66, 5:59-60, 7:166), and as the vilest of creatures (98:6).
Could some of that have influenced Mohamud, a young Muslim wanting to bring about Allah’s will on earth, and whose hatred was validated by Allah’s own words?
After all, Allah doesn’t exactly mince words there. “FBI: attempted tree-lighting bomber Corvallis resident, former OSU student,” by Kelly Koopman for KVAL, November 27:
CORVALLIS, Ore. — Those who know 19-year-old Mohamed Osman Mohamud say the Somali-born man seemed to be a normal American trying to make a change in the world around him.
“He seemed like he wants to do something to change something,” said Yosof Wanly, an imam at the Al-Farisi Islamic Center. “That’s what he thinks in his own mind and he took that initiative.”
Wanly said Mohamud had a difficult childhood moving from Somalia at a young age with his father before relocating to Beaverton.
If Mohamud wanted to change something, at the very least the naturalized U.S. citizen has created a major stir among law enforcement and millions of Oregonians. […]
… Mohamud said he had been devoted to carrying out violent jihad since the age of 15. According to the affidavit, Mohamud also wrote that he chose Oregon because “it’s Oregon and Oregon, like you know, nobody ever thinks about it.”
When asked by the undercover agents why he wanted to attack the Portland Christmas tree lighting, he said he chose it because he was looking “for a huge mass that will…be attacked in their own element with their families celebrating the holidays.” He also explained that he wanted “whoever is attending that event … to leave either dead or injured.”
But those words of violence never came up between Mohamud and his imam Yosof Wanly. Wanly said he had “average teacher-student” conversations with Mohamud and that he never thought an attack like this would even cross Mohamud’s mind.
“In my humble opinion, there were wasn’t anything that would prompt me to think he would plan this. It’s completely, clearly, textually denounced in the Islamic religion,” said Wanly. “He took that initiative without seeking any advice from anybody and he went overboard.”
Wanly said Mohamud had visited the Islamic center on an inconsistent basis for the last year and a half….
…And so it can’t possibly have anything to do with Islam. Back to sleep, everybody.
Imam of mosque that failed Oregon jihadist attended: “there were wasn’t anything that would prompt me to think he would plan this. It’s completely, clearly, textually denounced in the Islamic religion”
Wanly did not offer chapter and verse in this report, but we’re probably going hear a lot about apologists’ favorite verse to cherry-pick, Qur’an 5:32 (no one ever includes 5:33 for fuller context, of course), which reads: “We decreed for the Children of Israel that whosoever killeth a human being for other than manslaughter or corruption in the earth, it shall be as if he had killed all mankind, and whoso saveth the life of one, it shall be as if he had saved the life of all mankind.”
“For other than…”: “That’s the problem: there is always an “except,” an “unless,” a “but.” Conveniently, the imam utterly leaves out the complete, clear, textual exhortations (to paraphrase his emphatic, threefold modifiers) to open-ended warfare (9:5) to subjugate unbelievers (9:29) and the Qur’an’s denunciation of them as apes and swine (2:63-66, 5:59-60, 7:166), and as the vilest of creatures (98:6).
Could some of that have influenced Mohamud, a young Muslim wanting to bring about Allah’s will on earth, and whose hatred was validated by Allah’s own words?
After all, Allah doesn’t exactly mince words there. “FBI: attempted tree-lighting bomber Corvallis resident, former OSU student,” by Kelly Koopman for KVAL, November 27:
CORVALLIS, Ore. — Those who know 19-year-old Mohamed Osman Mohamud say the Somali-born man seemed to be a normal American trying to make a change in the world around him.
“He seemed like he wants to do something to change something,” said Yosof Wanly, an imam at the Al-Farisi Islamic Center. “That’s what he thinks in his own mind and he took that initiative.”
Wanly said Mohamud had a difficult childhood moving from Somalia at a young age with his father before relocating to Beaverton.
If Mohamud wanted to change something, at the very least the naturalized U.S. citizen has created a major stir among law enforcement and millions of Oregonians. […]
… Mohamud said he had been devoted to carrying out violent jihad since the age of 15. According to the affidavit, Mohamud also wrote that he chose Oregon because “it’s Oregon and Oregon, like you know, nobody ever thinks about it.”
When asked by the undercover agents why he wanted to attack the Portland Christmas tree lighting, he said he chose it because he was looking “for a huge mass that will…be attacked in their own element with their families celebrating the holidays.” He also explained that he wanted “whoever is attending that event … to leave either dead or injured.”
But those words of violence never came up between Mohamud and his imam Yosof Wanly. Wanly said he had “average teacher-student” conversations with Mohamud and that he never thought an attack like this would even cross Mohamud’s mind.
“In my humble opinion, there were wasn’t anything that would prompt me to think he would plan this. It’s completely, clearly, textually denounced in the Islamic religion,” said Wanly. “He took that initiative without seeking any advice from anybody and he went overboard.”
Wanly said Mohamud had visited the Islamic center on an inconsistent basis for the last year and a half….
…And so it can’t possibly have anything to do with Islam. Back to sleep, everybody.
Obama: I Don’t Think About Sarah Palin
That bit comes at 3:30. The rest is about Bristol Palin.
Nigel Farage to the European Parliament: Who the hell do you think you are?
The countless bailouts, over taxation, and numerous regulatory measures of the European Parliament has gone to a head.
Nigel Farage, a conservative UKIP party member of the European Parliament gave a passionate and forceful speech against the European socialist body and told these people that their harmful measures against the economies of member nations have failed.
Just look at PIGS: Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain. Nations that have failed economically and are on the brink of collapse.
“Just who the hell do you think you are?”
(Scott)
Tyler Durden directs our attention to MEP Euroskeptic Nigel Farage, who “tells more truth about the entire European experiment [in under four mintues] than all European bankers, commissioners, and politicians have done in the past decade.” Durden provides the transcript of Farage’s remarks yesterday in the European Parliament, which I have slightly edited; I have also added the paragraphing:
Good morning, [EU Council president] Mr. [Herman] Van Rompuy. You’ve been in office for one year, and in that time the whole edifice is beginning to crumble, there’s chaos, the money’s running out, I should thank you – you should perhaps be the pinup boy of the Euroskeptic movement. But just look around this chamber this morning, look at these faces, look at the fear, look at the anger. Poor Barroso here looks like he’s seen a ghost. They’re beginning to understand that the game is up.
And yet in their desperation to preserve their dream, they want to remove any remaining traces of democracy from the system. And it’s pretty clear that none of you have learned anything. When you yourself Mr. Van Rompuy say that the euro has brought us stability, I supposed I could applaud you for having a sense of humor, but isn’t this really just the bunker mentality.
Your fanaticism is out in the open. You talk about the fact that it was a lie to believe that the nation state could exist in the 21st century globalized world. Well, that may be true in the case of Belgium who haven’t had a government for 6 months, but for the rest of us, right across every member state in this union, increasingly people are saying, “We don’t want that flag, we don’t want the anthem, we don’t want this political class, we want the whole thing consigned to the dustbin of history.”
We had the Greek tragedy earlier on this year, and now we have the situation in Ireland. I know that the stupidity and greed of Irish politicians has a lot to do with this: they should never, ever have joined the euro. They suffered with low interest rates, a false boom and a massive bust. But look at your response to them: what they are being told as their government is collapsing is that it would be inappropriate for them to have a general election. In fact [EU Economic and Monetary Affairs] Commissioner [Olli] Rehn here said they had to agree to a budget first before they are allowed to have a general election.
Just who the hell do you think you people are? You are very, very dangerous people indeed: your obsession with creating this European state means that you are happy to destroy democracy, you appear to be happy with millions and millions of people to be unemployed and to be poor.
Untold millions will suffer so that your euro dream can continue. Well it won’t work, ’cause it’s Portugal next; with their debt levels of 325 percent of GDP they are the next ones on the list, and after that I suspect it will be Spain, and the bailout for Spain will be 7 times the size of Ireland, and at that moment all the bailout money will [be] gone – there won’t be any more.
But it’s even more serious than economics, because if you rob people of their identity, if you rob them of their democracy, then all they are left with is nationalism and violence. I can only hope and pray that the euro project is destroyed by the markets before that really happens.
Let’s go to the tape.
Via reader Joe Hopkins.
Obama Doesn’t Think About Palin, Concerned More With Being The Best President He Can Be
A double shot from ABC News today, how could I pass up a headline like: President Obama to Barbara Walters: ‘I Don’t Think About Sarah Palin‘?
In an exclusive interview with Barbara Walters from the White House, President Barack Obama says he’s not giving much thought to the 2012 election, but is focusing instead on being “the best possible president.” And, he said, he certainly isn’t focused on a potential challenge from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
You do have to hand it to ABC News, they know exactly what words will garner quite a bit of attention to a story, namely, “Sarah Palin.” (on a side note, it’s a good thing Bristol didn’t win Dancing With The Stars, otherwise, the US might have looked like Britain today. Apparently, spray painting, otherwise known as vandalism, is just “tensions”)
When asked specifically if he thinks he can beat Sarah Palin in 2012, the president told Walters “I don’t think about Sarah Palin.”
He’s probably more concerned with a Democrat primary challenger. Yet, I doubt he never thinks about Palin. The phrase probably heard the most from him is “damn that woman! She’s ruining me!”
“Obviously Sarah Palin has a strong base of support in the Republican Party and I respect those skills,” Obama said. “But I spend most of my time right now on how I can be the best possible president. And my attitude has always been, from the day I started this job that if I do a good job and if I’m delivering for the American people the politics will take care of itself.
“If I falter and the American people are dissatisfied, then I’ll have problems,” he said.
How does the GOP winning 63 House seats so far sound, Chump? And the loss of all those Governorships and state legislatures? Plus, a Zogby poll with Obama at 39% approval yesterday (granted, that is a whole lot less than Rasmussen has). Apparently, what with all that, plus a continued high unemployment rate, opposition to his signature policies and legislation, he is still a bit clueless in thinking he hasn’t faltered. Obviously, he still feels that there was a problem with the messaging.
The sad part is that he is probably not only being the best president he can be, but, perhaps over-achieving. Kinda like putting the elephant poop catcher in charge of the whole circus.
I wonder if people in the White House sneak up on Barry and yell “Palin!” just to watch him freak out?
Crossed at Pirate’s Cove. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach. sit back and Relax. we’ll dRive!
Does Glenn Beck Think Andrew Napolitano Should Be Fired For Being A 9/11 Truther?
Last year, White House green jobs adviser, and now Center for American Progress fellow Van Jones resigned after Fox News host Glenn Beck’s months-long oil industry fueled campaign to smear Jones. “I’ve been talking about Van Jones, a special adviser to the president, because he’s got the president’s ear and he’s an admitted communist; a radical who wants to fundamentally change America,” Beck said. As part of his anti-Jones smear campaign, Beck claimed Jones is a “9/11 Truther” conspiracy theorist who believes the government orchestrated the 9/11 attacks. (Jones said of the charge, “it certainly does not reflect my views now or ever.”)
Now perhaps Beck may have to start a campaign against one of his Fox News colleagues. Yesterday, Fox News analyst and part-time host Judge Andrew Napolitano appeared on the radio show of well-known 9/11 truther Alex Jones, whom Napolitano has had a “close relationship” with. While discussing Fox News host Geraldo Rivera’s recent conversion to being at least open to 9/11 conspiracy theories, Napolitano — who has guested hosted for Beck on Fox numerous times — said he thinks the government isn’t telling the American people the whole story on the terror attacks:
JONES: OK finally, man because I’ve never raised this with you, because it’s a subject I just leave alone with folks because I don’t want to cause people problems. But you brought it up with Geraldo Rivera, who says he is concerned about building 7, and I want to put the question you put to him to you. I mean, what do you think of Geraldo Rivera coming out — what do you think of 7?
NAPOLITANO: It’s hard for me to believe that it came down by itself. I was gratified to see Geraldo Rivera investigating it. I am gratified to see that people across the board are interested. I think twenty years from now, people will look at 9-11 the way we look at the assassination of JFK today. It couldn’t possibly have been done the way the government told us.
Listen here:
Media Matters’ Eric Hananoki, who notes that the conspiracy theories surrounding WTC 7 have been thoroughly debunked, adds that Napolitano has “dabbled in 9/11 trutherism before”:
In March, while still on FoxNews.com, Napolitano hosted truther Jesse Ventura, who was given an unchallenged platform to push 9-11 conspiracy theories. At the conclusion of that interview, Napolitano wondered if “someday we will look on 9-11 the way we look on the JFK assassination today, that is, where people who question the government’s involvement will be mainstreamed, rather than looked upon as an extremist fringe.” Napolitano also hosted Ventura in October on Fox Business; during the interview, Ventura said he was investigating the “alleged Pentagon plane” attack, to which Napolitano replied, “we’ll be watching.”
So what does Beck think about Napolitano’s 9/11 trutherism? “I have been warning about these people for years,” Beck has said, “these 9/11 Truthers are truly disturbed people.” When asked for comment by ThinkProgress, a press aide of Beck’s told us this afternoon that he is “not in a position to comment,” and asked ThinkProgress to “call back on Monday.”
Obama doesn’t think about Palin
(CNN) – Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin spends a lot of time talking about President Obama, but the microphone doesn’t swing both ways.
“I don’t think about Sarah Palin,” Obama told ABC’s Barbara Walters in an interview set to air Friday.
Instead, he said he’s focused on being “the best possible president,” while he acknowledged Palin’s lure.
“Obviously Sarah Palin has a strong base of support in the Republican Party and I respect those skills,” Obama said. “But I spend most of my time right now on how I can be the best possible president.”
His comments came on the same day Palin’s new book “America by Heart” hit bookshelves and her daughter Bristol Palin appeared in the finale of “Dancing with the Stars.”
Palin told Barbara Walters in an interview last week that she thinks she could beat Obama in the next presidential election. The hypothetical match-up has also been measured by recent polling.
According to a Quinnipiac survey released Monday, Obama had a 48 to 40 percent advantage over Palin in a hypothetical general election match-up. The president also held an 8-point advantage over the former Alaska governor in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll, 52 to 44 percent.
What Did James Madison Think about Blogs?
(Jonathan H. Adler)
Are bloggers the 21st century equivalent of political pamphleteers? Would James Madison have had one? I don’t know. But I do know that several faculty members at the University of San Diego School of Law’s Center for the Study of Constitutional Originalism have launched “The Originalism Blog.” This blog won’t endeavor to answer the question in this post’s title, but it is a good source for information and commentary including the latest scholarship, for and against. If you have any interest in originalism — whether you love it or hate it — this is a blog worth bookmarking.
Navy Chief Praises Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Report: ‘I Think The Work That Has Been Done Is Extraordinary’
In May, Adm. Gary Roughead — the chief of naval operations — sent a letter to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) registering his support for Don’t Ask, Dont’ Tell and his opposition to moving ahead with repeal. “My concern is that legislative changes at this point, regardless of the precise language used, may cause confusion on the status of the law in the Fleet and disrupt the review process itself by leading Sailors to question whether their input matters,” Roughead wrote.
McCain frequently cited Roughead’s opposition and that of the the other service chiefs to slow down the legislative repeal process. But now, after seeing a draft of the report, Roughead is publicly breaking with McCain and praising the Pentagon’s review of the policy:
“I think the survey, without question, was the most expansive survey of the American military that’s ever been undertaken,” Roughead said during an interview Saturday aboard his plane. “I think the work that has been done is extraordinary.” […]
“I’ve done a review [of the report] and now I’m just trying to put it all in context,” he said. …But he added that the decision on whether to change the law is ultimately rests with Congress. “I’m eager to see where it goes on the Hill,” said Roughead, who previously served as head of the Navy’s legislative liaison operation.
Roughead’s description of the policy echoes the words of Army Gen. Carter F. Ham — the co-chairman of the Pentagon’s Working Group on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell — who told Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-MI) last week that the study is, in fact, “the most comprehensive assessment of a personnel policy matter that the Department of Defense has conducted.”
But that’s still unlikely to sway McCain, who has insisted that the Department of Defense conduct an entirely new study on “the effects on morale and battle effectiveness.” McCain made this claim during a recent appearance on Meet The Press, despite the fact that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’ specifically asked this review to “assess and consider the impacts, if any, a change in the law would have on military readiness, military effectiveness and unit cohesion, and how to best manage such impacts during implementation.”
Yesterday, Gates has announced that he will move-up the release of the study from December 1 to November 30th, to allow Congress more time to review the report and possibly move to repeal the policy in the lame duck session. “[I]f this law is going to change, it’s better that it be changed by legislation than it simply be struck down — rather than have it struck down by the courts with the potential for us having to implement it immediately,” Gates said today at roundtable with reporters in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.
