MidnightWatcher's Blogspot

By Robert Spencer – “Madness has overtaken Washington, and the world. Every day this past week has brought fresh reports of more people murdered in Afghanistan over the burning of some copies of the Qur’an at Bagram Airfield. In response, every day new apologies come from American officials. Barack Obama, Leon Panetta, the commander of NATO troops in Afghanistan, General John Allen, and others have all issued abject apologies to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the ‘noble people of Afghanistan,’ and everyone else in sight.

Even the most minor of officials are getting into the act: Peter Lavoy, acting assistant secretary of defense for Asia and Pacific security affairs, scraping the bottom of the barrel for a suitable object for his abject submission, apologized to Muslims in the Washington, D.C. area.

Some have rightly skewered Obama and his cohorts for their cowardice and eagerness to appease the Afghan mobs, especially as the death toll steadily mounts. No one, however, has noted the most remarkable aspect of this entire episode: the United States Government has, no questions asked, eagerly embraced Islamic law (Sharia) regarding the treatment of the Qur’an, and assured the Afghans that it will be enforced.

In his apology letter to Karzai, Obama said that the Qur’an-burning was ‘inadvertent,’ but that nevertheless ‘we will take the appropriate steps to avoid any recurrence, including holding accountable those responsible.’

If it was ‘inadvertent,’ why does Obama intend to hold them accountable? Accidents will happen. If he is going to adopt Sharia to the extent that he thinks that anyone should be held accountable for this at all, is he going to adopt Sharia punishments for this ‘crime’ as well? Will he have the U.S. soldiers whom he finds to be responsible for the Qur’an-burning beheaded?

If not, why not?

If burning the Qur’an is now a crime for Americans, and we are thus now subject to Islamic law, how much Sharia are we under? To what extent have we capitulated? Where does Obama draw the line, if anywhere?

Will there be Read more…

"The Holy Qur'an says ..."

By Raymond Ibrahim – “Many in the media are indignant with Reverend Franklin Graham, head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Invited on ‘Morning Joe’ last Tuesday to discuss Christian persecution, Graham was asked whether he thought President Barack Obama was Christian or not. Although Graham concluded that Obama ‘has said he is a Christian, so I just have to assume that he is,’ he appeared skeptical, suggesting Obama’s policies disagreed with Christian principles, thus earning the full ire of much of the fourth estate.

Graham, however, was absolutely right to say that, ‘under Islamic law, the Muslim world sees Barack Obama as a Muslim, as a son of Islam’: according to Sharia law [Islamic religious law, which regulates all parts of a Muslim’s life], if one’s father is Muslim, one automatically becomes Muslim. The reason behind last week’s church attack in Egypt, when thousands of Muslims tried to torch a church and kill its pastor, is that a Christian girl fled from her father after he converted to Islam: she did not want to be Muslim, and was rumored to be hiding in the church. This is not the first time in recent months that churches have been attacked on similar rumors.

In short, Sharia law’s position is that anyone born to a Muslim father is a Muslim—with the death penalty should they seek to apostatize: the 34-year-old Iranian pastor sentenced to death simply for converting to Christianity is just the most visible example.

Because of this automatic passage of religion from father to son, and because Obama attended a madrassa (Muslim religious school during his youth in Indonesia), many Muslims are convinced that Obama is a ‘secret’ Muslim. In a Forbes article, ‘My Muslim President Obama: Why members of the faith see him as one of the flock ,’ writer Asma Gull Hasan elaborates:

[S]ince Election Day, I have been part of more and more conversations with Muslims in which it was either offhandedly agreed that Obama is Muslim or enthusiastically blurted out. In commenting on our new president, ‘I have to support my fellow Muslim brother,’ would slip out of my mouth before I had a chance to think twice. ‘Well, I know he’s not really Muslim,’ I would quickly add. But if the person I was talking to was Muslim, they would say, ‘yes he is.’ …. Most of the Muslims I know (me included) can’t seem to accept that Obama is not Muslim. Of the few Muslims I polled who said that Obama is not Muslim, even they conceded that he had ties to Islam…. The rationalistic, Western side of me knows that Obama has denied being Muslim, that his father was non-practicing, that he doesn’t attend a mosque. Many Muslims simply say back, ‘my father’s not a strict Muslim either, and I haven’t been to a mosque in years.’ Obama even told The New York Times he could recite the adhan, the Islamic call to prayer, which the vast majority of Muslims, I would guess, do not know well enough to recite.

Read the entire article, which is more eye-opening than the author probably intended.

Another reason many Muslims believe Obama is a Muslim (and a reason Ms. Hasan’s article understandably omits) is that, under the Read more…

By Zohar Blumenkrantz, Haaretz – “Turkey has restricted the use of its airspace to Israeli cargo flights, marking another step in the deterioration of the bilateral relations between the two nations.

Turkey has begun banning Israeli flights carrying ‘dangerous materials’ from using its airspace, Haaretz learned on Sunday.

The ban effects El Al and CAL cargo flights carrying materials designated as ‘dangerous.’ This designation includes most of the cargo flights in and out of Israel, as it doesn’t include only explosives, but also any flight carrying batteries and even perfume, which are flammable and require special storage procedures.

From now on, Turkey is requiring that it be notified about flights of this type at least 10 days in advance, so that they may review whether or not to approve them.

The new move is causing substantial financial damage to Israeli airlines, as most Israeli flights, and all those flying to the Far East, regularly use Turkish airspace, and are now being forced to use longer flight routes that circumvent Turkey.

The two companies have contacted the Civil Aviation Administration of Israel, demanding Israel reciprocate with comparable restrictions on Turkish flights, which currently use Israeli airspace freely.” Read more.

Flashback: Turkey Installing New Military Tech That Will Allow Warplanes and Ships to Target Israel as the Enemy – “In yet another sign of the deterioration in Israel-Turkish ties, Turkey’s Star Gazete reported Tuesday that the military is installing new technology that will allow warplanes and ships to target Israeli vessels. Previously, Turkish planes, ships and submarines used American technology, which automatically classified Israeli equipment as ‘friendly.’ The new system, developed in Turkey, will allow the Turkish military to decide which targets to label as friendly. The switch was pioneered by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s regime.” Read more.

Flashback: Turkey: Israel No Longer A ‘Friend’, ‘It’s Time For Israel To Pay The Price’, Israeli Ambassador and Diplomats Expelled – “Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu announced on Friday that following Jerusalem’s adamant refusal to apologize over the 2010 Gaza flotilla raid, Ankara will be downgrading its diplomatic relations with Israel and suspending key military agreements. In a dramatic turn of events, Turkey announced that it was expelling Israeli Ambassador Gabby Levy from Ankara. Davutoglu said Turkey’s diplomatic representation in Israel would be further reduced to second-secretary level. In accordance, all lower Israeli diplomatic personnel above the second-secretary level have also been expelled.” Read more.