by Raymond Ibrahim*

In recent House hearings dedicated to examining Islamic extremism, I stressed that the fundamental stumbling block to effective policy-making is educational and epistemological. What people are taught about Islam needs a serious overhaul before we can expect to formulate strategies that make sense.

Worth heeding is former top Pentagon official William Gawthrop’s 2006 lament that “the senior service colleges of the Department of Defense had not incorporated into their curriculum a systematic study of Muhammad as a military or political leader. As a consequence, we still do not have an in-depth understanding of the war-fighting doctrine laid down by Muhammad, how it might be applied today by an increasing number of Islamic groups, or how it might be countered.”

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

There’s an old expression that, “No good deed goes unpunished.” This is especially true of decent, good-hearted Palestinians who dare to reach out to their Israeli-Jewish neighbors. I am not talking about the liars and murderers whom politically-correct Westerners want to believe will change their stripes to spots, like Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists — they will never agree to peace with Israel. I am talking about the real Palestinian peace-makers — those who are ignored by many in our “mainstream” media — like Wafaa Younis. She dared to try to teach Palestinian children to turn away from violence and channel their energies into music and making peace with Israel. Even “worse,” Younis dared expose her kids to the history of the Holocaust. Of course, she has been promptly punished by the Palestinian establishment. Martin Fletcher of MSNBC today revealed the sad story of Younis:

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Fox News interview with Daniel Pipes*

Eric Shawn: Are our children being taught a politically correct version of Islam? Well, this study from the American Textbook Council says some school textbooks portray Islam in the most favorable light, while downplaying Islamic extremism. One junior high school book described jihad this way: “jihad is defined as a struggle within each individual to overcome difficulties and strive to please God. Sometimes it may be a physical struggle for protection against enemies.” Muslim activists say the attention should not be on terrorism or extremists, but others say youngsters are not getting the full story.

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WASHINGTON (February 17, 2009) – The Center for Immigration Studies has prepared a detailed employment breakdown for immigrants and native-born Americans based on December 2008 data, the latest publicly available. (The Department of Labor generally does not separate out unemployment statistics for immigrants and the native-born.) Among US-born blacks and Hispanics without a high school degree, unemployment is 24.7 percent and 16.2 percent respectively — two to three times the national rate.

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by Raymond Ibrahim*

Editor’s note: Substantial portions of the following essay made up part of Mr. Ibrahim’s written testimony that was presented to Congress on February 12, 2009

Today, in a time of wars and rumors of wars emanating from the Islamic world — from the current conflict in Gaza, to the saber-rattling of nuclear-armed Pakistan and soon-to-be Iran — the need for non-Muslims to better understand Islam’s doctrines and objectives concerning war and peace, and everything in between (treaties, diplomacy), has become pressing. For instance, what does one make of the fact that, after openly and vociferously making it clear time and time again that its ultimate aspiration is to see Israel annihilated, Hamas also pursues “peace treaties,” including various forms of concessions from Israel — and more puzzling, receives them?

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by Pam Meister*

Those of us who get the bulk of our news from the Internet are probably aware of pro-Hamas rallies that have taken place across the nation over the last couple of weeks. To name just a couple: in Los Angeles, the Islamists chanted “Heil Hitler,” “death to the Jews,” “death to Israel” and “down, down, USA!” In Fort Lauderdale, Jews were exhorted to “go back to the ovens.” As Spencer noted, “Never before in American history have we seen people openly, on American soil, and in full light of video cameras, saying that they want to see a renewal of a genocidal ambition, and they want to see a whole people exterminated.”

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by Rachel Sharon-Krespin*

As Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP) begins its seventh year in leadership, Turkey is no longer the secular and democratic country that it was when the party took over. The AKP has conquered the bureaucracy and changed Turkey’s fundamental identity. Prior to the AKP’s rise, Ankara oriented itself toward the United States and Europe. Today, despite the rhetoric of European Union accession, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has turned Turkey away from Europe and toward Russia and Iran and reoriented Turkish policy in the Middle East away from sympathy toward Israel and much more toward friendship with Hamas, Hezbollah, and Syria. Anti-American, anti-Christian, and anti-Semitic sentiments have increased. Behind Turkey’s transformation has been not only the impressive AKP political machine but also a shadowy Islamist sect led by the mysterious hocaefendi (master lord) Fethullah Gülen; the sect often bills itself as a proponent of tolerance and dialogue but works toward purposes quite the opposite. Today, Gülen and his backers (Fethullahcılar, Fethullahists) not only seek to influence government but also to become the government.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

President-Elect Barack Obama has once again assuaged my previous misgivings about his future foreign and domestic policies. He has continually defied pressure from the extreme left-wing of his (Democratic) party. Obama is making independent decisions; proving his maturity, adeptness, and managerial competence; and keeping his promise of trying to unite the country. So far, he has risen above partisan pettiness. Case in point: Today, Obama tapped John Brennan to “take charge of counterterrorism on the National Security Council.” Brennan served under the Bush administration at the CIA as top-dog of the National Counterterrorism Center.

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by Cinnamon Stillwell*

With fatal terrorist attacks on the decline worldwide and al Qaeda apparently in disarray, it would seem a time for optimism in the global war on terrorism. But the war has simply shifted to a different arena. Islamists, or those who believe that Islam is a political and religious system that must dominate all others, are focusing less on the military and more on the ideological. It turns out that Western liberal democracies can be subverted without firing a shot.

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By Andrew Whitehead

On 31 May, Erica Mellon posted a blog entry to the “School Zone” titled “Friendswood superintendent: Islam presentation not meant for students”. (The “School Zone” blog is sponsored by the Houston Chronicle; Ms. Mellon is the Chronicle’s education reporter.)

In the blog post, Ms. Mellon quotes a letter by Trish Hanks, Friendswood Independent School District Superintendent. From the letter:

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WASHINGTON (May 2008) – Lobbying groups frequently claim that foreign students are a benefit to America’s balance of payments, comparable to a booming export sector. For instance, the Institute for International Education (IIE) asserts that foreign students contributed a net $14.5 billion to the U.S. economy during the 2006-07 school year by paying for tuition and living expenses with resources from abroad, representing a net inflow of nearly $25,000 per year, every year, from the average foreign student.

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by Daniel Pipes*

When I lived in Cairo in the 1970s, I conducted a little experiment: What, using only Arabic-language sources, could I learn about Jews, Judaism, Jewish history, Jewish culture, and the like? The paucity of resources stunned me; basically, the best way to learn about these subjects was to read between the lines of antisemitic tracts.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

Try as he may, Barack Obama has not separated himself from his controversial pastor of 20 years, Jeremiah Wright, whom he calls an “uncle.” Obama has been too weak and indecisive in chiding Wright; he also has waited too long to censure his “uncle.” Obama’s claims that he didn’t know about Wright’s offensive beliefs are ridiculous. Obama has been attending Wright’s church for 20 years. All I can conclude is that: 1) Obama agrees with Wright’s beliefs, 2) Obama doesn’t object to Wright’s beliefs, and/or 3) it was politically expedient for Obama to keep quiet about Wright only until recently, when the public found out what has been going on. After digesting Rev. Wright’s latest offensive outburst, it seems that the pastor actually supports the notion of “separate but equal” (Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896), which is confusing and ludicrous, as it goes against the basic tenets of the whole civil rights movement. Here’s Wright from his speech to the NAACP on Sunday:

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

Islamists have proven once again how anti-social, anti-Western, and anti-education their “movement” really is:

Gunmen have attacked the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) in Gaza City and blown up its library, burning thousands of books, its director says.

Eissa Saba said 14 men overpowered the centre’s two security guards before placing bombs in the library and main office. The latter did not explode.

The guards said the gunmen had asked them why they worked for “infidels”. …

Keeping the people dumb in the name of Islam?

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by Cinnamon Stillwell*

Public school children in grades K-12 are being assigned textbooks that misrepresent and, in some cases, glorify Islamic beliefs and history – often at the expense of other religions and cultures. The apologetics and indoctrination common in university Middle East studies programs is being carried into public schools by contentious, ahistorical, and inaccurate textbooks written by those same Middle East studies professors.

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