Floatin' Powa News Service: Insurrections, Misdirections & Pesky Jewish Resurrections

Mojo Nixon
You Can't Kill Me

Gerry Adams meets Hamas leaders in Gaza Courtesy of Tony Blair:
Please recall that Obama's "Special Envoy to the ME" Mitchell's big claim to fame is "making the peace" in Ireland:

Northern Irish republican leader Gerry Adams met with Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza.

Israel's Foreign Ministry had recommended that Adams, president of the Sinn Fein republican party, not be permitted to enter Gaza since he planned to meet with Hamas. He was permitted to enter Gaza on Wednesday after Quartet Mideast envoy Tony Blair intervened, the Jerusalem Post reported.

Blair reportedly told Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak that Adams had experience as a mediator, and could pass messages and act as a go-between for Israel and Hamas.

Adams met Haniyeh Thursday in a meeting that was not announced beforehand. He was quoted by the British Guardian newspaper after the meeting as saying: "This is a total denial of the rights of the people of Palestine. This is an open-air prison. People can't travel out of here, they can't travel in."

Adams met with Palestinian social activists, business people and Hamas and Fatah officials, according to the Jerusalem Post. Adams also visited Sderot before crossing into Gaza. Israeli officials refused to meet with Adams since he met with Hamas. Adams was scheduled to meet with Fatah officials in Ramallah on Friday.

Well surprise, surprise, surprise:
GERRY ADAMS, JAN 2009:
George Mitchell and the Middle East

The senator will need all the skill and patience he brought to the Northern Irish peace process.
But Hamas must be at the table.

Naturally!

Israel MUST back 2-state solution:

Saeb Erekat says the international community must pressure Israel to abide by its previous commitments to a two-state solution, halt settlement activity and recognize past agreements signed with the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Dutch labor Party: Sanctions against Israel if it thwarts peace

The Netherlands must impose economic sanctions against Israel if the new government in Jerusalem thwarts the peace process with the Palestinians, the Dutch Labor party said last week.

WASHINGTON POST: Israel Must Give Up the West Bank Settlements

Tripartite Commission meeting held in Pakistan
I imagine they denounced Israel, told a few bawdy stories, then had some Cuban cigars.

Obama to seek $83.4 billion for Iraq, Afghan wars

'Death To Obama' Chants In Iran

Obama may cede Iran's nuclear rights

It is again early spring in the Central Asian steppes. There is a deceptive calm, but all signs are that the Great Game is bestirring from its slumber.

The United States is focusing on the key Central Asian country of Kazakhstan, which straddles the Qyzylqum and the Karakum, to stage a strategic comeback in the region.

Prospects are brighter than ever as Kazakhstan is edging closer to the chairmanship of the Organization of Security and Economic Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) next year. The OSCE leadership brings Kazakhstan into the forefront of the Western strategies in Eurasia - and out of Russian orbit.

Iran, Kazakhstan ink five cooperation deals

China, Kazakhstan May Sign $10 Billion Oil-for-Loan Agreement

Kazakhstan expects Obama to visit

Gazprom’s delegation visits Republic of Kazakhstan

Sultan of Oman gets invitation from President of Kazakhstan

Kazakh Ambassador met with Special Representative of NATO

Kazakhstan: Government to build UFO base and alien embassy
These MFing kooky Kazakhs will talk to anything with a pulse!

Currently it is generally accepted that aliens are making use of an underwater UFO base in the Caspian Sea which Kazakhstan borders.

It is? by who?

The head of Kazakhstan’s space agency, Talgat Musabayev, is said to be heavily involved in the embassy project. Musabayev is an ex-cosmonaut who has spent many hours in space and is an ex-colleague of Gasimov.

It is believed that he possesses a large amount of information on the aliens currently visiting earth. Kazakhstan’s acceptance of the reality of alien visitors to earth has won it the admiration of many ufologists, especially those in the west, who wonder when their countries will follow this example.

Okeedoke then!

Kazakhstan Offers To Host 'Nuclear Bank'

Why Kazakhstan decided to become the world's “nuclear depot”

Natural resources :

MAJOR deposits of petroleum, natural gas, coal, iron ore, manganese, chrome ore, nickel, cobalt, copper, molybdenum, lead, zinc, bauxite, gold & URANIUM

Kazakhstan Leads Nuclear-Weapons-Free Zone Initiative
The Aliens will be so proud.

Kazakhstan, also Kazakstan (Kazakh: Қазақстан, Qazaqstan, IPA: [qɑzɑqˈstɑn]; Russian: Казахстан, Kazakhstán, Russian pronunciation: [kazəxˈstan]), officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a large Eurasian country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world as well as the world's largest landlocked country,[5][6] it has a territory of 2,727,300 km² (greater than Western Europe). It is bordered by Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and China. The country also borders on a significant part of the Caspian Sea

Putin and Maliki Meet

Russia and Iraq May Revive Pre-War Contracts

Protesters Beaten In Moldova

More protests in Georgian capital

Mikheil Saakashvili : Where Are My Western Friends?

Youth Activist Severely Beaten During Georgia Protests

Turkmenistan accuses Gazprom of causing pipeline explosion

Gazprom, 2014:

Russia’s natural gas export monopoly, aims to quadruple its market value to $1 trillion within a decade and become the world’s biggest company.

Russia creates retail giant with state banks

Kyrgyz Chief Of Presidential Staff Confirmed Dead

Russia's Top Judge Defends Authoritarian Rule

In a speech in St. Petersburg on April 7, the chairman of Russia's Constitutional Court argued that due to the economic crisis, Russia could descend into anarchy and then turn to totalitarianism. To prevent this, he said, the Kremlin has the right to employ authoritarian methods to save the country from disaster.

Now, STFU. No further questions, Spudniktariats!

Amid Protests, Asian Summit Is Canceled

Congressman Says 17 House Members Are Socialists
Just 17?
I hear they got 15 jugglers and 5 believers up in there somewhere too.

NYT:Weekend Opinionator: A Different Sort of Red America

The best way to rob us is to own a bank

North Carolina, Colorado Banks Shut as 2009 Failures Reach 23

Do economists know any more than us?
LOL! Judging by the last 7 -8 months? No.

The rise of the TARP state

Tick Tock! How long till the Gold Man is on to me?

Goldman Sachs is attempting to shut down a dissident blogger who is extremely critical of the investment bank, its board members and its practices.

Manufactured Populist Anger Street Art

Grassley opposes idea of national health board
Yeah? So do I.

U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley said Thursday that he opposes establishing a national health board as part of health care reform legislation, arguing that such a body would wield too much influence.A national board would increase the chances of government bureaucrats coming between doctors and patients, Grassley said.

CIA abandons use of contract interrogators

Energy secretary visits Sandia lab
The nation's energy secretary says the scientific work that the federal weapons laboratories do outside their central mission of making sure nuclear weapons are reliable is vital to that core.

Cyber Wars: Turn out the lights, the party's over

Idou o Numfios Erxetai (Greek Easter)
Greek Orthodox Byzantine Chant

Behold, the Bridegroom cometh in the middle of the night...

KING OF THE JEWS

WFRL: Jailbreak

Thin Lizzy

Jailbreak

MrsOC's Feral House of Bongos Presents: PIQUANT

Frank Zappa
Stinkfoot

PIQUANT:

Pleasantly pungent or tart in taste; spicy.
Appealingly provocative: a piquant wit.

1. Charming, interesting, or attractive: a piquant face.
2. Archaic. Causing hurt feelings; stinging.

French, from Old French.

Present participle of piquer, to prick. See pique.

Piquant was the smell
Aboard the Piquod
After months of hell
Eating biscuit and rot
Chasing the whales
And slicing their guts
Setting the sails
And dreaming of sluts
~ Lucius Septimius

One must be careful
When out dining
Lest conversation interfere
With the waiter's instruction
As happened to a friend
A moral allegory
When at a restaurant
Which prided itself on
Catering to tastes rare
Asking the waiter
"Recommend the special della casa"
Bent her ear to her date
And not to the man
In the pressed white coat
Who offered suggestion
To her occupied ears
She thus signaled approval
Of a dish she thought'd be piquant
But was shocked on arrival
That what she had done
Quite without thinking
Was to pick ant.
~Lucius Septimius

When he asked me what sort of cigar
As we entered the drawing room
I asked for one piquant
To stave off the gathering gloom.
So he pulled one most spicy
From out from the massive oak-doored
Built in, vainglorious
Satrapical humidor.
He lit it with a lighter
Weighing half a pound of pure gold
And handing it back to me
As the smoke us began to enfold
Said that he was sorry about this
But my time had come to a close
And with that, the cigar in my teeth
Extinguished, with a huge fire hose.
~ Lucius Septimius

If life is a dish
Then my only wish
Is that it be the sort that lingers
Several courses plated
Until I'm sated
But yet eagerly licking my fingers

As for flavors I'd choose
Not the sort that abuse
The tender confines of my tongue
But neither one boring
That leaves me snoring
Like the pap I was fed when young

No, when it comes to taste
Nothing that flees with haste
Or pretentious, in a form soi-disant.
No, something sweet-sour
With a potent after-power
Serve me a life delicately piquant

And when I'm done
And so is the fun
And they clear the plates from my table
I'd pause in brief
Over the last apertif
Remembering the taste still, as I'm able.
~ Lucius Septimius


To my dismay I have to say
Most of the words we use today
Come down to us from middle Engelush
Though half of them from German come
With grim determinatsheum
As German words are wont to do
If they are to be used by you.

Though bastardized and left to dry
Out in the sun or made to fry like small flat fish
I’d venture not to ask of your which one is what.
Why would you know much more than me?
Though Lucius should (and tell us free)
We’d give him fine wine to decant
And make him salsa dip (piquant)
~ mrsoc


I love the sound of piquant!
I love a piquant taste!
We need piquant, to spark things up,
To give our lives a taste!

A taste of something new and sharp,
Of something bright and tangy,
Something new to wake us up,
Something tart, and zany!

Something between tears and smiles,
To jolt us, from enui,
I love piquant, tears, tart, and smiles,
"Piquant" is good for thee! (And me!)
~ TalkinKamel


Piquant in the news:
I'm told that in Louisiana, "piquant" is a synonym for "shockingly profane."
Perhaps Quin can clear up this matter of regional dialect.
~ Mostly Excellent PK

Nobody gets out of here without a rhyme.
It's now your time.
Piquant!
~Mostly Excellent PK

I am here
And you are my chaise
I am here
And you are my chaise
I am here
And you are my chaise
Piquant.
~ Battlestar PKactica


Peek Aunt.
Peak Ant.
Pea can't
Pee cant.
Pecan.
Pique Kant.
Piquant.
~ BabbaZee

Piquantify this ~
sounds like math to me.
Olfactorially speaking...
what does a nine smell like, anyway?
~ BabbaZee

Nirvana
Scentless Apprentice

WFRL: Two Spins for Honi the Circle Maker

Judas Priest
Turning Circles

....So it was with Honi the Circle-Maker



Billy Preston
Will It Go Round In Circles?

Floatin' Powa News Service: Glow Ball Con Fusion

Genesis
Land of Confusion

Israel is not to blame for unrest in Mideast

To state that the crisis in the Middle East stems only from the "Palestinian problem" obscures the long history of anti-Israeli aggressiveness which started 100 years ago, long before the establishment of Israel in 1948, with pogroms against Jews in Hebron, Safed and Jaffa.

MILIBAND: "Jerusalem should be the capital of the Palestinians and Israel"

Jordan's King Abdullah II pressed on Britain the need for "serious negotiations" between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and the Palestinians over a two-state solution on Thursday, in a meeting with the British Foreign Secretary.

David Miliband, speaking at a joint press conference following the meeting, expressed Britain's concerns at Israeli plans to demolish scores of houses in East Jerusalem, leaving around 1,500 Palestinians homeless.

Obama signed a waiver Thursday that will allow the Palestinian Liberation Organization to retain its office in Washington D.C.

NYT: New Racism and Its Antecedents

Late last month, Jacques Chirac had a street near the Palestinian government offices in Ramallah named after him — in recognition, the town’s mayor said, of his support for the “Palestinian cause.”

Tens of thousands of Iraqis rally against US

The demonstrators came in response to calls by Muqtada al Sadr, the influential Shiite cleric who's long decried the U.S. military's occupation, but there were also Sunni Muslims in the crowd.

Never forget that Al Sadr still steals oxygen courtesy of the Bush Administration

Iran charges American journalist with espionage

US to Join Iranian Nuclear Talks; Ahmadinejad Seeks ‘Sincerity’
Don't we all?

Iran marks 'national nuclear day' by frightening the bejesus out of everyone

Israel Says Its Ready to Intercept Iranian Nukes
With Arrow-3's....

Obama, Gates take aim at Israel's Arrow-3 missile

Israel's Arrow-3 anti-ballistic missile may be one of the first victims of U.S. President Barack Obama's defense spending cuts. Ynet, the Web site of the respected Tel Aviv daily Yediot Aharonot, reported Monday that U.S. funding for the Arrow-3 program is likely to be eliminated.

However, in compensation, the Obama administration is prepared to help Israel buy the U.S. Navy's Standard Missile 3 anti-ballistic missile system instead, the report said. The SM-3 is built by Raytheon as its primary contractor.

$3b OIC Zakat Fund to target four areas

JEDDAH – An over $3 billion global Zakat and Charity Fund has been announced by the International Zakat Organisation (IZO), an important new charitable body of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).
The global initiative, which promises to be the largest in the Islamic world, will manage charitable funds to address needy causes, said a press release issued Thursday.
Many of the 57 members of the OIC have already committed themselves to IZO and its initiatives.

Uganda: Southern Range Nyanza to Partner With Saudi Firm

The partnership between Nyanza and Foras Group was initiated during the 2008 Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) meeting in Kampala

All Hail Glow Ball Dhimming!

America is being systematically stripped of its freedom and liberty, and shoved into global secular socialism right before your eyes

Many Americans prefer socialism to capitalism, new poll finds
Sadly many Americans have zero clue what either word actually MEANS...

McCain backs Obama's call to end nuclear weapons

"Concerning President Obama's commitment to the removal of nuclear weapons from the Earth, I certainly support that ambitious goal," McCain told a Tokyo press conference.

Russia Will Retain as Many Nuclear Weapons as Possible

On April 5 President Barack Obama in his speech in Prague, outlined his vision of a nuclear-free world: "This goal will not be reached quickly -perhaps not in my lifetime. It will take patience and persistence. But now we, too, must ignore the voices who tell us that the world cannot change."

SNIP

The notion of significant nuclear disarmament is unacceptable to the Russian military and coming from an American president it is regarded as a cynical ploy to gain total military superiority over the country.

Russia Supports Moldova Vote Probe

Russia stepped up its support Thursday for the government of Moldova in the wake of disputed elections, signaling it is determined to cement its growing influence in the former Soviet republic.

Moldova's ruling Communist Party has accused Romania, a member of the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, of helping plot a failed coup d'etat. Russia has backed calls for an investigation into those claims, saying that the elections are legitimate.

Russia ask EU to protect Moldova sovereignty

Russia warns US against competition for allies

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the United States and Russia should not force former Soviet republics to choose between an alliance with Washington and Moscow, RIA news agency reported on Thursday.

In remarks which appeared to refer to political disturbances in ex-Soviet Moldova, Lavrov said there should be no "hidden agendas" in relations between the United States and Russia.

Government Opponents Protest in Georgia
I guess he was too polite to say "Rose Revolution my ass"

Irakli Alasania, a former ambassador to the United Nations who broke with Mr. Saakashvili over the war, told the crowd that the president had spurned the values of the democratic movement that brought him to power. Mr. Alasania said Mr. Saakashvili exerted authoritarian control over the media, the judiciary and other spheres of society.

Georgia’s President Says He Will Not Give Up Power

Demonstrations of Power for Putin

Moscow. Franz Kafka could have thought up these charges too, but no, these come not from a literary genius but from a lawyer - Russia's Attorney General Juri Chaika. He is accusing the ex-oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner Anton Lebedev of having embezzled 350 million tons of crude oil from their subsidiary from 1998 until 2003, almost double Russia's crude oil exports at that time. In addition, they are accused of having legalized half a trillion illegal rubles and 7.5 billion black market dollars through money laundering. The defense counters that most of this was through contracts with government firms and authorities.

Turkmenistan to build 1.5Bln $ Olympic complex

Turkmenistan Seeks Euro Pipeline

Pipeline blast halts Turkmen gas exports to Russia

Gazprom sees no impact on buyers after Turkmen blast

Gazprom Blamed for Blast

Gazprom takes unhealthy interest in Georgian gas distribution system
[this article has now mysteriously vanished from the internet]
UPDATE: As of 1:11 today, it is now back!

Analysis: Gazprom in Azerbaijan

Ever since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, the 15 new emergent nations have all reached out to a greater or lesser extent to Europe and the West. Of the four new nations rimming the Caspian Sea that emerged from the wreckage of the Soviet Union, none pursued a more pro-Western policy than Azerbaijan, but an agreement recently signed in Moscow may be the harbinger of dramatic shifts in Baku's Western-leaning policy.

Gazprom opens first European office in Riga

Eni's Undermining of Human Rights with Gazprom Neft Sale

Shell, Gazprom sign LNG, pipeline supply agreements

Gazprom takes on North America

OAO Gazprom, the world's largest natural gas producer, is making its first "major entry" into the North American natural gas market this year through a deal with Royal Dutch Shell PLC to ship liquefied natural gas to California.

What if Russia or China Cut Off YOUR Electricity?
Tick Tock!

China is ready to partake in developing the Caspian
NATURALLY!

Chinese ambassador to Kazakhstan Chen Gopin said in his interview with Trend Capital in Astana that a number of important agreements on new oil and gas projects will be signed during Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev's upcoming visit to Beijing.

Chinese coming back to Marx amid crisis

The People’s Press – the biggest publishing house for China’s orthodox revolutionary books – reports that Marx’s anti-capitalism opus "Das Kapital" has been selling about 4,000-5,000 copies nationwide a month since last November. That’s a big jump from before the economic crisis, when the book sold well under 1,000 copies per month on average.

Chavez hails Beijing's part in 'new world order'

"We are creating a new world, a balanced world. A new world order, a multipolar world," Chavez said.

Selective abortion causes glut of Chinese males
All the better to build an army with....

Selective abortion in favour of males has left China with 32 million more boys than girls, creating an imbalance that will endure for decades, an investigation released on Friday warned.

Fed Reportedly Tells Banks to Keep Quiet on Stress Tests

So much for that transparency and openness when it comes to the Obama administration’s financial rescue efforts: The Federal Reserve has reportedly told banks to keep quiet when it comes to the results of stress tests done to find out more about their bottom lines, Bloomberg reports.

Wrestling With Capitalist Pigs

In pursuit of money and power, humans are capable of doing contemptible things. But let us not forget that when people behave badly in a capitalist system we end up with the likes of Fuld, Mozilo, and Prince, whereas when government control over the economy is taken to the extreme, we end up with Lenin, Stalin, and Mao.

AIG head’s $3M in Goldman stock raises apparent conflict of interest

Edward Liddy, CEO of government-run AIG, still owns more than $3 million of stock in Goldman Sachs, which has pocketed $13 billion or more of the $170 billion federal officials have spent bailing out the ailing Wall Street insurance giant.

Liddy is managing a company that receives taxpayer dollars to pay other financial firms, with Goldman Sachs the top recipient. While there is no reason to believe Liddy is influencing AIG actions to unfairly benefit Goldman, the situation represents a potential conflict of interest that would never be allowed in a government agency, but is permitted in the strange public-private chimeras like AIG spawned in this age of bailouts.

Fear & ReFUSION in the Bayou:

Today, Governor Bobby Jindal announced that a total of $18.8 million in Homeland Security Grant Funding will be awarded to enhance law enforcement, fire service, and search and rescue capabilities throughout the state. Governor Jindal said the grant funds will be put towards three areas – a statewide Urban Search and Rescue System, Fusion Center & Criminal Database Technology and homeland security funding for local law enforcement and parish governments.

DOJ charges former valve executives with bribery

The US Department of Justice charged six former executives of a Southern California valve manufacturer with conspiracy to bribe foreign government officials to secure contracts.

DOJ officials said the contracts resulted in $46.5 million in profits for the company, which was not identified beyond being based in Orange County, Calif.

The indictment accused the six defendants of being involved in the alleged bribery conspiracy during 1998-2007.

DOJ said payments were made to officials of China Petroleum Materials and Equipment Corp., PetroChina, China National Offshore Oil Corp., the Malaysian national oil company Petronas, and National Petroleum Construction Co., which is based in the UAE, as well as to several electricity and nuclear power firms. The payments are said to be in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

On 'State Secrets,' Meet Barack W. Obama:

In February, President Obama's Justice Department quietly argued in a San Francisco court that it was maintaining the same position as President Bush's Justice Department on a case involving detainees trying to sue a private company for its role in their (allegedly) extraordinary renditions. The Obama administration pushed the status quo administration argument by invoking the "state secrets" argument, also a Bush-era fave.

"It is the policy of this administration to invoke the state secrets privilege only when necessary and in the most appropriate cases," said DOJ spox Matt Miller.

Last week, Team Obama did it again. And why wouldn't they?

Attorney General Eric Holder recently said he was reviewing the way the Bush administration used the "state secrets" argument, but "on the basis of the two, three cases that we've had to review so far -- I think that the invocation of the doctrine was correct."

Huh.

That seems a little different from the Obama-Biden campaign website where "The Problem" is described in part as the Bush administration having "invoked a legal tool known as the 'state secrets' privilege more than any other previous administration to get cases thrown out of civil court." Because that's just what the Obama administration tried to do.

Harvard won’t surrender its hypocrisy

Forty years ago today, Harvard University caved to pressure from violent student radicals and banned the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) from campus. The ban continues because Harvard finds the U.S. military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy too offensive to be countenanced.

In those same 40 years, Harvard has hosted at least one terrorist - Yassir Arafat - and the former president of Iran’s terror-sponsoring regime. The latter, Mohammad Khatami, was asked to speak on the eve of 9/11.

Current Harvard policy is to accommodate Muslim fundamentalists who demanded single-sex gym time in the name of Sharia law. They even choked down a $20 million donation from Saudi Sheik Alwaleed bin Talal, who had previously given millions to promote Palestinian suicide attacks.

Yet accommodating ROTC is just too much for Harvard’s delicate ethical constitution to bear?

Sabotage caused phone outage in Santa Clara, Santa Cruz counties

Police say someone intentionally cut an underground fiber optic cable in south San Jose, causing a widespread phone service outage in southern Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties today that included disruption to 911 emergency phone service.

Thai Protest Blocks Summit Meeting

Fiji's President Scraps Constitution, Assumes Total Control

5.3 @ India/Pakistani Border

SoCal quake swarm continues near San Andreas Fault

The Temptations
Ball of Confusion

The Obamanable Muslim Apologist

The Undisputed Truth
Smiling Faces

OBAMA AS MUSLIM APOLOGIST:
AMERICA “ENRICHED” BY ISLAM

By: Paul L. Williams, Ph.D.
with Michael Travis

Turkish President Gul

“We will convey,” Barack Obama told the Turkish Parliament Monday, “our deep appreciation for the Islamic faith, which has done so much over the centuries to shape the world - - including my own country.” He assured the Turkish leaders (who have become increasingly radicalized under President Abdullah Gul) that America “is not and never will be at war with Islam.” And he went on to say that “the United States has been enriched by Muslim Americans,” including his ancestors.

By making these remarks, Mr. Obama (who made a point of being introduced to the Turkish Nation as “Barack Hussein Obama”) is treading in the hobbled footprints of his foolhardy predecessor.

George W. Bush, the first person in history to declare Islam to be “A Religion of Peace”, stated in his second inaugural address, that Islam represented a major factor in the development of American heritage and culture and that “our national life [is sustained] by the truths of Sinai, the Sermon on the Mount, the words of the Koran.”

Barack Hussein and George W. appear to be blithely unaware that there were no Muslims among the passengers on the Mayflower or the settlers at Jamestown. Muslims were conspicuously absent from the ranks of George Washington’s Army of the Revolution and played no role in the creation of the American republic - - save for the fact that the new country’s first declaration of war was against the forces of Islam represented by the Barbary pirates.1

Despite popular folklore, few Muslims numbered among the 12 million black Africans who were shipped to the New World from the 17th to 19th centuries. The Muslims, in fact, were not the slaves but the slave traders. Senegalese educator Amadou-Mahtar M’Bow has written that in 1587 a shipload of Moriscos (Spanish Moors) landed in a coastal area of South Carolina. The Moors, he contends, migrated to the mountains of eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina where they established colonies.2 In reality, this is pure speculation. There is not a scintilla of archival or archaeological evidence to support this claim.

This is not to say that no Muslim slaves were transported to the colonies. Two such slaves - - Ayuiba Suleiman Diallo and Omar ibn Said - - were brought to America is 1731 but both were returned to Africa in 1734.3 In a Herculean effort to materialize at least one Muslim living in America before the Civil War, Muslims in America, an Islamic website, point to the name of Mahomet, the great grandson of Uncas, the founder of the Mohegan tribe, on a gravestone in Norwich, Connecticut.4 The name of this Native American, they argue, resembles that of the prophet, and, therefore, he must have been a convert to Islam. In a similar example of straining at gnats, the compilers of The Collections and Stories of American Muslims, a non-profit organization, claim that Peter Salem, a former slave who fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill, must have been a Muslim since “Salem” bears an etymological resemblance to “Salaam,” the Arabic word for peace.5

For additional proof, the compilers turn to folklore, such as the story of Old Tom, a slave at a plantation in Georgia, who allegedly uttered, “Allah is God and Mohammed his Prophet” on his death-bed - - and the apocryphal tale of “Old Lizzy,” a slave from Edgefield County, who reportedly said, “Christ built His first church in Mecca.”6

Surprisingly, there is no record of any Islamic American among the enlisted and conscripted forces of World War I, let alone among the blue and grey armies of the Civil War. The great migrations that lasted from 1865 to 1925 brought 35,000,000 people to the New World: 4,500,000 from Ireland, 4,000,000 from Great Britain, 6,000,000 from central Europe, 2,000,000 from the Scandinavian countries, 5,000,000 from Italy, 8,000,000 from Eastern Europe, and 3,000,000 from the Balkans. But the number of Muslims who came here from the Middle East was statistically nil.7

In 1960, aside from the temples of the Nation of Islam (which upheld a version of the Qu’ran that bore no similarity to the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed)), the only mosques in the United States were in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Dearborn, Michigan, and Washington DC (which opened in 1957) - - and all three professed less than 200 active members. Four other cities contained miniature mosques with less than fifty members.8 Small wonder, therefore, that Islam in America failed to merit the attention of Leo Rosten and Will Herberg.

Leo Rosten’s sixth edition of Religions of America appeared in 1975. It represented an exhaustive compilation of statistical information concerning every major and minor body of believers in the country. Entire chapters were devoted to such Protestant denominations as the Disciples of Christ, the 7th Day Adventists, the Unitarian Universalists, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the various manifestations of Presbyterianism, Lutheranism, and Methodism. The study provided abundant data concerning the three forms of Judaism (Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform) and a lengthy discussion about the liturgical and doctrinal differences between Greek Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism. It even contained facts and figures concerning the five percent of Americans who claimed to be Agnostic.

But the work contained no mention of Islam, not even as a footnote. This was not an oversight. The Muslims in America were statistically insignificant, numbering less than 5,000. What’s more, as Rosten and his fellow analysts were aware, the vast majority of these so-called “Moslems” practiced a form of Islam that bore no semblance to the 7th Century pronouncements of the prophet Mohammad, let alone the teachings of the Quran and the Hadith. Indeed, at their weekly gatherings, the American Muslims - - almost all blacks from the inner cities - - sang Christian hymns.

In these halcyon days before the great Islamic Revolution of 1979, American sociologists continued to insist that membership within the three great bodies of Western religion (Protestantism, Catholicism, Judaism) remained the main means of self-identification within American society. In his classic study Protestant, Catholic, Jew, Will Herberg articulated this finding by writing:

Not to be a Catholic, a Protestant, or a Jew today is, for increasing numbers of American people, not to have a name. . . To have a name and an identity, one must belong somewhere; and more and more one “belongs” in America by belonging to a religious community, which tells one what one is. The army sergeant who, when confronted with some theologically precise recruit (probably a high-church Episcopalian) who insisted he was neither Catholic, nor Protestant, nor Jewish, exclaimed in exasperation, “Well, if you’re not Catholic, or Protestant, or Hebrew, what in blazes are you?, gave voice to the prevailing view of contemporary America. Unless one is either a Protestant, or a Catholic, or a Jew, one is “nothing”; to be “something,” to have a name, one must identify oneself to oneself, and be identified by others, as belonging to one or another of the three great religious communities in which the American people are divided.9

We read these words with wonderment. There was a time when Americans were identified by their Judeo-Christian roots. Similarly, there was a time when people of different faiths (Buddhists, Hindus, and Muslims) were not viewed as real Americans. And let’s remember that this was the finding of the leading sociologists of religion, not the claims of backwater Baptist ministers.

As little as a decade ago, these findings remained unchallenged. Americans could walk through crowded airports without encountering a woman in a burqa or a student in a shalwat kameez. Words such as jihad, imam, Sunni, and Shiite were not in common usage. Major cities contained no Islamic bookstores or clothing shops featuring designer Muslim headdresses. And vendors selling halal hotdogs were non-existent on the street corners of midtown Manhattan.

And now we have President Obama praising the Muslim world for its outstanding contributions to American culture.

Just what are these contributions?

It might be okay for Mr. Obama to bow before the Saudi Abdullah of Saudi Arabia in a gesture of obeisance, and it might be acceptable for him to present himself to President Gul as a Muslim American and to announce to the world that America is no longer a Christian nation.

But red-blooded Americans must never allow Obama, Bush, or anyone else to rewrite their history through the process of Newspeak and to deny their heritage as a people for the sake of globalism, multiculturalism, and a New World Order.

But has Islam really played a part in shaping the life of America? And have Muslims contributed to the cultural heritage of the United States?

Well, yes, I believe they have, and it is most unfortunate.

1 Michael B. Oren, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present (New York” W. W. Norton & Company, 2007), pp. 17-40.

2 Amadou-Mahtar M’Bow, cited in M. M. Ali’s “Muslims in America,” The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, May/June 1996.

3 Melton J. Gordon, Islam in North America: A Sourcebook (New York: Garland Publishing, 1992), pp. 26-27.

4 http://www.muslimsinamerica.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage+Itemid=1

5 Ibid.

6 Ibid.

7 Herberg, p.8.

8 Karl Evanzz, The Mesenger: The Rise and Fall of Elijah Muhammad (New York: Random House, 1999), p. 189.

9 Will Herberg, Protestant, Catholic, Jew (New York: Doubleday, 1960), p. 40.

WFRL: Us & Them

Easy Star All Stars
Us & Them

THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS

THE WAR SCROLL

The first lines of the scroll (1QM 1:1-7) lay the framework for a three-stage conflict between the Sons of Light, that is, members of the Yahad (see 1QM 3:13) and the Sons of Darkness. The first battle finds the adversaries led by the Kittim of Assyria, (although the name Kittim is often used in the scrolls as reference to the Romans, its basic sense seems to have been archetypal bad guys.) The Kittim of Asshur come in alliance with the biblical enemies Edom, Moab, Ammon, and Philistia. Cooperating with this unholy alliance are the "violators of the covenant": Jews who had spurned the message of the Yahad and in so doing aligned themselves with the Sons of Darkness. The second stage expands the war's influence to the Kittim who dwelt in Egypt, and then finally to the Kings of the North.

Although this war is said to extend over forty years, the writer of the scroll was particularly concerned with the details of the very final day of battle. After six bloody engagements during this last battle, the Sons of Light and Sons of Darkness are deadlocked in a 3-3 tie. In the seventh and final confrontation "the great hand of God shall overcome Belial and all the angels of his dominion, and all men of his forces shall be destroyed forever" (1QM 1:14-15).

Us...
and
Them

And after all we're only ordinary men

Me, and you
God only knows it's not what we would choose to do

Forward he cried from the rear
and the front rank died
And the General sat, as the lines on the map
moved from side to side

Black and Blue
And who knows which is which and who is who

Up and Down
And in the end it's only round and round and round

Haven't you heard
it's a battle of words
the poster bearer cried

Listen son, said the man with the gun
There's room for you inside

Down and Out
It can't be helped but there's a lot of it about

With, without
And who'll deny that's what the fighting's all about

Get out of the way, it's a busy day
And I've got things on my mind
For want of the price of tea and a slice
The old man died