Finally found someone who gets it, make that several someones all with impressive credentials ;
R. James Woolsey was director of central intelligence under President Clinton. Andrew C. McCarthy was the assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted the perpetrators of the first attack on the World Trade Center. Lt. Gen. Harry E. "Ed" Soyster was director of the Defense Intelligence Agency from 1988 to 1991.
These guys put together a report that explains some common American misconceptions about Islam and Shariah, and how it affects the United States. It doesn't bash Islam as a religion but it explains that to many Muslims is much more than a religion, it's an entire culture that covers every aspect of life from personal hygine to the proper role of government,
Their article posted here (with permission) is a valuable read for anyone who wants to understand the world we live in.
The Washington Times. Licensed for 1month on September 16, 2010, for display at http://grumpyelder-todayimgrumpyabout.blogspot.com/. All rights reserved.
You may forward this article or get additional permissions by typing http://license.icopyright.net/3.7280?icx_id=/news/2010/sep/14/needed-a-second-opinion-on-shariah/ into any web browser. The Washington Times, LLC and The Washington Times logos are registered trademarks of The Washington Times, LLC . The iCopyright logo is a registered trademark of iCopyright, Inc.
Having issues with the window? Here's a link
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/sep/14/needed-a-second-opinion-on-shariah/?page
Their full report will be available online at ShariahtheThreat.com at noon today
Here are some of the highlights, remember article is being published this morning in the Washington Times and several other MSM outlets, not on Anti Muslim hate sites.;
" We have not been encouraged by our government, which, under administrations of both parties, has been immovably content to wear its blinders. Nor have we been invited to review classified information. These, however, have hardly been insuperable obstacles. What Americans need to know is ready to hand in the public record. The problem isn't access to information, it is coming to grips with what available information portends for our security.
Are people who are concerned about the spread and reach of Islam automatically racists or Islamaphobic? After reading he article, I didn't get the impression this study leads to that conclusion, but it doesn't imply all Muslims are a dangerous threat either.
The other side of the divide is dominated by "Islamists," who are Muslim supremacists. Like erstwhile proponents of communism and Nazism, these supremacists - some terrorists, others employing stealthier means - seek to impose a global theocratic and authoritarian regime, called a caliphate. On this side of the divide, Shariah is a compulsory system that Muslims are obliged to wage jihad to install and to which the rest of the world is required to submit.
For these ideologues, Shariah is not a private matter. They see the West as an infidel enemy to be conquered, not a culture and civilization to be embraced or at least tolerated. It is impossible, they maintain, for alternative legal systems and forms of government like ours to coexist peacefully with the end-state they seek.
It is not the burden of our study to broker competing claims about which side of the Shariah divide represents the "true Islam." There are approximately 1.4 billion Muslims in the world, and their understandings about their belief system, as well as their practices with respect to it, vary widely. There may not be a single "true Islam." If there is one, we do not presume to pronounce what it holds
It does say that on the whole the way we are currently dealing with Islam and the threats it poses is at best foolish, and probably dangerous
It is vital to the national security of the United States that we do what we can to empower Islam's authentic moderates and reformers. That cannot be done by following the failed strategy of fictionalizing the state of Islam in the vain hope that reality will, at some point, catch up to the benign fable of a thriving moderate Islam beset by a mere handful of aberrant "extremists." Empowering the real moderates requires a candid recognition of the faux moderates and the strength of their Shariah agenda, just as defeat of 20th-century totalitarian ideologies required a gimlet-eyed appreciation of their malevolent capabilities
The article closes with this thought, read it slowly and carefully
Most important, we must protect our way of life regardless of the ultimate resolution of Islam's internal strife. We can do a far better job of empowering non-Shariah-adherent Muslims who are our natural allies, but we cannot win for them - they have to do that for themselves. Irrespective of whether they succeed in the herculean task of delegitimizing Shariah globally, we must face it down in the United States, throughout the West and wherever on Earth it launches violent or ideological offensives against us.
If we are to face down Shariah, however, we must understand what we are up against, not simply hope that dialogue and "engagement" will make the challenge go away. The brute fact is that Shariah adherents perforce support objectives that are incompatible with the U.S. Constitution, the civil rights it guarantees and the representative government it authorizes. Our security depends on confronting them, not sitting silent as they gradually efface our liberties.
As was mentioned earlier the complete report will be available on Sept 16 in the afternoon at ShariahtheThreat.com
I think the most important things the article shows are, we aren't going to change the situation by ignoring it. That Shariah cannot be allowed to even start defining American law and custom.. What's the old line about not getting a little pregnant? Most Americans have no problem with spiritual or religious aspect of Islam. I sure as hell don't care about it's rules regarding hygiene and how individuals conduct their personal lives.
When you get to into the treatment of women... in some respects you could be getting into a grey area, in this county. Should a husband be allowed to mistreat his wife... NO. What happens if a woman believes her immortal soul is contingent on blind obedience to her husband? Do we have the obligation or even the right to "enlighten" her, or would we be infringing on her Constitutional Rights,
As far as the cculture, traditions, customs and laws of other countries, we have no right to interfere. If an American decides to visit or live in another country they should ready and willing to accept their standards. It needs to work the other way when people come here.
What do you think?
Update.. 9-16-2010, the entire report is now avaliable to review here
Shariah: The Threat to America
Center for Security
Policy
Sep 13, 2010
This study is the result of months of analysis, discussion and drafting by a group of top security policy experts concerned with the preeminent totalitarian threat of our time: the legal-political-military doctrine known within Islam as "shariah." It is designed to provide a comprehensive and articulate "second opinion" on the official characterizations and assessments of this threat as put forth by the United States government.
The authors, under the sponsorship of the Center for Security Policy, have modeled this work on an earlier "exercise in competitive analysis" which came to be known as the "Team B" Report. That 1976 document challenged the then-prevailing official U.S. government intelligence estimates of the intentions and offensive capabilities of the Soviet Union and the policy known as "détente" that such estimates ostensibly justified.
As with the original Team B analysis, however, this study challenges the assumptions underpinning the official line in the conflict with today's totalitarian threat, which is currently euphemistically described as "violent extremism," and the policies of co-existence, accommodation and submission that are rooted in those assumptions
http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/upload/wysiwyg/article%20pdfs/Shariah%20-%20The%20Threat%20to%20America%20(Team%20B%20Report)%2009142010.pdf
R. James Woolsey was director of central intelligence under President Clinton. Andrew C. McCarthy was the assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted the perpetrators of the first attack on the World Trade Center. Lt. Gen. Harry E. "Ed" Soyster was director of the Defense Intelligence Agency from 1988 to 1991.
These guys put together a report that explains some common American misconceptions about Islam and Shariah, and how it affects the United States. It doesn't bash Islam as a religion but it explains that to many Muslims is much more than a religion, it's an entire culture that covers every aspect of life from personal hygine to the proper role of government,
Their article posted here (with permission) is a valuable read for anyone who wants to understand the world we live in.
The Washington Times. Licensed for 1month on September 16, 2010, for display at http://grumpyelder-todayimgrumpyabout.blogspot.com/. All rights reserved.
You may forward this article or get additional permissions by typing http://license.icopyright.net/3.7280?icx_id=/news/2010/sep/14/needed-a-second-opinion-on-shariah/ into any web browser. The Washington Times, LLC and The Washington Times logos are registered trademarks of The Washington Times, LLC . The iCopyright logo is a registered trademark of iCopyright, Inc.
Having issues with the window? Here's a link
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/sep/14/needed-a-second-opinion-on-shariah/?page
Their full report will be available online at ShariahtheThreat.com at noon today
Here are some of the highlights, remember article is being published this morning in the Washington Times and several other MSM outlets, not on Anti Muslim hate sites.;
" We have not been encouraged by our government, which, under administrations of both parties, has been immovably content to wear its blinders. Nor have we been invited to review classified information. These, however, have hardly been insuperable obstacles. What Americans need to know is ready to hand in the public record. The problem isn't access to information, it is coming to grips with what available information portends for our security.
Are people who are concerned about the spread and reach of Islam automatically racists or Islamaphobic? After reading he article, I didn't get the impression this study leads to that conclusion, but it doesn't imply all Muslims are a dangerous threat either.
The other side of the divide is dominated by "Islamists," who are Muslim supremacists. Like erstwhile proponents of communism and Nazism, these supremacists - some terrorists, others employing stealthier means - seek to impose a global theocratic and authoritarian regime, called a caliphate. On this side of the divide, Shariah is a compulsory system that Muslims are obliged to wage jihad to install and to which the rest of the world is required to submit.
For these ideologues, Shariah is not a private matter. They see the West as an infidel enemy to be conquered, not a culture and civilization to be embraced or at least tolerated. It is impossible, they maintain, for alternative legal systems and forms of government like ours to coexist peacefully with the end-state they seek.
It is not the burden of our study to broker competing claims about which side of the Shariah divide represents the "true Islam." There are approximately 1.4 billion Muslims in the world, and their understandings about their belief system, as well as their practices with respect to it, vary widely. There may not be a single "true Islam." If there is one, we do not presume to pronounce what it holds
It does say that on the whole the way we are currently dealing with Islam and the threats it poses is at best foolish, and probably dangerous
It is vital to the national security of the United States that we do what we can to empower Islam's authentic moderates and reformers. That cannot be done by following the failed strategy of fictionalizing the state of Islam in the vain hope that reality will, at some point, catch up to the benign fable of a thriving moderate Islam beset by a mere handful of aberrant "extremists." Empowering the real moderates requires a candid recognition of the faux moderates and the strength of their Shariah agenda, just as defeat of 20th-century totalitarian ideologies required a gimlet-eyed appreciation of their malevolent capabilities
The article closes with this thought, read it slowly and carefully
Most important, we must protect our way of life regardless of the ultimate resolution of Islam's internal strife. We can do a far better job of empowering non-Shariah-adherent Muslims who are our natural allies, but we cannot win for them - they have to do that for themselves. Irrespective of whether they succeed in the herculean task of delegitimizing Shariah globally, we must face it down in the United States, throughout the West and wherever on Earth it launches violent or ideological offensives against us.
If we are to face down Shariah, however, we must understand what we are up against, not simply hope that dialogue and "engagement" will make the challenge go away. The brute fact is that Shariah adherents perforce support objectives that are incompatible with the U.S. Constitution, the civil rights it guarantees and the representative government it authorizes. Our security depends on confronting them, not sitting silent as they gradually efface our liberties.
As was mentioned earlier the complete report will be available on Sept 16 in the afternoon at ShariahtheThreat.com
I think the most important things the article shows are, we aren't going to change the situation by ignoring it. That Shariah cannot be allowed to even start defining American law and custom.. What's the old line about not getting a little pregnant? Most Americans have no problem with spiritual or religious aspect of Islam. I sure as hell don't care about it's rules regarding hygiene and how individuals conduct their personal lives.
When you get to into the treatment of women... in some respects you could be getting into a grey area, in this county. Should a husband be allowed to mistreat his wife... NO. What happens if a woman believes her immortal soul is contingent on blind obedience to her husband? Do we have the obligation or even the right to "enlighten" her, or would we be infringing on her Constitutional Rights,
As far as the cculture, traditions, customs and laws of other countries, we have no right to interfere. If an American decides to visit or live in another country they should ready and willing to accept their standards. It needs to work the other way when people come here.
What do you think?
Update.. 9-16-2010, the entire report is now avaliable to review here
Shariah: The Threat to America
Center for Security
Policy
Sep 13, 2010
This study is the result of months of analysis, discussion and drafting by a group of top security policy experts concerned with the preeminent totalitarian threat of our time: the legal-political-military doctrine known within Islam as "shariah." It is designed to provide a comprehensive and articulate "second opinion" on the official characterizations and assessments of this threat as put forth by the United States government.
The authors, under the sponsorship of the Center for Security Policy, have modeled this work on an earlier "exercise in competitive analysis" which came to be known as the "Team B" Report. That 1976 document challenged the then-prevailing official U.S. government intelligence estimates of the intentions and offensive capabilities of the Soviet Union and the policy known as "détente" that such estimates ostensibly justified.
As with the original Team B analysis, however, this study challenges the assumptions underpinning the official line in the conflict with today's totalitarian threat, which is currently euphemistically described as "violent extremism," and the policies of co-existence, accommodation and submission that are rooted in those assumptions
http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/upload/wysiwyg/article%20pdfs/Shariah%20-%20The%20Threat%20to%20America%20(Team%20B%20Report)%2009142010.pdf
Grumpy, great post.
ReplyDeleteAs I said many times in the past. It is not simply a Religion. It is their Political phlosophy.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! Also, it is this religion which has promoted conflict in all regions of the world. This has been going on for many, many years. The difficulty is discerning which Muslim advocates Shariah Law; as noted, by Shariah compliance, to lie to anyone not Shariah is a welcomed trait. Therefore, creating prejudice as a by product; then the decision becomes one of religion and demography instead of honesty. This is not easy for American's, as we for the most part welcome immigration. This is what those acting on Shariah principals will prey upon. There is no litmus attempting to differentiate between the two Muslim’s/Islam or those who promote Shariah. They clearly don’t have any Imam’s overtly speaking against it, so be mindful and use great judgment.
ReplyDeleteWatcher...
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you here..
Thanks for the compliment, and the comment, both are appreciated.. as is your visit.
Be mindful and use great judgement... well put