DowneastBlog readers know that I am no friend of islam - to put it very, very, very mildly.
That said, like every normal human being I was utterly shocked to learn of the gruesome fate of Lieutenant Muath Al-Kasasbeh, posthumously promoted Captain, of No.1 Squadron, the Royal Jordanian Air Force.
I did not watch the video to the end. I clicked the pause bars the moment Lt. Al-Kasasbeh started whipping his forearms up in instinctive gestures to shield his face.
I am a Christian, though admittedly not a good one - I know my many faults and weaknesses. In my faith, we learn that Man was created in God's image. I will let morally depraved leftists laugh at that notion. I deem them, who consider themselves so smart and 'sophisticated', not intelligent enough to grasp the deeper lying implication of that oft-quoted Biblical expression. That implication is not that Up There, some manlike almighty God sits in clouds to reward those who do good, and punish those who are bad. No, it is rather that because humans were crafted 'like God', they are themselves unique, precious, and of unfathomable value.
The willful destruction of a human being is therefore an appalling thing. Especially when it is done in a way that is meant to show the audience in the minutest details how the victim is reduced to ashes - literally.
Of course, the history of mankind is full of that deliberate destruction of humans by humans. The most widespread and "efficient" practice of this habit is called war. Christians know that killing other humans is a sin; yet they also know that sometimes it is a necessary evil, that killing villains will prevent the killing, on a larger scale, of innocents.
This is why I am morally at ease with the use of deadly violence against "the bad". Whether they are called Nazis, Khmer Rouge, Taliban... or ISIS.
Captain Al-Kasasbeh was, unlike me, directly in the frontline of the war against the subhumans of islamic state - even though he was himself a muslim.
The very graphic video of one individual risks to push the many other gruesome murders of militant islam to the background. We know the captain's face, we know his parents, we have come across some scant information of the kind of person he was - in all likelihood an amiable person. It is easy, because of that focus on Muath, to forget literally hundreds of Nigerians who have met the same fate as the Jordanian pilot. To forget tens, if not more, of Pakistani Christians. And many more across the planet who fell victim to islamic barbarity.
But because we now know Captain Al-Kasasbeh so good, comparatively speaking, we... may perhaps take the liberty to see him as the representative of all those countless others.
Muath leaves behind a grieving family and a widow - only last September, he married Anwar Tarawneh. Pray for them all.
Captain Muath Al-Kasasbeh, 1st Squadron, the Royal Jordanian Air Force. RESPECT!
All the turmoil in the world would make people overlook the Alberto Nisman case. But check out the following article by Rick Moran. Via American Thinker:
"An Argentina prosecutor who, last week, accused top government officials of covering up Iranian involvement in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires was found dead in his apartment.
Alberto Nisman conducted an investigation during which he discovered that the Argentine government – including the former president, husband of the current president – deliberately hid evidence of the involvement of top Iranian officials in the bombing. In exchange, the Iranians granted oil concessions to the energy-starved country.
The cover-up continues to this day with another quid-pro-quo deal involving the current president, where Argentina sold wheat to the Iranians. Cristina Kirchner, widow of former president Nestor Kirchner, has been accused of facilitating the deal and had complete knowledge of Iranian involvement in the terror attack.
What is it that Nisman has on Kirchner, and did it get him killed? The reason I hesitate to definitively say that this was an assassination is that the investigation was botched to begin with (the original judge was thrown off the case for bias and bribery; he was impeached in 2005), and Nisman himself may have been mentally unbalanced.
This is an account of the charges explained by Nisman in a radio interview a few days ago:
In a radio interview on Thursday, a day after filing the case, Nisman ratified his accusations against president Cristina Fernández. “From all the phone tapping records, which were verified, we proved that two months after the death of (former president) Néstor Kirchner (…) Argentina made a 180-degree turn in its foreign policy.”
The prosecutor went on: “(The Executive) decided to approach Iran geopolitically (…) they wanted to establish full diplomatic relations, and more importantly, a commercial trade due to the energy crisis that Argentina faced.”
Nisman has accused the government of improving its relation with Tehran in order to obtain oil and to boost grain exports at the expense of covering up Iranian officials' involvement in the bombing.
He explained that the special prosecutor's office was established by former president Nestor Kirchner in 2004 and began its work in 2005. He pointed out that at the time, the then Foreign Minister Rafael Bielsa had received a proposal by Iran to exculpate the suspects in the attack.
“Bielsa said so very clearly: we have received an offer from the Iranians to buy wheat for 4bn dollars, a very beneficial economic offer, in exchange we have to state that the prosecutor’s complaint was all a mistake and void it,” Nisman said.
However, the prosecutor said that ex president Kirchner had nothing to do with those offers. “(Nestor Kirchner) always said ‘this is a Judicial issue, get out of here'.”
“The president decided to give impunity to Iran, to exculpate (the suspects) in the probe, so they would no longer be under investigation. All the decisions were taken by her. All the talks (recorded in phone taps) relate to her (…) She was aware of everything and (Foreign Minister Hector Timerman) did not move without the president’s consent,” he said.
Many observers thought it fishy when the Argentine government suddenly dropped the notion of Iranian involvement in 2012. But by this time, the evidence had been mishandled, the investigation had gone off the rails, and no one could sort through the corruption and incompetence of the police who handled the inquiry. Several local police went on trial in 2004 in connection with the bombing, and all were acquitted.
The FBI, who investigated the case with Argentina authorities, believes that the attack on the center was a s
The FBI, who investigated the case with Argentina authorities, believes that the attack on the center was a suicide bombing carried out by a Hezb'allah operative, Ibrahim Hussein Berro, who had connections to the Iranian government. But the physical evidence in the case was so mishandled that it is doubtul that any conviction will be forthcoming.
(Note: There is a plaque in southern Lebanon honoring Berro as a martyr, with the date of his death coinciding with the suicide bombing of the Jewish community center.)..."
The AMIA Building (Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina) after the attack. The handiwork of the Religion of Peace.
"We have proven that the decision for the July 18, 1994, attack against AMIA that caused 85 deaths and wounded at least 151 was a decision taken by high-ranking authorities of Iran's government at that time." - Alberto NISMAN.
"... In the (Nisman) report, Nisman gave evidence of Iran's "intelligence and terrorist network" in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Colombia, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Surinam – among others.
Nisman said new evidence underscored the responsibility of Mohsen Rabbani, the former Iranian cultural attache in Argentina, as mastermind of the AMIA bombing and "coordinator of the Iranian infiltration of South America, especially in Guyana".
Nisman said US court documents showed Islamist militant Abdul Kadir – who was sentenced to life in prison in 2010 for participating in a foiled plan to attack John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York – was Rabbani's disciple.
Kadir "received instructions" from Rabbani "and carried out the Iranian infiltration in Guyana, whose structure was nearly identical ... to that established by Rabbani in Argentina," the prosecutor wrote.
Nisman urged Interpol to intensify its efforts to execute the arrest warrants against Imad Fayez Moughnieh, Ali Fallahijan, Mohsen Rabbani, Ahmad Reza Asghari, Ahmad Vahidi and Mohsen Rezai..."
While we are at it, you might want to check out former Argentine president Carlos Menem, who has also been accused of obstructing the investigations into the AMIA bombing.
Carlos Menem's parents were from Syria and ...
... sunni muslims.
MFBB.
PS: yes, I know Menem is a convert to Christianity. I also know he did that for political reasons.
An interesting timeline over the past ten days. It all started with a speech by Filip Dewinter, Vlaams Belang, in the Kamer (Lower House):
1.) 22 JANUARY: DEWINTER'S "QURAN SOURCE OF ALL EVIL" SPEECH IN THE LOWER HOUSE.
"The quran is the reason for a lot of turmoil, the source of all evil, a licence to kill", said Dewinter from the speaker's pulpit with a quran in his hand. "This book, the basis of the islamic teachings, is professed in a fundamentalist way in quite a lot of mosques in our country". (...)
Filip Dewinter states that he understands "that there are a lot of moderate muslims". "But that does not mean there is a moderate islam and that the quran would be moderate".
Interior Minister was quite upset with Dewinter's statements. "There's something I have to tell you. You are waving here with a book which quite a lot of people in this country hold in high esteem. You are stigmatising an entire community here. We all know that there are radical and extremist elements in this community. All of us in this lower house want to fight against that. But you won't find any support for your views in this chamber".
FYI, Jan Jambon, Vice PM and Interior Minister for the supposedly center-right party NVA, is one of those #JeSuisCharlie idiots demonstrating in Paris two weeks ago, utterly convinced that his acte-de-présence actually made a difference.
2.) 25 JANUARY: LIMBURG MUSLIMS DEEPLY UPSET BY SPEECH DEWINTER.
Next step, a number of muslims holding a local political mandate, curiously enough all with constituencies in the eastern province of Limburg, were SOOOOOOOOOO upset with the words used by Dewinter to describe their holy book:
Here is some coverage by De Morgen, a thoroughly leftist newspaper (an oxymoron actually, basically all printed media in Belgium is leftwing to one degree or another):
"MUSLIMS FROM LIMBURG DEEPLY UPSET BY SPEECH DEWINTER.
Muslims with a (political) mandate in city councils and OCMW-boards (state-run welfare agencies) react strongly against the wording used in a speech by Filip Dewinter, Vlaams Belang, last Thursday in the Kamer (lower house). "We are tired of having to defend ourselves against [allegations of - MFBB] things we despise too", say muslims, following the link Dewinter sees between islam and extremist terror attacks.
Following an invitation by Uzun Mustafa, town selectman for CDV in Maasmechelen, last weekend all muslims with a political mandate in the province of Limburg held a meeting. Those local politicians for Open VLD, Groen, CDV and SP.a from Maasmechelen, Genk, Houthalen-Helchteren, Heusden-Zolder and Beringen, as well as the chairmen of a number of mosques, issued a joint statement afterwards, in which they state that Dewinter's speech offended them deeply.
"Talk like this (Dewinter stated in the lower house that the Quran is the source of all evil and a 'licence to kill') has provoked strong emotions in our community. Similar extremism does not belong anywhere, and certainly not in Parliament", say the muslims. "We are tired of having to defend ourselves against [allegations of - MFBB] things we despise too". "We want to be a powerful ally of other belief systems, and have a lot of respect for them"."
"A powerful ally of other belief system". Riiiiiiiiiiight. We see that all over the globe.
3.) 30 JANUARY: TWENTY-TWO RAIDS ALL OVER THE COUNTRY. 4 SUSPECTS ARRESTED.
Then, on 30 January, Bang! Out of the blue 22 police raids aimed against jihadi recruiters. From HLN:
"BREAKING NEWS. During twenty-two raids in several locations throughout the country, this morning very early, four people were arrested. This happened within the framework of a federal antiterror operation dealing with persons leaving for Syria to join with a terrorist organization there, says (a spokesman for) the federal prosecutor. According to our sources, at least five youngsters, among them minors, would have been recruited by th (jihadist) network."
Guess what??? The raids took place mainly in... the province of Limburg!!! Mostly in Maaseik (11!), but also in Maasmechelen (2), Kinrooi (1), Houthalen-Helchteren (2), Neeroeteren (1), and Genk. Also in Antwerpen (4), and Sint-Jans-Molenbeek (1).
Uh... so let me get this straight... On 25 january a group of muslims from all over the province of LIMBURG issue a statement that they are 'deeply upset' by Dewinter calling the quran 'the source of all evil' in Parliament, and that they despise the terrorist attacks just as vehemently.
Five days later, a massive operation of 22 raids takes place... roughly three quarters of them in... the province of Limburg!
4.) 31 JANUARY: MAYOR NEEROETEREN CLOSES MOSQUE FOR THREE MONTHS.
Uh-oh. On 30 January Neeroeteren's mosque received the attention of federal police. One day later 'something' compels the Mayor of Neeroeteren to close the tent for three months.
"Mayor Jan Creemers (CDV) took the decision (to close the mosque) after a conversation with the mosque's imam. "Our decision is based on security guidelines. The fact that a raid took place is for us a reason to assume that in this prayer house things were happening which cannot be tolerated...."
So we first have a bunch of Limburgian supposedly well-integrated muslims of that famous peaceful majority whining over Dewinter's peppered allegations. They assure us they are just as much as us concerned about the radical elements, the implication being that, "noooooo, islam is the religion of peace, we don't know what came in our youngsters' heads, it's just a tiny tiny minority, if you read the quran it's as cute as Winnie the Pooh or The Waltons or whatever".
Next thing you know, the tiny minority is apparently big enough to warrant a - for Belgian standards anyway - massive sweep of federal police. Mostly in the province of Limburg no less!
You actually have to hand it to them, those cold-hearted f*cking liars. Because, you know, the province of Limburg is known for its widespread muslim communities scattered over a plethora of middle-sized towns. Those are all very tightly knit communities, and I'm sure - I'm absolutely DAMN SURE - that throughout them, whenever something fishy is going on in a mosque's basement, or in the backrooms of suspicious kebab bars, EVERYONE knows about it to one degree or another. Yessir, the whole spectrum from the toddlers over the pain-in-the-ass twelve-year olds over the gung-ho adolescents and their parents to auntie and gramps KNOW ABOUT IT. Not the details, in all likelihood. But that something's up? That 18-year old Mehmet's going to Turkey "on holiday" in the middle of school exams? That stuff has been unloaded from a van into so-and-so's house in the middle of the night? You bet the neighborhood knows it. Nossir, our muslim "brethren" can't in all honesty invoke the 'Wir haben es nicht gewusst' principle.
These Limburg muslims - and especially the local politicians among them - know what is going on in their communities. What nerve then, to pretend to be upset about Dewinter's allegations.
It's all crystal clear to me. We don't need MORE islam.
