Muslim Brotherhood: Extremist Islamic Group

By Khaled Abu Toameh – “The Obama Administration is making a mistake by endorsing the Muslim Brotherhood as if it were made up of moderates or ‘good guys’ just because they are not blowing things up.

What moderate Arabs and Muslims do not understand is the rush of the Barack Obama Administration to endorse extremist Islamic groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Muslim Brotherhood decision to run in the parliamentary elections under the banner of ‘Freedom and Justice’ does not necessarily mean that the organization has changed its ideology.

Its credo was and remains: ‘Allah is our objective, the Quran is our constitution, the Prophet is our leader, jihad is our way and death for the sake of Allah is the highest of our aspirations.’

The organization believes the Quran and Sharia law (the ‘Justice’ part of ‘Freedom and Justice’) should be the basis for any Islamic government; that all Muslims should be unified under a Caliphate, and that its principles include ‘liberating Arabs and Muslims from foreign imperialism.’

The Obama Administration seems deliberately to want to be unaware of ‘taqiyya’ [dissimulation], a silent and therefore even more dangerous tactic advocated in Islam to achieve the strategic goal of soothing the infidels into submitting without their even realizing what they have submitted to until it is too late for them — called ‘Stealth Sharia.’

If anyone thinks that the Muslim Brotherhood will abandon jihad and extremism once its members come to power, they are living in an illusion.

Bill Muehlenberg: Recent Readings on Islam, Sharia and Jihad

By Bill Muehlenberg – “There are many areas of concern when it comes to standing up for a free and democratic West. One of the biggest threats is posed by the ongoing activities of creeping sharia and stealth jihad. Whether by demographics, outright terrorism, or indirect jihad, the West is under assault and it needs to be aware of the threat.

A number of important works continue to come forth from the presses, and these are some of the newer and better volumes worth recommending. They cover a number of related issues, offering theological, political, historical, legal, social, cultural and geo-political considerations.

All have been penned in the last few years, and all are well worth getting to understand the situation the West now finds itself in. Some are written by Christians, and some by secular authors. Some deal with political and ideological concerns while others look at religious and theological issues.

I offer these twenty books in no particular order, but do suggest that you try to get at least a few of these important works in order to better understand the new Cold War we are in.” Read more for Muehlenberg’s complete list of recommended readings.

Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei Issues Directive to Heads of Military, Intelligence and Security Organisations: Prepare for War

By Con Coughlin – “An order from Gen Mohammed Ali Jaafari, the commander of the guards, raised the operational readiness status of the country’s forces, initiating preparations for potential external strikes and covert attacks.

Western intelligence officials said the Islamic Republic had initiated plans to disperse long-range missiles, high explosives, artillery and guards units to key defensive positions.

The order was given in response to the mounting international pressure over Iran’s nuclear programme. Preparation for a confrontation has gathered pace following last month’s report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna that produced evidence that Iran was actively working to produce nuclear weapons.

The Iranian leadership fears the country is being subjected to a carefully co-ordinated attack by Western intelligence and security agencies to destroy key elements of its nuclear infrastructure.

Recent explosions have added to the growing sense of paranoia within Iran, with the regime fearing it will be the target of a surprise military strike by Israel or the US.

Its ballistic missile programme suffered a major setback on Nov 12 after an explosion at the regime’s main missile testing facility at Bidganeh, about 30 miles west of Tehran.

At least 17 people died, including Gen Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, the head of Iran’s missile research programme.

The IAEA report said Iranian scientists had worked to develop a missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads. Security analysts described Iran’s missile advances as ‘a turning point’ that had ‘profound strategic implications’.

Last week another mysterious explosion caused significant damage to Iran’s uranium conversion facility at Isfahan.

‘It looks like the 21st century form of war,’ said Patrick Clawson of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a Washington think tank, told the Los Angeles Times. ‘It does appear that there is a campaign of assassinations and cyber war, as well as the semi-acknowledged campaign of sabotage.’

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s spiritual leader, issued a directive to the heads of all the country’s military, intelligence and security organisations to take all necessary measures to protect the regime.” Read more.

S&P Puts 15 EU Nations on Negative Credit Watch

Frame-by-frame we’re witnessing yet another picture leading up to the Euro’s inevitable all-out collapse. Although the scene may change momentarily, the end result of this slow-motion train wreck still leads to nothing but one monumental mess …

“Standard & Poor’s put 15 European Union nations on watch for a possible downgrade of their credit ratings as the continent’s debt crisis lingers.

The threat to downgrade the euro zone countries — including the ones that enjoy the stellar triple-A-rating — comes ahead of a crucial summit of EU leaders later this week.

The nations include Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, the Solvak Republic, Slovenia and Spain.

Greece and Cyprus were not included on the list. Cyprus was already on negative watch.” Read more.

US: Urgent Situation in Iran Becoming ‘More and More Worrisome’, Timeline for Nukes Getting Shorter

By Gil Ronen – “A senior US State Department official said Monday that ‘strong steps’ need to be taken against Iran’s nuclear program urgently. The statement is arguably the toughest yet made by the Obama administration on the subject.

‘Iran is violating international obligations and norms. It is becoming a pariah state,’ Robert Einhorn, the State Department senior adviser for non-proliferation and arms control, told reporters in the South Korean capital.

‘The situation in Iran has become more and more worrisome,’ Reuters quoted Einhorn as saying. ‘The timeline for its nuclear program is beginning to get shorter, so it is important we take these strong steps on an urgent basis.

‘If we do not, pressures will grow for much stronger actions. The US favors a diplomatic solution, but if we cannot achieve a diplomatic solution soon, inevitably interests will grow in a different kind of solution. That is why we need to act soon.'” Read more.

Argentina flirts with Iran as West watches nervously – “Argentina is quietly reaching out to Iran, worrying key Western powers and Israel as they try to tighten Tehran’s international isolation over its nuclear program, UN diplomats told Reuters… Iran has every reason to want to mend relations with Argentina. Under sanctions and increasingly isolated due to its nuclear program, Tehran has few allies and needs friends. Argentina is also on the 35-nation board of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, where Iran’s nuclear program is a key issue… Several European diplomats noted that [Argentine President] Fernandez is a close ally of regional leftists like Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Bolivia’s Evo Morales, who have warm ties with Iran.” Read more.

Flashback: ‘A World Without America’: Iran Building Rocket Bases in Venezuela to be Used Against ‘Iran’s Enemies’ – “The Iranian government is moving forward with the construction of rocket launch bases in Venezuela, the German daily Die Welt wrote in its Friday edition. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is Teheran’s most important South American ally. Iran is building intermediate- range missile launch pads on the Paraguaná Peninsula, and engineers from a construction firm – Khatam al-Anbia – owned by the Revolutionary Guards visited Paraguaná in February. Amir al-Hadschisadeh, the head of the Guard’s Air Force, participated in the visit, according to the report. Die Welt cited information from ‘Western security insiders.’” Read more.

The World’s Most Persecuted Religion: Christians Flee as Islamist Abomination Desolates Christian Communities, Churches ‘Seized and Turned Into Mosques’

Matthew 24:9, “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.”

By Milena Faustova – “Christian believers all over the world have found themselves in jeopardy amid massive attacks on Christians and Christianity in the Middle East, North and South Africa and South East Asia. Unless appropriate measures are taken, the Christian civilization will vanish completely, warn the participants in the International Conference on the Freedom of Religion and Discrimination against Christians, which is currently under way in Moscow. The religious forum has brought together representatives of Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and Islamic communities and religious experts from Russia and countries of the near and far abroad.

About 100 million Christians worldwide are suffering persecution and thousands die in religious conflicts. The biggest number of persecutions against Christians is taking place in the countries of Africa and the Middle East, said Metropolitan Hilarion, who heads the Russian Orthodox Church’s Foreign Relations Department:

‘In Libya, Christians have been leaving the country en masse following the toppling of Gaddafi’s regime and the coming to power of the National Transitional Council. According to the Open Doors human rights watchdog, 75 percent of Christians have left Libya. Tunisia’s government advocated the principle of religious tolerance before the revolution. Right after the revolution, Christians in Tunisia began to come under frequent attacks and a number of Christian churches were seized and turned into mosques.’

Anti-Christian sentiment has become strong in Egypt, which reports new victims among Christians regularly, and in Iraq. Christian believers come under fierce attacks in Algeria, Sudan, Nigeria, Somalia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Indonesia, India and the Philippines…

The mounting anti-Christian moods were also evoked by a greater role of Islamic radicalism, aggressive missionary work by representatives of different non-Christian sects, and distortions of Christian teachings.” Read more.

Indonesia: Islamic Extremists in Central Java Demand Destruction of Christian Churches

“Jakarta (AsiaNews) – An Islamic extremist group in Pracimantoro, a town in the district of Wonogiri, in central Java, has appealed to local government for the demolition of five Protestant churches in the area. The alarm is launched by Theophilus Bela, human rights activist and promoter of interfaith dialogue, according to whom that the fundamentalists complaint claims the Christian communities lack the building permits (IMB) for places of worship. The tension in the area is steadily increasing, and rumors of threats of demolition, circulating since yesterday evening in a series of documents, is not contributing to calming tempers. Previously, adds the Christian activist, extremist threats have focused on nine other churches in Bekasi regency, West Java.

The procedure for the construction of a church in Indonesia – Catholic or Protestant – is complicated and it can take five to ten years to obtain all required permits. The procedure is governed by the Izin Mendirikan Bangunan (IMB), a written resolution that allows the opening of a building site and is issued by local authorities. The story gets more complicated when it comes to a place of Christian worship: it has to be cleared by a quorum of residents in the area where the building is to be constructed and the local Interreligious Dialogue committee. And “unspecified reasons” that lead officials to block the projects, under pressure from radical Islamic movements often take over.

A document released at the weekend explains the Christian community’s reasons for concern. The Pracimantoro Islamist group is led by a religious who ‘ also holds the post of Head of the local Government Department for Religious Affairs.’ On December 1, during a committee meeting, it emerged that the Islamic extremist group submitted a demolition request. The five churches, local sources tell, have received authorization to operate from the office for religious affairs of Semarang, the provincial capital, but have not yet been handed over the IMB.

Christians have submitted documentation to the local department of Pracimantoro, but so far officials have purposely avoided evaluating their case or granting the appropriate permissions. Churches waiting to receive permission are: the Pentecostal church in the village of Ngalu Wetana, the All Nations Church in Gebangharjo, the Protestant Church in Javanese Godang, the Bethel Tabernacle Church, also in Gebangharjo and finally, the Christian Nazareth Church in Lebak.” Source- AsiaNews.it.

‘Bizarre Phenomenon’ in Vietnam: Mountain Explodes, the Earth Shakes, an ‘Army of Frogs and Toads’ March Upstream

“Residents of the town cannot help but feel anxious, as the intensity of the quakes keeps increasing. The nearby mountain of the Truong Son chain explodes ever more loudly every night.

Lu Quang Lai, nearly 70, says he has never witnessed such strange phenomenon in Tra My in the past decades.

‘About 10 months ago, when the new hydroelectricity power plant started to conserve water, the water level in the lake got higher every day. The land here seemed to change. Every night exploding sounds would emanate from the earth, followed by a rumbling sound. Recently the explosions and quakes have become more violent. Glasses and cups fall down like leaves, everything tilts’, Lai speaks in a tremble.

Nguyen Phuoc Danh, a motorbike mechanic, lives in a house 300km from Song Tranh 2 hydroelectricity plant’s dam. His home is the worst affected in the area, suffering from three tremors.

‘Two nights ago, the mountain exploded with a deafening sound. Although I’ve become used to the noise caused by TNT explosives during the dam’s construction, nothing compared to the recent explosion.

‘A few seconds later, the earth shook. The roof and the windows rattled. Things started to fall. The wall creaked, and then cracked. I took my wife and kids out to the street. A chill crept up from my heels to my head just like electricity’, Danh says in disbelief.

Frogs move in colonies

While the tremors await an explanation from scientists, residents continue to witness bizarre phenomenon.

People of Bac Tra My District recall the story of Ho Van Thoi, 54, who brought back a load of frogs and toads caught in Nuoc Vin creek’s headwaters one day before the quake.

Thoi says, ‘That afternoon, while trying to quench my thirst, I saw an army of frogs and toads swimming upstream. There were so many of them that they climbed on top of one another, all I had to do was reach down and pick them up.’

Thoi, along with other villagers, asserts that such an odd event has never happened before in this area. ‘The frogs must have heard the tremors before us humans!’, Thoi postulates.

According to residents, the area around Nuoc Vin creek was originally a hot spring. The water was boiling hot; hot enough to cook a shrimp in just one dip.” Read more.

Toads could be used to forecast earthquakes days before they happen – “Aside from ionosphere disturbances, nature has a number of ways that signify an earthquake’s arrival far earlier than an iPhone can. Animals, for instance, are known to leave their homes and head to safety anywhere from a few seconds to weeks before humans can feel quakes… Rachel Grant from the U.K. Open University and Friedemann Freund from NASA believe they may have figured it all out, thanks to a colony of toads. Grant monitored a toad colony in L’Aquila, Italy for her PhD project, when she noticed the population number dropped from 96 to almost zero at least three days before an earthquake hit. After forming a team with Freund, they studied how and why that event happened. The results … showed that stress in the surrounding rocks released charged particles that contaminated the groundwater. The toads, of course, sought refuge away from their environment which had suddenly become toxic.” Read more.

Taqqiya in Action: Muslim Brotherhood Claims They Won’t Impose Islamic Values After Islamist Parties Win 65% of Vote in Egypt

Riiiigggghhhhht.  Here is the Muslim Brotherhood’s motto, in their own words: “Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Qur’an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.” Anyone with two brain cells to rub together knows that 1+1 does not equal anything but 2 …

By Aya Batrawy – “Cairo • Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, emerging as the biggest winner in the first round of parliamentary elections, sought Saturday to reassure Egyptians that it would not sacrifice personal freedoms in promoting Islamic law.

The deputy head of the Brotherhood’s new political party, Essam el-Erian, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that the group is not interested in imposing Islamic values on Egypt, home to a sizable Christian minority and others who object to being subject to strict Islamic codes.

‘We represent a moderate and fair party,’ el-Erian said of his Freedom and Justice Party. ‘We want to apply the basics of Shariah law in a fair way that respects human rights and personal rights,’ he said, referring to Islamic law.” Read more.

Islamist parties win 65% in the first round of elections – “Islamists trounced their liberal rivals in the opening phase of Egypt’s first election since the fall of Hosni Mubarak, figures showed on Sunday, with one in four voters choosing hardline Salafists. Islamist parties won 65 percent of all votes cast for parties in the first round of parliamentary polls last week, while the main secular liberal coalition managed just 13.4 percent. Among the Islamist vote, the moderate Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) of the Muslim Brotherhood won 36.6 percent, followed by the hardline Salafist Al-Nur party with 24.4 percent and the moderate Al-Wasat with 4.3 percent.” Read more.

Egypt Islamists tell rivals to accept vote result – “Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood called on its rivals to accept the will of the people on Saturday after a first-round vote set its party on course to take the most seats in the country’s first freely elected parliament in six decades. The assembly’s popular mandate will give it clout to stand up to the generals who have ruled Egypt for the nine turbulent months since Hosni Mubarak’s removal and who are now scrambling to appoint a new interim government after the last one quit… ‘We call upon everyone, and all those who associate themselves with democracy, to respect the will of the people and accept their choice,’ it said in a statement after the first-round vote, which drew an official turnout of 62 percent.” Read more.

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood on allegations of vote buying and fraud: Shut up – “Oh, this bodes well for impartial and transparent governance in the New Egypt. Of course, the Ikhwan has gained popularity by railing against corruption under Mubarak. It is easy to criticize the other guy’s corruption and cronyism. But the Brotherhood has already shown its own propensity toward corruption, both in vote buying and other election tampering in two elections (last week’s, and the constitutional referendum in March), and now in its refusal to discuss it.” Read more.

Expert: Egypt Election Results Are a Nightmare Come True – “Israel’s worst fears regarding its relationship with the Arab world – and with Egypt in particular – are coming true before its eyes, Middle East expert Dr. David Buk’i told Arutz 7 in an interview Saturday night. ‘The rise of the Islamists in Egypt means the end of the peace treaty with Egypt and the rise of a government committed to the ideological Islamist goal of the destruction of the State of Israel,’ Buk’i said. With results in from the first round of voting in Egypt, it’s clear that the Islamist coalition has emerged as the largest faction in the future Egyptian government, by far.” Read more.