A French family has been taken hostage by the Jihadist terrorist group Boko Haram.
Being held by Jihadists would be bad enough, but to see your own children held and no doubt terrified would be unbearable. This is yet another stark illustration that the Jihadist enemies we face are in fact subhuman. And they must be stopped. The world must be rid of this scourge, no matter how long it takes, or else there will never be even a glimmer of hope for peace.
Four children are among the family taken hostage in the African nation of Cameroon, but multiple news sources are speculating that the hostages have already been moved into Nigeria.
Some news reports claim that Al Qaeda is responsible and there is no doubt that there is some level of communication, if not outright cooperation, between Boko Haram and Al Qaeda, but they are two separate terrorist organizations.
The family were taken on Tuesday by gunmen on motorbikes. Following the abduction, the French government said it believes the couple, their children aged five, eight, 10 and 12, and an uncle were taken across the border into Nigeria.
The family lives in the Cameroonian capital, Yaounde, where the father worked for the French gas group Suez.
They had been returning from a visit to Waza National Park when they were kidnapped.
Islamic jihad and dawah operations continue to spread throughout the African continent, which is clearly the central theater in the global Jihadist insurgency at this point. There are active operations across the dark continent.
Probably the bloodiest Jihadist organization in Africa is Boko Haram, who have made a practice of slaughtering Christian worshippers in Nigeria on Christian holy days, such as Christmas and Easter.
We can only pray for the poor family in the video below. Pray for their safe return to freedom and hope that justice will come down on their captors swiftly and decisively.
There is only one way to describe this: Calypso Louie is hiring Jihadis. How this fails to prompt a federal RICO investigation is beyond us…
Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan told thousands of followers Sunday he was planning to reach out to gang leaders to help “protect” the Nation of Islam.
SNIP
Farrakhan said he planned to contact the city’s gang leaders to recruit gang members to “protect” any land the Nation of Islam might buy in the future.
“All you gangbangers, we know you love to shoot, but you’re killing yourselves,” Farrakhan said. “All your weapons are illegal and you’re using them like savages.”
But Farrakhan said gangbangers are “natural soldiers” and could be taught “the science of war” to become protectors of the Nation of Islam’s assets in the future.
President Obama may say that Al Qaeda is defeated, or Al Qaeda is “on the run,” or that the “core” of Al Qaeda is in ruins and other political rhetoric, but the US State Department continues to issue advisories warning Americans traveling abroad that they need to realize that they are being targeted by Jihadists around the globe.
Of course, the State Department doesn’t actually use the term “Jihadists,” because we know that our Muslim Brotherhood “allies” might get upset if they did. And the exclusion of the term “Jihad” started under Condi Rice, not Hillary Clinton…just so you know…
It’s also instructive that to get the details of the State Department’s terrorism advisory, you need to go to the foreign media, because the US media doesn’t like to cover these topics any more. The report below comes to us from the Times of India.
The United States has issued a worldwide travel alert to its citizens including inSouth Asia where it said terrorist outfits like al-Qaida, the Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba ( LeT) might harm them.“US citizens are reminded to maintain a high level of vigilance and to take appropriate steps to increase their security awareness,” the State Department said in a statement yesterday. Noting that current information suggests that al-Qaida, its affiliated organisations, and other terrorist outfits continue to plan terrorist attacks against US interests in multiple regions, including Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, the State Department said these attacks may employ a wide variety of tactics including suicide operations, assassinations, kidnappings, hijackings and bombings.
It said extremists may elect to use conventional or non-conventional weapons, and target both official and private interests.
Examples of such targets include high-profile sporting events, residential areas, business offices, hotels, clubs, restaurants, places of worship, schools, public areas, and other tourist destinations both in the United States and abroad where the country’s citizens gather in large numbers, including during holidays, the State Department said.
According to the State Department, anti-Western terrorist groups, some on the US government’s list of foreign terrorist organizations, have been active in India, including Islamist extremist groups such as Harkat-ul-Jihad-i-Islami, Harakat ul-Mujahidin, Indian Mujahideen, Jaish-e-Mohammed, and the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e Taiba.
It is certainly worth noting that the State Department lists these Jihadist groups. This certainly runs counter to the narrative propagated by the Obama administration that the “enemy” is simply Al Qaeda.
It is also worth reminding readers that Lashkar-e Taiba was the group that pulled off the Mumbai massacre in 2008, which targeted Westerners and Jews in the Indian financial center. The reconnaissance and intelligence gathering for that operation was done by a US citizen from Chicago named David Headley.
UPDATE: We are not certain that the report linked below is accurate and valid, nor do we know, if accurate and valid, if it is related in any way to the State Department advisory. However, given the broad nature of the State Department advisory, covering the US and overseas and just about every type of target imaginable–AND the possible use of “non-conventional weapons,” the report below from the Crocodile’s Lament blog is worth at least a glance…
The United Kingdom is unfortunately a nation that is in the process of slowly committing cultural suicide.
It pains us to say it because the UK is in many ways the cradle of modern Western civilization and there has been no more steadfast US ally for very nearly 100 years.
But the British made a bargain with the devil when they decided to allow massive Muslim immigration a generation ago. As a result, there are now Shariah zones in areas of Britain and there are neighborhoods in London where British servicemen have been told not to wear their uniforms because the locals are offended.
Still, these symptoms of the cultural suicide pale in comparison to the periodic Jihadist attacks and plots that are uncovered. This week has revealed yet another Jihadi plot, this one perhaps among the worst to be contemplated by monsters that are living in and amongst good, innocent British subjects.
The latest plot in the UK involved three Jihadis in Birmingham who were preparing to detonate nail bombs at rail stations with an aim to slaughtering thousands. They also contemplated other forms of attack, but the bomb attacks appear to have been the most serious because the trio did in fact have explosives and bomb making materials and two of them had traveled to Pakistan for training in terrorist camps.
It was their transit to and from Pakistan that may have been their undoing, as they showed up on the excellent British security services’ radar screens.
The Daily Mail has an excellent, detailed account of the plot:
It seems that some of one of the plotters’ friends are incredulous that he could be a part of planning such an atrocity. Irfan Naseer’s friends paint a picture of a jolly, fat Muslim:
This should serve as a warning to people everywhere that you simply cannot judge a book by its cover. Just because someone seems like a “nice guy,” doesn’t mean that he isn’t a committed terrorist. In fact, a terrorist that has been to a training camp in Pakistan has probably been trained to put people around him at ease.
Perhaps the most troubling aspect of the Birmingham terror plot is the fact that members of the Muslim community there knew that these men were traveling to Pakistan to train for terror, yet not a single person came forward to warn the police that this was going on. Fellow Muslims were just standing by in silence as these men planned horrendous atrocities. This is something that should not be forgotten…
Despite the fact that Al Qaeda is conducting active operations around the world, including recent operations in which Americans were killed in Libya and Algeria, President Obama continues to spread the myth that Al Qaeda is defeated.
He has, however, changed his tune a little bit.
Ever since the killing of Osama Bin Laden, Obama has been declaring that Al Qaeda has been defeated or is “on the run.”
Now he qualifies his statement: he now says that the “core” of Al Qaeda is “on the path to defeat,” what ever that means.
Actually, it means nothing. It is meaningless political babble.
Judging from the article linked below, Obama seems to think that if the US withdraws from combat with the Jihadists, the war will be over. This attitude isn’t just naive, it’s downright dishonest and dangerously irresponsible…
Bill Gertz at the Washington Times is reporting on a very important story that the so-called mainstream media is predictably ignoring: a Jihadi web site has published an overt threat of new terrorist attacks against the US and the West:
A jihadist website posted a new threat by al Qaeda this week that promises to conduct “shocking” attacks on the United States and the West.
The posting appeared on the Ansar al Mujahidin network Sunday and carried the headline, “Map of al Qaedaand its future strikes.”
The message, in Arabic, asks: “Where will the next strike by al Qaeda be?” A translation was obtained by Inside the Ring.
“The answer for it, in short: The coming strikes by al Qaeda, with God’s Might, will be in the heart of the land of nonbelief, America, and in France, Denmark, other countries in Europe, in the countries that helped and are helpingFrance, and in other places that shall be named by al Qaeda at other times,” the threat states.
The attacks will be “strong, serious, alarming, earth-shattering, shocking and terrifying.”
Under a section of the post on the method of the attacks, the unidentified writer said the strikes would be “group and lone-wolf operations, in addition to the use of booby-trapped vehicles.”
“All operations will be recorded and published in due time,” the message said. “Let Francebe prepared, and let the helpers of France be prepared, for it is going to be a long war of attrition.”
The reference to France appears linked to the group’s plans for retaliation against the French-led military strikes in northern Maliin operations to oust al Qaeda terrorists from the North African country.
The Ansar al-Mujahidin network is a well-known jihadist forum that in the past has published reliably accurate propaganda messages from al Qaeda and its affiliates.
President Obama has stated on no fewer than 32 occasions that Al Qaeda has been defeated or is “on the run.” These public statements, meant for domestic political consumption, amount to waving a red flag in front of a bull.
Since then, Al Qaeda has killed Americans and other Westerners in Benghazi and Algeria and French troops are locked in combat with Al Qaeda forces in Mali.
Now, Al Qaeda has issued an overt threat to conduct new attacks inside America.
Several years ago, President Bush appeared on an aircraft carrier under a banner which said “Mission Accomplished,” and got criticized for it.
If these new Al Qaeda threats become reality, will President Obama be held to account for his public claim that Al Qaeda has been defeated, the way that President Bush was criticized for his “Mission Accomplished” appearance?
Not long ago, President Obama told us Al Qaeda had been defeated.
Well, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb must not have gotten the memo.
They are holding 41, or possibly even more, hostages in southern Algeria. Included in that number are 7 Americans.
Here is an image that is very worrisome. Al Qaeda seldom takes hostages with the intent of making some kind of bargain. They usually do horrible, gruesome things to hostages and record and distribute it via the internet and Al Jazeera…
Pray for these poor people
President Obama had little or nothing to say about this latest Islamic Jihadist terrorist attack. He was busy using people as props in his own way…
Obama sells F-16s and M-1 tanks to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, but he wants to ban AR-15s in the US…
The internet has literally been littered with news reports about a new propaganda campaign being waged by the head of the Council on American Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) Chicago director.
The man’s name is Ahmed Rehab and his methodology has been to run advertising on buses to change the public perception of the word “Jihad.”
Rehab has chosen two of the most liberal cities in America in which to conduct his campaign so far: Chicago and San Francisco.
The name of the campaign is “MyJihad” and it aims to convince Americans that Jihad only means “to struggle” or, more specifically, an internal, personal struggle. Rehab claims that this is the “true” meaning of Jihad.
Unfortunately for Rehab, he is only partially correct and any campaign that claims that the term Jihad only means an internal, personal struggle amounts to disinformation. The dualistic nature of Islam, in this case as it applies to the meaning of “Jihad,” is well documented both in historical Islamic doctrine and in contemporary use of the term.
And Jihad definitely does not only mean an internal, personal struggle. In fact, the most widespread meaning of the term that is of particular interest to Westerners who are threatened by Jihad does in fact entail violence.
A false and misleading statement has been attributed to the San Francisco chapter head of CAIR, Zahra Billoo:
“A common misconception of the word jihad is that it means armed struggle or holy war, and that is something that has been perpetrated by many who’ve made careers out of pushing anti-Muslim sentiment.”
Such a meaning for Jihad has nothing to do with anyone with an “anti-Muslim sentiment.” It has everything to do with Islam itself.
Let us examine definitions of Jihad from two authoritative sources.
Jihad According to the Quran
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The first is the Quran itself. In this case, specifically The Noble Qu’ran, translated into English by two scholars: Dr. Muhammad Taqi-ud-Din Al-Hilali, PhD, professor of Islamic Faith and Teachings at the Islamic University, Al-Madinah Al-Munawwarah, Saudi Arabia and Dr. Muhammad Mushin Khan of the same institution. The Noble Qu’ran was published by Darussalam Publishers and Distributors, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It has been catalogued by King Fahad National Library. On page 818, in a glossary accompanying the text of the Quran, The Noble Qu’ran provides the following definition of Jihad:
“Jihad: Holy fighting in the Cause of Allah or any other kind of effort to make Allah’s Word superior. Jihad is regarded as one of the fundamentals of Islam.”
Can the Quran itself be promoting “anti-Muslim sentiment” as CAIR’s Zahra Billoo asserts?
Jihad According to Shariah
Our second source is Reliance of the Traveler: A Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law.
Reliance of the Traveler is one of the world’s most widely read manuals of Shariah law. It has been endorsed by a variety of Islamic authorities, including Al Azhar University in Cairo, IIIT (International Institute of Islamic Thought) in Herndon, Virginia, the Fiqh Council of North America, the Islamic Fiqh Academy in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the Mufti of the Jordanian Armed Forces andthe Imam of the Mosque of Darwish Pasha in Damascus, Syria.
These can hardly be termed as those pushing “anti-Muslim sentiment” as Billoo claims.
On page 599 of Reliance of the Traveler, readers can find the following passage:
o9.0 JIHAD
(O: Jihad means to war against non-Muslims, and is etymologically derived from the word mujahada, signifying warfare to establish the religion…
The scriptural basis for jihad, prior to scholarly consensus is such Koranic verses as:
(1) “Fighting is prescribed for you” (Koran 2:216);
(2) “Slay them wherever you find them” (Koran 4:89);
(3) “Fight the idolators utterly” (Koran 9:36);
and such hadiths as the one related by Bukhari and Muslim that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said:
“I have been commanded to fight people until they testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and perform the prayer, and pay zakat. If they say it, they have saved their blood and possessions from me, except for the rights of Islam over them. And their final reckoning is with Allah”;
and the hadith reported by Muslim,
“To go forth in the morning or evening to fight in the path of Allah is better than the whole world and everything in it.”
Jihad According to Terrorists
If Jihad truly means to “struggle” and not warfare to establish the religion, how does CAIR explain the names of all these terrorist organizations?
A 4-minute posthumous call to Jihad by American-born Anwar al Awlaki. Keep in mind that, before he became head of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Awlaki had been an Imam at mosques in San Diego, Denver and northern Virginia and was regarded as a great “moderate” who was a favorite show pony for “outreach” programs. He was invited to the Pentagon. He delivered sermons to the Congressional Muslim Staffers Association on Capitol Hill. Prominent CAIR officers, employees and members attended these sermons. At least one former CAIR employee who attended Awlaki’s sermons on Capitol Hill in Washington DC is now in jail on terrorism charges:
President Obama has selected one of the worst possible candidates imaginable to become Secretary of Defense. Chuck Hagel has a history of being weak on Jihad and terrorism, the greatest threat to American lives and national security today.
Hagel’s nomination should become a “teaching moment.” Just because someone served honorably in the uniform of the United States military or has an “R” instead of a “D” after his name, does not automatically mean that the person is strong on national security policy.
Chuck Hagel is as bad on the threat of Jihadist terrorism as anyone in America. Not only has he been on the wrong side of votes on the issue, but his votes demonstrate a lack of commitment on the issue, as well a tendency to enable Jihad:
• Wrong on Iraq
A graphic depiction of the impact of the surge on Al Qaeda in Iraq
Initially, then-Senator Hagel voted in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom to overthrow Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq. But when the insurgency did not go so well, Hagel flip-flopped and called for a withdrawal of US troops in just 120 days back in 2007.
Had such a policy been implemented, Al Qaeda and other Jihadist elements would have emerged victorious in Iraq and the US would have been seen as clearly losing Iraq to Al Qaeda. This would have energized Al Qaeda and given it the biggest recruiting boost since the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States homeland. This would have essentially allowed the global jihad to morph at an accelerated rate.
Then, when the US announced the surge counteroffensive in Iraq, Senator Hagel said it would be “the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam, if it’s carried out.”
Hagel is clearly no military strategist. The surge broke the back of the insurgency, drastically reduced the violence in Iraq and allowed the US to draw down its force levels in a secure manner.
To be sure, Iraq is no utopia today, but violence levels there are no where near what they were during the insurgency and, most importantly, Al Qaeda was denied victory in Iraq due to the surge.
Wrong on Hezbollah
In 2006 Hagel was one of a just 11 senators who refused to sign a letter urging the European Union to designate Hezbollah a terrorist organization. Hezbollah not only killed 241 Marines, soldiers and sailors in Beirut, Lebanon on 23 October 1983, they also kidnapped and murdered US Marine Colonel William Higgins in 1988 when he was on UN Peacekeeping duty. More recently, Hezbollah was active in fighting US GIs in Iraq and Hezbollah members captured, tortured and killed US GIs in Iraq.
US Marine Barracks bombing–Beirut, Lebanon–23 October 1983. 241 Americans killed by Hezbollah Islamikaze bombing
Colonel William “Rich” Higgins, USMC–Kidnapped and murdered by Hezbollah in 1988.
Ali Mussa Daqduq: Hezbollah leader captured in Iraq in 2007. He planned a raid in which 4 US soldiers were captured, subsequently tortured and killed in Karbala, Iraq. He was captured by US Special Operations Forces, but was released from custody when President Obama refused to have him remanded to the US prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Wrong on Iran
Iranian “art” in Tehran
Chuck Hagel has a shamefully weak record on Iran, the world’s foremost state sponsor of Jihadist terrorism and a serial proliferator of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles.
His weakness on Iran goes way back to August of 2001 when he was one of just two US Senators to vote against renewal of the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act. The Iran-Libya Sanctions Act was set up to punish entities for investing in Iranian or Libyan petroleum industries, aiming to prevent Tehran or Tripoli from gaining petroleum profits that could be used to develop or acquire weapons of mass destruction or to finance terrorism.
In September 2007, Hagel voted against designating the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist entity. 76 Senators voted for the bill in an overwhelming bipartisan vote.
In July 2008, Hagel voted in the Senate Banking Committee against legislation imposing sanctions on countries conducting certain business with Iran. The legislation passed 19-2.
In October 2008 Hagel single-handedly killed Senator Gordon Smith’s (R-Oregon) S.970 Iran Counter-Proliferation Act, a bill that had 71 co-sponsors, 36 Republican and 35 Democrat. This act would have strengthened the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act (now referred to simply as the Iran Sanctions Act).
Chuck Hagel: Wrong for America
Leftist pundits are creating a straw man argument by promoting the meme that only the “Jewish lobby” is opposed to Hagel because of his record of not supporting Israel.
This dishonest tactic is merely meant as a smokescreen to mask Hagel’s shamefully weak, longstanding record on Jihad and terrorism primarily directed against the United States and its citizens.
Call and write your Senator and tell him/her to oppose the nomination of Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense. America cannot afford to have someone as weak on Jihadist terrorism as Chuck Hagel.
Linked below, please find two seemingly unrelated stories about two separate Jihadis from the Mobile, Alabama area (one of our favorite cities actually and the permanent homeport for the battleship USS Alabama, one of the great historical treasures that every American should visit at least once).
Nevertheless, something is going on in that area. There are two known Jihadis that made news recently, one we have known about for some time and the other only more recently came on the scene.
The first one is Omar Hammami, a Muslim who grew up in Daphne, Alabama, a really nice town outside of Mobile. Hammami’s Dad is a Syrian immigrant and was at one time at least the Imam of the Islamic center there. While a student at the University of South Alabama, Hammami was the President of the Muslim Students Association, which of course is the oldest Muslim Brotherhood front group in the United States. (Hammami is certainly not the first member of the MSA to turn to violent Jihad. That list is long.) As President of the MSA at South Alabama, he was interviewed by local TV news stations about perceived discrimination against Muslims in the wake of the 9/11 attacks of 2001.
Not long after all of that, Hammami turned to violent Jihad and via Canada and Egypt found his way to Somalia, where he came a member of Al Shabaab, the Al Qaeda affiliate there. It was at that time that he hit the big-time in Jihadi circles and changed his name to Abu Mansoor Al-Amriki. He became a spokesman for the organization and found himself on the FBI’s list of most wanted terrorists.
Omar Hammami/Abu Mansoor Al-Amriki
More recently, Hammami/Al-Amriki hasn’t been getting along so well with his Jihadi pals in Somalia. He released a video back in March in which he claimed to be in fear for his like from none other than Al Shabaab over differences in sharia and strategy. There was even speculation that he was killed.
But now he has resurfaced again. It turns out Al Shabaab didn’t kill him, they just think he is an assclown (our word, not theirs) and have essentially disowned him. We imagine he must be pretty lonely over in Somalia these days. Good riddance. We hope for his untimely demise, sooner than later preferably.
Which brings us to the question of how he ended up in the Jihad in the first place. Being a member of the MSA may have had a hand in it. After all, Carlos Bledsoe (aka Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad) found his way to Jihad after getting involved with the MSA in Nashville, which is less than a day’s drive from Mobile. Of course, Bledsoe/Muhammad also got involved with a local Islamic center in Nashville as well and that is also a know recruiting outlet for Jihad in America and the West in general. Now we come full circle, Hammami’s Dad, who was the Imam of the Islamic Center of Daphne claims to have no idea how his son got involved in Jihad. We were always skeptical of that claim because other sons of Imams have gone the same route. But now that another Jihadi has emerged from the area, we think there may be something worth looking into in the Lower Alabama region…
…And his name is Randy Lamar “Rasheed” Wilson. Wilson was arrested boarding an airline flight from Atlanta to Morocco earlier this month. Authorities say he planned to enter “another African country” and wage a violent jihad in support of his Islamic beliefs.
They don’t say which African nation Wilson had in mind. It certainly could be Somalia, but the Jihadists are also active in Mali, Morocco, Libya and a few other places in Africa. In fact, Mali appears to be mentioned in some of the initial court records. But so is Hammami. It seems that Hammami and Wilson were roommates at one time…hmmm…At this point we don’t know much about Wilson, how he became Muslim (we doubt he was born Muslim) and how he found his way to Jihad and on his way to Africa.
Randy Lamar “Rasheed” Wilson
Like we said, something is going on in with Jihad in Lower Alabama…which seems to be one of the least likely places in America for such activity. This shows that no where is immune.
Terror Trends Bulletin 