DEARBORN, United States (AFP) - During what should be a joyous time of fellowship, worship and reflection, many Muslims streamed into the Islamic Center of America on the first night of Ramadan with heavy hearts.
Sick of the suspicious glances, slurs and false accusations of being terrorists, they feel like second-class citizens in their own country.
"I feel comfortable at home but once I leave there, and leave my community, I feel like I'm in a whole different atmosphere right now," 18-year-old Zeinab Zahreldin, a freshman at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, told AFP late Saturday. "It's not at all comfortable."
The Detroit area has around 200,000 Muslims and the suburb of Dearborn has one of the highest concentrations of Arab-Americans in the United States. Businesses here post Arabic signs, most restaurants serve Halal meat, and Arabs are prominent in local politics.
But five years after the terrorist attacks of September 11, it seems like a new reason for anxiety and alienation comes every week. Most recently, it was Pope Benedict XVI's remarks linking Islam to violence.
Before that was President George W. Bush's use of the term Islamofacists. And then there were the local college students arrested as terrorists because they bought pre-paid cell phones....or the plot to blow up airliners bound for the US...
"I have to pray real hard when I come to Ramadan, everything is so different now," said Ali Almuna, an Iraqi immigrant who moved to the United States 11 years ago. "The way the people look at us and treat us. There's a lot of discrimination. I've had bad language used toward me, my wife and kids. One day strangers called us terrorists. I didn't say anything, I just thought that was so sad."Oh, I don't know why anyone would call them terrorists. Could it be, perhaps, their so-called 'religion' that promotes violence against kaffirs? Why doesn't he take responsbility and work to reform this cult of hate and oppression?
BEIRUT, Lebanon - An anti-Syrian Christian leader dismissed Hezbollah's claims of victory in its war with Israel as tens of thousands of his supporters rallied Sunday in a show of strength that highlighted Lebanon's sharp divisions.Read the entire story at Yahoo News.
The rally north of Beirut came just two days after a massive gathering
by the rival Shiite Muslim Hezbollah that attracted hundreds of thousands. The two sides have been at sharp odds over the future of the Lebanese government since this summer's Israeli-Hezbollah war.
LGF reader Scott Silverstein writes:The silence of the lefty media is deafening.
From an information science perspective it is as clear evidence of world news media collusion and bias as any.
This is a special report prepared for The Patriot Post by the United States Emergency Preparedness and Response Planning Committee, a counter-terrorism and non-proliferation research group chaired by a member of The Patriot Post's National Advisory Committee, who is Director of the Center for Public Safety Planning: Recommended Action Plan for Mitigating the Consequences of Natural or Attack Catastrophe on Your Family and CommunityRemember, they want to kill us, any way they can. It's your duty to your family to be prepared.
Pandemic Threat overview and preparedness.
WMD Overview: Descriptions and Instructions - A detailed overview of what to do in case of a biological, chemical or nuclear terrorist attack.
The following sections give thorough analyses on the various types of WMD that may be used in a terrorist attack.
WMD Detail: Chemical
WMD Detail: Biological
WMD Detail: Radiological
WMD Detail: Electromagnetic Pulse
Emergency Contacts - Everything from the FBI and FEMA to the EPA, right here at your fingertips.
Preparedness Links - A reference guide for other helpful links in preparedness.
Citizens' Preparedness Guide (PDF) - A guide prepared by the Department of Justice, USA Freedom Corps and the National Crime Prevention Council. It includes information on what to do in an evacuation, at the airport, at work, home or place of worship, as well as other generally useful plans. You will need Adobe Acrobat reader to open this PDF file.
Family Preparedness Guide (PDF) - Disaster can strike quickly and without warning. It can force you to evacuate your neighborhood or confine you to your home. What would you do if basic services -- water, gas, electricity or telephones -- were cut off? This guide will give you the tools to deal with fire, flood, winter storm, tornado, hurricane or earthquake.
Personal Preparedness Guide - A general guide including information on detection devices, gas masks, air filters, neighborhood watch groups and prepared traveling.
Shelter-in-Place - Helpful hints for taking immediate shelter wherever you are -- at home, work, school or in the car.
Emergency Preparedness Checklist (PDF) - A checklist for items to have and do in case of emergency.
Emergency Kit (PDF) - Items you'll want in your own emergency kit.
Family Disaster Supplies Kit - A comprehensive listing of basic items you'll need in case of long term confinement in your home.
Food and Water in an Emergency (PDF) - A guide for the storage and use of emergency food and water.
Personal Workplace Disaster Supplies Kit (PDF) - A good list of items you would need if confined at work overnight or longer.
Wallet Personal Information Sheet (PDF) - A blank list for your own emergency contact information to be kept by each member of the family.
Document location: http://PatriotPost.US/useprpc/default.asp
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The operators of truck driving schools in Kansas City and southern Missouri conspired to help more than 70 Somali and Bosnian nationals illegally obtain commercial driver's licenses, federal prosecutors alleged Thursday.
Many of those students went on to obtain certification to haul hazardous materials on the nation's highways, authorities said in announcing the 62-count grand jury indictment charging 15 defendants with mail fraud, making a false writing and illegally causing identification documents to be produced...
Information obtained by the Associated Press under Missouri's open records law indicated that more than 300 of about 520 people who did not train at the school but took the test there between May 2004 and December 2005 had names that could be Middle Eastern in origin.
The defendants included Ernest A. "Mustafa" White, 49, of Kansas City, who owned the Muslim Brothers and Sisters trucking company in Kansas City, Kan., and Howard E. Schneider, 39, of Overland Park, owner of H.E. Schneider Trucking Company and co-operator of Muslim Brothers, according to officials.
Prosecutors said the other defendants named in the indictment generally helped in the conspiracy by driving students to West Plains for testing or helping to arrange the fake tests. Those other defendants are:
Hiram C. Oliver, 33, Raytown; Osman Abdullahi, 30, a Somali citizen living in San Diego; Elias Mohamed, 25, Ahmed Muhidin Sharif, 27, Abdulfatah Osman Farah, 24, Abdirizak Abdi Mohamed, age unknown, and Yusuf Kalmole, 34, all citizens of Somalia living in Kansas City; Abdiwahab Mohamud Mohamed, 37, a Somali citizen living in Minneapolis; Adil Majlovic, 19, and Mersud Kajtazovic, 31, both citizens of Bosnia living in Kansas City; and Samir Hasanovic, 22, of Arnold, Mo.
FBI agent Mark Wagoner said White converted to Islam while in prison.Read the complete story here.
Nope, not this time. Bioterrorism is a possibility and we should all be vigilant, but the contamination of spinach with pathogenic E. coli was not the work of terrorists. It was basically because people want "organic" raw food.
The rationale for buying organic food is that it is produced without chemical fertilizers. So that means that it is fertilized with manure. Cows, pigs, deer, sheep, horses and chickens may be infected with E. coli O157:H7 and not become ill. The manure may be used to fertilize food that is organically grown. Currently 1 woman died and 109 people have been hospitalized with hemolytic ureic syndrome (HUS) from eating organically grown spinach infected with E. coli O157:H7. E. coli O157:H7 has formerly been found on all types of produce including strawberries, lettuce and bean sprouts. Unpasturized fruit juices were the source of a large E. coli O157:H7 outbreak in 1996.
I personally do not buy organically grown food. If you feel that buying it will protect you from chemical fertilizers, then make sure that you thoroughly scrub, wash and rinse the fruits and vegetables. To be safe you should cook them as well. The bacteria can live not only on the leaves but also inside the leaves, stems and fruit so washing the outside is not sufficient.
The problem with bagged "pre-washed" packaged spinach and salads is that people tend to eat it right out of the bag without washing it again. That is not healthy. Raw food should be thoroughly washed, not just rinsed. Cooking does kill most pathogens.
For some people, especially young children, the elderly, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems, foodborne illness can be very dangerous.
Foodborne illnesses are more common that most people think. Use a brush to scrub produce with firm or rough surfaces, such as oranges, cantaloupes, potatoes and carrots. You should always soak raw fruits and vegetables in chlorinated tap water for a few minutes and rub them to get them clean. Then rinse them under running tap water before you prepare and eat them . Any bacteria left-over will be killed by cooking.
At this time, Natural Selection Foods, LLC, of San Juan Bautista, California, is recalling all of its products that contain spinach in all the brands they pack with “Best if Used by Dates” of August 17, 2006 through October 1, 2006. The products were distributed to about 20 states and Mexico.
Natural Selection Foods, LLC brands include: Natural Selection Foods, Pride of San Juan, Earthbound Farm, Bellissima, Dole, Rave Spinach, Emeril, Sysco, O Organic, Fresh Point, River Ranch, Superior, Nature’s Basket, Pro-Mark, Compliments, Trader Joe’s, Ready Pac, Jansal Valley, Cheney Brothers, Coastline, D’Arrigo Brothers, Green Harvest, Mann, Mills Family Farm, Pro*Act, Premium Fresh, Snoboy, The Farmer’s Market, Tanimura & Antle, President’s Choice, Cross Valley, and Riverside Farms. These products include spinach and any salad with spinach in a blend, both retail and food service products. Products that do not contain spinach are not part of this recall.
Another company, River Ranch, of California, is currently recalling its spring mix containing spinach. River Ranch obtained bulk spring mix containing spinach from Natural Selections. The following brands are involved: Farmers Market, Hy Vee, Fresh and Easy.In the past, contaminated seeds, irrigation water, runoff from feed lots and flooding have contributed to E. coli outbreaks traced to alfalfa sprouts, lettuce, spinach, parsley, and other fresh produce. E. coli O157:H7 is also found in meat. Meat must be horoughly cooked.
It takes about 2 to 8 days for a person to show signs of infection which include:
- bloody diarrhea
- nausea and vomiting
- severe abdominal cramps
- fever
Healthy adults infected with E. coli O157:H7 may recover within 5 to 10 days without treatment. The higher risk is for those with a compromised immune system, children and older adults. A serious complication is called hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). It leads to destruction of the red blood cells and kidney failure. About 2%-7% of infections lead to this complication. Even with the patient receiving intensive care, the death rate from hemolytic uremic syndrome can be about 3%-5%.
The very infectious E. coli -- type O157:H7 may also be antibiotic resistant. During the current epidemic of E.coli O157:H7 found in spinach an 85-year-old woman died in Wisconsin and 109 people have been hospitalized.
The CDC estimates that about 73,000 cases of E.coli related illness occur each year. And 76 million cases of other foodborne illness. As a direct result of pathogenic E. coli infections and its complications, every year 2,100 Americans are hospitalized, and 61 people die. A recent study estimated the annual cost of E. coli O157:H7 illnesses to be $405 million (in 2003 dollars). Those costs that contributed to this estimate included $370 million for premature deaths, $30 million for medical care, and $5 million for lost productivity.
The virulence of E. coli O157:H7 is a result of its ability to produce Shiga-like toxins, or verotoxins. Shiga-like toxins inhibit protein synthesis in eukaryotic cells and play a role in hemorrhagic colitis and hemolytic uremic syndrome by causing damage to ndothelial cells in the kidneys, pancreas, brain, and other organs, thus inhibiting those organs’ ability to function.
The primary mode of transmission of E. coli at agricultural fairs, petting zoos, and farm visits was previously thought to be fecal-oral – that is, by ingestion of bacteria-laden feces via contaminated food or water, or transfer by hand to mouth following contact with contaminated surfaces or animals. Conclusions reached by investigators in several recent fair-associated outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7 suggest that ingestion or perhaps even inhalation of contaminated dust particles may be an additional cause of E. coli infection among fairgoers and visitors to petting zoos.
Mark my words; until we can tell the dead of September 11th there are warm and glassy shores around seas of ash to mark our sorrow for their passing, we shall always be shamed to know that we have not yet responded enough in kind. We will hold our manhood cheap before the images of couples clinging to each other in a final plummet to oblivion until the day comes when we can look serenely upon such images and know that as horrible as these images are, they have been answered. They have been answered with visions of destruction and death so unimagineable that, like the vanquished japanese, the idea of violence will not break the barrier of a man's teeth while living memory remains.
But we do none of these things. Instead, we make memorials, and celebrate victims, and wonder why we didn't kill the bad guys when we had them in our sights. We do these things while our enemies plot our slaughter, and our dead haunt us in mute injury that we have not avenged them, or even earnestly defended ourselves.
It's time to prove to our dead, each other, and ourselves that we are still worth a damn. It's time to sharpen those bayonets, let slip our dogs of war, and give no quarter until the Koran is only quoted in Hell!
Read the entire post here.
Semper Fi, Do or Die. As the jarheads say, kill 'em all and let Gawd sort it out.
No kidding.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a known supporter of jihadism and a front group for financing terrorism, puts the blame squarely on the Internet and talk radio for anti-Islamic sentiment and what it claims are harassment and violence directed at Muslims.
Article at Michelle Malkin's website revisits the assertion by other terrorism researchers, suggesting Mohammed Atta and the other hijackers mailed the anthrax letters prior to their deadly flights.Five years ago today, someone--still unknown--sent lettersRead the entire article at Michelle Malkin's website.
laced with anthrax to the NYPost and NBC News. Two more letters, postmarked
October 9, 2001, were sent to Sens. Tom Daschle and Pat Leahy with even more
refined ("weaponized") anthrax:
The CDC mapped the mail flow of anthrax letters, which included several more inferred from infection patterns uncovered by investigators:
In all 22 people were infected. Five were killed:
- Bob Stevens, 63, picture editor of the Sun newspaper, died on 5 October in Boca Raton, Florida. Anthrax spores were found on his computer keyboard
- Thomas Morris Jr, 55, Washington, worked at the Brentwood office which handled an anthrax-laced letter sent to Senator Tom Daschle
- Joseph Curseen, 47, worked at the same office
- Kathy Nguyen, 61, worked in a New York hospital
- Ottilie Lundgren, 94, lived in a rural community in Connecticut. Her case and that of Ms Nguyen are the only ones that have not been traced to tainted mail
These measures may seem a little extreme, but we're fighting for the survival of our very culture.
I’m foaming at the mouth because I’m fed up with morons on the
left trying to derail our Western society because of their “white guilt.”
We need my kind of fervor to fight these f*ckwads. We need the kind of media we had in WWII — propaganda SUPPORTING American society, not against everything it stood for — Christianity, Morality, all that is good. [don’t even start on the ’separation of church and state’ issue. Our country was founded on christian principals of morality, that there is a higher power to answer to. Why do you think our money says ‘In God we trust?’]
Try reading the Qu’ran, if you think I’m a nutcase.
Muhammed had a six-year old wife he obtained by killing her father. Homosexuality is common among men with boys in islamic culture, then outlawed beyond, until they get their 4 wives. The Qu’ran recommends wife beating to keep them in line.
Try reading something besides the NY Times or listening to something besides NPR to get your info. I’ve read several books lately that have enlightened me to the REAL depth of the problem with islam:
“The Third Terrorist” by Jayna Davis. She was an Oklahoma City TV reporter at the time of the bombings of the federal building there, and has extensive proof that Terry Nichols and Timothy McVeigh were the “lily white puppets” of a group of Iraqi nationals who emigrated there after the first gulf war. McVeigh made several trips to the Phillipines (al-Queda east HQ)for training, and it’s pretty obvious he wasn’t smart enough to build the bomb himself.
“Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives have Penetrated Washington” by Paul Sperry. Sperry is a respected journalist with years of experience covering DC politics. Read the spine-chilling detail of how CAIR and other muslim American groups are trying to convert us to an islamic state.
“The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades)” by Robert Spencer. Spencer runs a website, jihadwatch.org, and has studied religion and arabic extensively throughout his life. As a matter of fact, he was one of the people mentioned in Adam Gadahn’s ‘join me in islam’ video a couple weeks ago. CAIR and other similar groups continually REFUSE to debate him about islam.
Expect more threats and murder until he apologizes also. "Orthodox Church Archbishop attacks 'Islamic fanatism,'" from AND, with thanks to Tommy:Johannesburg (AND) In yet another furor to grip the Christian community, the head of the Orthodox Church of Greece has joined the Pope controversy by attacking what he calls Islamic fanaticism in Africa. In a scathing attack, barely 48 hours after a Somali Islamic cleric called for Muslims to kill the Pope for his Tuesday utterances, Archbishop Christodoulos told a sermon in Athens that Christians in Africa were suffering at the hands of ‘fanatic Islamists'.
"Many Christians on the Black Continent (Africa) suffer from fanatic Islamists. The example of Roman Catholic monks who were slaughtered last year... because they wore the cross and believed in our crucified Lord is still recent,” said Christodoulos.
The Archbishop’s remarks come as the Muslim world is seething with anger over Pope Benedict XVI’s quoting of a 14th-century Byzantine emperor who said innovations introduced by the Prophet Mohammed (the Islamic supreme leader) were "evil and inhuman".
The Pope has already been forced in submitting that he was "deeply sorry" after his remarks sparked outrage in the Muslim world, with Morocco calling back its envoy and Turkey casting doubts of Benedict’s scheduled visit in November – the first to a Muslim country.
Pope Benedict must issue a "deep and persuasive" apology for quotes used during a speech this week that described Islam as "evil and inhuman", The New York Times said in an editorial on Saturday.
"The world listens carefully to the words of any pope. And it is tragic and dangerous when one sows pain, either deliberately or carelessly," the Times said.
"He needs to offer a deep and persuasive apology, demonstrating that words can also heal," it added.
In a speech in Germany on Tuesday, the Pope quoted the 14th century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus, who said: "Show me just what Mohammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."
Muslims worldwide have reacted angrily to Benedict's choice of quote and many have said he should apologize to dispel the impression he had joined a campaign against Islam.
Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi defended the Pope's lecture and said he did not mean to offend Muslims.
The Times editorial said this was not the first time Benedict has fomented discord between Christians and Muslims.
It cited a 2004 comment, when he was the Vatican's top theologian, against Turkey's joining the European Union because as a Muslim country, it was "in permanent contrast to Europe."
"A doctrinal conservative, his greatest fear appears to be the loss of a uniform Catholic identity, not exactly the best jumping-off point for tolerance or interfaith dialogue," the editorial said.
From WorldNetDaily, Pat Boone's article Saturday 9/16/06 is right on: we should keep viewing the images of the destruction of the twin WTC towers repeatedly until we defeat the very evil enemy that brought them down:"If you keep pickin' at it, it'll never heal."
We've all heard that one, right? And when it comes to a physical wound, like a scab, it's true. Even when it comes to an emotional or psychic wound, it can be true.
But failing to dress and treat a physical wound – or burying and sublimating an emotional wound, instead of examining and dealing with it – can interfere with complete and proper healing, as well.
As we soberly contemplate the past five years since Sept. 11, 2001, there have been those, even in the usually sensation-exploitive media, who have felt we shouldn't look at the horrific images that bombarded us on those terrible days. Out of sensitivity for the sorrow of those who lost loved ones, they've encouraged us to trust our memories and forego replays of the planes plowing into the Twin Towers, the trapped and desperate people leaping from upper floor windows, the ghastly imploding of the buildings, all the many other horrors playing out live before our eyes.
