Dan Gillerman, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, put the Annapolis gathering this way: “This is the summit ofour hope and their fear. It’s our hope that at long last the Arab world will understand that the Israeli-Palestinian problem is not the core and can be solved, and their fear of Islamic extremism and Iran, which they call the Persian threat. This is what brought them here.
To build a durable peace, it takes a shared agenda, a willingness by moderates to work together to support one another and help each other beat back the extremists.
They are here for a “larger and more important battle for Muslim hearts and minds.”
“The Arabs have come here not because they love the Jews or even the Palestinians,” said an adviser to the Palestinian negotiating team who spoke on condition of anonymity. “They came because they need a strategic alliance with the United States against Iran.”
CYCLE OF PRISON AT STREET LEVEL
Incarceration rates throughout the US remain at a historic high of 750 per 100,000 residents. Each year about 650,000 prisoners are released on parole, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. But parolees return to the same old ways that landed them in trouble earlier.
Corey Taylor returned to Sunnyside in Houston found little has changed. He was a convicted drug dealer, and after his release moved into his grandmother’s. During his first day’s home, Mr. Taylor, 26, got a sharp reminder of the neighbourhood’s chronic problems. “Out of 10 of my partners, only one is doing anything different,” he said, referring to his former drug-dealing companions. Last year, 32,585 prisoners were released on state parole in Texas alone.
PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES KEEP BASHING MUSLIMS
Mit Romney has a history of singling out Islam and Muslims. In 2005, he advocated wiretapping U.S. mosques. Earlier this year, he released a campaign ad in Iowa entitled “Jihad,” which legitimised claims by terrorists that they are fighting on behalf of Islam. One cannot miss to note a growing movement within Congress that is arguably anti-Muslim. Back in January, Sue Myrick, Republican Congresswoman from North Carolina, formed the “Anti-Terrorism Caucus” in the House of Representatives. The Caucus originally had 67 members and has apparently now grown to 118. If you want to see why Americans ought to be deeply concerned by this development, please read the interview Congresswoman Myrick gave to Investor’s Business Daily. The interview was posted on IBD’s website last week. Here is one exchange:
“IBD: Many Islamists are well-spoken, and seem skilled at manipulating not only our media but our laws. If they can use our constitutional freedoms against us to block due scrutiny, what chance do we have of marginalising them?
Myrick: Over the last 25 years, there has been a concerted effort on the part of radical Islamists to infiltrate our major institutions in America. They have done that by funding professors’ projects in our colleges and universities. Then, they influence what is taught by making the programme dependent on their yearly donations. Several classes have graduated and are now in the media, the judicial system, teaching in our schools and colleges, various branches of our government, even in our military.”
Myrick goes on to talk about how Jihadists wish to impose Shari’ah law in the U.S. “Unchallenged,” she says, “it will happen.” The paranoia in this interview is pretty frightening. If the interview reflects the thinking of a majority of the Anti-Terrorism Caucus, there is cause for real concern.
MUSLIM GIRLS FIT IN
To Muslim Girls, Scouts Offer a Chance to Fit in. Sometimes when Asma Haidara, a 12-year-old Somali immigrant, wants to shop at Target or ride the light-rail system, she puts her Girl Scout sash over her everyday clothes, usually a long skirt over pants as well as a headscarf. She has discovered that the trademark green sash – with its American flag, troop number (3009) and colourful merit badges – reduces the number of glowering looks she draws from people otherwise bothered by her traditional Muslim dress.
Scattered Muslim communities across the US are forming Girl Scout troops as a sort of assimilation tool to help girls who often feel alienated from the mainstream culture, and to give Muslims a neighbourly aura. Muslim Boy Scout troops are organized with the same inspiration, but often the leap for girls is greater because many come from conservative cultures that frown upon their participating in public physical activity.