Family Security Matters Briefings - Week of 7/7/08

The Lexington Project - America's Declaration of Independence from Middle East Oil
By KT McFarland

Today our economic destiny is controlled by a few oil producing countries oceans away. They can manipulate the markets and charge whatever they want for an essential commodity that we can't live without. They use some of their excess profits to invest in terrorists and weapons and regimes, which hate us. They could bring us to our knees economically within a matter of weeks if they choose to. So what do we do? Same thing we did July 4, 1776 - declare our Independence! It's time to set America free of its addiction to foreign oil. It's time to unleash the talents of American inventors and entrepreneurs to develop clean and renewable alternatives to Middle East oil. It's time to set significant but realistic conservation goals and let the free market figure out how best to meet them. It's time to allow American industry to find domestic sources of oil and natural gas. And with gas at four bucks a gallon, and going up, we don't have a minute to waste. [more...]

Islamism and the So-called 'Muslim Voting Bloc': Shades of Theocracy
By M. Zuhdi Jasser

The modus operandi for the political empowerment of Islamists in America is in full public display during every election cycle. The sad part is few realize how central "Islamic politics" is to the driving force of transnational Islamism and its threat to American security. The incessant attempts by American Islamist groups (like the MAS, CAIR, MPAC, ISNA, ICNA to name a few) to collectivize Muslims in the body politic - from voter registrations to their ideological grievance mill - point to their goals. What better way to push forth a quasi-theocratic political agenda than to deceive the Muslim faithful into believing that their political survival as a minority in America depends upon the mixture of their faith identity with their political identity? These same Islamists spread the ideology of victimization and identity politics among any Muslims who will listen while they internally promote political Islam and Islamist statecraft within the ummah (Muslim community). They use their efforts at Muslim electoral involvement to exploit the spiritual ummah for political purposes. Most importantly, many in the mainstream media (MSM) and government turn to them to purportedly speak for the American Muslim population, even though they have no mandate or significant membership to do so. [more...]

Beyond Mugabe's Madness
By J. Peter Pham, PhD

Even by the ridiculously low procedural standards of Africa's club of presidents-for-life, last Friday's poll in Zimbabwe was a truly pathetic exercise. As Barry Bearak, the Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times correspondent noted Saturday in his dispatch, the voters faced a peculiar choice: "cast their ballots for President Robert Mugabe, the only candidate left in the presidential runoff, or be beaten up and perhaps killed." In a devilish twist on conventional get-out-the-vote efforts, thousands of voters across the southern African country were kidnapped at dusk by armed thugs from the ruling Zimbabwe Africa National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) and forced to attend campaign rallies, known as pungwe ("all-night vigil") sessions, and made to chant pro-Mugabe slogans and sing the despot's praises until dawn when they were led off to vote "correctly." The recalcitrant were beaten up or worse. Even Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) who won the first round in the presidential election in March only to drop out of the race less than a week before the second round after the regime-directed campaign of violence which I documented in last week's column, had to counsel his supporters, "If possible we ask you not to vote today, but if you must vote for Mr. Mugabe because of threats on your life today, then do so." [more...]

Are British Muslims Treated Like Jews in 1930s Germany?
By Adrian Morgan

On Jews, Muslims and Hitler

Yesterday - Monday July 7, 2008 - was the third anniversary of the suicide bombings on London Transport. Mohammed Sidique Khan, Shehzad Tanweer and Jermaine Lindsay blew themselves up on underground trains, while Hasib Hossain boarded a Number 30 bus and detonated his rucksack in Tavistock Square. Fifty-two people were killed and hundreds were injured. On British television, a documentary was broadcast on Channel 4, entitled "It Shouldn't Happen To a Muslim." This was produced by Peter Oborne, and it asserted that Muslims have become demonized in British society. In an article in the Independent newspaper, Peter Oborne argued that Islamophobia is the new "British disease." He follows the line that Muslims are being oppressed, and states that "Surveys show Muslims have the highest rate of unemployment, the poorest health, the most disability and fewest educational qualifications of any faith group in the country. This means they are vulnerable, rendering them open to ignorant and hostile commentary from mainstream figures." [more...]