NEWSFEBRUARY 26, 2021
Plumbers are desperately needed in the state where countless citizens still have burst or leaking pipes
Isaiah Pinnock (L) and Andrew Mitchell (R)/(Image source: CBS News video screenshot)
Saturday, February 27, 2021
Is the Pope Catholic is no longer a retort but a serious question
Vatican Betrays Virgin Mary for Prophet Muhammad
The same folks to bring you “Abrahamism”—the idea that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are intricately connected—have narrowed their sights on promoting Mary, the mother of Christ, as “a Jewish, Christian and Muslim woman,” in the words of Catholic priest Fr. Gian Matteo of the Pontifical International Marian Academy. In a ten-week webinar series titled “Mary, a model for faith and life for Christianity and Islam,” the academy will seek to present Mary as a bridge between the two religions.
This may be easier said than done — at least for those still interested in facts. For starters, the claim that Mary was a “Jewish, Christian and Muslim woman” is only two-thirds true: yes, she was a Jew by race and background; and yes, she was a Christian in that she literally birthed Christ(ianity); but she was most certainly not a Muslim — a term and religion that came into being 600 years after Mary died.
Worse, far from being the Eternal Virgin, as she is for 1.5 billion Christians of the Catholic and Orthodox variety, Islam presents Mary, the Mother of Christ, as “married” to and “copulating” with Muhammad in paradise — a depiction that would seem to sever rather than build “bridges.”
In a hadith that was deemed reliable enough to be included in the renowned Ibn Kathir’s corpus, Muhammad declared that “Allah will wed me in paradise to Mary, Daughter of Imran,” whom Muslims identify with Jesus’s mother. (Note: The Arabic word for “marriage” (نكاح, or nikah, denotes “legal sexual relations,” connotes the “F” word, and is wholly devoid of Western, “romantic,” or Platonic connotations.)
Nor is this just some random, obscure hadith. None other than Dr. Salem Abdul Galil — previously deputy minister of Egypt’s religious endowments for preaching — affirmed its canonicity in 2017 during a live televised Arabic-language program. Among other biblical women (Moses’s sister and Pharaoh’s wife), “our prophet Muhammad — prayers and be upon him — will be married to Mary in paradise,” Galil said.
If few Christians today know about this Islamic claim, medieval Christians living in Muslim-occupied nations were certainly aware of it. There, Muslims regularly threw this fantasy in the face of Catholic and Orthodox Christians who venerated Mary as the “Eternal Virgin.” Thus, Eulogius of Cordoba, an indigenous Christian of Muslim-occupied Spain, once wrote, “I will not repeat the sacrilege which that impure dog [Muhammad] dared proffer about the Blessed Virgin, Queen of the World, holy mother of our venerable Lord and Savior. He claimed that in the next world he would deflower her.”
As usual, it was Eulogius’s offensive words about Muhammad — and not the latter’s offensive words about Mary and any number of other things — that had dire consequences: He, as well as many other Spanish Christians vociferously critical of Muhammad, were found guilty of speaking against Islam and publicly tortured and executed in “Golden Age” Cordoba in 859.
One expects that all of these “inconvenient” facts will be quietly passed over during the Pontifical International Marian Academy’s webinars. And if they are raised, no doubt Christians will somehow take the blame, as almost always happens in academic settings. As one example, after quoting Eulogius’s aforementioned lament against Muhammad’s claim of being married to Mary, John V. Tolan, a professor and member of Academia Europaea, denounced it as an “outrageous claim” of Eulogius’s own “invention.” He then railed against the martyr — not against his murderers or their prophet:
Eulogius fabricates lies designed to shock his Christian reader. This way, even those elements of Islam that resemble Christianity (such as reverence of Jesus and his virgin mother) are deformed and blackened, so as to prevent the Christian from admiring anything about the Muslim other. The goal is to inspire hatred for the “oppressors[.]” … Eulogius sets out to show that the Muslim is not a friend but a potential rapist of Christ’s virgins. (Saracens: Islam in the Medieval European Imagination, p.93)
As already seen, however, it is Muhammad himself — not any “Christian polemicist” — who “fabricates lies designed to shock,” namely that Mary will be his eternal concubine.
This, incidentally, is the main problem the purveyors of Abrahamism fail to acknowledge: Islam does not treat biblical characters the way Christianity does.
Christians accept the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament, as it is. They do not add, take away, or distort the accounts of the patriarchs that Jews also rely on. Conversely, while also relying on the figures of the Old and New Testaments — primarily for the weight of antiquity and authority attached to their names — Islam completely recasts them with different attributes that reaffirm Muhammad’s religion as the one true and final “revelation,” as opposed to Judaism and Christianity, whose biblical accounts on these figures are then seen as “distorted” because they are different from Islam’s later revisions.
Far from creating “commonalities,” it should be clear that such appropriation creates conflict. By way of analogy, imagine that you have a grandfather whom you are particularly fond of, and out of the blue, a stranger who never even met your grandfather says: “Hey, that’s my grandfather!” Then — lest you think this stranger is somehow trying to become your friend — he adds: “And everything you thought you knew about grandpa is wrong! Only I have his true life story.”
Would that create a “bridge” between you and this stranger trying to appropriate and recast the image of your grandfather?
Dosy Doe
WaPo: “Logistical” Problems Behind Vaccination Stall Last Two Weeks; UPDATE: Why Are Stockpiles Growing While Delivery Rates Decline?
Posted at 10:49 am on February 26, 2021
What vaccination stall, readers might ask? It’s been very apparent here in Minnesota, where appointment availability in participating pharmacies dried up early last week before the worst of the storm hit, and have yet to materialize almost a week after it passed. I’ve mentioned it on Twitter the last few days; the only participating pharmacy still scheduling vaccinations is mainly-rural ThriftyWhite.
SEE ALSO: Triggered media respond to Biden’s whiff on Khashoggi
The media, however, has seemed curiously incurious about the lack of supply. Today the Washington Post finally reports that “logistical” problems kept pharmacies and states from getting their planned distributions, and that might continue into next week:
Friday, February 26, 2021
Was Trump policy correct then?
Biden and Jen Psaki are branded hypocrites after their old tweets slamming Trump's Middle East air strikes resurface following US bombing raid on Syria that 'killed 22'
- Biden and his press chief attacked Trump's military action in the Middle East
- April 2017, Psaki wrote: 'Assad is brutal dictator. But Syria is a sovereign country'
- Biden, in June 2019, called Trump 'erratic' and 'impulsive' over tensions with Iran
- 'No president should order a military strike without fully understanding the consequences,' he said. Trump, in fact, pulled out of those air strikes
Thursday, February 25, 2021
Crime in San Francisco under the far left District Attorney Chesa Boudin. Who needs prisons when you can let thugs run free
How bad is it?
The station said city crime data shows that burglaries spiked 222%, robberies are up 74%, and car thefts increased 31% in the two districts that cover Golden Gate Park compared with the same period last year.
However, larceny thefts — which include smash-and-grabs and shoplifting — are down 44%, police told KPIX, noting the reason presumably is fewer tourists parking their cars in the city and many stores having been closed due to the pandemic.
One area resident told the station he frequently walks in the park and sees smashed glass on the ground from broken-into vehicles.
Lies and dogma: Trayvon Martin was not shot by police. How many black children are shot by Black street thugs? Crickets, Do I hear crickets?
- Fatima Morrell is associate superintendent for Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Initiatives at Buffalo public schools in New York
- Morrell has introduced a new curriculum, lesson plans and teacher training
- The teachers are encouraged to be more 'woke' in their efforts at 'antiracism'
- Morrell suggests teaching kindergarten classes about children killed by police
- Videos featuring Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice and others tell their stories
- Older pupils learn 'all white people play a part in perpetuating systemic racism'
- A whistleblower told City Journal about the news lesson plans
- Morrell is yet to comment on the controversial new teaching program
A public school system in New York has introduced a new curriculum to teach that 'all white people play a part in perpetuating systemic racism', and show kindergarten classes videos of black children shot and killed by police, instructing them about the dangers of police brutality.
Buffalo's schools are expected to follow lesson plans devised by Fatima Morrell, the associate superintendent for Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Initiatives.
Morrell's lesson plans, obtained by City Journal, teach pupils and their teachers how to be, in her words, more 'woke.'
Fatima Morrell, the associate superintendent for Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Initiatives, has created a new curriculum and series of lesson plans for Buffalo public schools
The youngest pupils read a series of texts under the heading 'Woke Kindergarten', which are described as being 'digital culturally responsive and sustaining easy reader books'.
Congress demands answers on Biden team's Iran talks during Trump's term
Congress demands answers on Biden team's Iran talks during Trump's term
Lawmakers say meetings undercut Trump policies
Top Republicans in Congress called on the State Department on Tuesday to immediately explain why key Obama-era diplomats now serving in the Biden administration held back-channel talks with Iran during the Trump years, saying it’s crucial that the public learn more about Democrats’ closed-door shadow diplomacy with Tehran.
The growing firestorm on Capitol Hill was sparked after a Washington Times report this week detailed the efforts of powerful players — such as current State Department Iran envoy Robert Malley and climate change envoy John F. Kerry, both of whom played leading roles in crafting an Obama-era nuclear deal with Tehran — to engage directly with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif over the past four years.
Numerous high-level intelligence and national security sources have described the meetings as an effort to undercut President Trump’s hard-line policies, and one Republican lawmaker went further Tuesday by casting the discussions as a “serious betrayal of the American people.”
But Karim Lebhour, a spokesperson for the International Crisis Group think tank, which Mr. Malley was leading at the time of his numerous meetings with Mr. Zarif, vehemently disputed that characterization. He told The Times that Mr. Malley, who served as a Middle East adviser to the Obama White House before joining the Crisis Group, made no promises to Mr. Zarif and that the meetings were “not intended to undermine any administration.”
The Crisis Group’s mandate, he said, is to meet with a host of nations, even those adversarial toward the United States.
Still, some Republicans believe the Biden administration is on the verge of making major concessions to the Islamic republic as it pushes to bring the U.S. back into the multilateral 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear pact, which Mr. Trump exited in 2018. They say that truly understanding the Biden administration’s Iran strategy requires finding out exactly what Mr. Malley and other leading liberals told Mr. Zarif behind the scenes.
“I hope Mr. Malley and other senior administration officials who engaged with Zarif as private citizens take the good-faith step of clarifying their engagement to members of Congress. Understanding these discussions better will help contextualize the administration’s current Iran strategy,” said Rep. Michael T. McCaul of Texas, the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
“As I’ve said, I have concerns about the administration’s initial moves, which included making concessions to Iran,” he said. “I hope Mr. Malley and others working behind the scenes on Iran nuclear negotiations choose to conduct bipartisan engagements with the Hill to explain their thinking as soon as possible.”
Mr. Lebhour said he did not know the specifics of what was discussed behind closed doors during the Trump years, but he stressed that Mr. Malley and Mr. Zarif did not have one-on-one meetings,and that others were always in the room.
A U.S. official, meanwhile, refused to address the questions involving Mr. Zarif’s meetings with Mr. Malley, Mr. Kerry and others.
“We categorically reject baseless smears against dedicated public servants,” the official told The Times earlier this month.
The wildly different views of Democrats’ meetings with Mr. Zarif serve as a backdrop for the Biden administration’s push for diplomatic engagement with Iran.
Even as Iran restricts the access of international inspectors to its nuclear facilities and stands accused of backing a string of recent rocket attacks against American personnel in Iraq, the White House has extended an olive branch. The State Department said last week that the U.S. would accept an invitation from the so-called P5+1 — the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, plus Germany — to meet with Iran in the hopes of resurrecting the 2015 Obama-era deal or striking a new, even better agreement.
As the State Department’s Iran envoy, Mr. Malley would play a central role in those talks.
‘It’s un-American’
Republican lawmakers say the meetings between Mr. Zarif and Democratic diplomats are especially troubling because, at the time they took place, Iran was plotting to kill American troops stationed across the Middle East. Democrats also routinely slammed top Trump administration figures for conducting private, freelance diplomacy with Russia before Mr. Trumpofficially took office.
“I’d certainly like to see some answers from the Biden administration after these disturbing reports,” said Rep. Mark Green, Tennessee Republican and member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
“It’s pretty concerning to think that Biden officials were actively working to undermine the policies of the United States government by back-channeling with one of America’s greatest enemies and the leading state sponsor of terrorism, all while that regime was plotting to kill my brothers and sisters in uniform,” he told The Times on Tuesday. “If true, that’s a serious betrayal of the American people.”
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News on Monday night that the Democrats essentially tried to bypass the will of American voters, who chose Mr. Trump in 2016 after a campaign in which the Republican made crystal-clear his intention to rip up the Iran nuclear deal.
“It’s un-American. It’s very troubling. It’s not the right thing to do,” Mr. Pompeo said. “They lost an election, and they should have just gotten off the stage. They chose not to do that and instead tried to undermine what the American people had put forward as America’s policy.”
Mr. Lebhour, the Crisis Group spokesperson, pushed back hard against those criticisms. He said people like Mr. Malley can play deeply valuable roles in civil society by engaging with countries such as Iran.
“You don’t refuse a meeting with a major country that has a role in some conflicts in the Middle East,” he said. “You need to talk to all parties. … Sometimes government cannot do that, and that’s fine.”
Mr. Lebhour said that in speaking with the Iranians, Mr. Malleywas not acting as a future diplomat who may later be back in a position to shape U.S. policy.
“How could he know he would one day be part of the Biden administration?” Mr. Lebhour said.
Mr. Kerry, who also continued to meet with Mr. Zarif multiple times during Mr. Trump’s term, has defended his outreach as well. In 2018, the former secretary of state told radio host Hugh Hewitt that he was trying to find out “what Iran might be willing to do in order to change the dynamic in the Middle East for the better.”
Mr. Kerry, Mr. Malley and other Obama-era diplomats have long fended off criticism that the JCPOA was too limited in scope.
The deal put restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of harsh economic and financial sanctions. But it did not address Iran’s financial support for terrorist groups Hamas or Hezbollah, nor did it deal with Iran-backed proxy groups in the Middle East that U.S. officials say routinely target American military forces in neighboring Iraq.
Top Biden administration officials have said that a future deal may include issues beyond Iran’s nuclear program, including the country’s support for terrorism.
Since the U.S. left the JCPOA, Iran has taken calibrated steps to exceed many of the deal’s restrictions. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said this week that Iran may soon enrich uranium up to 60% — far beyond the 3.67% threshold laid out in the agreement and well past the 20% mark Iran previously pursued.
Enriching uranium to 60% would put Iran just a few technical steps away from weapons-grade levels.
Iran on Tuesday also officially imposed restrictions on International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors and will no longer share surveillance footage from its nuclear facilities.
“We never gave them live video, but [recordings] were given daily and weekly,” Mr. Zarif said of the inspectors’ previous access to information recorded by camera monitors. “The tape recording of our [nuclear] program will be kept in Iran.”
In a statement Tuesday, U.N. inspectors said they were “deeply concerned” upon learning that Iran has secretly kept undeclared nuclear material in an unknown location. They said the Iranian government is violating “many limits” set by the 2015 deal.
IAEA officials noted that Iran over the weekend also agreed to a three-month probation period that modifies some of the new restrictions, but Britain, France and Germany — known as the E3 in diplomatic dealings with Iran — still criticized “the dangerous nature” of Tehran’s move.
“It will significantly constrain the IAEA’s access to sites and to safeguards-relevant information,” the three European nations said in a statement.
Meanwhile, there is speculation in Washington and across the Middle East that Iran itself or one of its proxy militias is responsible for a series of recent rocket attacks in Iraq, including an assault on a military base last week that killed a contractor working with U.S. forces, wounded an American service member and injured several others.
The Biden administration has yet to retaliate for the strike, saying it is still investigating who is responsible. Pentagon officials said Tuesday that Iraq has turned down a U.S. offer to help with the investigation into the deadly attack.
“They made it very clear to [Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin] that they’re taking this seriously and they want the chance to investigate it for themselves. We’re going to let them do that,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters. “The secretary doesn’t have any reservations about their ability to conduct a proper investigation.
“This has nothing to do with any diplomatic efforts that may or may not be happening” between the U.S. and Iran, Mr. Kirby said.
⦁ Mike Glenn contributed to this report.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
