Netanyahu at Auschwitz says prohecies of Ezekiel 37 have been fulfilled
Close Me!

Netanyahu at Auschwitz says prohecies of Ezekiel 37 have been fulfilled

Posted by admin on 2nd f, 2010

This weekend, Lynn and I are in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, where I will be speaking at Break Forth, the largest evangelical Christian conference held in Canada every year. I will be teaching the prophecies of Ezekiel 36-39, the centrality of Israel in God’s plan and purpose for mankind in the last days, the threat of Radical [...]

  • Netanyahu at Auschwitz says prohecies of Ezekiel 37 have been fulfilled

    Netanyahu at Auschwitz says prohecies of Ezekiel 37 have been fulfilled

    Posted by admin on 2nd f, 2010

    This weekend, Lynn and I are in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, where I will be speaking at Break Forth, the largest evangelical Christian conference held in Canada every year. I will be teaching the prophecies of Ezekiel 36-39, the centrality of Israel in God’s plan and purpose for mankind in the last days, the threat of Radical [...]

  • IN THIS ECONOMIC MELTDOWN, WHERE IS STEVE FORBES?

    IN THIS ECONOMIC MELTDOWN, WHERE IS STEVE FORBES?

    Posted by admin on 7th f, 2009

    As I traveled throughout the U.S. on my recent book tour, I kept running into people who would ask me, “Where is Steve Forbes? The economy is melting down. We need his economic expertise right now.”

  • Bible skeptics take note: Babylon is being rebuilt, just as prophesied

    Bible skeptics take note: Babylon is being rebuilt, just as prophesied

    Posted by admin on 29th f, 2009

    Regular readers of this weblog and my books know that Bible prophecy says the ancient city of Babylon, Iraq will be rebuilt and become the greatest center of wealth, commerce and power in the “last days” of history. The books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Revelation are explicit on this subject

Iran and the women’s rights “Expert”

Posted in Iran, articles Israel, middle east | Posted by admin |

Thanks G-d for not making me a Gentile, a Woman or a Slave,” – Judaism’s holiest book, Talmud, Menahoth 43b-44a

I was amused to read some more Zionist propaganda lies about recent Iranian elections with the victory of anti-Zionist Ahmadinejad – in an interview published by the most powerful pro-Israel Jewish think tank, Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) on June 24, 2009 under the heading “Reform and Women Rights Movements Intertwined in Iran”.

The propaganda is based on two Zionist Jewish bigots exposing their self-denial nature – the CFR’s Senior Fellow, Isobel Coleman, projected to be “a leading expert on women’s issues” and her interviewer, CFR Consulting Editor, Bernard Gwertzman. The so-called “leading expert” believes that since a large number of women took part in protests in favour of the West’s hoax of  ”election fraud” – is an indication that “if Ahmadinejad’s victory stands”, people will see more restrictions on both the Reformist and Women Rights movements because they’re intertwined. Now, I guess, it would be a waste of time to enlighten the “leading Women’s Rights expert” – that women also participated in the Islamic Revolution (1979) more than they participated in any western revolution and since the establishment of the Islamic State – the number of women graduates has out-numbered many of western countries – and that Ahmadinejad’s administration has one female Vice-president, Fatemeh Vaez Javadi PhD, a position women still has to achieve in the US, France, Australia, and Russia.

bravegirlIsobel thinks that Mir-Hussein Moussavi could be more pro-Women’s Rights due to his wife’s influence: “…he has a very prominent wife, Zahra Rahnavard, whose independence and prominence preceded his (Moussavi). She was a very well-known academic and who played a very active role in the campaign…She made statements on the need to respect women’s rights, so we could anticipate that women would have a better hearing under Moussavi presidency than Ahmadinejad presidency…”

How immoral these anti-Ahmadinejad Zionist propagandists are – can be seen by the dozens of their websites and blogs still busy printing lies about the wife of their “preferred presidential candidate” – Zahra Rahnavard PhD – who along with her husband Mir-Hossein Moussavi – are being labelled as “terrorists (for being among the students who captured spies in the US Embassy in Tehran)” or “radical (for her writing a play, calling Salman Rushde, a ‘Devil’)”, and recently “anti-Semite (for her saying: “Our main and everlasting enemy is Israel,” while campaining for her husband at Tehran’s Shahid Beheshti University)”.

Isobel also said that both Ahmadinejad and the Supreme Leader Ayatullah Khamenei are viewed by both the Reformist and women’s Rights groups as “anti-Women’s improvement”. Maybe be she suffers from amnesia – Ayatullah Khamenei was also the Supreme Leader during West’s favourite “Reformist” president Ayatullah Mohammad Khatami’s eight year rule (1997-2005)!

According to Isobel, the death of Neda Agha Soltan has already become a part of Iranian hagiography. But such lies are expected from the so-called “experts” embeded with the Zionist lobby groups. A rational mind on the other hand would like to know – why Neda’s wounded body was displayed in the street by the protesters to be videoed – instead of being rushed to some nearest clinc? Why the video ended up with pro-Shah Iranian contact in Netherlands, BBC and VOA? It do point fingers toward CIA-MOSSAD behind the shooting.

In 2003 – I read a report prepared by another “expert on women’s issues” – Cheryl Benard, the Jewish wife of Jewish Lobby’s favourite Afghan, Zalmy Khalilzad – is a senior analyst with Zionist think tank RAND. She in her report “Civil Democratic Islam: Partners, Resources, Strategies” – proposed that the only way to “deal” with Islam is by promoting Modernists (as such accepted by the Israel Lobby) as role models and leaders, criticizing traditionalism (Pity, Dr. Tariq Ramadan was still banned from entering the US for being a threat to country’s security!), encouraging journalists to highlight any report of misdeeds by institutions that can be linked to traditional Islam, and promoting the idea that religion and politics can be separated in Islam without endangering the faith.

A Muslimah’s views on women’s rights titled Barbie Girls and Barmy Muslims:

“With all its talk of the first, second and third wave of  feminism, the unspoken truth is that feminism has betrayed western women. Whilst it gave them the vote, rights of ownership and equal opportunities, when it came to providing a moral compass on how to live your life in the post-religious west, all that feminism could muster was a blurred template formed from the detritus of male society.

In Islam women have the best of both worlds. We have been granted our rights by the Creator of the universe who has also shown us how to live so that we are not left to squander our lives in a futile attempt to satiate our never-ending desires.

Opponents of Islam who seek to “fix” Islam by introducing the western concept of feminism would be better advised to save their resources and fix feminism first. To those Muslim sisters who make a living role-playing the exasperated best friend of Muslim women – rolling their eyes in fond vexation at our own folly of clinging to “backward” notions of hijab, modesty and chastity – I would advise them to reflect well on the motivation of their actions and whose agenda they are fulfilling by carrying them out.

For the rest of us women, caught between the west’s scorn and pity and some of our own brothers and sisters who earnestly tell us that we can discard vast tracts of our religion, we should reassure ourselves that our rights and responsibilities are not man-made but God-given and we should not cast aside this gift like an unwanted doll and start looking around for something better.”

In conclusion – I would like to quote Father Roland de Vaux from his book – ‘Ancient Israel: It’s Life and Institutions’ (1961) – for the benefit of these “experts on women’s rights issues” – not to throw stones on Muslims while sitting inside a glass-house themselves: “The social and legalized position of a Israelite (Jew) wife was inferior to the position of a wife occupied in the great countries round about….all the texts show that Israelites wanted mainly sons to perpetuate the family line and fortune and to preserve the ancestral inheritance. A husband could divorce his wife; women on the other hand could not ask for divorce. The wife called her husband Ba’al or master, she also called him adon or lord; she addressed him, in fact, as a slave addressed his master or a subject, his king. The Decalogue includes a man’s wife among his possessions … all her life she remains a minor. The wife doesn’t inherit from her husband, nor daughters from their father, except when there is no male heir. A vow made by a girl or a married woman needs, to be valid, the consent of father or husband, and if this consent is withheld, the vow is null and void. A man has a right to sell his daughter. Women were excluded from succession.”

Nothing of the above have changed in the so-called “only democracy in the Middle East”. Rabbanic courts still don’t accept wife’s right for divorce – and in 2004, sex-slavery accounted for US%i billion trade. Both Amnesty International and the US State Department have reported increase in sex-slavery in Israel – but I bet these experts in “women’s right issues” would not dare to raise their voices in support of those Jewish and Christian women – in fear of being targetted as “Self-Hating Israel-Threatening (S.H.I.T.)” Jews.

Bible skeptics take note: Babylon is being rebuilt, just as prophesied

Posted in Joel Rosenberg, middle east, news | Posted by admin |

Regular readers of this weblog and my books know that Bible prophecy says the ancient city of Babylon, Iraq will be rebuilt and become the greatest center of wealth, commerce and power in the “last days” of history. The books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Revelation are explicit on this subject. Skeptics and cynics abound, to be sure, but the fact is Babylon is being rebuilt right now, in part with U.S. taxpayer funds. Iraqi leaders hope that eventually millions of tourists will come to visit, and real progress is being made. Consider today’s edition of Stars & Stripes, a U.S. military publication. They have a fascinating story this morning headlined: “U.S., Iraqi experts developing plan to preserve Babylon, build local tourism industry.”

U.S. soldier near the famed Ishtar gate in Babylon, Iraq (June 2009)

U.S. soldier near the famed Ishtar gate in Babylon, Iraq (June 2009)

Excerpts:

  • Soldiers with the 172nd Infantry Brigade are exploring the ruins as part of a U.S.-Iraqi effort to preserve the ancient city and plan for the return of Western tourists.
  • Members of the brigade’s 2nd Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment escorted a group of U.S. heritage tourism experts to the ruins last week for the first of several visits to develop a preservation and tourism plan for the area. U.S. and coalition troops have been criticized in the past for damaging and contaminating artifacts. In a 2006 report, the head of the British Museum’s Near East department said that, among other things, military vehicles crushed a 2,600-year-old brick pavement, and sand and archeological fragments were used to fill military sandbags. Now the rapidly improving security situation in surrounding Babil province has persuaded the U.S. State Department and the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage to embark on the preservation project, dubbed the Future of Babylon Project.
  • The State Department and the World Monuments Fund have committed $700,000 to the project, which will see U.S. and Iraqi experts develop a plan to preserve the site and develop a local tourism industry, said Diane Siebrandt, the U.S. embassy’s cultural heritage officer. The Babylon project is one of several that the State Department is involved in to conserve ancient sites in partnership with the Iraqi government, she said.

  • Two people with expertise developing tourism plans for historic sites in third-world nations, Gina Haney and Jeff Allen, have been employed by the State Department to run the U.S. side of the project. They visited the ruins for the first time last weekend. Haney said the pair will involve the local community in the plan’s development, as they did with a similar project encouraging Western tourists to visit Ghana’s Gold Coast. “You could throw money at it and do all this work, but unless you can create a sustainable situation, your opportunities for tourism will run out,” Allen said. “The idea is to develop something that is going to be here 30 to 40 years from now and has benefits for the local people. We don’t want something that will only benefit outsiders.”
  • The Iraqi government will be involved in the planning as well. “If you have 200,000 people a year coming to this site, you will have people staying at hotels, visiting restaurants, buying souvenirs,” Allen said. “The site is in some ways a revenue generator for the local community.”Babylon could be comparable to the Egyptian pyramids, which draw millions of tourists each year. But the area lacks the tourist infrastructure that has been built at sites such as the pyramids, he said. “There is nothing for tourists here, but if you interpret and present it in the right way, you can spark interest,” he said.
  • Allen, who has experience designing walkways and signs for other heritage sites, said detailed planning won’t happen until authorities have worked out how best to preserve the ruins. The crumbling rocks of the original city are surrounded by more elaborate and modern fortifications, including a maze-like collection of interior walls built on top of genuine ruins during Saddam Hussein’s time.
  • “Some of the past restoration work hasn’t been very good,” he said. “Saddam was trying to inherit the power of the ancients and continue that legacy. His restoration methods helped reinforce that vision of himself, and he created a pattern of restoration and repair work that benefited a certain agenda.”
U.S. forces guarding city of Babylon, currently being rebuilt. (June 2009)

U.S. forces guarding city of Babylon, currently being rebuilt. (June 2009)

Last month, a British art publication had a story headlined, “Controversial move to reopen Babylon: State board of antiquities and heritage believes site needs more protection.” The story indicated that Babylon would be open for tourists on June 1st. Another recent story out of Taiwannoted that a Taiwanese tour agency is starting to take people to Iraq to tour — among other things — the city of  Babylon as it is being rebuilt. As Iraq becomes increasingly stable and secure, foreign direct investment is going to flood in, and Iraq will become the wealthiest country on the planet. Skeptics take note: the Bible is coming true, one prophecy at a time.

NETANYAHU DISCUSSES IRAN ON MEET THE PRESS: “THE CLOCK IS TICKING”

Posted in Iran, Joel Rosenberg, Politics Israel, middle east | Posted by admin |

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was on NBC’s “Meet The Press” yesterday. He discussed the Iranian people’s thirst for freedom, and the Iranian regime’s thirst for brutality and nuclear weapons.

Key excerpts:

MR. GREGORY: Let me ask you about the nature of the Iranian threat. Mohamed ElBaradei who, as you know, runs the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in an interview with the BBC on Wednesday the following: “The ultimate aim of Iran,” he said, “as I understand it, is they want to be recognized as a major power in the Middle East. Increasing their nuclear capability is, to them, the road to get that recognition, to get that power and prestige. It is also an insurance policy against what they have heard in the past about regime change.” My question, Prime Minister, what does all that’s happening on the streets of Iran do, in your estimation, to the nature of the threat from Iran? Is this a game-changer in some way?

PRIME MIN. NETANYAHU: First of all, I don’t subscribe to the view that Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons is a status symbol. It’s not. These are people who are sending thousands and thousands of missiles to their terrorist proxies, Hizbullah and Hamas, with the specific instruction to bomb civilians in Israel. They are supporting terrorists in the world. This is not a status symbol. To have such a regime acquire nuclear weapons is to risk the fact that they might give it to terrorists or give terrorists a nuclear umbrella – that is a departure in the security of the Middle East and the world, certainly the security of my country. So I wouldn’t treat the subject so lightly.

————————————–

MR. GREGORY: Prime Minister, there has always been debate about whether, when it comes to the threat of a nuclear Iran, whether there is Washington clock and a Jerusalem clock. And let me show you a book by David Sanger of the New York Times that he wrote called, “The Inheritance, the World Obama Confronts and the Challenge to American Power.” And in the course of his reporting for that book, he wrote this about Israel’s plans: “Early in 2008 the Israeli government signaled that it might be preparing to take matters into its own hands” — this is about Iran — “In a series of meetings, Israeli officials asked Washington for a new generation of powerful bunker-busters far more capable of blowing up a deep underground plant than anything in Israel’s arsenal of conventional weapons. They asked for refueling equipment that would allow their aircraft to reach Iran and return to Israel, and they asked for the right to fly over Iraq.” My question — if there is not tangible progress toward de-fanging Iran as a potential nuclear power by the end of the year, do you, as a leader of Israel, go back to that planning that Israel had underway in 2008 against Iran?

PRIME MIN. NETANYAHU: I can’t confirm those assertions….This regime that supports terrorists and calls for the annihilation of Israel and for the domination of the Middle East and beyond — I think this would be something that would endanger the peace of the world, not just my own country’s security and the stability of the Middle East.

—————————————-

MR. GREGORY: You have said, you said it to Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic magazine, talking about Iran — that it was a messianic and apocalyptic cult controlling atomic bombs. The Obama administration argues that for the past eight years, under President Bush, there has been a hard line calling it part of the “axis of evil,” and where has that hard line gotten America? Only emboldening Iran over that period of time. Is your hard line – is the U.S. hard line over the past eight years the wrong strategy to get Iran to change its behavior?

PRIME MIN. NETANYAHU: I think that the president spoke to me quite explicitly about the great threat that Iran’s development of nuclear weapons capability poses to the United States. I saw, in fact, the continuity, in that sense, of an assessment of the threat….The clock is ticking.

khamenei-hitler1

HEADLINES TO TRACK:

EXCLUSIVE: IRAQI CHRISTIANS LAUNCH RADIO STATION

Posted in Joel Rosenberg, middle east | Posted by admin |

Dramatic news out of Iran this weekend. More than 3,000 Reformers arrested. Some 600 wounded. Conflicting reports about deaths. Some say at least 19 have been killed by the security forces. CNN has unconfirmed reports put the number of deaths at 150.

But this isn’t the only story of revolution in the region. What the media isn’t telling you is that the Revivalists are moving powerfully to share the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the Muslim world.

Last month, for example, the Kurdish government of Iraq in May gave permission for a Christian radio station that The Joshua Fund helped finance to officially begin broadcast operations. The establishment of such a station owned and operated by Iraqi followers of Jesus Christ is really an historic development in the history of Christianity in the land once called Babylonia, and we are deeply grateful for your prayerful and financial support in making this happen.

Antenna on the roof of the Iraqi Christian radio station The Joshua Fund helped finance.

Antenna on the roof of the Iraqi Christian radio station The Joshua Fund helped finance.

The station’s headquarters and main broadcasting facility is located in the northern Kurdish region of Iraq, in the capital of Erbil, a city of some one million people, not far from the border of Iran. The station is operating on 97.1 FM in Erbil and has a translator station operating on 104.7 FM in the city of Kirkuk, a city of about 850,000. Each transmitter operates at 250 watts. That station — which can be heard throughout the Kurdish region and thus by more than two million people — is broadcasting Christian music, original and previously-produced educational programs, original and previously-produced cultural programs, Bible reading programs and radio dramas based on the Bible. All of this is in the Kurdish and Arabic languages.

“Growing up under the tyranny of Saddam Hussein, we never thought we would see the day when we who love Jesus could run a radio station in Iraq,” the station manager told a TJF staffer. “We are excited to see how the Lord will use us to bless the Iraqi people, and particularly the Kurdish people. Please be praying for us that the Lord’s favor would be with us and we would make a real impact in people’s lives here.”

UPDATE: JOSHUA FUND INVESTS $300,000 IN “DAMASCUS” FILM

Posted in Joel Rosenberg, middle east, news | Posted by admin |

Quick update on Damascus, the 77 minute docu-drama film. It tells the story of Saul of Tarsus — a religious extremist and persecutor of the Church in the first century — who had a vision of Jesus Christ on the road to the Syrian capital and not only became a follower of Jesus but became the Apostle Paul, arguably the most famous of the early Church fathers and author of nearly half the books of the New Testament. The film was produced by Arab Christians. It was filmed on location in Damascus and other historic locations in Syria. The film has been endorsed by President Bashar al-Assad and premiered in Assad’s personal theater in Damascus in March. The film has also been endorsed by Protestant and Catholic leaders, and premiered at the Vatican in May. The film is also known in the region as, Damascus Is Speaking.

The Joshua Fund was asked to raise $300,000 to produce 300,000 copies of the film on DVD. The DVDs will distributed in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and the Holy Land. After prayer, the board of TJF enthusiastically supported the project and committed to funding it in honor of Amy Knapp, one of TJF’s founding board members. By God’s grace — and with your faithful prayers and generous financial support — TJF raised the funds and transmitted them in May. The DVDs are currently being produced and readied for distribution. Please check back for more updates.

If you would like to support The Joshua Fund financially to help on future projects to bless Israel and her neighbors, please click  here.

AHMADINEJAD IN MOSCOW

Posted in Iran, Joel Rosenberg, Politics Israel, articles Israel, middle east | Posted by admin |

FLASH: IAEA head admits Iran seeking nuclear bomb

Students of Bible prophecy should keep a close eye on events unfolding in Iran and the epicenter, and keep praying for the Lord to have mercy on that country. With upwards of a million young, pro-democracy Reformers on the streets of Iran demanding an end to the Radicals’ regime, Iranian security forces have murdered as many as two dozen protesters. Iranian leaders are now threatening the Reformers with the death penalty. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — freshly annointed by the Supreme Leader to stay as the face and voice of the regime’s apocalyptic agenda — couldn’t care less. Ahmadinejad headed straight for Moscow yesterday. There, he met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) to continue building a political and military alliance between Russia, China, Iran and Islamic countries in Central Asia. Currently, Iran has “observer” status in the SCO, but has requested full member status. The SCO alliance is evocative of the eastern-portion of the biblical alliance foretold in Ezekiel 38-39 that will come against Israel and seek to destroy the Jewish people in what the Bible calls the “last days” of history. When one considers how closely Russia and Iran are currently growing to the western portion of the prophetic alliance — Sudan, Libya and Algeria, for example — it’s not hard to envision these prophecies coming true in our lifetime, or even in the next few years. That said, I believe it is currently too soon to draw any conclusions. There are many intriguing trends and developments, but it remains far from clear that we’re seeing Bible prophecy come to pass. That said, we cannot rule out the possibility. Events in the region are both unprecedented and riveting. All the more reason for followers of Jesus Christ to “get ready and be prepared” for whatever lies ahead.

Prophetic? As Iranian forces murder pro-democracy protesters, Ahmadinejad heads straight for Moscow.

Prophetic? As Iranian forces murder pro-democracy protesters, Ahmadinejad heads straight for Moscow.

MIRACLE, OR MANIPULATION? Excerpt from an NYT story worth noting: “Iranians are generally united in viewing the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to another four-year term as a miracle. Some believe it in the literal sense that the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, seemed to intend when he said ‘the miraculous hand of God’ was at work. Others believe it in the sense that they see no earthly explanation why an incumbent who presided over worsening inflation, unemployment and isolation would draw more than seven million more votes than in his first victory.” Observation: With the full backing of his Supreme Leader for his apocalyptic End Times beliefs, is Ahmadinejad more or less likely to give up Iran’s nuclear weapons program to the Obama administration?

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, right, welcomes Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has arrived in Russia to attend a regional security summit in Yekaterinburg, Russia. Russia is hosting leaders of nations from China to Iran in a second day of talks Tuesday, June 16, 2009. The Shanghai grouping includes Russia, China and four ex-Soviet republics in Central Asia. But the two-day summit near the boundary between Europe and Asia also drew the leaders of Iran, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. (AP Photo/ RIA Novosti, Presidential Press Service, Vladimir Rodionov)

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, right, welcomes Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has arrived in Russia to attend a regional security summit in Yekaterinburg, Russia. Russia is hosting leaders of nations from China to Iran in a second day of talks Tuesday, June 16, 2009. The Shanghai grouping includes Russia, China and four ex-Soviet republics in Central Asia. But the two-day summit near the boundary between Europe and Asia also drew the leaders of Iran, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. (AP Photo/ RIA Novosti, Presidential Press Service, Vladimir Rodionov)

Massive protests in Iran not seen since ‘79 Revolution.

Massive protests in Iran not seen since ‘79 Revolution.

>> To purchase Inside The Revolution from Amazon at 41% off, please click here

>> To learn more — or to make a tax-deductible contribution to The Joshua Fund — please click here.

HEADLINES TO TRACK:

Note to President Obama. For Muslims worldwide, actions speak louder than words.

Posted in middle east | Posted by admin |

Note to President Obama. For Muslims worldwide, actions speak louder than words.

The world stood at attention today as President Obama gave a historic speech to the Muslim world. In mainstream U.S. media, expectations of the speech ran from highly pessimistic to cautiously optimistic. Some in the U.S. felt that the very idea of a speech in Cairo Egypt represented either a cow-towing to terrorism–or worse, an insidious plot to turn the U.S. into a Muslim nation by a president who’s secretly a Muslim himself.

Adulation and frenzy aside, I thought I’d offer some perspective as someone who has lived and worked in the Muslim world and has spent considerable time analyzing world events in light of a Christian missionary perspective.

First, the praise. President Obama didn’t waste time acknowledging the achievements Islamic civilization has made to world history. By praising Islamic contributions to fields such as science, philosophy, and architecture; the president touched on an issue felt deeply by most Muslims worldwide–the knowledge of a lost golden age. The fact that the president acknowledged some positive aspects of Islamic history probably caused a few teary eyes from some proud Muslims.

The president went on to acknowledge the tension fed by Western colonialism that “denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims” and, even more recently, how during the Cold War many Muslim nations were “often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations.” The historical truth of this statement is undeniable, but thankfully, Obama didn’t stop there. He also directly challenged jihadist propaganda with the words: “Just as Muslims to not fit a crude stereotype, America is not the crude stereotype of a self-interesed empire. The United States has been one of the greatest sources of progress the world has ever known.”

The president also touched on the religious freedom issue, promised additional development aid for Pakistan and Afghanistan, recognized Iraqi sovereignty by honoring their wishes to withdraw troops by 2012, affirmed his support for Israel while recognizing Palestinian grievances, made it clear that democracy should not be imposed on other nations by force, reaffirmed his commitment to a nuclear free world ( a position that John McCain recently signed onto I might add), and made it clear that the U.S. is not seeking a permanent military presence in Afghanistan. All of these are very important steps for eroding the base of support for Al Qaeda and like-minded groups.

Now, the criticism. Obama in my opinion went too far in emphasizing common values between America and Islam. In Obama’s words, “America and Islam are not exclusive, instead, they overlap and share common principles.” I beg to differ. America was founded on the Christian/enlightenment principle of separation of church and state. In Islam, the idea of a separation between church and state–or more accurately mosque and state–is an anathema. These ideas are worlds apart and it takes a whole lot of cherry picking of Koranic verses by liberal and moderate Muslims to try to reconcile the two.

I also felt that the manner in which the president addressed the religious freedom issue was weak. Although the president did say, “freedom in America is indivisible from the freedom to practice one’s religion” he didn’t touch on the reciprocity issue, which is the fact that Muslims enjoy–and often demand– freedom in the West to propagate their faith but deny the same freedom to minority religions in their own countries. While the president could have made a clear moral appeal on this issue, all the world got was, “Among some Muslims, there is a disturbing tendency to measure one’s own faith by the rejection of another’s.” Lame.

The president’s address of women’s rights wasn’t much better. While he spoke to the issue of allowing women the freedom to wear the head scarf (translation: we’re not France!), this is an issue affecting Muslim women in the West. It has little to do with the lives of millions of Muslim women living in Muslim countries. The president could have taken this time to condemn the stoning of adulteresses, absurd rape laws, the kidnapping of young Christian girls to marry older men, and a host of other rampant female abuse that many Muslim women suffer by their male counterparts.

Will the president’s speech make a positive difference in U.S./Muslim relations? Yes it will, but the impact will be minimal. It’s very important to understand that there was very little in Obama’s speech that hasn’t already been said by previous administrations–including the Bush administration. Even on the issue of calling on Israel to freeze settlement expansion, the president said nothing new. As a matter of fact, every president from Carter until now has said the same thing, and absolutely nothing has changed because Israel refuses to comply to America’s wishes and America continues to bankroll the Israeli government. Muslims know that President Obama is very unlikely to change the status quo in this arrangement–especially with Netanyahu in power.

Another reason why the president’s words will ring hallow in many Muslim ears is because the speech seemed to be directed at contradicting jihadist propaganda while speaking very little to the issue that the vast majority of Muslims care about the most–more political and economic freedoms. Poll after poll shows that the vast majority of Muslims want more democracy, not less. Many Muslims, however, see the U.S. as an obstacle to democracy because we are the ones supporting many of the oppressive dictators ruling over them.

Will the speech spur a change of heart in Al Qaeda members and like minded groups? Of course not! The only way to deal with these people is to pursue an aggressive agenda, along with our allies, to disband their networks, freeze their assets, arrest the murderers, and bring them to justice. The speech will however, contribute to eroding the base of support for radical Islam if it’s followed by sound policy. Christians should pray that God gives our nation’s leaders wisdom on exactly what those policies should be. Because for Muslims worldwide, actions speak louder than words.


Aaron D. Taylor is the founder of Great Commission Society, an organization dedicated to sharing the love of Christ and serving the persecuted Church. Aaron is the author of “Alone with a Jihadist: A Biblical Response to Holy War.” To learn more about Aaron’s ministry and his upcoming book, got to http://www.aarondtaylor.com

Source: http://www.submityourarticle.com

Permalink: http://www.submityourarticle.com/a.php?a=59689

Get Adobe Flash playerPlugin by wpburn.com wordpress themes