Straight Platform Politics

American Jews – Part 2

Out of Touch with Reality

Too many American Jews think that giving Israeli territory to the Arabs will bring peace to the Middle East. They should know better.

American Jews should have learned a lesson in 2005 when they contributed $14 million to buy greenhouses for the Arabs in the Gaza Strip. Jewish settlers owned these greenhouses and had turned a desert project into a thriving international business. But they were forced off their land and out of Gaza as part of the 2005 Mideast peace plan.

The $14 million was collected within 48 hours. Save the greenhouse. Turn them over to the Arabs. Improve the living standard of the poor Arabs. Peace.

Didn’t happen. Within hours of the evacuation, mobs of Arabs started destroying most of the greenhouses. Parts of Gaza became piles of rubble – millions upon millions of dollars worth of rubble. Then the Hamas did what it said it would do: started firing rockets into Israel from Gaza.

Clinging to fanciful ideas cost these Jewish philanthropists $14 million. But ignoring reality when it comes to future peace accords will cost much more. Israeli security and Israeli lives are at stake.

See Part 1

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What a Choice: Capitalism or Islam – Part 2

Even though the U.S. government can legally prevent foreign Muslims from entering the country to attend the Hizb ut-Tahrir conference, that’s not enough. The conference presents a homeland security risk. See Part 1

Bob Blitzer, who headed the FBI’s first unit on Islamic terrorism, said that the danger of having such a conference is in the results of exposure to HT’s extremism. Attendees may become fired up, go home, and then commit violent acts anywhere in the U.S.

A former member of HT, Maajid Nawaz, has stated that the HT ideology certainly leads to violence. Its members have been arrested for inciting national, racial, religious, and ethnic strife in countries around the world.

The group is regarded as such a threat to governance that it has been banned in most of the Arab countries in the Middle East; it also has been banned in many non-Arab Muslim countries. Both Germany and Russia banned the Hizb ut-Tahrir in 2003.

Hizb ut-Tahrir has decided to come out of hiding in the U.S. Hopefully Oak Lawn, a community southwest of Chicago, has beefed up its police force. Hopefully Homeland Security is on alert.

Islam is not a choice for America.

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What a Choice: Capitalism or Islam – Part 1

Some people view Hizb ut-Tahrir (Party of Liberation) as an international extremist movement; others view it as a global Islamic political party. Either way it is not well received by many countries, especially those in the Middle East.

Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) seeks to establish a global Islamic state – a Caliphate. It operated secretly in the U.S. but this has recently changed. It will be holding a public conference in a suburb of Chicago on July 19 titled “The Fall of Capitalism and the Rise of Islam.”

Capitalism or Islam: that’s quite a choice. And it is telling that HT views Islam not only as a religion but also as an economic system. So it’s not surprising that HT rejects both religious freedom and economic freedom.

Hizb ut-Tahrir promotes orthodox Islam and Marxist-Leninist economics and opposes democracy as a form of government. It promotes anti-Semitism and opposes the state of Israel It demands military training for males 15 years and older in order to be ready for jihad – the holy war.

The U.S. government has not listed it as a terrorist organization because there are no clear ties between HT and any recent acts of terrorism or violence. There is also no proof that it financially supports terrorist groups. The U.S. government does monitor HT and can legally prevent foreign Muslims from entering the country to attend the conference.

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