Straight Platform Politics

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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William Jennings Bryan: The Man Who Shaped The Democrat Party – Part 1

 

Many people associate William Jennings Bryan with the famous Scopes trial of 1925. Few link him with the Democrat Party. But Bryan was a dominant force in that political party from the late 1800s until his death five days after the Scopes trial ended.

William Jennings Bryan was an impressive, charismatic figure who tirelessly brought liberal principles to the forefront in the political arena. He usually clothed his issues in stirring moralistic oratory – some thought more melodrama than oratory - often quoting from scripture.

He was a U.S. Congressman (Nebraska) from 1891-1895. His father, Silas Bryan, ran for U.S. Congress from Illinois in 1872 and narrowly lost the race. Silas advocated inflating monetary supplies to help liberate farmers and wage earners from debt.

Congressman Bryan drafted and the Democrat-controlled Congress passed the first peacetime income tax in 1894. It was a flat tax on the wealthy, but the next year it was ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in its Pollock decision. Redistributing wealth was an underlying theme in most of Bryan’s campaigns.

William Bryan ran for U.S. Senate in 1894 and lost. Undeterred, Bryan ran for president in 1896. He won the nomination for president of the Democrat Party and ran on a platform he was very involved with writing. Bryan approved the expansion of the federal government. He endorsed regulating private wealth, taxing the rich, and increasing social programs. He wanted workers to have the right to unionize and to strike.

Bryan and the Chicago platform of 1896 set the party on the road to the liberalism of Woodrow Wilson’s New Freedom, of FDR’s New Deal, and of LBJ’s Great Society.

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