Thursday, July 30, 2015

HARPER BETRAYS CANADA!!!

OK, since it's been kept a big secret by the media (who are owned by the same globalist corporazis who are trying to own the rest of us, too) I was unaware the TPP TREASON had gone this far (!)

Harper's pandering to muslim votes, by funding the Aga Khan's giant "Freedom Mosque" in Toronto, while giving him the old War Museum lands in Ottawa, rent-and-tax-free for 100 yrs, was bad enough, BUT NOW THIS?!

I had thought Harper was maybe just inconsistently STUPID, in his subjective us-vs-them politicking, but not actively EVIL, like the other two rivals are, because hey, Harper still got things right at least half the time, apparently just by accident, while they were 100% wrong on purpose.

From HERE:

Tories hoping for Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal before campaign launch

Stephen Harper said TPP negotiations were “well advanced” and that Canada “cannot be left out of this kind of trade arrangement.”
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian WyldStephen Harper said TPP negotiations were “well advanced” and that Canada “cannot be left out of this kind of trade arrangement.”


OTTAWA — The Conservatives are anxiously hoping to sign off on a massive free-trade deal before kicking off an election campaign expected to start as early as Sunday.

The government is at the negotiating table in Hawaii, where Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks are reportedly in their final stages. With voting day set for Oct. 19, the governing Tories want to launch the campaign with the deal in hand — an agreement they could brandish as evidence of their economic stewardship.

CBC reported Wednesday that Harper will ask Gov. Gen. David Johnston on Sunday or Monday to dissolve Parliament. The Tories have a major rally planned for Montreal on Sunday night, the CBC reported.

That would begin an 11-week election campaign — the longest in Canadian history. The Tories are widely seen as having the upper hand in a long campaign, because they have by far the most cash. Changes to election law last year allow parties to increase their spending by $675,000 per day beyond the $25-million maximum, each day that the campaign exceeds the 37-day legal minimum.
The TPP, a pact between 12 countries including Canada, the U.S., Mexico and Japan, is to become the biggest trade deal in history. The countries involved represent some 800 million people with a combined gross domestic product of roughly 40 per cent of the world’s economy.

Just as a deal could be a boon to Conservative campaign fortunes, however, a delay could cause them headaches. If talks stretch past the start of the campaign, experts say they could prove politically delicate.

In particular, Canada is under pressure from other countries to lower the high tariffs that currently protect domestic producers of eggs, milk, cheese and poultry from foreign competition under supply management.

In an interview Wednesday with Bloomberg, Prime Minister Stephen Harper insisted the government will defend the interests of every Canadian industry “as best we can.”

Harper also said the negotiations were “well advanced” and that Canada “cannot be left out of this kind of trade arrangement.”

In other words, as all liberal masochists rationalize to justify their treason: "If we don't rush in first, some other fools might beat us to it!" and/or "We have to let the violent criminals do what they want to us, or else they'll do what they want to us anyway!" PATHETIC!

If Trans-Pacific Partnership talks do spill into the campaign window, officially known as the writ period, thorny political issues would become that much more sensitive, said Ottawa trade consultant Adam Taylor.

“I don’t think Canada will walk away from the TPP table to save its furniture and bacon on the election hustings,” said Taylor, a former senior adviser to Trade Minister Ed Fast and now a director at a firm called Ensight.

Once the campaign begins, the government will shift into caretaking mode. That would allow it to continue negotiations, but likely prevent it from binding a future government or signing a new international commitment, said a former high-ranking civil servant who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Robert Wolfe, a Queen’s University professor and former government trade negotiator, said representatives from the other countries at the bargaining table are aware of Canada’s election schedule.

“So, most of them are of the view that they’d better wrap stuff up this week because after that they may simply not be able to get a decision out of Canada,” said Wolfe.

Meanwhile, Harper also told Bloomberg that U.S. delays in approving the Keystone XL pipeline to move Alberta oil to the Gulf of Mare “not a hopeful sign” and reflect the “peculiar politics” of the Obama administration.

Later Wednesday, a White House spokesman said a decision will be made on the pipeline while President Barack Obama is still in office – the end of 2016.

Eric Schultz wouldn’t confirm or deny comments by a Republican lawmaker that he’d heard from his sources that the Canada-U.S. pipeline will be rejected in an announcement next month.

With files from The National Post

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Anarchists Are Communists, Not Libertarians

Just as Existentialism IS Nihilism, Anarchists ARE Communists.



Whether they like it or not, all people are individuals, not groups (of individuals). Many of them can (and do) lie, and endorse this pretense, because, as Brandon Smith noted, “their endgame … is conning the masses into believing that the group mind is real and that the individual mind is fiction.”

Yes, endorsing group rights is all about avoiding individual responsibility, and so they only commit this fraud to induce others to serve them as slaves.

Their posited "group Rights" is really only ever idolatry - an alibi of predestined, predetermined might-makes-right extortive force to excuse their lazy false claims of the right to remain irresponsibly wrong.

The common liberal trope stance today is that not having one’s feelings hurt, trumps risking being offended by the often-painful truth - as if all humans didn’t naturally first react in denial to all new ideas (see Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, Aristotle, and others).

Since they do, it's not the responsibility or right of any other human to short-circuit their natural learning process - of going from fear to hope - by retarding them or allowing them to retard them selves by indulging in their first instinctive response:

"But I don't want to learn that!"

Unfortunately, this is exactly what the corrupt traitors in today's so-called education system are abusing the children in their charge with, by dint of tempting kids with it:

"Remember, kids - there's no wrong answers! Whee!"

Their next step is inevitably to assert it's "unfair!" that other people learn to do things better than they can do them, and to then also insist those others be prevented from learning, too!

Next up, this idolatrous fear of others' thinking and learning is extended and extrapolated to their acquiring goods and services, through dint of trading (scary) hard work for them:

"But I don't want to do that!"

Thieves (extortive "communist" gangsters) like to pretend that, "since resources are finite," then everything other people (aka "The Makers") earn, we're really only 'stealing' from THEIR (unearned) share! (We should all get equal shares in everything without working for/earning or otherwise paying for them - right?)!

Nor should any other people be allowed to increase their shares of goods through dynamic "economics," for instance by trading labour and services for them. "That would be bad," because it creates "inequality."

Everyone must remain at the lowest common denominator of both education and number of possessions.

There should be no individual property rights. That is the only way the idolaters GROUP can feel "safe."

Do it for the good of the gang - sacrifice your life to be and remain part of the Greater Good. And all groups need a leader - so that would be ME, they presume, as all crime-gangsters do. Might makes right!

Lazy people (criminals such as them selves) who want rights without responsibilities, to remain irresponsibly wrong, and entitled to their shares without working for them, should be able to halt and reverse the economic choices of those who, like themselves, become "victims" by agreeing to trade their share of the finite resources to those who are willing to trade work for them. Theft is good, and so communism (gangster extortion and theft) is naturally formed from the puerile anarchists' selfish desires.

There is no free-will choice, so those who agree to trade possessions for work, were really only taken advantage of by those sneaky evil greedy selfish "capitalists." Those 1%ers should have to give it back.

In short, they presume that they are automatically entitled to a one in seven billionth equal share of everything anyone else mines, hunts, traps, or builds on earth - they're entitled to one in seven billionth of my salary (as, unfortunately, am I) but since they don't work, they're ahead of the "game."

They realize large groups of other people already exist, so they want in on that action - they want to encourage other lazy Takers to form into gangs to extort the Makers into giving them free stuff.

They want to destroy the collective insurance companies called "Governments" their parents built up with their blood, sweat, and treasure, to tear them down and then re-built them, but this time with them in charge.

They want to offload their responsibilities onto groups of other people, to dilute them via group rights and in  order to sell their fraud to others, they inevitably, and invariably must resort to groupthink idolatry.

This is both how and why lying Anarchists (who exist to tear down others' groups, aka government) are NOT Libertarians (who are the Makers, and as such, only want to literally mind their own businesses).

Libertarians are Conservatives without the need for the group religious excuses for justifying their own hopes.

Anarchists are really only a bunch of whiny liberal bedwetting crybaby, criminally negligent infantile delinquents who resent living in their parents' world, (and basements) really only asserting "I never asked to be born!"

They forget that existing Civilization was built up by individuals who built their own roads, owned their own properties, and then decided to band together to defer the maintenance to ever-larger groups of insurance company-like entities, which eventually became "government."

Now all the land is taken, and these newborns don't like following the rules built up by others over time and tradition, so they want to tear it all down and re-build what will only amount to being basically the exact same thing, but with THEM in charge this time!

Government, (best conceived of by Albert Einstein as the largest collectively-owned insurance company) is a great idea if and when it doesn't compete with (much less pre-empt) private enterprise; it's OK for the government to buy food to feed the poor, but not to demand that only it is qualified to regulate food growing everywhere, much less to restrict and deny private individuals from growing or stockpiling their own food. Same goes for defending every other need: government can defend the country, but not restrict the citizens' rights to also own and bear their own arms to defend them selves; government can and should enhance private defense, but never replace it!

The false "group-might-made-rights" idol is gangster extortion, and as such, is often communicated by soft, self-correcting "political correctness."

While the criminal Takers are always motivated to assert without need for proof: "I'm Better Than You!" the Makers are too busy literally minding their own businesses to work diligently to contradict and disabuse them of their extortive fraudulent criminal slanders.

I doubt there will be a fight, because the Makers, by our very natures, CAN NOT RESIST EVIL MEN, simply because we’re trying to hope to collaborate to objectively solve universal problems, while the Takers – the PC (Psychopathic Criminal) negligent, delinquent libertine “liberals” are all focused on their fears, and obsessively “PMS“ing about it all the time – since they don’t believe in winning, they spend all their time trying to not-lose, to prove “I’m better than you!” all the time, by attacking innocent others first.

They are Paranoids (“They’re all out to get me!”) Masochists (“I’d better focus on my fears AS pain, lest I forget to defend myself, since hope is a trick!”) and Slanderers (“Since they’re all out to get me, I’d better get all of them, first!”).

Political correctness (i.e: implicitly defined as factual incorrectness) is of course merely extortion – as when right isn't allowed to be right or make might, then only might makes "right" - it's fraud and slander – in that it pretends a civil ‘probable’ test applies, based on group-might-made-rights scenarios, to all aspects of life: white males are always to be ‘legally’ and ‘defensively’ pre-judged as “guilty until never proven innocent,” for instance. It’s extortion, and extortion is always a crime!

What sane people call “the slippery slope,” liberals call “progress!”

Political correctness (slanderous victim-blaming factual incorrectness) is both fraud (crime) and extortion – pretending that, either you lie along with the majority, or you’ll be replaced with a better liar by that same majority; group might makes right! Exact same as communazism.

It extorts people to “Go Along” (with criminal lies) “To Get Along” (with criminal liars).

PC pretends one is responsible to other people for their (possibly mistaken) reactions to one’s new ideas, or to ideas which *might* offend them.

And the offense taken, is always subjective.

Since the deliberate use of PC implicitly slanders people AS being offensive, it attacks first, and therefore also inherently defends first-attackers (criminals).

PC implies one can and so should manage or avoid others’ inevitable reactions of denial (automatic ‘offense’) to one’s exchange of ideas, as if one somehow ‘should,’ even if one could, always try to defuse all of their normal psychologically procedural reaction stages (i.e: basic thinking) as summed up by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross.

Normal people WILL REACT to new ideas BY a well-established process of denial to acceptance, so it’s literally outrageous to posit that any one person is responsible for monitoring, or has a duty to actively prevent this common thought process occurring in others.

This thought, or “thesis” (previously “Theosis,” of “knowledge of God”) process, prioritizing focus on the ‘BAD’ (the anti-thesis) in order to avoid it and ultimately test a hypo-thesis, to prove it good (as the final “syn-thesis”) has been historically referred to as “Greek Logic” and called “Hegelian Dialectics,” before Kubler-Ross added her modern speculations to it, but it’s obviously nothing more than basic
“thinking.”

So obviously, “Political Correctness” is only an extortion attempt at THOUGHT CONTROL, designed to shield criminals’ crimes, and to prevent everyone from thinking at all, beyond the most shallow and banal trivialities. It defines the willfully ignorant and irresponsible, criminally negligent “victimology” process.

It is to insist (as all authoritarian extortions do) that one must ALWAYS Submit one’s self to the greater (gang’s “might-makes-right”) good.

What is currently misconceived as ‘altruism’ and ‘Hegelian dialectics’ is really only a lie: a slanderous fraud designed to induce perpetual guilt in the victim, by way of the same, ages-old “carrot-and-stick,” fear-and-greed behavioural conditioning binary.

It’s proponents sadistically advocate for perpetual, self-sacrificing masochism in others, demanding they pacifistically agree with the predatory criminal aggressor’s militaristic notion that they have no right to self-defense, nor even to think about planning for it.

To them, if their victims even THINK about planning to defend them selves, it’s “slandering” the criminals AS the aggressors, (which they in fact already ARE, just by dint of their PC extortion-attempts).

Bottom line: criminals hate other people (potential victims and/or potential opponents) thinking about their crimes, just as they hate the admitting to them selves of being criminals.

And hating thinking has always had a perfectly valid label: “Psycho-Path” (literal translation: “Thought-Killer”).

;-(

Like I said:

“PC” (Psychotic Criminal) “Liberals” are all about the “PMS” (Paranoid Masochistic Slander).

The general paranoia looks to the past, the masochism to the present, and the slander addresses the future.

Armoured and armed with such emotive generalities, criminal psychopaths have no need to think of any specifics.

;-)

Sunday, July 26, 2015

AGENDA 21: Who's in YOUR Wallet?

DATE:  07/24/15   ABOLISH ♦ INDOCTRINATE ♦ DEPOPULATE     ISSUE # 286
AGENDA 21:  Who's in YOUR Wallet?


THIS IS AN AMERICAN ISSUE
Have you read about UN Agenda 21 or Sustainable Development? 
Do you know what it is?  Are you aware it is being played out in RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE?  Even a Democrat gets it!
TAKE A LOOK at these videos!!

Rosa Koire explains Agenda 21 (1.45mins) - July 11, 2015:

grindall61 shows what is going on in CA today (23.07mins) - June 1, 2015:

NOW, Go to agenda21today.com, share this information and sign up for my newsletters!!

Download and keep a copy, for EVERYTHING  - is dictated by the UN and can be found in this book of 40 chapters, 350 pages designed to CONTROL EVERY aspect of HUMAN ACTIVITY.

WHERE HAVE YOU HEARD THIS BEFORE?
MONEY ♦ POWER ♦ CONTROL

By now, you're saying:
"Oh Karen, You are a crazy person. That is just NOT TRUE. 
America is a Sovereign Nation - NOT governed by the United Nations!" 

REALLY? Wanna bet money on that?
Just look at what is going on today.  Every president since Bush 41, including Jeb - who partnered Florida with the UN (SEE: floridaearth.org) has seceded power from the American People...to the UN!

NGO's (Non-Government Organizations) form regional councils and make local government irrelevant as they make new unconstitutional statutes forcing individuals to lose private property. Private property is "NOT SUSTAINABLE" because if you own 1 acre and I own 10, that is not "fair". If you own a business and I don't, that is not fair. Equal opportunity, not social justice is the true meaning of fair.

Obama's actions of getting affirmation from the UN first is nothing new.  Obama has just succeeded in making it well known, out in the open. It is the goal of the moderates both RINOS AND DINOS, aka GLOBALISTS - to eliminate the US Constitution of Rights...granted by God - for the UN Earth Charter of Rights granted by Government and Man. 
 
UN Habitat stated: “Land, because of its unique nature and the crucial role it plays in human settlements, cannot be treated as an ordinary asset, controlled by individuals and subject to the pressures and inefficiencies of the market. Private land ownership is also a principal instrument of accumulation and concentration of wealth and therefore contributes to social injustice; if unchecked, it may become a major obstacle in the planning and implementation of development schemes. Social justice, urban renewal and development, the provision of decent dwellings and healthy conditions for the people can only be achieved if land is used in the interests of society as a whole.”

Wonder why we are in SO MUCH DEBT? 
UN VP Christian Figueres told us time and time again! Were you listening: UN Climate chief calls for TRIPLING of Clean Energy investment. Why? to save the planet, of course - or is it? "This is the first time in the history of mankind that we are setting ourselves the task of intentionally, within a defined period of time, to change the economic development model that has been reigning for at least 150 years, since the Industrial Revolution," she said.

The HIDDEN GOAL comes to the SURFACE.
WHY DESTROY CAPITALISM?
Because individuals CAN OWN Land and Businesses,
and that is not FAIR!

Because of income redistribution, they must Nationalize all industry. 
How is that accomplished? According to Agenda 21, just label these businessesUnsustainable. Whatever that means...and whichever bureaucrat defined it as such!
Call them polluters, tax them, and fine them out of existence. Let the Government take over and run the show!

Let the inefficient, corrupt Government RULE...


so they can CONTROL ALL THE MONEY and POWER.

Teach in schools that Government is God, and in 12 years - the new graduates are WILLING to give up their Freedoms, all while they turn on their families and country.  
Why choose the Environment and Energy? Fear of destroying the Earth motivates the people to action, while Energy is POWER necessary for every business and product to function.  Make the people AFRAID, and they willingly GIVE UP THEIR POWER.
Power cannot be in the hands of the individual. It is not FAIR!

Who benefits? The corporations in bed with the government, as the individual is forced to use these new "safe, energy, efficient products."  The fact that they are ridiculously expensive and often don't work never comes into play. After all, if the individual cannot afford a car, they can rent one. If they cannot afford a house, they can rent one.  Renters are slaves to their landlords - we go back to the old days and ways of becoming indentured servants.  American is founded on property rights
and individual freedom.

The Founding Fathers of our great Republic fought a Revolution to throw off the chains of a tyrannical and repressive government.


The Founders created the
Constitution and Bill of Rights
of the United States of America to
GUARANTEE those Rights
to Americans and future generations.

Once the Constitution and American History
is NO LONGER TAUGHT IN SCHOOLS...


the Chains of Tyranny...Return.

Don't believe me?  Read analysis of Executive Order #13603 - by Dave Hodges:

Obama’s EO 13603 Reintroduces Slavery to America

Executive Order 13603 – Obama authorizes SLAVE LABOR on a ...


  A ROSE (THORN) BY ANY OTHER NAME...


Why do you think Donald Trump is SUCH A THORN - in the GOP's Side? 
His non-PC is only part of it. He is living proof that a man from modest means with hard work can become a huge success. He understands how to work the system. He wants to share that information with you.  He has shared it with you in his book, "The Art of the Deal." He values success and realizes if America is successful, he will be more successful. He values and understands the meaning of American Exceptionalism.

He is not afraid to say, "  I am a success - and you can be one too."  The Donald...is NOT for Sale. He made it on his own HARD WORK, and is not beholden to LARGE CORPORATIONS, or the GOP. Interesting, isn't it?

  If not YOU, WHO?  If not NOW, WHEN?
In Liberty,
Karen Schoen

Saturday, July 25, 2015

Taqiyya Template Terminated!

The common liberal trope stance today is that not having one’s feelings hurt, trumps risking being offended by the often-painful truth - as if all humans didn’t naturally first react in denial to all new ideas (see Elizabeth Kubler-Ross and others). Since they do, it's not the responsibility or right of any other human to short-circuit their natural learning process - of going from fear to hope - by retarding them or allowing them to retard them selves by indulging in their first instinctive response: "But I don't want to learn that!" 
Unfortunately, this is exactly what the corrupt traitors in today's so-called education system are abusing the children in their charge with, by dint of tempting kids with it:
"Remember, kids - there's no wrong answers! Whee!"
;-(
But islam can be easily studied and known in its entirety, by anyone. It will never change!
So, when Western people won’t educate them *selves* about islam because our culture defers all thinking to those “authorities” we PAY to do our thinking and research for us, while they secretly know full-well that the salesmen in charge will always sell us all out, they ARE CRIMINALLY NEGLIGENT INFANTILE DELINQUENT TRAITORS TO RATIONALITY AND CIVILIZATION!
It should never be allowed by backwards people to be considered “illegal” to accuse these criminals (muslims) of their crimes, allegedly because the painful truth might offend them or hurt their feelings, and so “make” them commit even more crimes!
No problem was ever solved by ignoring it, and nobody is doing even these muslims any favours, by indulging their historic lies that islam is a “religion” (at all, much less one “of peace”) or a “race” (much less one of poor oppressed “People Of Colour”)!
Pretending there is NOT a Muslim problem but only a white racist problem accepting diversity, is criminally negligent TREASON.
Keeping the muzzie masses ignorant of their own hate-crime death-threat canon seems to be the self-imposed mission of most of the enemedia, government and of course their corporazi owners these days – it’s most likely why they keep lying about islam being a “great religion of peace” all the time! That, and their inherent racism, of course!
We wouldn’t want any of these poor oppressed mentally-inferior swarthy holy-mobster criminals to suffer any “blowback” retaliation (i.e: JUSTICE) for their crimes, now, would we?
Anyway, Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller deconstructed one of the most vile recent  muslim attempts at proselytizing to our children, by slandering them all as hatefully bigoted racists, in a teen magazine today!
From HERE:

Proselytizing for and whitewashing Islam in…Teen Vogue

JULY 24, 2015 9:22 AM BY ROBERT SPENCER47 COMMENTS
Over at PamelaGeller.com, I discuss yet another sly exercise in Islamic proselytizing slipped into a forum that would have no space for a similar presentation from any other religious group:
Teen Vogue is just that: a magazine for teenage girls. Articles featured on its front page today include “Justin Bieber and Sam Smith Are Already Listening to Tori Kelly’s New Album, and You Should Be, Too”; “The 35 Coolest Back-to-School Backpacks”; “7 Desserts That Require No Baking At All”; “The Complete Guide to Washing Your Makeup Brushes — Yes, You Need To”; and the immortal “I Understand My Period, But What’s Coming Out Of Me The Other Three Weeks of the Month?” In that company, “10 Misconceptions About Islam That Muslim Americans Are Tired of Hearing” stands out like Hillary Clinton at a Tea Party meeting, and manifests the indefatigable determination of Muslims to proselytize anywhere and everywhere they can, as well as the naive multiculturalism of Leftist publishers and editors who give them a platform to speak positively about their religion that they would never offer to Jews or Christians or any other religious group.
This piece, like so many others of its kind, packages its proselytizing in the guise of clearing up “misconceptions” that people supposedly have about Islam, and follows the pattern of other articles like it in presenting some “misconceptions” that no one really holds and are entirely innocuous anyway amidst others that are more or less straight proselytizing and outright deception designed to keep Americans — even those far more concerned about Kendall Jenner and Katy Perry than about Mohammad Abdulazeez and Usaama Rahim — ignorant and complacent about the jihad threat.
And it starts, unsurprisingly, with a highly questionable anecdote that situates Muslims firmly as victims, and smears opponents of jihad terror as bigots:
10 Misconceptions About Islam That Muslim Americans Are Tired of Hearing,” by Hishaam Siddiqi, Teen Vogue, July 6, 2015:
Can you grab that bottle of Sriracha on the top shelf?” my mother asked, as we made our way down the “ethnic” aisle at our local grocery store. It was around 5:30pm, my father was almost home from work, and my mother and I were out getting last minute ingredients for dinner. As we waited in the checkout line, waiting to pay for our goods, I hear a voice behind me, “You here to steal something?”
I turn around to find a tall man, broad shoulders, a baseball cap pulled low over his forehead, looking straight at my mother. I stand there bewildered, wondering if this was an acquaintance of hers trying to be funny or make some sort of weird joke.
Are you here to blow something up? Why are you wearing that?” he barks again, referring to my mother’s hijab and abaya. At this point, everyone within earshot tenses up and I find myself flooding with both embarrassment and panic. What was this guy trying to get at? We were just at the grocery store trying to get home on time, and this man, who we had never seen before, was going out of his way to harass my mother.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t an isolated incident. My mother, petite as she may be, has no problem holding her own and isn’t new to being singled out and hassled for her choice of Islamic clothing. She clearly and eloquently explained her religious garb to the man, told him to not yell at her, and swiftly sent him on his way.
Note the semaphores: “the ‘ethnic’ aisle at our local grocery store” — America is intrinsically racist, “otherizing” racial and religious minorities in innumerable ways large and small, even to the point of labeling an aisle containing food that Muslims eat the “ethnic” aisle, as if it is not quite American. “Baseball cap pulled low over his forehead” — a racist, redneck yahoo. “A tall man, broad shoulders…My mother, petite as she may be” — Muslims are weak, small, endangered victims of monstrous, hulking bullies. “Are you here to blow something up? Why are you wearing that?” — only idiots who do things like berate strangers in supermarkets are concerned about Islamic terrorism. “Unfortunately, this wasn’t an isolated incident. My mother, petite as she may be, has no problem holding her own and isn’t new to being singled out and hassled for her choice of Islamic clothing.” — Muslims are routinely subjected to this kind of treatment, you see. And while there may indeed exist baseball cap-wearing louts who bark at petite hijabis in the ethnic aisle, although I highly doubt it, the claim that this anecdote represents a general tendency is belied by FBI hate crime statistics that show that anti-Jewish hate crimes are over four times more common than anti-Muslim hate crimes — but you don’t see Jews whining in Teen Vogue about creeps who yelled at them in a supermarket.
Growing up, I’ve had plenty of these experiences. Whether it was strange looks at my mother or jokes about my Arabic name, life as a Muslim in post 9/11 America isn’t the cutest feeling. The constant villainization of Muslims in mainstream media makes it difficult to do even simple things such as buy groceries or get through airport security without crude jokes or dangerous assumptions, and with the murder of three innocent Muslim kids in Chapel Hill this past year, it’s clear that stereotyping can lead to even fatal consequences.
The constant villainization of Muslims in mainstream media”? What? Where? When? Has Siddiqi never heard of Christiane Amanpour or Niraj Warikoo or Lisa Wangsness or Manya Brachear or a thousand other mainstream media “journalists” who do their utmost to whitewash Islamic jihad terror and to “villainize” those who oppose it? Is there even a single instance of this “villainization” to which she could honestly point? The mainstream media goes out of its way to distance Islam and jihad from terrorism, and seizes upon every possible opportunity to present Muslims and Islam in a positive light. This claim that Muslims are “villainized” in the media is designed to inhibit even further any honest reporting about jihad terror activity.
There is actually no evidence whatsoever that the murder of the Muslims in Chapel Hill was motivated by hatred of Muslims. The fact that Hishaam Siddiqi (along with many other Muslim writers these days) refers to it reveals how rarely Muslims are really victimized: instead of being able to point to an actual murder inspired by anti-Muslim hatred, they keep having to point to this one, in which the victims happened to be Muslim but their religion had nothing to do with why they were murdered. This is because there aren’t any murders inspired by anti-Muslim hatred.
Fortunately we live in the age of technology and open information—we don’t always have to be victims of ignorance and perpetuate harmful stereotypes. Misconceptions can be overcome with a simple but powerful thing, knowledge: here are ten common misconceptions about Islam and Muslims to help you break the cycle.
No one wants to be ignorant and hateful, or to be thought of as such. In this connection, remember the supermarket racist’s question: “Are you here to blow something up?” To be concerned about Muslims because of jihad terrorism, you see, is ignorant and hateful. And now Hishaam Siddiqi helpfully provides the antidote.
1. Muslim women have no rights
This is definitely a hot-topic and complicated issue but one of my favorite misconceptions to tackle. It’s important to realize the difference between cultural influences and religious policy. Many countries across the world, including Muslim countries, have patriarchal cultures (cultures in which men are automatically assumed to lead), which are often socially constructed and influenced by the traditions, gender roles, and practices of that culture. Islam as a religion, however, preaches equality of the sexes. There are many Muslim women who have made great accomplishments in the fields of science, entertainment, academia, art, and politics—just this year, Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, a professor of biology, became president of Muslim majority African country Mauritius!
It’s a common Islamic apologist’s claim that the mistreatment of women in Muslim countries is due to culture, not Islam, but this is absurd on its face. Islam is an all-encompassing system, covering every aspect of life. Does Hishaam Siddiqi expect us to believe that in countries where it has been firmly entrenched for nearly 1,400 years, it hasn’t had any effect on the culture? On the contrary: in such countries, Islam is the culture. And while the claim that “Muslim women have no rights” is an overstated straw man, the mistreatment of women in Islamic countries is firmly rooted in Islam. The Qur’an likens a woman to a field (tilth), to be used by a man as he wills: “Your women are a tilth for you (to cultivate) so go to your tilth as ye will” (2:223). It declares that a woman’s testimony is worth half that of a man: “Get two witnesses, out of your own men, and if there are not two men, then a man and two women, such as ye choose, for witnesses, so that if one of them errs, the other can remind her” (2:282). It allows men to marry up to four wives, and have sex with slave girls also: “If ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly with the orphans, marry women of your choice, two or three or four; but if ye fear that ye shall not be able to deal justly (with them), then only one, or (a captive) that your right hands possess, that will be more suitable, to prevent you from doing injustice” (4:3). It rules that a son’s inheritance should be twice the size of that of a daughter: “Allah (thus) directs you as regards your children’s (inheritance): to the male, a portion equal to that of two females” (4:11). Worst of all, the Qur’an tells husbands to beat their disobedient wives: “Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women). So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them” (4:34). It allows for marriage to pre-pubescent girls, stipulating that Islamic divorce procedures “shall apply to those who have not yet menstruated” (65:4).
2. Muslims worship a different God
A lot of people think Allah is a specific Islamic deity, but really it just means ‘god’ in Arabic. Christian Arabs even use the word Allah when referring or praying to God. And since Islam is an Abrahamic religion, Muslims believe Allah is the same God who Jesus, Moses, and other biblical prophets all prayed to.
This is a proselytizing point, based on the Qur’an (29:46, which says that Muslims worship the same deity as that of Jews and Christians). It is designed simply to mitigate the strangeness of Islam that many feel, arising from the huge amount of violence done in its name and in accord with its teachings.
3. Islam doesn’t mix with other religions Again, it’s important to make the distinction between the behavior of various cultures and politics of countries compared to actual religious theology. Islam is an Abrahamic religion, which is in the same family of religions as Judaism and Christianity. All three of the religions share many similarities, including important religious figures, historical events, and spiritual beliefs. In fact, Muslims are religiously required to believe in Jesus as a divine prophet. There have been numerous periods of history throughout the Middle East where Muslims, Jews, and Christians lived together for centuries.
as long as the Jews and Christians knew their place, and paid the jizya, a Qur’an-specified poll tax, “with willing submission,” and felt themselves “subdued” (Qur’an 9:29). If, on the other hand, Jews and Christians refused to be subservient, they were massacred — as in the murder of 4,000 Jews in Granada in 1066, following the appointment of a Jewish vizier over the city, which Muslims believed violated the Qur’anic imperative that Jews must be subjugated.
4. Muslims must engage in Jihad, also known as holy-war
This misconception was a huge buzzword right after 9/11 and still does come up every now and then. A lot of people misconstrue Jihad to be a religious agenda to wage war, and is often cited as the reasoning for much of fringe Islamic extremism. However, Jihad doesn’t necessarily mean holy-war, it means to simply struggle for God—an overwhelming majority of Muslims are nonviolent and unfairly lumped with Islamic extremists. Jihad, as most Muslims see it, can include anything from wearing a head scarf to school even though you get teased for it to setting aside allowance money to donate. While fighting for your religious beliefs can be a form of jihad, the term itself refers to any sort of struggle to do good.
This explanation doesn’t even attempt to claim that jihad warfare is not jihad. It just posits that there are other forms of jihad as well. So what? If they don’t compel jihad warriors to stop killing Infidels, they are of no interest to Infidels.
5. Sharia Law is taking over the United States
I always roll my eyes at this one. Sharia law is the theory of Islamic law, derived from centuries old religious and historical texts, which outlines things such as how to settle finances after divorce, the legality of adoption, social etiquette, economics, and other spiritual topics. Almost every time I’ve heard the word Sharia Law on the news, it’s been fear mongering that’s had little to nothing to do with the actual body of laws. There’s no broad Islamic drive to push religious laws onto other political systems.
The Muslim Brotherhood “must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and “sabotaging” its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.” — “An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Brotherhood in North America,” by Mohamed Akram, May 19, 1991.
6. All Muslims are Arabs
Couldn’t be further from the truth! Out of the 1.6 billion Muslims living worldwide, over 60% of them are from South and South East Asia, with Indonesia being the most populous Muslim country, followed by Pakistan. In the United States, the largest Muslim demographic is African-American followed by South Asian. Not all Arabs are Muslims either—many Arab countries have very large and historic Christian and Jewish populations.
This one is completely unimportant, and probably only included to reinforce the contention that only racist, ignorant yahoos care about jihad terror.
7. Muslim women are forced to cover up
Although Islamic teachings do require women to dress modestly, how a woman chooses to cover herself and to what degree is under her autonomy. The different ways Muslim women cover varies both religiously (from simple headscarves to full robes) and also culturally, with each region having it’s on take on modest clothing. Unfortunately, many patriarchal societies exploit this and force women to cover in order to systematically subjugate them.
How a woman chooses to cover herself and to what degree is under her autonomy? Really? Tell it to Aqsa Parvez, whose Muslim father choked her to death with her hijab after she refused to wear it; and to Amina Muse Ali, a Christian woman in Somalia whom Muslims murdered because she wasn’t wearing a hijab; and to the 40 women who were murdered in Iraq in 2007 for not wearing the hijab; and to Alya Al-Safar, whose Muslim cousin threatened to kill her and harm her family because she stopped wearing the hijab in Britain; and to Amira Osman Hamid, who faces whipping in Sudan for refusing to wear the hijab; and to the Egyptian girl, also named Amira, who committed suicide after being brutalized for her family for refusing to wear the hijab; and to the Muslim and non-Muslim teachers at the Islamic College of South Australia who were told that they had to wear the hijab or be fired; and to the women in Chechnya whom police shot with paintballs because they weren’t wearing hijab; and to the women also in Chechnya who were threatened by men with automatic rifles for not wearing hijab; and to the elementary school teachers in Tunisia who were threatened with death for not wearing hijab; and to the Syrian schoolgirls who were forbidden to go to school unless they wore hijab; and to the women in Gaza whom Hamas has forced to wear hijab; and to the women in Iran who protested against the regimeby daring to take off their legally-required hijab; and to the women in London whom Muslim thugs threatened to murder if they didn’t wear hijab; and to the anonymous young Muslim woman who doffed her hijab outside her home andstarted living a double life in fear of her parents, and all the other women and girls who have been killed or threatened, or who live in fear for daring not to wear the hijab.
8. Muslims starve for an entire month every year
This one is more of a misunderstanding than a misconception but it always makes me laugh because I hear it every year. Ramadan is a month in which Muslims partake in various charitable and religious activities, most prominent of which is fasting from sunrise to sunset in order to learn humility and appreciate their blessings. But you won’t believe how many people I’ve met who actually think we don’t eat or drink the entire month—not true! Although we do fast for one month, abstaining from food and drink only takes place during daylight hours, which usually ends with a big feast at sunset and way too many people over eating and raiding the fridge at 3am.
But you won’t believe how many people I’ve met who actually think we don’t eat or drink the entire month” — silliness. More ominous is that Siddiqi never mentions that Ramadan, because it is a time when Muslims renew their devotion to Allah, and because jihad is the supreme act of devotion to Allah, is a time of increased jihad terrorism. “The best acts that bring you closer to God are jihad, so hurry to it and make sure to carry out the invasion this holy month and be exposed to martyrdom in it,” so said Islamic State spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani as Ramadan began this year.
9. Muslim Men are encouraged to practice polygamy
This misconception gets brought up a lot but a little historical context helps us better understand. Fourteen hundred years ago, during the rise of Islam, social structures did not provide women with the same assistance as they do today—women needed marriages not just romantically, but also as a means of protection, housing, employment, and tribalism. The law of allowing Muslim men to marry multiple wives was explicitly introduced so as to help widowed and divorced women retain social wellbeing. More importantly, Muslim men are discouraged from marrying more than one wife if they are unable to provide for them equally financially and emotionally. In many Muslim countries, and even Muslim communities here in the West, polygamy is looked down upon and considered an outdated tradition.
In reality, there are as many as 100,000 polygamous Muslim families in the U.S., in clear violation of U.S. law, and Islamic polygamy is not considered an “outdated tradition,” as it is sanctioned in the Qur’an (4:3).
10. Muhammad was the founder of Islam
Historians might consider Muhammad the one who introduced Islam, but Muslims believe Islam to be the same message revealed by Jesus, Moses, and all the other Biblical prophets. Additionally, Muslims do not pray to or worship Muhammad, if anything it is emphasized that he was human just like everyone else.
The same message revealed by Jesus, Moses, and all the other Biblical prophets. See? Nothing to be concerned about, unless you’re a baseball cap-wearing hijabi-harassing boor. So relax, Teen Vogue readers — only hatemongers care to resist Islamic jihad terror. Go back to Justin Bieber, and don’t worry about a thing.