I just received some information sent to me recently by a friend.  It's worth sharing.

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These statistics are published by DOD and may be viewed at: 
 
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL32492.pdf

So, I've been getting into it with a Muslim apologist on a YouTube comment thread.  I thought it would be interesting, so here's the blow-by-blow.  If you think you can add something to the conversation, please feel free to comment here!

Crossfire2009: 

Islam has various hadiths commanding the freeing of slaves I will post them if you like. Can you give me one verse of Bible that commands slaves to be freed or better yet can you give me one qoute by a founding father of America that recommends freeing slaves?

Me:

Another tu quoque argument. It is disingenuous and easily discredited. But since you're keen on bringing up past sins, let's roll with it. What about the Barbary Corsairs, who kidnapped and sold into slavery millions of white Europeans? The suffered horribly under the Islamic rulers who purchased them.

Sura (33:50) - "O Prophet! We have made lawful to thee thy wives to whom thou hast paid their dowers; and those (slaves) whom thy right hand possesses out of the prisoners of war whom Allah has assigned to thee"

Sura (23:5-6) - "..who abstain from sex, except with those joined to them in the marriage bond, or (the captives) whom their right hands possess..." This verse allows the slave-owner to have sex with his slaves. See also Sura (70:29-30).

Sura (4:24) - "And all married women (are forbidden unto you) save those (captives) whom your right hands possess." Even sex with married slaves is permissible.

A tiny verse in one of the earliest Suras (90:13) does say that freeing a slave is good, however, this was at a time when the Muslim community was miniscule and several of their new and potential recruits were either actual slaves or newly freed slaves. Many of these same people, and Muhammad himself, later went on to become owners and traders of slaves, both male and female, as they acquired the power to do so.

However, thanks to the doctrine of abrogation (later verses of the Qu'ran supercede those that were written earlier), slavery became an entrenched part of the Muslim world for hundreds of years; far longer than the Western world.

And it isn't just the Qu'ran that justifies slavery. Read the Hadith as well: Bukhari is filled with instructions on the handling of slavery, as is Abu Dawud and Ibn Ishaq.

Crossfire2009:

Narrated Ibn 'Umar: "The manumitted should manumit the slave completely... "
Bukhari(Book 46, Hadith 702)

The above hadith orders freed slaves to free others from slavery thus setting up a countinual chain of abolition. Can you show me a constitutinal verse set up by Americas founders or the writters of the Bible that Equals this?

(note he has totally ignored the reference to the Barbary Corsairs and the terrible depredations of the Islamic rulers who employed them to enslave white Europeans)

Me:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

As for the elevating of former slaves in American history, how about Harriet Tubman, Nat Turner, Frederick Douglass, and many others, who were all recognized for their contributions? And while we're at it, how about the 54th regiment of Massachutsets in the Civil War, an all black regiment of former slaves who distinguished themselves in combat over and over again?

Bear in mind, I'm not stating that all Muslims feel that way about all those horrible things I mentioned. I do find it odd, however, that those of the Middle East who speak out against such deplorable practices today all have to write under pseudonyms, or live in hiding, or have 24 hour constant bodyguarding, like Ayaan Hirsi Ali?

See the actual comment thread here.  Comments welcome; please help me to continue exposing his shoddy debate for what it really is; an attempt to obfuscate and confuse what orthodox Islam really teaches its disciples.

So, the Liberals in Congress are working hard at ressurecting the so called "Fairness Doctrine", that was mercifully put to rest a long time ago.  This unabashed assault on free speech is the latest attempt by the Liberals to deal with Conservative talk radio and broadcasts that bring to light some of their dirty little Socialist secrets. 

 There is a bill proposed in Congress that would permanently prohibit the reinstatement of this travesty.  Broadcaster Freedom Act (H.R. 2905; S. 1748) was written by Congressmen Mike Pence and Greg Walden, but, true to form, Nancy Pelosi refuses to bring the bill to the floor for debate and a vote. 

Write your Congressmen in support of this motion; we need to encourage this bill, so that the thinly veiled attempt to stifle and control free speech called The Fairness Doctrine is never allowed to threaten our rights again. 

I recently spent some time and listened to the debate that took place on the motion to assert the superiority of Western values, and I wrote a commentary out about it.  It is well worth the listen, if a bit long.  Listen to it all, and make your own assumptions.  There were 748 people attending the debate.  At the beginning of the debate the vote was 313 for the assertion of the primacy of Western values / 221 against, with 207 not knowing which way to vote.  At the end of the debate, the audience voted 465 for/ 264 against, and 18 didn't know which way to vote.  The rational and logical manner in which the points were made for Western values and culture far outperformed the histrionics and the vapid tu quoque platitudes of the Left (and Tariq Ramadan; I would hesitate to call him a Liberal, as I believe he is a Muslim soldier practicing jihad on the demographic and misinformation front).  The best line of the debate was Ibn Warraq's closing line:

"I don't want to live in a country where I can get stoned for committing adultery.  I would much rather live in a country where I can get stoned and then commit adultery".

And now, on to the commentary:

Ibn Warraq did a great job setting the discussion up, and I couldn't think of a better person to describe the values of Western society than a person who escaped the horrible and backward values of the society in which he was raised.  He would definitely be a hard one to follow, as heis erudite, and very straightforward with his discourse. 

I found Charles Glass to be pretentious and annoying.  Stressing that he was "from California" and therefore "more Western" is laughable to say the least, especially since most of California is so far Left they've left the country, and are more Communist/Socialist in their value system as a whole than espousers of Western viewpoints and morals. He only seemed to point to the same old tu quoque arguments of the past as evidence of the cultural fobiles of the West.  Heard it all before; its the usual drivel that cultural relativists like to spew; (e.g. "What about the Crusades?" without acknowledging that the Crusades were in response to massive Muslim aggression and colonization of formerly Christian lands).
 
Aronovitch focused the debate on the difference of the value system between the West and a world controlled by Islam.  I loved his first counter assertion to Glass, that the Abu Grhaibs and other failings of the Western value system weren't glorified, as they are in Islamic countries; instead they are viewed as dark blots in our history and on our honor.  Ergo, our culture is superior.  He then went on to provide a virtual laundry list of crimes against humanity that the Islamic Republic of Iran has committed.  He also called Tariq Ramadan to task for his lack of condemnation of stoning as a form of capital punishment.  All in all, a very easy on the ears, straightforward speaker, with no vitriol or malice in his tone.

Tariq Ramadan started off shaky, and finished ranting and horrible.  His shady, shallow attempt to practice Taqiyya (masking the call for dialogue on Muslim-only terms in the clothing of cultural relativism) was easily seen through.  The fact that he calls himself European Muslim just means he's a Muslim who lives in Europe, and not an assimilated member of that culture.  He is a perfect spokesperson and a great agent for the Da'wa phase of Jihad. Useless and an enemy of the West.

Douglas Murray was entertaining to listen to as well.  He stresses the fact that, as he is a homosexual, there isn't an Islamist country that he would feel safe living in today.  He gave an example of when a student protested what he said at a lecture recently about how having an Islamist government is a bad thing.  He retorted with a brilliant statement:  "Name me one Islamist country you would enjoy living in.".  It's a question/statement that is of great use to those of us who believe cultural relativism is destroying the West.  He made a great point about how the so called "dialogue" with Muslim countries is always one sided, and that every attempt at starting a dialogue through humor and honest criticism has been met with violent opposition.

And then, we come to the one who has utterly discredited himself as a historian of India at all, specifically the Mughal period. William Dalrymple.  He insisted that Akbar was a Muslim ruler; history clearly has indicated that he was not.  He is called to task for this later by Ibn Warraq, and his stupidity is enshrined in the Web for as long as the Web exists.  William Dalrymple once again sets up tu quoque after tu quoque argument, all based on his understanding of the Akbar period of India, which is horribly flawed.  He also called Ashoka a "Muslim ruler"; here too he was mistaken.  Aside from the Akbar/Ashoka damage to his professional credibility, he spouts the usual multicultural platitudes, the evil NeoCons, the Colonialism, Nazis, etc., yet totally ignores the horrible crimes being committed every day today in the name of Allah. 

After the actual introductions by all 6 debaters, there was a Q and A session, where the audience asked some exceedingly astute questions, which give me hope for the future of the struggle against the jihad currently being waged world wide by fundamentalist practitioners of Islam.  Along the lines of "What we should be doing is comparing the values we have now versus the other cultures' values now."  We shouldn't be looking at the past and comparing our mistakes to what is going on now in the Muslim world. 

To quote a favorite icon of the Left, Jim Morrison:  "The West is the best."

On a personal note, I, as an agnostic/other faith person, would much rather live in a Western country than the backwards, medieval Islamist country.

My life is undoubtedly longer, richer and better because I do. 

Today is the 6th anniversary of the absolute worst attack to ever occur on the soil of the Sovereign United States of America.  At no other time in history has any nation, power, army or individual ever assaulted our homeland so successfully; even Pearl Harbor pales in comparison with the psychological and sociological effect this has had upon the psyche of the American people.  Let alone the toll in life and money.

For the first year or so afterwards, I was full of pride with how we dealt with the situation.  For the first time in my life that I could recall clearly; partisanship and bickering held no place in the hearts of our people.  Everyone was one.  There were no hyphenated Americans; just Americans - wrothful, sorrowful and aware. When the call for invasion was issued, and ratified almost unanimously by both houses of Congress, I breathed a sigh of relief.  At last we would deal with the Middle East as they have dealt with the rest of the world for the past 1400 years.  First Afghanistan, then Iraq, then Iran!  The Jacksonian in me chortled with glee that we would finally stick it to regimes that have been threatening to annihilate us and our way of life for the past 30-40 years.   

But then, as in previous conflicts, we started to tear ourselves apart. 

We let our politicians dictate wartime strategy and policy to our military.  Fat, aging men, most of whom haven't even served in the National Guard, let alone active duty, telling the most professional army in the world how to do their jobs led to the current situation that is Iraq.  Politics kept our Armed Forces' hands tied with absurd Rules of Engagement so they couldn't do their job effectively.  A horribly biased, anti-war media began spinning every victory as a defeat, every accidental civilian death as a massacre, and began shilling for the Islamofascists of Hamas, Fatah, Hizbollah, and even Iran, by printing falsehoods and exaggerations given to them by said animals, explicitly for the purpose of turning Americans against the war. 

And it has worked.  The blinders have been pulled over almost half of our country's collective eyes by a traitorous media, a traitorous selection of representatives, and the "progressive regressives" of the far Left, which has the lips of almost the entire Democratic party firmly attached to its chapped red Communist ass. 

We have the far Left to thank for the PC state of our nation, where it is considered racist to merely point out that all those crazy people in the Middle East with the turbans and the like who are threatening to either kill us, force us to accept their backwards and evil religion, or accept the yoke of dhimmitude, and pay a jizya (tax) in order to merely exist, really mean it. 

They really do want Islam to dominate the world, and have been waging a jihad against the West in order to do so for the past 1400 years.  Once, they conquered half to three quarters of Europe through bloody conquest.  Now, they are doing the same through immigration and soft Jihad.  They attack the laws and utilize our tolerant Western values against us in order to set us up for a tremendous fall. 

The Left snuggles on up with members of one of the most intolerant, bigoted faiths on the planet to date, simply because the Islamofascists hate America as much as they do.  That is what is baffling.  The Left screams from the mountaintops in warning of the vast Right Wing Christian Conservative Conspiracy, while supporting (most actively and vehemently) a people who make our most hardcore Conservatives look like heavy metal rock stars on a 3 week cocaine and hooker bender.  They prop up horrible, dictatorial regimes with their praise and financial support, as well as their legitimization of them, that would, if they had their way, line almost every member of the far Left up against the wall and have them shot at the very least (if not hung, or beheaded). 

At this rate, I fear that only another 9/11, on the same scale or greater, will suffice to finally rouse our country from its dangerous and fitful slumber.  We have forgotten the lessons of 9/11/01.   

Shame on us.  We need to dig deep, and find that reserve of pride and patriotism that we possessed in WWII.  We are facing the same Nazi style ideology, painted with the face of religious extremism, which makes it even more dangerous.  We value our culture far less than they value theirs, yet ours is far superior in every way.  If we want to keep our culture as our own, we need to fight to maintain it. 

Make no mistake; this is a clash of civilizations between the Dar-al-Harb (World of War) and the Dar-al-Islam (World of Islam).  There can be no peace with religious extremists who are willing to strap bombs onto their own children and send them off to blow themselves up, utterly convinced of the rightness of their cause.  Any such overtures reinforce the image of our weakness in their mind, whether or not we think of it as weakness.

It's time to say NO.  No more giving in to the outrageous demands placed on the West by the Muslim ummah.  No retreat.  No surrender.  No dhimmitude.  No jizya. 

Never forget those who tragically lost their lives 6 years ago today.  Don't let their lost lives be in vain.   

Hello, all.  Sorry I've not been more active as of late; I am actually dealing with a lot of familial stress which has caused my actual research time to go down.  I'll be posting more regularly as things even themselves out.

With that in mind, here, I believe, is the solution to all of our airline travel woes:

Even more evidence that the elite of Europe have lost their collective marbles. 

Apparently, it's only okay to march in protest in Brussels if you are an Islamist supporting a terror group, or a radical Leftist supporting Truthism.

If you're a born citizen who is naturally concerned about the erosion of your nation's (and continent's collective) sovereignty, you could be labelled an "extremist" and face criminal prosecution.

In a stunning (but not unexpected) display of dhimmitude, the Brussels mayor has denied a permit to the march that was scheduled to go on next Sept. 11th in protest of the spreading of Sharia law and the general kowtowing to Muslim extremists that Europe's elite are enabling to happen. 

I don't know what we can do over here in the States, other than voice our outrage.  The fight must go on, or the West will fall.

From Front Page:

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Anti-Islamist Rally Banned in Brussels

By Vasko Kohlmayer
FrontPageMagazine.com | 8/22/2007

An eagerly awaited public rally was to take place in ..:namespace prefix = st1 />Brussels – the capital of the European Union – on September 11 of this year. Called 'Against Islamisation of Europe,' its intent was to protest the spreading of Islamic sharia law across the European continent and honor by a minute of silence the victims of the 9/11 terror attacks...:NAMESPACE PREFIX = O />

The event was being organized by SIOE (Stop the Islamisation of Europe), an alliance of people from across Europe whose objective is to prevent Islam from 'becoming a dominant political force in Europe.' Concerned about the Muslim subversion of the continent's cultures and institutions, SIOE's has this to say about Islam:

No other religion demands more from those who do not adhere to its doctrine. This would not be a problem if our leaders actually stood up for Western values and insisted that Muslims live within our laws and accepted our cultures and social systems. Instead, it is we who are told we must abandon our values, cultures and societies in order not to offend Muslims. It is Islam that is being rammed down our throats and the throats of our children. It is not only in the West that Islam is causing misery and mayhem. All around the world Islam is battling the "infidels".

In a clear sign of public support for the planned demonstration, 20,000 people from across Europe have pledged their participation.

But now it looks the event will not be allowed to proceed. On August 13, Brussels' Mayor Freddy Thielemans, a socialist, made the decision not to issue a permit for the march.

The Mayor's decision is a very unusual one, because Brussels is known as a demonstration friendly city. In fact, it is the demonstration capital of the world with two or three events taking place on average every day. In the last six years alone, the Mayor's office has received 3,600 requests for public protest permits of which only 6 have been denied.

But the Mayor is trying to do more than just stop people from voicing their concerns about the ongoing Islamization of their culture. This is what he wrote on August 20 in an op-ed piece in the Belgian newspaper De Standaard:

First and foremost the organizers have chosen the symbolic date of 9/11. The intention is obviously to confound the terrorist activities of Muslim extremists on the one hand and Islam as a religion and all Muslims on the other hand. […] Such incitement to discrimination and hatred, which we usually call racism and xenophobia, is forbidden by a considerable number of international treaties and is punished by our penal laws and by European legislation. The European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly pronounced judgments condemning this type of acts.

In what is a truly surreal development, a European public official calls those concerned about the encroachment of Islam on their life extremists and threatens criminal prosecution if they don't desist.

The Mayor's concern about extremism is very selective, however. In December of 2004, for example, he allowed a demonstration to proceed where more than 20,000 Iranians protested against the inclusion of People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran in EU's list of terrorist organizations. This is how this group was once described by the US Department of State:

The Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), a leftist revolutionary group, was formed in 1963. Its founding principles included the creation of a Marxist-oriented Islamic government in Iran; opposition to 'imperialism' as supposedly embodied by the United States; opposition to Zionism and Israel; and a close affinity to Third World radical movements. […] To achieve its political objectives, the MEK almost from its inception has engaged in acts of terrorism and violence; the organization was responsible for fatal attacks on several Americans in Iran in the 1970s.

Not only was the demonstration allowed to go on – it took place in front of the EU's headquarters – it received extensive official backing. Numerous speeches were made by European parliamentarians and various public personalities seeking to remove the group's terror designation.

This makes for a remarkable situation: In the EU capital, Iranian Muslims are allowed to show their solidarity with a questionable organization while native citizens are being turned into criminals for seeking to voice their concerns about the unfolding Islamic takeover of their lands.

To add insult to injury, on the very day the organizers of the 9/11 rally were protesting the decision to block the event, Mayor Thielemans approved a permit for another demonstration to take place on September 9. Organized by an alliance of 'various truth, peace and human right movements in Europe' calling themselves United for Truth, they claim that the 9/11 attacks were staged by the Bush administration with possible support from some European governments. A message posted on their website on July 30 reads in part: 

Recently the French Minister for Housing and the City Mme Christine Boutin expressed her doubts about the official 9/11 report. Before, Michael Meacher, secretary of state in Britain and Andreas Von Bulow, ex Minister from Germany, stated clearly that 9/11 and the war on terror are orchestrated by the Bush administration. Prof. David Ray Griffin held on September 14th, 2006 a lecture ('Should the truth be revealed or concealed') in Copenhagen. In this lecture he asked for a European investigation to the facts of September 11, 2001. To make this demand stronger, the United for truth organization in Belgium is organizing a European protest rally through Brussels. […] They [protesters] agree the 9/11 attacks and other terrorist acts, no matter if they were carried out by some so-called Afghan cavemen or by the governments themselves, inflicted the current policy of fear.

It is hard to believe that in Europe Muslims and far-left radicals are allowed to march in support of their causes and inane theories while those concerned about the ongoing disintegration of their societies are not only being silenced but threatened with legal action.

The controversy surrounding the planned 9/11 rally in Brussels is emblematic of Europe's rapid descent into madness. Today Europe is a place where things are turned upside down and where common sense is not only commonly disregarded but actively suppressed.

Having lost both its sense of identity and sanity, Europe stands on the brink of being overtaken by Muslims who may well be able to claim their prize without so much as a fight. Brussels' socialist Mayor Freddy Thielemans is only one of many among Europe's leftist elites who are not only willing to capitulate to the barbarian invaders of our age but are actively facilitating their progress. America better take heed, for these are the very people its own liberals admire and in whose steps they would like to follow.

I found this one on Front Page.  It definitely brings to light what the Republicans-In-Name-Only and the Liberal leftists have as an apparent game plan for our country.

NAFTA, LOST, refusing to act with appropriate concern when Russia steps up her bomber flights over international waters, unfettered illegal immigration and "amnesty" offers....  All of these things erode the Sovereignty of the United States of America.  If these so-called "progressives" have their way, there won't be a USA anymore.

Next year's presidential election is probably one of the most important in our history; here's hoping that the sovereignty of our nation is brought up as a point of debate and concern, and that the average American voter will understand how dangerous it is to give up that which makes us a nation.

Otherwise, we'll be living in the same horrid bureaucrasy, political correctness, and devaluation of our national identity that currently exists in Europe.

From Front Page:

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Eroding Sovereignty?

By Frank J. Gaffney Jr.
The Washington Times | 8/21/2007

Found this great article on Front Page.  In it, the love affair the radical Left has with Islam is confronted step by step, at least with regards to the "heroes" of the Leftist movement.  It definitely is an enlightening read.

From Front Page:

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Romancing the Mullahs

By Joseph Klein
FrontPageMagazine.com | 8/20/2007