The Truth About Florida State Guard’s Special Operations Unit

SEE: https://www.ammoland.com/2024/03/the-truth-about-florida-state-guards-special-operations-unit; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

Founders wanted to create similar special operations units across a coalition of states that would not be subject to federal oversight or presidential authority.

A student at Stronghold SOF Solutions engages ground targets from an MH-6 Little Bird. (All photos, screenshots and videos courtesy of Stronghold SOF Solutions.

When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that he was “reactivating” the Florida State Guard nearly two years ago, veteran special operators and business partners Brandon Graves and Tom Morton knew they could contribute, so they locked themselves in their office and began writing an unsolicited proposal that they planned to send to the governor’s team.

Graves and Morton recently opened Stronghold SOF Solutions, a one-of-a-kind tactical training facility located in Florida’s Panhandle. Stronghold’s training staff are all former special operators. The 50-acre facility is just minutes from the 7th Special Forces Group. Just a few of Stronghold’s offerings include a two-story live-fire shooting house, a 4160-foot runway, four 360-degree dynamic ranges, MOUT/SOUC sites, an underground training facility and a demolition range that can support up to 40-pound charges. The facility has a clubhouse, drone-friendly airspace and helos – a Soviet-designed Mi-17 and a Boeing MH-6, better known as a Little Bird, which has become the taxi of choice for many special operators.

In their proposal, Graves and Morton wrote of an untapped resource – retired special operations veterans – who would be the perfect force to fulfil FSG’s mission of responding to natural or manmade disasters. They offered to select, train and validate a 60-man special operations force.

“We got their attention in Tallahassee,” Graves said. “They were excited about it.”

Morton said the concept they floated in their proposal is the same concept that led to the creation of Stronghold.

“One reason we built this place was to be a stronghold for our colleagues getting out,” he said. “We wanted this to be a place to help guys springboard into their next life. GWOT (Global War on Terror) is basically over, and there are thousands of guys with 20 or more years of experience in special operations, which cost the government millions of dollars to produce. We’re trying to leverage that talent and make it available to this state and other states.”

Florida awarded Stronghold SOF Solutions a no-bid contract worth up to $1.2 million. Graves and Morton knew the legacy media would push back against their efforts, yet neither special operator anticipated the ferocity of the media’s attack.

A 450-year history

The Florida State Guard traced its lineage to 1565, when the Spanish in St. Augustine stood up to the first company of armed citizen volunteers, according to the FSG website.

Three-hundred and seventy-six years later, in 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt federalized many states’ National Guard units and sent them to war. In response, the Florida Legislature created today’s Florida State Guard to safeguard the Sunshine State.

On June 14, 2022, DeSantis announced he was reactivating the FSG with a “statewide rapid response land-based, maritime, and aviation capabilities.”

Last week, 205 candidates passed the FSG’s three-week Initial Entry Training and will join the 120 State Guardsmen who were already part of the group.

“The Florida State Guard serves an important role in emergency response for the state. I am pleased to see this important volunteer force continue to grow to serve the people of Florida,” DeSantis said in a statement.

While many of these candidates had prior military service, they should not be confused with the 60-man special operations force Graves and Morton helped create, which is known officially as the Florida State Guard Special Operations Company, or SOC.

A drone equipped with night vision captures a “squirter” during training at Stronghold’s live-fire shoot house. (All photos, screenshots and videos courtesy of Stronghold SOF Solutions.

Special Operations Company

The SOC is chock-full of tabs, tridents, wings and berets. Its members include former Navy SEALs, Army Rangers, Special Forces, MARSOC Marines, Air Force Special Operations veterans and more.

“The vast majority are prior SOF guys, but we did select a few other skills,” Morton said. “The FSG has a more law enforcement-centric mission than purely military, so we attempted to build a team that would be successful at this mission.”

“Every one of them has the SOF mindset,” Graves said. “We vetted and trained all of them.”

The state agreed to purchase guns and gear for the SOC. As it stands now, the 60 members are issued Sig-Sauer P-320 9mm handguns and Sig-Sauer MCX-SPEAR Carbines.

The kit state officials purchased for the SOC leaves little to be desired. However, special operators are seldom satisfied with any issued gear.

Students train at Close Quarters Battle and shoot while moving. (All photos, screenshots and videos courtesy of Stronghold SOF Solutions.

Three things at once

The state contract required Stronghold to “select, train and validate” a 60-man force in just two weeks.

“Those three aspects of a training environment are located at different points in a SOF unit’s work-up cycle,” Morton said. “And we had two weeks to do all of that. Fortunately for the SOF community, training never really stops. We piggy-backed off of the military’s investment. We really just needed to perform a function check, to make sure all the skills were still there.”

Stronghold’s trainers started with a series of rifle and pistol qualifications on a flat range, along with vehicle work and bail-out drills. The trainers transitioned to battlefield medical training, using Special Forces 18-Delta medics. All members are now certified in TCCC (Tactical Combat Casualty Care).

During week one, the operators worked on individual Close Quarters Battle skills in the shoot house. “We were watching closely,” Morton said. “We were taking metrics of everything.”

During week two they focused on team-based skills, including aircraft operations with the Mi-17 and Little Bird. The second week added maritime skills, which were taught by a Coast Guardsman and Navy SEALs and included VBSS (Visit Board Search and Seizure) missions in the Gulf of Mexico.

“The best way to think about this training is less military and more like Coast Guard or law enforcement stops out on the water,” Morton said.

Toward the end of week two, the students were put through validating exercises – full mission profiles of maritime interdictions on the water, and hostage rescue missions using simulations, which were conducted in the shoot house.

“They received their warning order, planned, moved to the shoot house, entered, cleared and exfilled,” Graves said. “We had excellent role players who would escalate their behavior during the training. It started with verbal abuse, throwing things away, then brandishing a weapon but not pointing it. In the final escalation, the role player would point and shoot. We were really hyper-focused on when to use force. These guys really shouldn’t need to go to that level yet. We want to make sure they’re ready, but we don’t anticipate anything close to that level of threat.”

Media Pushback

The legacy media has tried to label Graves a DeSantis supporter as if to imply that Stronghold’s no-bid contract was awarded for personal or political reasons. However, neither Gaves nor Morton or Stronghold have ever donated a dollar to any of DeSantis’ political campaigns. (Nor have they ever met DeSantis personally.)

This type of bashing was expected.

“It’s fair to say we quickly realized there was a political aspect to all of this,” Morton said. “Whenever politics are involved, the media is going to take every opportunity to spin it in a different way – their way. There are a lot of training companies out there, but I’m not aware of one like ours in the state of Florida – especially one with our facilities.”

What was not expected was the media’s bashing of an American hero.

“The engagement of a combat training company with links to an accused war criminal raises serious questions about the intentions of Florida Governor DeSantis’s civilian military force,” a reporter wrote of one Stronghold trainer, retired Navy SEAL Chief Eddie Gallagher.

"To single out Gallagher was a new low and extremely unfair," Morton said.

“If they really knew his story, he’s a guy who served his country for 20 years. He’s a true warfighter. He’s been in the worst situations. He pushed through Mosul, which was extreme. He took care of his guys. In my opinion, he is a great example of what a patriot should be. They really used all that against him. "Most of the media’s negative coverage that’s been pointed at us was through our relationship with Eddie,” Morton said.

To be clear, Gallagher ran afoul of the normal tension and distrust that exists between the conventional Navy and the extremely unconventional SEAL Teams. It’s something any special operator can face, regardless of their branch of service. Gallagher was charged with seven crimes but acquitted of six. President Trump immediately congratulated Gallagher via Twitter. Four weeks later, Trump ordered the Secretary of the Navy to revoke the Navy Achievement Medals, which were given to Gallagher’s prosecutors as a reward for their prosecution.

The Navy didn’t give up despite the acquittal and ordered Gallagher demoted from E-7 to E-6. Trump intervened and stopped the demotion cold. Undeterred, the Navy quickly convened a “Trident Review Board,” to determine whether Gallaher should be stripped of his SEAL Trident. For Trump, that was too much. He tweeted: “The Navy will NOT be taking away Warfighter and Navy Seal Eddie Gallagher’s Trident Pin. This case was handled very badly from the beginning. Get back to business!”

Graves has zero regrets. He and Morton consider Gallagher a close friend and one of their best instructors.

“In special operations, there are guys who are trained and guys who are experienced,” he said. “Eddie is both trained and experienced. From a practical standpoint, he is one of the best guys we can bring in. He is a confident, capable, highly experienced guy. Unfortunately, the system turned its teeth on him.”

New Federalism

Graves and Morton are in talks with officials in Texas and Louisiana who have expressed interest in creating special operations units in their states.

“It’s federalism – trying to get the decision-making back to the state level,” Graves said. “We need a system where the states can rely on each other. We can create similar units in a coalition of states if they put the financial means behind it. We can vet, train and run the exact program, so anytime there’s a manmade or natural disaster, the states can send each other resources.”

Morton added that they are not trying to replace federal resources. They want to give governors additional options.

“We are certainly not opposed to federal assistance,” Morton said. “What we are really getting at is trying to help the state create the environment where states have the means to solve their own problems.”

Said Graves: “The concept whereby states begin to arm themselves and build the capabilities of State Guards removes the ability of the federal government to leverage their assistance.”

This story was presented by the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project and wouldn’t be possible without you. Click here to make a tax-deductible donation to support more pro-gun stories like this.


About Lee Williams

Lee Williams, who is also known as “The Gun Writer,” is the chief editor of the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project. Until recently, he was also an editor for a daily newspaper in Florida. Before becoming editor, Lee was an investigative reporter at newspapers in three states and the U.S. Territory. Before becoming a journalist, he worked as a police officer. Before becoming a cop, Lee served in the Army. He’s earned more than a dozen national journalism awards as a reporter and three medals of valor as a cop. Lee is an avid tactical shooter.

Lee Williams

Hamas and Houthi top dogs meet to discuss ‘expanding confrontations’ with Israel

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/03/hamas-and-houthi-top-dogs-meet-to-discuss-expanding-confrontations-with-israel; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

As they do so, Old Joe Biden and other short-sighted and/or treasonous Western leaders shower money upon them like a coke-addled millionaire enamored of a stripper.

“Hamas meets Houthi officials to discuss ‘expanding confrontations’ in Israel,” FirstPost, March 16, 2024:

Amid the Houthi-orchestrated crisis in the Red Sea and an ongoing war in Gaza, the rebels reportedly met Hamas leaders to discuss “expanding confrontations and encircling” Israel.

Speaking to AFP, a Houthi official said Representatives from Hamas, whose October 7 attack on Israel triggered the war, the Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine met last week with the Houthis in Beirut.

Palestinian sources said that the meeting saw deliberations on “mechanisms to coordinate their actions of resistance” for the “next stage” of the war in Gaza, now in its sixth month.

Another Palestinian source, also requesting anonymity to share details of the meeting, told AFP that those present discussed the “complementary role of Ansar Allah (the Houthis) alongside Palestinian factions, especially in the event of an Israeli offensive on Rafah”.

The Houthis, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad are all part of the Iran-backed “axis of resistance”, an alliance of groups hostile to Israel and the United States that also includes Lebanese Hezbollah and armed groups in Iraq….

Biden Regime Invites Hamas-Linked CAIR to the White House, Then Lies About It

AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Every aspect of this story is bad, and each horrifying aspect is competing with the others for which can have the most negative consequences for the American people. After Jews suffered attacks in Chicago, the Biden regime reached out not to Jewish leaders, but to Muslim groups, including open supporters of Hamas. Muslims, however, enraged at the regime’s continued (albeit hollow) support for Israel, refused to show. Then a Biden regime wonk lied brazenly and denied that one of the worst of the Muslim groups was even invited. This is the state of our staggered, sputtering republic in the fourth year of this radically anti-American and anti-democratic regime.

This latest imbroglio started when Politico reported Thursday that “Illinois leaders in the Palestinian communities angry over how President Joe Biden has handled the Middle East war have turned down a request by the White House to meet in Chicago today.” We can see who is claiming the moral high ground, and who has the upper hand. After Hamas brutally and gleefully murdered 1,200 Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023, Islamic groups and their leftist allies immediately began to claim victimhood at any sign of Israeli self-defense, fabricating casualty numbers before a world that was all too eager to be fooled, and even preposterously claiming that Israel was conducting a “genocide” when independent observers have dubbed the IDF “the most moral army in the world.”

Despite all that, Muslim and leftist leaders around the world know that making wild claims about Israel and affecting a posture of aggrieved victimhood can win them ready concessions from the U.S., the European Union, and the United Nations, and so they’ve been striking victim poses aggressively since Oct. 7. It has worked. The Biden regime is on its heels, desperately worried by threats from the likes of Nihad Awad of the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the winsome Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Ramallah) to withhold the Muslim vote if the regime doesn’t betray Israel. And so it has been doing just that, step by step, in slow motion: $100 million to Gaza, $10 billion to Hamas’ financiers, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and ever-increasing pressure on the Netanyahu government.

Meanwhile, the regime keeps trying to placate Muslim and Arab groups inside the U.S.: “Tom Perez, a senior adviser to the president, and other advisers had planned to sit down in three separate meetings with various Palestinian, Arab and Muslim leaders and elected officials to discuss tensions in the Middle East. The private meetings were to come on the heels of similar gatherings in Detroit.” The professional victims, however, stayed in character: “But most folks contacted turned down the request, according to six people we talked to." Any meeting being held will be with a smaller group of players.”

Not only did they refuse to meet with White House apparatchiks, but they continued to excoriate the regime for its alleged support of Israel. One Muslim spokesman declared that his group considered “anyone — Palestinian, Muslim, Arab — who takes a meeting with the White House to be an absolute sell-out.” One of those who declined to attend was Ahmed Rehab of Hamas-linked CAIR, who explained: “We believe a thousand percent in civic engagement. We preach it. But this is an unusual moment and requires an unusual response. We have made clear that a ceasefire is needed.”

The outreach to CAIR, whose top dog Awad infamously said that he was “happy” about Hamas’ Oct. 7 jihad massacre, embarrassed even the Biden regime apparatchiks. Jewish Insider correspondent Gabby Deutsch stated: “WH spox @AndrewJBates46 told me that CAIR was *not* invited to WH mtgs in Chicago w/ Muslim Americans—& that the group is NEVER invited to WH mtgs.”

This just piled embarrassment upon embarrassment. Unfortunately, for the wretched regime wonk Bates, CAIR has been frequently invited to Biden's White House and has posted press releases detailing the meetings. But the idea of the regime kowtowing to an organization with actual Hamas ties is too much even for Biden’s handlers, and so Bates was apparently instructed to lie about the meetings, exposing the Biden team as both dishonest and pro-Hamas.

      Related: Establishment Media Lies to Cover for Biden Regime’s Latest Betrayal of Israel

Even worse is the timing. Richard Goldberg of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies pointed out that “since Friday: Pro-Hamas antisemitic rioters in Chicago intimidated the House of Blues to cancel a Jewish singer’s sold-out show. The venue cited security concerns. Loyola University told Jewish students they could no longer allow a survivor of the Nova music festival massacre to speak on campus. The university cited security concerns. Jews were attacked while trying to enter a theatre to watch footage of the Nova music festival massacre. Jews are not even allowed to mourn the massacres without being attacked in the city of Chicago. The mayor says nothing. The president says nothing. But the White House is sending staff to meet with the organizers of these violent riots and assaults instead of defending the Jews they are trying to drive underground.”

That’s right. And if this is happening more or less out in the open, albeit with inept and half-hearted attempts to cover it up, imagine the betrayals that are going on behind the scenes.

Protecting Children Against Indoctrination with Alex Newman

Tonight IN FOCUS...The indoctrination of America's youth continues and now kids are being bribed -- Alex Newman joins us to discuss. Also, what's really going on in Haiti? And who is this alleged cannibal gang leader's 'Barbeque' character? We'll ask Infowars' Harrison Smith. Plus what does the "TikTok" Bill really entail for Americans? We'll break it down with Isabel Brown. And you know the EV craze is over when Mockingbird media has to report on it -- Tom Maoli joins.

Switzerland: Zurich churches to pass on $2,262,000 in tax money to Islamic associations

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/03/switzerland-zurich-churches-to-pass-on-2262000-in-tax-money-to-islamic-associations; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

From a Muslim standpoint, this is just the natural order of things. Non-Muslims paying for the upkeep of Muslims is a Qur’anic dictate: “Fight against those who do not believe in Allah or the last day, and do not forbid what Allah and his messenger have forbidden, and do not follow the religion of truth, even if they are among the people of the book, until they pay the jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued.” (Qur’an 9:29)

The caliph Umar said the jizya payments from the dhimmis were the source of the Muslims’ livelihood: “Narrated Juwairiya bin Qudama at-Tamimi: We said to `Umar bin Al-Khattab, ‘O Chief of the believers! Advise us.’ He said, ‘I advise you to fulfill Allah’s Convention (made with the Dhimmis) as it is the convention of your Prophet and the source of the livelihood of your dependents (i.e. the taxes from the Dhimmis.)’” (Bukhari 4.53.388)

The UK jihad preacher Anjem Choudary said in February 2013: “We are on Jihad Seekers Allowance, We take the Jizya (protection money paid to Muslims by non-Muslims) which is ours anyway." The normal situation is to take money from the Kafir (non-Muslim), isn’t it? So this is a normal situation. They give us the money. You work, give us the money. Allah Akbar, we take the money. Hopefully there is no one from the DSS (Department of Social Security) listening. Ah, but you see people will say you are not working. But the normal situation is for you to take money from the Kuffar (non-Muslim) So we take Jihad Seeker’s Allowance.”

“Zurich churches pass on tax money to Islamic associations,” translated from “Zürcher Kirchen leiten Steuergeld an Islamverein weiter,” HeimatKurier, March 15, 2024 (thanks to Medforth):

The Catholic and Protestant Church in Zurich wants to give away a whopping two million francs in tax money to Islamic associations. What is sold as a gesture of goodwill is a cash injection for Islamization. With the gift of money, the Swiss are involuntarily helping to finance the Islamic conquest of land.
In Zurich, only recognized religious communities are entitled to state funding. Currently these are three Christian and two Jewish communities. Since the Protestant and Catholic churches seem to be swimming in money through tax contributions, they now want to give the “Association of Islamic Organizations Zurich” (VIOZ) a cash gift of around two million francs.

Islamization and false tolerance
A staunch supporter of the project is the reformed church council president and former SP cantonal councillor Esther Straub. She promotes the idea and speaks of it as a sign of “interreligious cohesion”. This kind of accommodation is, of course, sought in vain in Islamic countries with Christian minorities. The church uses this money to distribute money to Islamic organizations, which are often noticed in Switzerland with fanatical tendencies.

Promoting moderate Islam?
The former left-wing politician argues that the move is intended to finance decidedly non-radical and moderate Islamic associations. With over 40 facilities, VIOZ operates around 90 percent of the mosques in the canton of Zurich. There are also other associations. In addition to the three VIOZ facilities in Winterthur, there is also the “An nur Mosque”, which, according to security authorities, is a real hotspot for jihadism. How interconnected or separated the VIOZ is with such communities cannot be clearly determined. In the past there have been cases in which the moderate mask slipped off the faces of radical Islamists in Switzerland

Islamism from the streets to the universities
In October 2023, a 25-year-old Syrian also had to appear in court in Winterthur. He had previously been convicted of a jihadist trip to Syria. However, due to a cozy sentence, he was little deterred and continued to carry out terrorist propaganda for IS. The University of Bern provided another case of Islamism. After the Middle East war broke out last fall, an “Islam expert” and lecturer at the university expressed his joy at the event. The author was even the husband of the head of the Islamic Institute. The couple quickly distanced themselves from violence and terror, which meant they were probably back within the definition of “moderate”. In Schaffhausen it even became known that a convicted “ex-terrorist” was teaching in a mosque.

Switzerland withdraws passports from Islamists
The Islamist side effects of the population exchange have led to a return of passport withdrawals in the Swiss Confederation. Since 2020, a total of seven people have had their citizenship revoked, and corresponding proceedings are pending for another dozen. Just a few weeks ago, Zurich became the scene of an Islamic terrorist act in which a 15-year-old Tunisian injured a Jew with a knife on the street.

Remigration instead of Islamization
Due to numerous jihadist incidents and their involvement in Islamic cultural associations, it is uncertain whether the two million francs of tax money that the local churches want to give to Muslim associations will ultimately end up with questionable organizations. In addition, the Swiss people have repeatedly spoken out clearly against further Islamization in the past, for example with the ban on minarets in 2009. By continuing to finance Islamic associations, the canton continues to cultivate a parallel society for itself. This gives rise to Islamist activities and clans, as a look at neighboring states makes clear. Instead of giving further impetus to Islam and the Islamism associated with it, the canton should strive for a policy of remigration. Muslims who want to live strictly according to their beliefs and customs then have the opportunity to do so in an Islamic country.

Hezbollah’s Covert U.S. Training Ground for Muslim Children in Dearborn, Michigan

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/03/hezbollahs-covert-u-s-training-ground-for-muslim-children-in-dearborn-michigan; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

At the Great Revelations Academy, the convergence of troubling Islamic teachings and Sharia adherence unveils a disturbing reality of Islamic radical grooming within U.S. borders, underscored by the troubling fact that the U.S. government has granted tax-exempt status to an institution facilitating such jihadist indoctrination.

In a Sharia-adherent event that has attracted considerable attention, the Islamic Al-Mustapha Girl Scouts recently held their annual Takleef Celebration at Great Revelations Academy, a private Islamic school in Dearborn, Michigan. The controversial school has connections to staunch supporters of Hezbollah and the Iranian regime. The ceremony, deeply rooted in Shiite Islamic tradition, marks the coming of age for young Muslim girls, imposing upon them the rigorous observance of Sharia law, including the controversial practice of wearing the hijab. The troubling implications of such Islamic ceremonies reinforce a doctrine of female subjugation and raise profound concerns about the integration of Muslim communities into Western societies.

Ceremony Overview

The Takleef Celebration Event is a pivotal moment in the lives of young Shiite Muslim girls. It signifies their obligation to start observing Islamic practices, such as fasting, praying, and dressing modestly (often, girls are given their first chador, a full-length body covering) from as young as nine years old.

The event underscores the adherence to Sharia law, even in Western settings, compelling these young girls to take on responsibilities that emphasize their role in preventing male temptation through their attire. This practice not only sexualizes children at a tender age but also places an undue burden on them, aligning with a broader Islamic perspective that sees women primarily as guardians of virtue through modesty.

In Western nations, women who adopt Sharia practices are a threat, as their commitment lies in the propagation of Islamic law. This is of particular concern to Dearborn, known as the Arab capital of North America, where Lebanese, Syrian, Palestinian, Iraqi, and Yemeni communities are concentrated. The city claims the highest American Muslim population per capita, primarily of Shiite Muslim denomination, and is also home to the nation’s largest mosque. Arabic signs adorn the facades of restaurants and businesses. Even within Dearborn’s public schools, all meat served is Halal—a strategic means employed by Muslim minorities to gradually introduce elements of Sharia into the broader non-Muslim majority of the West.

The Hijab: Symbol of Oppression

Contrary to Islamic and left-wing narratives that frame the hijab as a symbol of cultural identity or religious devotion, the ceremony and teachings at the Great Revelations Academy utilize it as a means of oppressing young girls. The event instills in young girls the belief that their values and social responsibility hinge on their ability to conform to strict Sharia dress codes designed to mitigate male desire. This perspective is further reinforced by Islamic scriptures, which dictate the covering of women as a preventive measure against potential abuse, essentially normalizing a culture of victim-blaming.

The Quran itself commands women to cover themselves to the extent that they are no longer capable of provoking temptation, and if they do not, they are considered fair game to be “abused.” As Robert Spencer explains, “It is not a cultural custom as some purport; it’s a religious edict.”

(Quran 24:31) And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and be modest, and to display of their adornment only what is apparent, and to draw their veils over their bosoms, and not to reveal their adornment except to their own husbands or fathers or husbands’ fathers, or their sons or their husbands’ sons, or their brothers or their brothers’ sons or sisters’ sons, or their women, or their slaves, or male attendants who lack desire, or children who know nothing of women’s nakedness. And do not let them stamp their feet so as to reveal what they hide from their adornment. And turn to Allah together, O believers, so that you may succeed.

(Quran 33:59) O prophet, tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to draw their veils close around them. It will be better so that they may be recognized and not molested.

The Great Revelations Academy’s Radical Islamic Ties

Investigations into the Great Revelations Academy reveal a concerning foundation rooted in Islamic extremism. Founded in 2015 by fervent supporters of Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, a key figure in the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran and considered the spiritual leader of Hezbollah, the academy’s ideological underpinnings raise alarming questions about the education and values being imparted to young Muslims in America.

The U.S. considered Fadlallah responsible for the bombing of multinational forces in Beirut in October 1983, in which 241 U.S. Marines and 56 French paratroopers were killed in two explosions. He was designated a terrorist by the U.S. Treasury Department.

Fadlallah hated with a vengeance the United States government and Israel. He regularly praised the terror attacks that killed Israeli citizens. He was known as an enthusiastic supporter of suicide bombings against Israel. Fadlallah wished that the state of Israel would cease to exist.

Fadlallah’s support for terrorist actions and organizations underscores the troubling nature of the academy’s association with his teachings. Furthermore, Clarion Project reports that statements from the academy’s founders, such as Fouad Bayoun, explicitly express their dedication to spreading Fadlallah’s message in the United States.

 

 

Principal Sheila Bazzi-Charara has openly declared the academy’s adherence to Fadlallah’s philosophy, mission, and vision, further solidifying its ties to extremism. Additionally, collaborations with organizations like the Qaim Project, led by Sheikh Mohammad Ayad, demonstrate the academy’s alignment with extremist ideologies.

 

 

Ayad’s Qaim Project glorifies Hezbollah and Hamas, advocating for a Shiite-Sunni jihadist alliance against the West. The project’s endorsement of the Iranian regime and its anti-American worldview further exemplify the academy’s dangerous associations.

Guest speakers like Sheikh Amin Rastani, known for their support of the Iranian regime and affiliation with regime-friendly religious schools in Qom, Iran, further reinforce the academy’s extremist ties.

Additionally, connections to radical figures further highlight the concerning nature of the academy’s associations. In 2015, at the Az-Zahraa Islamic Center in Detroit, MI, radical Imam Dr. Sayed Moustafa Al-Qazwini praised the opening of the troubling Great Revelations Academy and encouraged the construction of more Islamic schools in America for Muslim children.

Al-Qazwini, known for his extremist views and anti-Semitic rhetoric, demands a perpetual state of war with Israel, expresses hatred towards Jews, defends Hamas, and propagates conspiracies such as claiming that “ISIS is the production of Israeli intelligence.” Such endorsements from individuals with radical ideologies underscore the academy’s alignment with extremist agendas.

In light of these findings, it becomes clear that the Great Revelations Academy serves as a platform for disseminating an Islamic view that not only contradicts Western values of equality and freedom but also perpetuates a divisive and dangerous worldview.

The troubling revelation of the Great Revelations Academy’s Islamic radical ties raises serious concerns about the grooming of Muslim children in America to adhere to Sharia law and sympathize with terrorist groups and ideologies. The lack of oversight regarding the teachings at this Islamic institution is deeply troubling. Furthermore, the fact that the Great Revelations Academy is recognized as a tax-exempt organization under section 501(c)(3) of the IRS code raises questions about whether American taxpayers should be compelled to support a school that promotes anti-Western beliefs and supports organizations and individuals with harmful Islamic intentions.

This article has been crossposted with permission from the RAIR Foundation.

Houthis expand Red Sea operation, warn new ‘hypersonic missile’ will target Cape of Good Hope bound shipping

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/03/houthis-expand-red-sea-operation-warn-new-hypersonic-missile-will-target-cape-of-good-hope-bound-shipping; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

The Houthis, an Iranian proxy from Yemen that has been attacking ships in the Red Sea in a show of support for Hamas, are now set to expand its war by “hitting ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope.” Many ships are heading toward the Cape of Good Hope in order to avoid the Red Sea, and now the Houthis intend to disrupt the shipping routes there as well. Already, the Houthis have affected the supply chain in many countries in the West, and the entire economic stability of Italy.

Houthis now intend to use hypersonic missiles with “highly destructive capabilities.” Last year, it was reported that Iran “created a hypersonic missile capable of traveling at 15 times the speed of sound” and named it Fattah, meaning “Conquerer.” The Houthis plan to “begin manufacturing it for use in attacks in the Red Sea and Arabian Seas and the Gulf of Aden, as well as against targets in Israel.”

So far, the Biden-leading coalition in the Red Sea has downed several Houthi missiles, but is losing the war against the group, again sending a message of weakness not only to the Houthis, but also to Iran.

The Houthis continue to be drastically underestimated in the West, while posing a grave danger to the region and beyond.

“Houthis warn new ‘hypersonic missile’ will target the Cape of Good Hope bound shipping,” The New Arab, March 15, 2024:

Abdul Malik al-Houthi, the Houthis’ secretive supreme leader, said the rebels would start hitting ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope.

Yemen’s Houthis claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

A report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine.

However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the United States and its allies, which have so far been able to down any missile or bomb-carrying drone that comes near their warships in Mideast waters.

On Thursday, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, the Houthis’ secretive supreme leader, said the rebels would start hitting ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope in Africa’s southern tip. Until now, the rebels have largely struck ships heading into the Red Sea toward the Suez Canal…..

UNC-Chapel Hill: Professors Hail Hamas’ Oct. 7 ‘Resistance’

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/03/unc-chapel-hill-professors-hail-hamas-oct-7-resistance; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a handful of anti-Israel and pro-Hamas faculty members gathered to celebrate the acts of “resistance” by Hamas on October 7. A report on the anti-Israel meeting by one of those who attended can be found here: “The Anti-Israel Hate and Moral Bankruptcy at UNC Is Stunning,” by Peter Reitzes, Algemeiner, March 12, 2024:

Five days after the event, UNC Provost Christopher Clemens wrote a blistering letter of concern to UNC faculty that included Claudia Yaghoobi, Director of the UNC Center for Middle East & Islamic Studies, and Conghe Song, chair of the Department of Geography and Environment. They have been included since the two departments sponsored the Nov. 28 event.

Clemens wrote:

I will admit that I struggle to understand what the rhetoric in this event was supposed to accomplish….

One thing is clear: from the outside, the academy appears to be fostering a banal kind of evil.

In preparation for the meeting with Provost Clemens, Purifoy sent an email to Conghe and Sara Smith. Smith is a UNC professor of Geography who introduced the Nov. 28 panel:

I hope that today’s meeting will go as well as possible. I’ve attached a screenshot of Mark Davidson’s comments about the panel last Tuesday which might be helpful. He and Rania [Masri] approved of me sharing it with you.

Purifoy is hoping that the comments by the pastor, Mark Davidson, in which he praised the pro-Hamas event, will be enough to assuage Provost Clemens’ fury. But it won’t. Davidson is just as morally obtuse as the others who were in attendance, or even more so, because while many of them remained silent, Davidson was positively glowing over the event.

In the comments that Purifoy attached, Davidson wrote, “The inmate prison-break from the concentration camp [Gaza] in the early morning hours of October 7 was, from a Palestinian perspective … something to celebrate.” In this single sentence, Davidson compared Israel to the Nazis and celebrated Hamas….

So Gaza, according to Davidson, was akin to a “concentration camp.” The Israelis are the new Nazis. And the Palestinians are the new Jews, being tormented by the SS-men of the IDF. Or if Gaza is not a concentration camp, then it is at the very least a prison. And the 3,000 Hamas operatives who raped, tortured, and murdered Israelis on October 7 were engaged in a “prison break.” But was Gaza a prison? In the last few years, 150,000 Gazans have left the Strip and moved to other Arab countries or to Europe. Israel didn’t stop them. And Israel has even given work to 19,000 Gazans who entered the Jewish state every day to work — or did, until October 7. While working in Israel, those Gazans earned wages that were from three to ten times more than what they could earn in Gaza. concentration camp. What kind of a prison lets thousands of inmates out every day?

Cometh the hour, cometh the man. The UNC Provost, Christopher Clemens, is not about to let such insidious praisers of mass rape, torture, and murder as Rania Masri be sponsored by teachers at his school, and heaped with praise for what she said, on his campus, with her grotesque comments about what a “beautiful day” October 7 had been. And no one in the audience took issue with her, none there deplored her sentiments. Clemens is clearly not about to let this matter drop. Danielle Purifoy, Ajamu Dillahunt, Claudia Yaqhoobi, Conghe Song, fasten your seatbelts. For all of you, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

The campus justification of Hamas’ atrocities is a big problem. It’s all over the place. But at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and on every other campus where analogous incidents are unfolding, some faculty members, and some members of the administration, and some trustees and alumni, and even some students, have got to grab hold of this problem, and not let go.

John Quincy Adams and His ‘Essay On Turks’

SEE: https://www.jihadwatch.org/2024/03/john-quincy-adams-and-his-essay-on-turks; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

Today, a side of Adams that was not made much of in his lifetime has for many of us become the most important, and much-needed, part of his legacy: his critical view of Islam and of Muhammad. He derived these views from experience — his own and his father’s — of Muslim behavior (both of the Barbary Pirates and of the Ottoman Turks, from his lifelong study of history, and from his intensive reading of the Qur’an. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were sent in 1786 to negotiate in London with the ambassador from Tripoli, Sidi Haji Abdrahaman, about the seizure of American ships. They reported back in a joint letter to John Jay (then a senior American diplomat), explaining that “We took the liberty to make some inquiries concerning the grounds of their pretensions to make war upon a nation who had done them no injury, and observed that we considered all mankind as our friends who had done us no wrong, nor had given us any provocation. THE AMBASSADOR ANSWERED US THAT IT WAS FOUNDED ON THE LAWS OF THEIR PROPHET, THAT IT WAS WRITTEN IN THEIR KORAN, THAT ALL NATIONS WHO SHOULD NOT HAVE ACKNOWLEDGED THEIR AUTHORITY WERE SINNERS, THAT IT WAS THEIR RIGHT AND DUTY TO MAKE WAR UPON THEM WHEREVER THEY COULD BE FOUND, AND TO MAKE SLAVES OF ALL THEY COULD TAKE AS PRISONERS, AND THAT EVERY MUSSELMAN WHO SHOULD BE SLAIN IN BATTLE WAS SURE TO GO TO PARADISE.”

John Quincy Adams would certainly have learned from his father about what the Tripolitanian ambassador had maintained in his discussions with Adams and Jefferson. He may even have been later shown a copy — he was then a junior at Harvard — of the letter that was sent to John Jay. He also had his own rich store of observations of Muslim behavior, for the Barbary Pirates continued, throughout the next thirty years, from 1786 to 1816, to attack American shipping and seize American seamen, who were then held for exorbitant ransom. For a while after the First Barbary War (1801-1805) with Tripoli, attacks decreased. But when the Americans became preoccupied with European matters, eventually fighting the British in the War of 1812, the Barbary states — Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers — resumed attacks on American and European shipping. Once the War of 1812 had ended, and the Treaty of Ghent (1814) was signed, the Americans resumed a more aggressive policy in the Mediterranean. When America defeated Algiers in the Second Barbary War, that spelled the end of the last major campaign of the Barbary pirates. Western ships increasingly surpassed in speed and deadly force (better cannons) those of the Muslims, and the Barbary pirate threat to Christian shipping steadily decreased as a result.

It was clear to John Quincy Adams, that while force could change Muslim behavior, nothing would change the Muslim belief that they had “a right and a duty” to make war on the Infidels. This war was on continuous display in the Mediterranean against all who were too weak to withstand them, as was their making “slaves of all they could take as prisoners” — the Christian seaman they held as slaves in North Africa, some permanently enslaved, while others were to be ransomed for sums. American shipping initially proved to be a most vulnerable target, given the small size of the American navy. It was only the buildup of that navy, begun by Jefferson, and its deployment to the Mediterranean to take aggressive action against the Barbary pirates, that finally halted, after two wars a decade apart, the attacks by Muslim corsairs on American ships and seamen.

The other example John Quincy Adams had immediately before him of Muslim aggression against Christians was the suppression, by the Turks, of the Greeks when they began their war for independence. That war lasted from 1821 to 1832, and while the Greeks were ultimately successful, Adams, who during this period was Secretary of State (1817-1825), and then President (1825-1829), received direct accounts of the extreme brutality by the Muslim Turks against the Greek Christians.

But it was not just his contemporaneous experience of Muslim behavior toward Christians that formed John Quincy Adams’s view of Islam. He was a deep student of history all of his life. He knew how Islam had spread across the Middle East and North Africa, and how its advance was halted in the west by Charles Martel at Poitiers in 732, and in the east, much later, at the gates of Vienna in 1683. He knew about the 800 years it took the Christians to complete the Reconquista of Spain. He knew how, over 1200 years, Muslim armies had conquered many different lands, and subjugated many different peoples.

And he took a special interest in the Ottoman Turks, who were in a long but steady military decline that began with that defeat at Vienna in 1683. The Ottomans began to lose battles, small ones at first, to the increasingly more powerful Russian forces. Their first major defeat came in the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-1774, after which they were compelled to sue for peace. According to the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca (July 21, 1774), Russia’s right was recognized to intervene to protect Christians in the Ottoman Empire — a clear indication of Muslim brutality against subjugated Christians, for why else would such intervention be thought necessary? A series of Russo-Turkish wars, and Russian victories, continued to whittle away at Ottoman domains in the Caucasus. When Adams was the Minister to Russia (1809-1814), with direct and frequent contact with the Tsar, he would have heard about Russian clashes with, and victories against, the Ottoman Turks in the Caucasus.

After he left the Presidency in 1829, John Quincy Adams undertook almost immediately to write and publish his strong views on Islam and Muslims. This “Essay on Turks,” little noted at the time, has now become the best-known of all his contributions as an American statesman. The “Essay on Turks” is now more famous than the three treaties he negotiated (the Treaty of Ghent, the Treaty of 1818 with Great Britain, and the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819), more famous than his work on the Monroe Doctrine, more famous than his defense of Indian rights, or even than his argument at the Supreme Court that led to the setting free of African slaves in the Amistad case.

The “Essay on Turks” startles us now because we are not used to such a forthright and truthful account of Muhammad and of Islam. We live in a different time, sunk in a swamp of appeasement and interfaith outreach, when pusillanimity and evasion are the order of the day in public discussions of Islam. The most-quoted part of the “Essay on Turks” was put up at Jihad Watch just a few days ago, on July 11, the 250th anniversary of Adams’s birth, but it deserves to be reposted:

In the seventh century of the Christian era, a wandering Arab of the lineage of Hagar, the Egyptian, combining the powers of transcendent genius, with the preternatural energy of a fanatic, and the fraudulent spirit of an impostor, proclaimed himself as a messenger from Heaven, and spread desolation and delusion over an extensive portion of the earth. Adopting from the sublime conception of the Mosaic law, the doctrine of one omnipotent God; he connected indissolubly with it, the audacious falsehood, that he was himself his prophet and apostle. Adopting from the new Revelation of Jesus, the faith and hope of immortal life, and of future retribution, he humbled it to the dust, by adapting all the rewards and sanctions of his religion to the gratification of the sexual passion. He poisoned the sources of human felicity at the fountain, by degrading the condition of the female sex, and the allowance of polygamy; and he declared undistinguishing and exterminating war, as a part of his religion, against all the rest of mankind. THE ESSENCE OF HIS DOCTRINE WAS VIOLENCE AND LUST: TO EXALT THE BRUTAL OVER THE SPIRITUAL PART OF HUMAN NATURE.

Between these two religions, thus contrasted in their characters, a war of twelve hundred years has already raged. That war is yet flagrant; nor can it cease but by the extinction of that imposture, which has been permitted by Providence to prolong the degeneracy of man. While the merciless and dissolute dogmas of the false prophet shall furnish motives to human action, there can never be peace upon earth, and good will towards men. The hand of Ishmael will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him. It is, indeed, amongst the mysterious dealings of God, that this delusion should have suffered for so many ages, and during so many generations of human kind, to prevail over the doctrines of the meek and peaceful and benevolent Jesus.

The precept of the Koran is perpetual war against all who deny that Mahomet is the prophet of God. The vanquished may purchase their lives, by the payment of tribute; the victorious may be appeased by a false and delusive promise of peace; and the faithful follower of the prophet, may submit to the imperious necessities of defeat; but the command to propagate the Muslim creed by the sword is always obligatory, when it can be made effective. The commands of the prophet may be performed alike, by fraud, or by force.”

The natural hatred of the Mussulmen towards the infidels is in just accordance with the precepts of the Koran.

In writing his “Essay on Turks,” he was really writing an essay on all Muslims, even if what prompted him was the behavior, at the time of its writing, of the Ottoman Turks. In particular, Adams was concerned with the brutality of the methods used by the Turks in suppressing the Greeks who were fighting for their independence. The Ottoman Turks could reasonably be taken to represent Islam and Muslims.They had for centuries possessed the caliphate; they were the leading Muslim power at the time; it was their brutal behavior toward Christians that was most in evidence. And indeed, he makes clear early on that while his essay is about the Turks, they were simply practicing the same Islam, with the same Qur’an, as the Arabs, the Afghans, the Muslims in India, in Central and East Asia.

John Quincy Adams had seen how both the Turks, and the North African pirates, from Tunis, Tripoli, and Algiers, had behaved toward Christians. He had read the Qur’an, understood its contents, realized that the war against all Infidels was not an aberration: “The natural hatred of the Mussulmen towards the infidels is in just accordance with the precepts of the Koran.” He had first heard of this from his father’s account of the Tripolitanian ambassador, in 1786. Nothing he learned subsequently, through reading or observation, suggested another — kinder, gentler — view of Islam. Hatred, and perpetual war against the Infidels — these Qur’anic injunctions accorded with the dispatches he received from those reporting on the Barbary Pirates, and the Ottoman-ruled Greece and the Balkans. That war could never end, until the final defeat of one side or the other.

Adams had grasped the doctrine of jihad, even if he never used that word: it signified the struggle, incumbent upon all Muslims, to defeat all Infidels, until Islam everywhere dominated, and Muslims ruled, everywhere: “The precept of the Koran is perpetual war against all who deny that Mahomet is the prophet of God.” He had seen how the Barbary Pirates and the Turks had behaved toward Christians. He understood how the texts and teachings of Islam explained the behavior of both the Barbary Pirates in their attacks on Christian shipping, and the brutal behavior of the Turks in suppressing the Greeks. He knew, having seen it, about the “false and delusive promise of peace” that the Barbary Pirates would offer after defeats, and “submit to the imperious necessities of defeat,” but were required by their creed to renew warfare whenever it could be “made effective.” The Qur’an required perpetual war until the final victory of Muslims everywhere.

Adams called Islam a “merciless and dissolute dogma.” He understood the “mercilessness” of the actual Muslims, the Turks, then on the warpath against the Greeks. When he spent five years as Minister of Russia, he surely heard from the Russians about the brutal treatment of Christians in the Ottoman domains, which is why the Russians demanded, after their first major victory over the Turks in 1774, that they be allowed to act, when they deemed it necessary, as protectors of those Christian communities. He heard, too, of course, about the treatment of the American seaman seized and enslaved by the Barbary pirates. A student of history, he would have been aware of how Muslims, over 1200 years of conquest, had treated those they defeated, often killing their captives. He had read, in the Qur’an, the suggestions as to various ways that Infidels could be mutilated and killed: striking at their necks, cutting off their hands and feet, crucifying them, and so on. One can well imagine how Adams, who read the Christian Bible daily, must have reacted in horror when he first came across such examples of Qur’an-mandated cruelty, as in 5:33:

The only reward for those who make war upon Allah and His messenger and strive after corruption in the land will be that they will be killed or crucified, or have their hands and feet on alternate sides cut off, or will be expelled out of the land. Such will be their degradation in the world, and in the Hereafter theirs will be an awful doom.

As to what he called the “dissolute dogma” of Islam, by this Adams meant that Muhammad had “poisoned the sources of human felicity at the fountain, by degrading the condition of the female sex.” The Muslim view of women as merely sexual objects, who existed to gratify the sexual passion of men, could be seen in Islam’s acceptance of polygamy, and of using female captives, those who were “slaves that the right hand possesses,” for sexual pleasure, and of conceiving of the Muslim Heaven only in terms of a sexual paradise, where the best Muslims were promised 72 black-eyed virgins, so very different a concept from the Heaven of Christianity. What could be more “dissolute” than the Muslim idea of Heaven as a kind of brothel with dozens of permanently accommodating females for each deserving man?

Adams also grasped the role of religiously-sanctioned deceit or “fraud” that Muslims were allowed to practice both to protect themselves, and to lure their enemies into traps, or even by the making of treaties that could be broken whenever the Muslim side felt strong enough to go to war, never mind what they had promised. The most important Qur’anic verse sanctioning deception of non-Muslims states: “Let believers not take for friends and allies infidels instead of believers." Whoever does this shall have no relationship left with Allah – unless you but guard yourselves against them, taking precautions.” (Quran 3:28; see also 2:173; 2:185; 4:29; 22:78; 40:28).

Al-Tabari’s (838-923 AD) Tafsir, or Quranic exegesis, is a standard reference. It glosses 3:28 as follows: “Under their [infidels’] authority, fearing for yourselves, behaving loyally to them, with your tongue, while harboring inner animosity for them… Allah has forbidden believers from being friendly or on intimate terms with the infidels in place of believers – except when infidels are above them [in authority]. In such a scenario, let them act friendly towards them.”

The Islamic scholar Ibn Kathir (1301-1373) wrote about 3:28: “Whoever at any time or place fears their [infidels’] evil, may protect himself through outward show.”

In support of this, Ibn Kathir quotes two of Muhammad’s companions. Abu Darda said: “Let us smile to the face of some people while our hearts curse them.” Al-Hassan said: “Doing taqiyya is acceptable till the day of judgment [in perpetuity].”

Adams had almost certainly not read Ibn Kathir or Al-Tabari. But he had understood enough from the Qur’an itself, not just from 3:28 but also from other verses, such as 3:54, where Allah is praised as a master schemer, or deceiver: “And they (the disbelievers) schemed, and Allah schemed (against them): and Allah is the best of schemers.” His “Essay on Turks” makes much of the role fraud played in the spread of Islam.

One can well imagine Adams’s surprise when he first read in the Qur’an that Allah was lauded, as “the best of schemers” — one more example of what, Adams realized, was a kind of Christianity in reverse. The praise in the Qur’an of deception and fraud, the command to wage Jihad, or perpetual warfare “in the path of Allah,” against the Infidels, the description of how to strike terror among Islam’s enemies, the practice of sating one’s lust with plural wives, and captive females used as sex slaves, the Muslim heaven which promised the sensual bliss of 72 dark-eyed virgins — all of this horrified him.

John Quincy Adams did not have to worry about a small army of Muslim apologists ready to attack him for stating home truths about Islam. In his day, there was no CAIR, no Linda Sarsour, no John Esposito to condemn him for “Islamophobia” and to try to lead his likely audience astray. There were no Muslims, and consequently no mosques, offering unwary Infidels the chance to participate in those Ask-A-Muslim exercises in cozy taqiyya and tu-quoque. Adams’s uncompromising description of Islam was confirmed by what Americans knew about Muslim behavior, both from their experience with the Barbary Pirates, and from observing how the Turks — the most powerful Muslims of the time, possessors of the caliphate, who ruled, directly or through suzerains, the Middle East, North Africa, Greece, the Balkans, and much of the Caucasus — treated their Christian subjects. His lifetime of study of history naturally included, among its subjects, how Islam spread, what its texts and teachings, as conveyed in the Qur’an, revealed about its essence, what was required of the non-Muslims subjugated by Muslim conquerors, what was revealed about Muhammad’s character from the reports of his words and deeds. Adams’s rereading of the Qur’an to understand the tenets of this faith and the character of its prophet Muhammad, who “by fraud or by force” had conquered so many lands, helped explain, and made sense of, the behavior of “the Turks” as they put down, with their wonted brutality, the Greek Christians who had risen up to defy their Turkish Muslims.

There is one more thing about John Quincy Adams that deserves notice. He was, by all accounts, a brilliant orator, known as “Old Man Eloquent.” That oratorical skill was much in evidence when he argued on behalf of the Amistad prisoners before the Supreme Court. But he was also brilliant as a writer, and had he not been, his essay on “the Turks” (that is, on Islam) would not now be so often read, nor has it had the impact it has had on those who — not least here at this site — have been lucky enough to learn of it. From an early age Adams showed himself to be precociously adept at English composition. As with everything he deemed important, he worked and worked at it. Dip into any of the 14,000 pages of his diaries, even the entries he wrote in his early teens, and you will of course find some laconic jottings, but also the rounded periods of a fully formed prose style. In between diplomatic postings, and while he was simultaneously serving in the United States Senate, which would have been task enough for most men, Adams was appointed to the prestigious post of Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard in 1806; he immediately set to work on the lectures he would deliver to his students. We know that he read and studied many writers on rhetoric, including Quintilian, Cicero, Bacon, and George Campbell, all of whom he made use of in the thirty-six lectures he prepared for his Harvard students between 1806 and 1809. When his students heard that he would be leaving Harvard to become United States Minister to Russia, they asked that his lectures be published, and they were, as “Lectures on Rhetoric and Oratory.” He understood the importance of studying rhetoric, that is the art of persuasion. This was not a mere flourish, but essential to winning and convincing an audience. He ranked it high among his accomplishments. In 1810, Adams wrote in his diary about his Lectures that “I shall never, unless by some special favor of Heaven, accomplish any work of higher elevation.”

Actually, he did “accomplish” one “work of higher elevation” even than his lectures on rhetoric and oratory. His most important written work, as we now realize, is the one on Islam, the “Essay on Turks,” which today amazes many at first reading, and then heartens those who realize they have finally found the American statesman they have been looking for in vain, the one we need most today. And it turns out to be John Quincy Adams who, alone among our presidents, senators, congressmen, cabinet ministers, diplomats (and Adams filled every one of those offices), so perceptively grasped the disturbing sinister essence of Islam.

That same “Essay on Turks” ought to be required reading in courses on American history." Ideally, it ought to be assigned along with both Adams’s furious denunciation of how the white settlers and their government were mistreating the Indians (with the case of the Creeks pushed forcibly westward offered in evidence), and with a description of his central role, including his closing argument before the Supreme Court, in the Amistad case. For Adams will then be understood as what, in fact, he always was — an implacable defender of human rights. The chiefest offenders against human rights, then as now, in 1829 and in 2017, were Muslims. Should his “Essay on Turks” become part of the required reading in American history, and even were it to be assigned by a teacher hostile to its contents, Adams’s eloquent truth-telling will not be convincingly rebutted, and will, in any case, prove impossible to forget.

Hamas Issues Counter-Proposal Hostage And Ceasefire Deal, Netanyahu Says Deal Is ‘Absurd’

Hamas Issues Counter-Proposal Hostage and Ceasefire Deal, Netanyahu Says Deal Is 'Absurd'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich attend the weekly cabinet meeting at the Defence Ministry in Tel Aviv on January 7, 2024. (Photo by RONEN ZVULUN / POOL / AFP) (Photo by RONEN ZVULUN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

OAN’s Brooke Mallory
1:00 PM – Friday, March 15, 2024

SEE: https://www.oann.com/newsroom/hamas-issues-counter-proposal-hostage-and-ceasefire-deal-netanyahu-says-deal-is-absurd/; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

In continuing negotiations over a temporary truce and hostage agreement in its conflict with Israel, Hamas has presented a formal counter-proposal, raising hopes for the first time in weeks that more Israelis kidnapped on October 7th may be freed and that hostilities may end.

However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asserted that the terror group was making “ridiculous demands” during a meeting with the families of roughly 20 captives on Thursday night, raising doubts about whether the negotiations would move forward.

“For the first time, we can envision embracing them again,” said the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a group created to lobby for the captives. “Please grant us this right.”

Following weeks of contentious negotiations during which both Israeli and Hamas leaders voiced pessimism about finding common ground, a counter-proposal was made.

The conditions that Hamas has set forth call for the release of hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners from Israeli jails, including 100 who have been found guilty of murder or multiple murders, in exchange for the release of innocent hostages, which include women, children, the elderly, and the sick.

According to the proposal, Israel would have to agree to a long-term ceasefire, evacuate Gaza, and free all of the Palestinian security prisoners it is holding in order to free the remaining male hostages, whom Hamas views as “freedom fighters,” regardless of whether they were taken while serving in the armed forces.

At a meeting of his war cabinet on Friday, Netanyahu rejected the parameters, calling them “still absurd.” In addition, he declared that the Israeli army will keep getting ready for an impending invasion of Rafah, a city in southern Gaza that has become a haven for about 1.5 million Palestinians. However, according to Israeli officials, many of whom are Hamas leaders and members.

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Hamas: Suddenly Popular in Egypt

Is there something Hamas Nazis did lately that inspired Egyptians?

SEE: https://www.frontpagemag.com/hamas-suddenly-popular-in-egypt/; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

For decades, Hamas was not popular in Egypt. It was seen, rightly, as the local branch, in “Palestine,” of the Muslim Brotherhood. And the Muslim Brotherhood has been fought by every Egyptian regime since that of King Farouk. Gamal Abdel Nasser fought the Brotherhood. After Anwar Sadat, once a Brotherhood supporter, signed the Camp David Accords with Israel in 1979, the Brotherhood called for his overthrow. Sadat crushed the Brotherhood, and for that, he was assassinated in 1981 by the Tanzim al-Jihad, an Islamic group allied to the Brotherhood. Hosni Mubarak also fought the Brotherhood during his 30 years of rule (1981-2011).

After he was overthrown in a popular uprising, a caretaker regime took over, quickly followed by the first truly democratic election in Egypt’s history.  Held in 2012, Mohamed Morsi, a member of the Freedom and Justice Party that was affiliated with the Brotherhood, was elected President. A year later, he was ousted in a coup d’etat by General Abdelfattah Al-Sisi, whose regime has continued to fight the Muslim Brotherhood, and naturally, it has also opposed Hamas. Most Egyptians have been inculcated with the belief that Hamas, as a part of the MB, is a danger to Egypt’s wellbeing. That is, they were ready to believe the worst of Hamas — until the last few months.

More on the sea change in Egyptian popular attitudes toward Hamas since October 7 can be found here: “Egyptians used to hate Hamas. Now they love them.” Elder of Ziyon, March 5, 2024:

The Fikra Forum of the Washington Institute asked Egyptians in November/December what they thought of Hamas after the October 7 massacres.

While we had seen other polls showing broad approval of Hamas’ terrorist attacks in the Arab world, this one is especially interesting because it compares Egyptian attitudes of Hamas after October 7 with their historic disapproval of the group.

The turnaround in Egyptian attitudes towards Hamas is stunning.

In 2020, 73% of Egyptians viewed Hamas negatively and 23% positively. That has now flipped to 75% who now approve of Hamas compared to only 21% who disapprove….

Egyptians think that Hamas is the only group that risks its members fighting Israel; the other groups are just blowhards. There is no bravery in lobbing rockets from a distance. That is why Hamas is so popular: its willingness to martyrdom in its zeal to murder Jews up close.

The poll also found that 94% of Egyptians don’t believe that Hamas killed civilians on October 7.  This is in line with Palestinian polls that showed that over 90% also don’t believe that Hamas committed any war crimes on that date….

How did Hamas go from being deeply disliked by almost three-quarters of Egyptians, to being applauded by three-quarters of them? In 2020, 73% of Egyptians viewed Hamas negatively and 23% positively. But after Hamas’ atrocities on October 7 and the war with Israel that has followed, everything has flipped. Nearly three quarters of Egyptians who previously had a negative view of Hamas now have a positive view. What happened? On October 7, 3,000 Hamas operatives pushed their way into Israel, where both at the site of the Re’im dance party, and at more than 20 kibbutzim, they managed to rape, torture, mutilate, and murder Israeli men, women, and children. Babies were beheaded; children were burnt alive; girls were gang-raped, tortured, mutilated, and murdered, the breasts sliced off women and used by Hamas “fighters” to play catch, the genitalia were cut off men and their eyes were gouged out; children were murdered in front of their parents, and parents in front of their children. This is what Hamas did. And Egyptians did not recoil from the horror. Instead Hamas’ ability to inflict terrible damage on Israeli civilians caused the group soar in Egyptians’ estimation.

But, some will say, the Egyptians knew nothing about the atrocities. They only claimed to know that Hamas had attacked the IDF. In the poll, 94% of Egyptians said they didn’t believe that there were any Israeli civilians who were attacked on October 7. Don’t take that poll’s results at face value. They are claiming that disbelief because, while they approve of the atrocities, they don’t want the world to know that they do, so it’s best to pretend you “don’t believe” those claims of atrocities.

But the world’s media was focused for weeks on the events of October 7, that is, on the attacks on Israeli men, women, and children. The mainstream media, on television, radio, and newspapers, carried the stories about the atrocities in detail. So did the Arabic-language channels on the BBC, VOA, AFP, DW that were listened to into Egypt. Millions of posts on social media, including those by Hamas members themselves, described the killings of civilians. Pro-Palestinian professors, such as Hamid Dabashi and Rashid Khalidi, exulted in the Hamas killings of civilians.

Here, as one example, is what Khalidi, a professor at Columbia, had to say: “Gaza has been under siege for 16 years. Israel had assumed that it could live a peaceful, quiet life whilst putting its boot heel on the Palestinians in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip. And sooner or later, that had to explode. Now, it exploded in a particularly ugly fashion, with these massacres; it resulted in the highest death toll among Israeli civilians in the entire history of Israel’s wars, since 1948.”

It was clear to everyone in Egypt, as elsewhere: on October 7, Hamas committed “massacres” of “Israeli civilians.”

It would simply not have been possible for 94% of Egyptians to disbelieve what was being broadcast repeatedly, all over the world. They did know, and they approved. That’s why three quarters of them now hold Hamas in such high esteem, after years of despising the group because of its affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood.

The moral of this unedifying tale is this: Rape, torture, and murder Israeli civilians to your heart’s content. The Egyptians, and the other Arabs, will love you for it.

Automatic Broker Commissions Going Away For Home Buyers Under New $418M Settlement

Automatic Broker Commissions Going Away For Home Buyers Under New $418M Settlement

SAN FRANCISCO - MARCH 23: Real estate signs are posted in front of homes for sale March 23, 2010 in San Francisco, California. Sales of existing homes fell for the third straight month, falling 0.6 percent in February. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
(Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

OAN’s James Meyers
11:00 AM -Friday, March 15, 2024

SEE: https://www.oann.com/newsroom/automatic-broker-commissions-going-away-for-home-buyers-under-new-418m-settlement/; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

A massive settlement has been approved for home buyers in the United States. 

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) has agreed to a Real Estate changing settlement that eliminates real estate brokers’ long-standing automatic commissions, which are typically up to 6% of the purchase price.

Home buyers and sellers would be able to negotiate fees with their real estate agents up front.

If the $418 million settlement is approved by a federal court, experts believe that the number of real estate agents will begin to decrease, which will continue to drive down commission prices.

“For years, anti-competitive rules in the real estate industry have financially harmed millions,” said Benjamin Brown, managing partner at the Cohen Milstein law firm and one of the settlement’s negotiators. “This settlement bring sweeping reforms that will help countless American families.”

The NAR acknowledged the pending settlement in a statement Friday and denied any wrongdoing.

“NAR has worked hard for years to resolve this litigation in a manner that benefits our members and American consumers,” said Nykia Wright, interim CEO of NAR, whose former chief stepped down late last year amid fallout from a federal lawsuit.

“It has always been our goal to preserve consumer choice and protect our members to the greatest extent possible. "This settlement achieves both of those goals,” Wright said in the statement.

Currently, a home seller has to pay a brokerage fee for listing their property on a Multiple Listing Service, which is usually 5% or 6% depending on where they are located on the map.

If the settlement is approved, brokerage commissions would be stripped from MLS sites and opened up to negotiation with sellers. Additionally, home buyers would be able to negotiate fees more easily if they choose to sign up with a broker. 

Furthermore, new brokerage-fee changes will begin to take effect in the next few months once they are fully approved. A preliminary hearing to approve the deal is slated to take place in the next few weeks. 

Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts

The Tulsi Gabbard Show: The Right to Religious Liberty With Jay Sekulow

Tulsi Gabbard opens up about the importance of her faith and how the Democrat party has come to resent religion. The former Hawaii Congresswoman shares how her personal relationship with God grounded her on the presidential campaign trail while opening her eyes to the growing hostility from inside the party towards people of faith. Tulsi is joined by the Chief Counsel of the American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ), Jay Sekulow to discuss his career defending religious liberty and the ongoing battles that threaten this essential freedom.

Hunter Biden Refuses to Appear at House Hearing, Calls It a ‘Carnival Sideshow’

AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
Hunter Biden, a man whose entire life is a carnival sideshow, has just refused an invitation from House Republicans to appear at a hearing next week, dismissing the whole thing as a “carnival sideshow.” Yeah, you see, Hunter, he’s a serious guy. A man who took hundreds of naked selfies in the company of cocaine and hookers is much too austere and dignified to be subjected to the indignity of a hearing in the House of Representatives.

The New York Post reported on Wednesday that The Big Guy’s bag man “rejected an invitation from House Republicans to appear for a public hearing next week alongside former business associates.” This was what he called a “carnival sideshow,” and Hunter and his team weren’t finished. 

His attorney, Abbe Lowell, “blasted Republicans’ efforts to bring his client before a public hearing after he had sat for a nearly seven-hour deposition last month.” Lowell wrote, “Your latest step — this March 6 invitation — is not a serious oversight proceeding." It is your attempt to resuscitate your Conference’s moribund inquiry with a made-for-right-wing-media, circus act.”

Yeah, a circus act. Step right up! See the man who, according to a Sept. 2020 report by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and Senate Committee on Finance, was “paid millions of dollars from a corrupt Ukrainian oligarch” for his presence on the board of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian natural gas company. 

What training did Hunter have in the natural gas business? Why, none? None at all. What expertise did the young master bring to his lucrative new job? Once again, none. None whatsoever. In fact, the report even states that “the Obama administration knew that Hunter Biden’s position on Burisma’s board was problematic and did interfere in the efficient execution of policy with respect to Ukraine.” You might even call it a “carnival sideshow.”

What’s more, “in early 2015 the former Acting Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, George Kent, raised concerns to officials in Vice President Joe Biden’s office about the perception of a conflict of interest with respect to Hunter Biden’s role on Burisma’s board. Kent’s concerns went unaddressed, and in September 2016, he emphasized in an email to his colleagues, that the presence of Hunter Biden on the Burisma board was very awkward for all U.S. officials pushing an anticorruption agenda in Ukraine.’” It was more than just awkward. It was inexcusable, and it was clear evidence of corruption.

In the teeth of all that and much more, Hunter and his legal team have the colossal nerve, the Bidenesque chutzpah, to affect a wounded tone of moral rectitude and victimhood. Lowell scolded the committee by asserting that “your idea of congressional fact-finding" is, amazingly, to have Mr. Biden appear with the discredited ‘witnesses’ you continue to promote.” 

Hunter and his legal henchman also “insisted late last year that he appear for a public hearing instead of a private deposition, citing concerns that GOP lawmakers would distort his interview. The two sides ultimately agreed to a sit-down testimony first, followed by a public hearing.” 

All this is designed to give the impression that all of Hunter’s business dealings have been completely on the up-and-up and that Old Joe wasn’t involved in any way whatsoever. The idea is to smear the committee’s entire investigation as a partisan witch hunt, and of course, the establishment media is always ready to amplify this spin. The Post even claimed that “while lawmakers have unearthed ethically questionable behavior by the president’s son and other family members, Republicans have yet to produce evidence of misconduct by Joe Biden while in public office.”

        Related: I Thought Biden’s Lies Couldn’t Shock Me Anymore. I Was Wrong.

From a strictly legalistic standpoint, that may be true. However, the very fact that Hunter Biden got the Burisma job at all is evidence in itself of influence peddling. House Republicans, given the fact that they’re among the foremost members of the Stupid Party, may not be able to unearth any smoking gun that absolutely proves that Hunter and The Big Guy were engaged in any corrupt dealings, but it’s blazingly obvious that the whole thing was an attempt to gain access and influence over the White House. Or are we just supposed to believe that Burisma executives happened upon Hunter Biden and said to each other, “Never mind the crack and hookers, and forget about his total lack of knowledge in the field: that boy has potential! Let’s give him an entry-level million-dollar salary!” 

Hunter Biden is trying to play the American people for fools, and he has good reason to think we are since, after all, his empty husk of a father is in the Oval Office. But House Republicans should call a halt to this carnival sideshow immediately and use all legal means to compel Hunter to cooperate with their investigation.

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