quote:

Originally posted by Paulyannucci:
Isn't Zak Anani the "Soup Nazi" from Seinfeld?

no soup for you...

quote:

Originally posted by MKArnold:
I've listened to him first hand. He does credit a good part of his conversion from his former life to his current life to Christianity. There's worse forms of motivation. I found him to be quiet sincere and when questioned by numerous FBI agents and police officers who were also in attendance, they considered him legitimate. You can learn alot from your enemies and your former enemies. Even he were not on the up-and-up it's still best to keep your friends close and your enemies closer....

I have met some people that questioned weather or not I was a Christian because of my lack of patients with some people. I believe in spiritual honesty and refuse to mask my feelings when I can see someone is being manipulative. I would be cautious because a lot of people are like actors. They were taught the fruits of the spirit and practice putting on a Godly face that is not a true indicator of what is going on in their head. Many Muslims are taught the fruits of the spirit just like Christians. Just like some Christians, they use the fruits of the spirit to decieve and exploit others. A terrorist would be a first class liar and deceiver with that kind of upbringing and experiance. They are most likely hoping you will give them an authoritive position in the Middle East or elsewere. The Government is a means to power for such a person. In a worst case, maybe they are studying us for a weakness and have a hidden agenda.

Before this completely devolves into a menaingless religious debate, let's go back to something said in the article ...

"If they are indeed terrorists, why are they not being prosecuted, jailed or deported or sent to Guantanamo Bay, or is it because they've accepted fundamental Christianity?" Weinstein said. "Or if this is fabricated and it's a total fraud, why are they being invited to the academy?"

This is the real question. I agree totally with the writer who stated that the speakers at the Academy should be better vetted before they are allowed to spread whatever it is they're spreadng.

quote:

Originally posted by Nighthawk_44:
Before this completely devolves into a menaingless religious debate, let's go back to something said in the article ...

"If they are indeed terrorists, why are they not being prosecuted, jailed or deported or sent to Guantanamo Bay, or is it because they've accepted fundamental Christianity?" Weinstein said. "Or if this is fabricated and it's a total fraud, why are they being invited to the academy?"

This is the real question. I agree totally with the writer who stated that the speakers at the Academy should be better vetted before they are allowed to spread whatever it is they're spreadng.

I agree with what you are saying about them being terrorists. A convert canbe forgiven by God for his or her sins once they confess but that doesn't mean they are releaved of responcibility for their actions or have a right to expect everyone to trust them. My guess is they are being groomed by some Christian/ Military organization for something. If they are or were on a terrorist watch list I think someone is loosing it by allowing them to roam freely. Terrorists are not combatants, they are criminals with no respect for the innocent and have remained in the shadows and relyed on deception from the get go. It is hard for me to believe that anyone would be so willing to trust them at this point.

quote:

Originally posted by Nighthawk_44:
Before this completely devolves into a menaingless religious debate, let's go back to something said in the article ...

"If they are indeed terrorists, why are they not being prosecuted, jailed or deported or sent to Guantanamo Bay, or is it because they've accepted fundamental Christianity?" Weinstein said. "Or if this is fabricated and it's a total fraud, why are they being invited to the academy?"

This is the real question. I agree totally with the writer who stated that the speakers at the Academy should be better vetted before they are allowed to spread whatever it is they're spreadng.

because they have flipped and are helping us.... they are making themselves usefull... more could do the same if they wanted to ...but they dont they would rather stay in gitmo and make it hard for us then forget the jihad and return home.... all anyone at gitmo has to do is swear off the jihad and they can go home... but they dont want to they would rather kill you and me then go home and live a jihadless life ....

Because if they did swear off jihad, their buddies back home would hunt them down and execute them. Apostasy ain't taken lightly in radical Islam.

The history of our own country using past criminals to help the American cause is indeed historical fact. Hell, we even have movies from Hollywoood on them. In the early 90's a 17 year old kid decided to crack, not "hack" to those who do not know the difference, anyhow, he cracked the NSA data base that was aparently the "impossible" system to do such. Well, some years later and this criminal is the head of skip tracking in the NSA, just google it and you will read the uniq story. How does an FBI profiler learn how to do such? maybe by looking into the minds of serial killers who have found "Jesus" and are willing to relate what, when, why and how they operated. Remember, almost all our textbooks are written based off of someone elses look into a persons past or a story of there own admitance.

Semper FI

February 27, 2008

Apparently, terrorism pays. It pays very well.

Posted: 03:20 PM ET

For some time now a trio of self-proclaimed ex-terrorists has been making the rounds of the lecture circuit, charging thousands of dollars for their fantastical tales of life as murderous Muslim extremists.
Reza Aslan

Walid Shoebat, Kamal Saleem – both US citizens – and Zacharia Anani, a Canadian national, all claim to have been members of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Anani claims personal responsibility for the deaths of over two hundred people. Shoebat says he was part of a terrorist cell inside the United States.

Their most recent appearance was at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, which hosted the three at its 50th Annual Academy Assembly on the topic, “Dismantling Terrorism: Developing Actionable Solutions for Today’s Plague of Violence.”

Shoebat, Saleem, and Anani were asked to speak about their personal experiences as Islamic terrorists, to provide the next generation of US soldiers with an inside account of radical terrorism.

The selection by the Air Force Academy of these speakers was criticized by both the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Why? Because it turns out these guys are not ex-terrorists at all but—wait for it—fundamentalist Christians posing as ex-terrorists. Their fervently anti-Islamic message, in which all Muslims are labeled as radicals, is a prelude to a testimony about how accepting Jesus into their hearts and becoming born again saved them from a life of terrorism.


Walid Shoebat is a favorite of the “Left Behind” crowd and has spoken at Tim LaHaye’s Pre-Trib (Pre-Tribulation) Research Center. Kamal Saleem, whose real name is Khodor Shami, worked for Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network for sixteen years, and was hired by Focus on the Family in 2003. In 2006, he launched Koome Ministries, whose mission is to “expose the true agenda of [Muslims] who would deceive our nation and the free nations of the world… America must wake-up and set a continued Christian agenda of Liberty and Truth as a standard to follow throughout the free world.”

Since the three began their speaking careers, the authenticity of their claims has been repeatedly challenged by academics and terrorism experts, who have found many aspects of their stories don’t add up.

According to Tom Quiggin, Canada’s only court-qualified expert on global jihadism, and a former Royal Canadian Mounted Police intelligence and national security expert, “Mr. Anani’s not an individual who rates the slightest degree of credibility, based on the stories that he has told.”

Among other things, Quiggin points to Anani’s claim of killing hundreds of people after joining his first militant group in Lebanon at age 13. Anani, now forty-nine, would have been 13 in 1970. However, the fighting in Lebanon did not begin in earnest until 1975, and religious-based terrorism was practically unheard of there until after 1979. According to Anani, he left Lebanon for Egypt to attend Al-Azhar University at age 18, three years earlier.

Professor Douglas Howard teaches the history of the modern Middle East at Calvin College in Michigan, where Kamal Saleem spoke last November. He was shocked to hear Saleem claim that a member of his family was the “the Grand Wazir of Islam.”

“Wazir is a variation of vizier,” Professor Howard explained. “The Grand Vizier was a political role in the Ottoman empire. No Muslim would ever claim that in connection with the role of mufti, which is a scholar of Islamic texts. It’s like someone saying they were the governor of Christianity.”

Professor Howard described the talk at Calvin College as “a tent meeting revival sermon sponsored by academic organizations.”

“His personal story gives him credibility as an anti-Islamic preacher,” he said. “But it is not verifiable and without it he’s no different from other fundamentalist preachers and there’s plenty of those out there.”

Here’s a question: if the claims of these three are true, why aren’t they in Guantanamo?

Mikey Weinstein, head of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, which has worked tirelessly to uncover precisely the kinds of constitutional violations of church and state that occurred when these three spoke, or rather, witnessed, at the Air Force Academy, put it this way: “If their claims are true, these alleged ex-terrorists should be deported or prosecuted, unless our government now considers conversion to fundamentalist Christianity a reason to disregard prior terrorist activities. If their claims are fabricated, they have criminally defrauded every institution that has paid them to speak.”

Strangely, no arrests warrants have yet been issued.

- Reza Aslan/Author “No god but God”


Apparently, terrorism pays. It pays very well.

US AIR FORCE ACADEMY EVENT

Mikey Weinstein and MRFF Advisory Board Members Ambassador Joseph Wilson and Reza Aslan will address cadets and faculty on April 9th. This event is in response to the "former terrorists" that recently spoke there. The event will be covered by the New York Times and other major media. Please refer to the Gazette.com story below for more information. To view the USAFA promotional flyer for this event,


USAF Promotion Flyer

Cadets' guest speaker will focus on Christianity

quote:

Originally posted by jdksfcret:

- Reza Aslan/Author “No god but God”


Apparently, terrorism pays. It pays very well.

*sigh* I knew he was awesome. Reza's my backup husband, folk- just in case DH decides to run off w/Miss Tanzania.