By the time you read this post, a unity rally in Paris will be winding down. On Saturday over 700,000 people rallied in France in response to the Charlie Hebdo affair, and more than a million, among them the heads of several states, will be on deck today. The French Prime Minister has declared a “War on Radical Islam” ahead of the rally according to the New York Times. Whether this is a mere reaction to the deaths of 12 at the offices of Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday and the deaths of four hostages at a kosher deli in Paris on Friday, or whether this is a case of accumulated outrage is anybody’s guess. One thing is certain: new lines are being drawn across the globe.
17 people died in Paris between Wednesday and Friday, all of them for merely being modern and (likely) secularized. In the Nigerian town of Baga, hundreds, if not thousands, were likely killed by Boko Haram in the days leading up to Wednesday. The situation is so desperate there that people are reportedly swimming to a remote island on an adjoining lake to escape the attacks, and then starving to death. Not incidentally, Boko Haram now has captured all of northern Nigeria, and adjacent areas in three other African states. They apparently are ready to set up a new government, ISIS-style.
It seems so strange. Back when so many, even many of us, where protesting GWOT, I don’t think we could have imagined that it would ever get this far. Now you’d be a fool not to embrace GWOT. It’s absolutely necessary. For all of us, whether we are in Paris, or in Baga.
Maybe that’s the reality that has finally been brought home by the Charlie Hebdo attacks. This just feels different. This is not some ragtag group of rebels taking over remote parts of Iraq, Syria, and Northern Africa anymore. There’s an entire crescent (an irony not lost on me) of land captured now by armed and organized militants, so organized that they can remotely radicalize a small group of childhood friends who basically grew up in the west to the point that they will perpetrate impromptu jihad in the middle of our most modern and secularized cities. Sidney, for instance, less than a month ago. Or Boston.
Here in America, land of the free, home of brave, there’s a “nuanced” discussion going on about whether or not to identify as a “Charlie.” It’s playing out like a macro-version of the argument Bill Maher and Ben Affleck got into last year. The usual suspects are lining up along predictable, ironic lines.
The crowd still snickering over art featuring feces and the Virgin Mary are posturing defense for the most retrograde major religion on earth. To be fair, this is a minute subset of the political left. This group is pretty far gone, as demonstrated by this DK recommended diary. They are completely unable to view the world outside of their warped American point of view and thus they cannot get past the majority colors if Islam–by which I mean not white.
From a purely anthropological point of view, their trajectory has been fascinating. At first they were sold on the idea that the murders at Charlie Hebdo headquarters were a righteous matter of freedom of speech. They filled the screen at Memeorandum and other news aggregators with voluminous screeds decrying the incident. “I am Charlie!” they agreed. This lasted about 12 hours, until they took a look at some of the covers. Then, in knee-jerk fashion, they were like, “Weeeeeell…” Well what? Is it suddenly okay to kill people for publishing cartoons you don’t agree with? They’re a little on the fence about this. Which puts them in some interesting company.
And suddenly, we are not all Charlie. Most of America, Europe and other parts of the world stand in unity today against being threatened into submission by a virulent, violent, and strident world view backed with increasing military might and a nasty penchant for remote radicalization. For goodness sake, there were Kalashnikovs and rocket launchers in Paris this week. The Canadian Parliament Building was attacked two months ago. By any honest account, we appear to be under global siege. Even Anonymous recognizes the importance of this moment.
The world is definitely changed. Will today mark the day that the West says enough? I don’t know, and I doubt it. But it feels like a juggernaut is being released in slow motion, doesn’t it? Like Atlas finally dropped the ball, and the weight that is the earth is rolling, destined to gather no more moss for some time.
Two days in a row? I could get spoiled.
I hope the world is waking up to the jihad global terrorism. We have a president the will not even say the words. as if you do not say it , it does not exist. that is suicidal. the jihadist do NOT want peace they want domination and we better wake up to that fact
Obama would rather swallow his tongue than declare a war on radical Islam.
I would also rather he swallow his tongue. Period. The world is coming apart and he wants to talk about “free community college”. His avoidance of addressing this global terrorism and his hiding information from his adoring supporters is perverse and destructive.
Greta Van Susteren: AG Holder says US to host summit on how to fight violent extremism; Feb 18 (per reports).
Is that President’s Weekend ? Bet it will be held in a golf friendly climate 🙂
http://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2015/01/09/2016-and-paris-its-the-jihad-stupid/?singlepage=true
it is the jihad stupid
one scarey visual
http://gretawire.foxnewsinsider.com/video/video-inside-the-rapid-growth-of-terror-networks-worldwide/
well put Lola. Was thinking the same thing myself. It feels like a full blown war and if we don’t become more aggressive about eradicating these elements now, there will be a much bigger price to pay in the future. It is frustrating that the PC police holds the upper hand right now in the current administration.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-next-islamist-rampage-1420847885
the next islamist rampage
Pop quiz:
What is the greatest engineering feat of Islamic civilization? What great advances in science, technology and/or medicine do we owe to Islam?
The irony is that at one time in history the Isamic civivliations were the crtting edge of many sciences/engineering disciplines. These civilizations devloped the scientific method and made incredible contributions to architecture, mathematics, and astronomy. However, this golden age was a few centruies ago.
That was 1000 years ago and their cutting edge wasn’t that sharp. Mostly it was mathematics.
You can still see some of the engineering feats of the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Chinese, Mayans, Incas, Aztecs and Indus Valley civilizations. Other than mosques, what did Muslims build?
Meh. The numbers we used are called Hindu-Arabic numerals because Persian mathematicians adopted the Indian system. This was back in 800 AD when Persian culture was still ascendant and their conversion to Islam was fairly new had not yet degraded their scientific curiosity.
Some of the “great” achievements of the Middle East have been debunked as taken from more advanced cultures.
It’s little closer in time than 1000 years ago. It was more like in 1500 and 1600’s. The concept of ZERO is very important to modern culture. It is the basis of all computer langauges. To be fair mutliple cultures developed the zero. However these did not include the Greeks or the Romans. Western culture absorbed this concept via the Islamic civilizaions of the Middle East, not the Actezs.
To answer your question, in India the Hindu and Muslim architcture styles are very different. As a result, the Muslims were able to build things that the Hindu architecture was not. In adittion to mosques, other Muslim building types that still exist in India are forts, gardens, waters systems, astronomical observatories and of course tombs (theTaj). These are the same kinds of buildings all cultures build, they just have their own distict style.
Most contribitions to science and engineering are incremental and built off of what existed before. The disruptive innovation is rare. If your question is really about what game changing innovations did the Islamic Civilizations give us – I would say they occurred in math and astronomy. I see many of they other accomplishments attributed to them as incremental changes, and based off knowedgle derived from texts from other cultures. They did have access to texts from achient Greece and India at times when Western Culture did not. They studied them and they advanced the feilds as a result.
Walls?
We owe the Arab/Persian (and Islamic) world a lot for preserving western (and indian) math and science and philosophy during the dark ages. And we owe them for helping develop algebra. And in the west and in the few secular mid-east corners where open science is allowed, many Arab/Persian people play great rolls in the modern (aka western) world. But from what I can see of current Islam dominated countries and cultures is a form of Luddism (anti technology, anti western progress, etc.). Have you noticed that a lot of extremists on both ends of the spectrum, and seemingly of late mostly on the left, tend to be Luddites?
Great post Lola!
A looming threat that our leaders try to ignore.
Jews fleeing France in record numbers.
History sure knows how to rhyme.
The Charlie Hebdo thing certainly showed me who in the media are for appeasement and who have not lost their minds. WaPo surprised me by showing some spine and publishing the cartoons.
WaPo surprised me too and I wonder who made that call? The editor? Did Bezos get involved?
Thanks, VM! That Anonymous thing kind of surprised me. “Never attack the media.” That’s different.
Great post, Lola. It is so telling how our media are responding to this.
I wonder if they ever gave any thought to the fact that perhaps if MB chose not to attack a police officer then he’d most likely still be alive today.
A detail that didn’t fit their narrative.
They do Not think.
They just act. 👿
Apparently, in a perfect ‘hood gentle giants should have the right to grab stuff from stores and whale on cops.
When a person has self-respect, he or she usually treats others with respect.
^THIS^
On Fox now, 50 world leaders join in a Global Unity March against terror in Paris. Where’s our reps? Nobama, but he sent our lameduck AG Eric Holder????? I really don’t think they wanted BO there, his security requirements are a nightmare wherever he goes. Way to represent U.S. 😦
Well it would have been the perfect opportunity to John Kerry to show off his French speaking skills.
Can he say ‘I’m a French croissant’ in French?
I remember when he was called French looking in 2004.
😆
Who is John Kerry?
I noticed that too. Angela Merckel, Benjamin Netanyahu, David Cameron, several royals from across Europe & the Middle East, but Obama doesn’t go. Not even the SoS. Yes, this does indeed feel different.
Holder is the White House janitor.
Boehner should go. He’s #3 in line and he doesn’t (usually) have to do what Obama says.
That would require Boehner to display integrity and statesmanship, so he couldn’t go.
Holder has to march in the back because he is not a Head of State. Obama should have gone. He is an embarrassment to the world.
Too cold to golf there today.
I was thinking the same thing.
honk
BO is not missing, he’s not a world leader.
Only in his own mind
Maybe he wasn’t invited ?
More photos and live feed at Legal Insurrection:
http://legalinsurrection.com/2015/01/paris-national-unity-rally-live/
My word, that’s a huge rally.
There was one in every major city in France. My husband went to ours (I drew the line at taking the kids because I was not convinced that it would be safe and they are far too young to understand) and said that the crowds went on for blocks and blocks and blocks.
Haven’t seen any signs of solidarity marches breaking out in the U.S. today. The least we can do to make up for Obama’s dis 😦
But, but, but . . . the football games are on, it’s cold outside, it’s time to take down the Christmas decorations, the Golden Globes are on tonite. And some people might want to golf.
They had one in a stadium parking lot between playoff games yesterday, I hear. It was either in Oakland or Santa Clara. Or Tampa.
Oops! Sorry. Those were Flea Markets.
Also, DH tells me that there were a lot of Muslims there (at the one in Tours). Which is one small positive sign.
The news here is reporting 3.7 million, which I am guessing is the nationwide estimate. The estimate for my town is 35,000, which is pretty staggering given that the population of the city proper is not much higher than 100,000 (although if you count all of the surrounding “suburbs”, we’re more like half a mil).
Wow, those are impressive numbers! Thanks for your reports on this.
LOL Lindsay Graham: Obama’s strategy on terrorism is to run out the clock and pass it along to the next President.
Can’t do anything to mess up his appeasement legacy.
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Lola,
Excellent thread. You put my rambling thoughts into a coherent thread.
Thanks. I was just rambling myself. LOL. I was thinking about all of these incidents in the last year or two, those I mentioned, and others like the mall terror attack in Nairobi, all the hostages that have been captured and beheaded, the supposed red line in Syria, Benghazi, pirate terror attacks off the coast of African, etc and I was just trying to articulate how different this all was from when our alleged “war criminals” were in charge. I was just trying to articulate my own jumbled head.
I’m also trying to figure out when this all started as a movement. Iran and the green revolution? Syrian rebels? Arab Spring? Benghazi? How does Petraeus, as director if the CIA, play into this (remember, his scandal broke right after the 2012 election, which was right after Benghazi). I can’t tell for sure. I think they are all big pieces to a larger puzzle.
I stand with you Lola. With new charges being considered against Petraeus, I fear that obama and his administration will make sure that the General either refuses to testify before Congressional Committee chaired by Trey Gowdy or stonewalls them keeping obama’s secrets.
Yepp!!!
Me, too.
Thank you, Lola. Excellent.
I haven’t been following the debate this week, and was with a friend last night who is reliably P.C. in all things, and when I mentioned the courage of the cartoonists in the face of danger, she countered with the “not Charlie” suggestion to not be too “provocative.” I was stunned. That is what cartoonists do! If you don’t agree with their p.o.v. don’t read it. There are insane and violent fundamentalists so we should curtail free speech (& behavior?) as to not upset their rigid belief systems?! This is a very dangerous, slippery slope.
I was going to save it for my blog, but I want to get out my somewhat radical theory. If you look at that ass William Donahue from the Catholic League and defending Islamists because he gets butt hurt as a Catholic, he seems kind of jealous they can just kill the people they disagree with. This makes me wonder if the progressives and some other ideologues don’t secretly admire the single-mindedness of these terrorists.
Remember after 9/11 when Bill Maher was still on ABC and said that thing about how the hijackers had the courage to die for their beliefs in a suicide mission? This is a common misconception going back to various suicide squads like the kamikaze. While there is something frightening about people who will kill themselves to kill others, our real strength is being willing to die to save others. In World War 2, the Allies knew that a grand gesture of incinerating a city with nukes is more powerful than a bunch of cowards in planes. Then we felt bad about it for the next 50 years.
Now we have progs who are essentially amoral. They see Muslims as deeply spiritual and faithful to their beliefs, oppressed by the West, kind of like they see the Native Americans. While their hatred for Western values makes them think every Priest is a potential child molester, the Muslim terrorist is an aberration. Even then, those aberrations are strongly driven. The problem progressives have is while they want to remake the world, most of their ranks consist of lazy hipsters. What they would love is to combine their worldview with the crazy zealotry that makes these Muslim guys blow up things and kill people.
The Bill Ayers Evolution. Ayup. I agree. They will never get there with such inconsistent, poorly articulated arguments or with the kind of privilege Americans enjoy. That’s what fuels radicalized Islamists. Simple arguments that they have been and are being attacked, both physically and spiritually, and physical strife in nations that are run by dictators and despots.
Humans are attracted to strength and courage. Its a darwinian trait.
Minus ethos, minus morals, that’s what you get. In fact, history shows that it’s ehat you usually get.
Nothing new – just move along (snarc)
Sadly this behavior is the same as we experienced back in the 30 and 40’s with the rise of Nazism and Communism. So many people in Europe and US praise these leaders and their policies. Walter Duranty of the NYT won a Pulitzer Prize for his stories on the Soviet Union and Stalin refusing to write about the actual conditions as in the mass starvation in the Ukraine, the bread basket of the country. Furthermore he destroyed and dismissed honest reporters like Malcolm Muggeridge for attempting to report on the horrors of communism and Stalin.
During the 1930’s there were lots of people in this country who thought we should follow the example of the Nazis.
As in Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., Ambassador to Great Britain and father of President John F. Kennedy.
And the beat goes on. This is why we have so many people who are now falling prey to the communist party and its machinations now.
Check out this pic asking where is Waldo Obama.
I can’t help but notice lots of people I know on the left are filling their posts with pictures of armed christians and KKK cartoons saying the ‘right” is just as bad as the islamists. They seem to be squirming.
How many people have the West Baptist Church beheaded this year? If you refuse to pray with the Jehovah’s Witnesses when they come to the door, do they shoot you?
Westboro Baptist leaders are from the left, they’re D’s not R’s. Phelps was all up into Al Gore and Phelps himself ran for office several times as a D, never as an R. They are leftwing kooks, not right wing kooks.
Same for the KKK, sorry fail again the KKK was a D thing not an R thing.
Great post Lola. Really nailed it.
wow….a million people reportedly have shown up to take back the right to stand up….leaders from all over the world have come….Muslims, Jews, Christians and others all standing up together…except ours…we send Eric Holder! wow…just wow….disgraceful….and shameful….who’s gonna bodyguard against the bodyguards???
http://www.france24.com/…/20150111-historic-paris-march-a…/…
I’m not one to think about where Obama was born or to speculate about his parentage. I don’t care if someone else really wrote his books. But given some of the things that have come out his mouth and his unwillingness to do anything that might anger Muslims, I do believe he is either a closet Muslim, owes someone in the Muslim community something big, or is a monumental coward.
(standing Applauding Lola) 😀
^This^
I’ll go with #3.
I’m with Jadzia on this one. #3
All of the above.
Yep. Except these are likely and/or propositions, as opposed to just or. His history is just too cloudy, and the FBI-CIA nexus too suspicious. There’s a reason he sent Eric Holder over, we just may never know exactly what that reason is.
I don’t think his mother or grandparents were religious people, at least not that I’m aware of. The only religion he was exposed to as a child was Islam due to his stepfather, Lolo. His own father was Muslim too, so therefore I think he thinks of himself as Muslim or at least from Muslim roots. I think due to his familial ties and upbringing he sympathizes with Muslims.
I think in actuality he’s more like his mom and grandparents in that he’s not particularly religious. I think he went to Rev Wright’s church for street cred more than he did for spiritual reasons.
I also think he’s a big coward.
Obama’s grandparents (on his mother’s side) were leftists and radicals. They connected him with pervert Frank Marshall Davis. Rev. Wright was a former Muslim who decided that preaching as a Christian would make him more palatable in the wealthy Black communities of Chicago.
One of the many lovely parts of Islam is that you can’t be a former Muslim, as that makes you a worse infidel than any Jew or Christian. If Obama had become a Muslim in Indonesia, it would be the most closely guarded secret of his political career.
I did not know that about Jeremiah Wright. How does he stay alive. I thought being a former Muslim would condemn him to death. Are they keeping him alive for a reason?
As for Obama and secrets. . . .has there ever been a POTUS with as much coverup/protection as bronco?
Lola, this is such a thoughtful and good post. Thank you.
“wow….a million people reportedly have shown up to take back the right to stand up…”
*****
Anyone in those million holding up one of the “Charlie” cartoons????
stolen from No Quarter
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11338244/Man-who-allegedly-helped-radicalise-Paris-gunmen-now-nurse-at-hospital-which-received-victims.html
weird and scary
http://weaselzippers.us/210650-breaking-belgian-newspaper-le-soir-evacuates-after-bomb-threat-over-charliehebdo-coverage/
well there has been France, Germany and now Belgium threatened over cartoons
http://weaselzippers.us/210647-in-answer-to-are-we-monitoring-terrorist-cells-holder-says-we-dont-stereotype/
so is holder going to tell countries that have been attacked by terrorist cells ” don’t stereotype?”
To them, the only “terrorists” are people with smaller state political views like libertarians, tea-party, and small state Republicans. They, the IRS, and most other parts of the executive branch are watching them very closely.
Chinese state news agency says burqua ban approved by lawmakers in Muslim Uighur homeland of Xinjiang last month is set to go into effect; report says ban part of ‘effort to curb growing extremism’ – @XHNews
Read more on icrosschina.com
It’s sad that the most restrictive governments (China, Russia) are the ones actually dealing with Islamists.
Of course when you have a totalitarian regime, it’s much easier to flex your state muscle and oppress any groups you like.
French interior ministry says size of Paris unity march ‘unprecedented,’ official count impossible – @FRANCE24
Read more on france24.com
http://hoocoodanode.com/2015/01/11/rbo-wayback-machine-stealth-jihad-islamic-training-camps-in-the-usa/
no comment.
http://news.yahoo.com/arson-attack-german-paper-ran-charlie-hebdo-cartoons-065348454.html
It’s going to get very bad.
This is interesting, he basically says there are just too many terrorists to keep track of in France
http://20committee.com/2015/01/10/there-was-no-intelligence-failure-in-paris/
They are still going strong in Paris as they approach the 8 pm hour. Livestream:
Not a big surprise, but a necessary first step. The leader of Egypt tells Imams they are responsible for what is happening with Islamic terrorism.
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/egypt-president-egypt-sisi/2015/01/11/id/617848/
Unbelievable pictures of the rally and the world leaders in attendance. But Nobama:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2905307/One-million-people-prepare-march-Paris-terror-attacks.html
I don’t see Eric Holder in those pics-thought for sure he’d try to clamp himself onto Netanyahu.
Maybe Bibi’s bodyguards keep him at bay.
And where is Lurch?
Oh good, showing a really large crowd now in D.C. now on fox.
Unbelievable. Or not:
http://weaselzippers.us/210652-report-holder-didnt-show-up-for-paris-rally/
http://hotair.com/archives/2015/01/11/nobody-from-the-us-govt-marched-in-paris-today-not-even-eric-holder/
Why why why did The President of the United States not get off his fucking ass and go to Paris?
A friend of mine who went to the march in Paris actually RAN INTO the Muslim guy who saved several hostages at the kosher grocery store. She said she was dumbstruck and couldn’t manage more than to stutter out a thank you for your bravery.