Ever since the moment that the towers fell, people have been saying that it was a controlled demolition. Now we might have academic evidence to prove the theory as fact!
An academic report was published by Europhysics News just in time for the anniversary of 9/11 is questioning the official explanation for the collapse of all three World Trade Center buildings on September 11, 2001. The conclusion may make even the most rational person rethink their outlook.
The report notes:
“It bears repeating that fires have never caused the total collapse of a steel-framed high-rise before or since 9/11. Did we witness an unprecedented event three separate times on September 11, 2001? The NIST [U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology] reports, which attempted to support that unlikely conclusion, fail to persuade a growing number of architects, engineers, and scientists. Instead, the evidence points overwhelmingly to the conclusion that all three buildings were destroyed by controlled demolition. Given the far-reaching implications, it is morally imperative that this hypothesis be the subject of a truly scientific and impartial investigation by responsible authorities.”
Titles “15 Years Later: On the Physics of High-Rise Building Collapses,” the investigation was conducted by Steven Jones, a former professor emeritus of civil engineering at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada and fellow of the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering and the Engineering Institute of Canada; Anthony Szamboti, a mechanical design engineer; and Ted Walter, author of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth’s Beyond Misinformation: “What Science Says About the Destruction of World Trade Center Buildings 1, 2 and 7.”
Here are some of the observations the researchers offered:
Fires Typically are not hot enough and do not last long enough in any single area to generate enough energy to heat the large structural members to the point where they fail.
Most-high rises have fire suppression systems, which further prevent a fire from releasing sufficient energy to heat the steel to a critical failure state.
Structural members are protected by fireproofing materials, which are designed to prevent them from reaching failure temperatures within specified time periods.
Steel-framed high-rises are designed to be highly redundant structural systems. Meaning, if a localized failure occurs, it does not result in a disproportionate collapse of the entire structure.
“Countless other steel-framed high-rises have experienced large, long-lasting fires without suffering either partial or total collapse,” the report points out.
“Indeed, neither before nor since 9/11 have fires caused the total collapse of a steel-framed high-rise—nor has any other natural event, with the exception of the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, which toppled a 21-story office building. Otherwise, the only phenomenon capable of collapsing such buildings completely has been by way of a procedure known as controlled demolition, whereby explosives or other devices are used to bring down a structure intentionally.”
The report goes on to confirm the scientists’ doubts regarding the official explanation by referencing the head structural engineer of the buildings. John Skilling, was interviewed by the Seattle Times following the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, who was concerned about a possible airplane attack, performed an analysis that proved the towers would withstand the impact of Boeing 707:
“Our analysis indicated the biggest problem would be the fact that all the fuel (from the airplane) would dump into the building. There would be a horrendous fire. A lot of people would be killed…The building structure would still be there…However, I’m not saying that properly applied explosives—shaped explosives—of that magnitude could not do a tremendous amount of damage…. I would imagine that if you took the top expert in that type of work and gave him the assignment of bringing these buildings down with explosives, I would bet that he could do it.”
It was also written that “The total collapse of WTC 7 at 5:20 pm on 9/11, is remarkable because it exemplified all the signature features of an implosion: The building dropped in absolute free fall for the first 2.25 seconds of its descent over a distance of 32 meters or eight stories. Its transition from stasis to free fall was sudden, occurring in approximately one-half second. It fell symmetrically straight down. Its steel frame was almost entirely dismembered and deposited mostly inside the building’s footprint, while most of its concrete was pulverized into tiny particles. Finally, the collapse was rapid, occurring in less than seven seconds. Given the nature of the collapse, any investigation adhering to the scientific method should have seriously considered the controlled demolition hypothesis, if not started with it. Instead, NIST (as well as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which conducted a preliminary study prior to the NIST investigation) began with the predetermined conclusion that the collapse was caused by fires.”
To this day, there is still a large amount of unexplained evidence that further supports the theory controlled demolitions took place on that horrendous day fifteen years ago. Not to mention the fact that media outlets reported on the collapse of WTC Building 7 before it even collapsed.
People will always speculate, and those of us who question the official story will continue to be labeled as crazy conspiracy theorists.
On the eleventh anniversary of the 9/11 murders of thousands by Muslim terrorists, the terrorists were at it again as two mobs in two Islamic countries attacked two American diplomatic facilities, killing at least one American and wounding another.
The Obama Administration’s reaction was to send a swift and clear message to the Muslim radicals rampaging through the streets of the newly “democratic” countries we helped create: We understand why you’re upset, and we’re sorry.
The excuse for the murderous attacks was a film by Sam Bacile, an Israeli-American real-estate developer who posted clips on YouTube. The film allegedly portrays Islam’s founder, Mohammed, as a child molester, womanizer and killer.
OK, reality check: According to historical sources, Mohammed married Aisha when she was 6 years old, and he started having sex with her when she was 9. Mohammed had several other wives as well. And he is recorded as having ordered hundreds of beheadings. I haven’t seen the film yet, but it sounds like Muslims are, yet again, upset at someone telling the truth about Mohammed.
Here is the statement issued by the Obama Administration in reaction to the Muslim attacks:
“The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims – as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions. Today, the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, Americans are honoring our patriots and those who serve our nation as the fitting response to the enemies of democracy. Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy. We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others.”
GOP contender Mitt Romney sounded a whole lot more presidential:
“I’m outraged by the attacks on American diplomatic missions in Libya and Egypt and by the death of an American consulate worker in Benghazi. It’s disgraceful that the Obama Administration’s first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks.”
The same day that we were being attacked, it was revealed that the administration is negotiating a deal to give the Muslim Brotherhood $1 billion for buying Russian submarines.
Officials are “wondering” if the attacks were coordinated. It seems pretty obvious they were, probably by that same Muslim Brotherhood our illustrious president thinks he has as a reliable ally in the Mideast.
If Obama wants to apologize, let him apologize for pretending to be a competent president.
Personally I feel that only a traitor and an idiot would go around apologizing to a bunch of maggot mobsters. 67 1 • Reply • Share › Avatar Granpa David • 2 hours ago • parent
He hates this country and his “hope” and “change” is he “hope” to destroy our system and “change” it to an income redistribution communist system. 23 • Reply • Share › Avatar fryer01 • an hour ago • parent
and there are actually REAL people who will for for this @#@$@# shame on america !!! 4 • Reply • Share › Avatar Raymond • 40 minutes ago • parent
Obama supporter explains why she supports him… . Show 1 new reply 0 • Reply • Share › Avatar daves • 44 minutes ago • parent
Romney’s latest foreign policy flub began late Tuesday night, when he broke his own “no politics on September 11th” embargo to release a statement slamming President Barack Obama for alleged sympathy toward those who attacked the embassies in Cairo and Benghazi.
“It’s disgraceful that the Obama administration’s first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks,” Romney said.
The problem, of course, is that President Obama did no such thing. The response to which Romney was referring — in which the U.S. Embassy in Cairo condemned “the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims — as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions” — was released several hours before the embassies were attacked. In other words, it was not a response at all.
Furthermore, on Tuesday night the White House distanced itself from the Cairo embassy’s statement — telling ABC News that “no one in Washington approved that statement before it was released and it doesn’t reflect the views of the U.S. government” — and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued a statement of her own, saying “let me be clear: There is never any justification for violent acts of this kind.”
On Wednesday morning, faced with the fact that his attack was absurdly misleading, Romney nevertheless chose to double down. 0 5 • Reply • Share › Avatar Wayne Peterkin • 29 minutes ago • parent
The embassy statement was very poor regardless of the timing when issued. Since each embassy represents our State Dept., they also represent the administration. It was a statement deriding free speech and American values; and therefore inexcusable. By the way, more recent reporting indicates that the attacks may have had nothing to do with that movie but had been planned for sometime to occur on 9/11. 1 • Reply • Share › Avatar T • 2 hours ago
This is the most shameful and cowardly president ever to walk the halls of the white house! 63 • Reply • Share › Avatar joe • 2 hours ago
They’re his muslim al qaeda brothers, what do we expect. 54 • Reply • Share › Avatar Eric Zarahn • 2 hours ago
I would accept no apology from Obama. He’s the enemy. 51 • Reply • Share › Avatar cowgirl20 • 2 hours ago • parent
Yes he is the enemy and it’s too bad that more of his “supporters” can’t see it. 17 • Reply • Share › Avatar leaping1 • 2 hours ago
And any American would vote for this effin, lying, racist, illegal alien, non U.S. Citizen, Muslim P.O.S.? 45 • Reply • Share › Avatar Tiger716 • 2 hours ago • parent
Oh yeah. There are a whole bunch of stupid sheeple out there who are going to vote for the jerk again. Ran into one today on the road. We had a bit of a verbal one-on-one. Apparently she didn’t like that I gave her the thumbs down to her Obama ’12 sticker and at a red light came up to us and asked what our problem was. We decided to enlighten her since she was really so stupid. Her brilliant retort was “Well! You need to keep your opinions to yourself!” Really? Some one correct me….is the 1st Amendment only for idiot liberals? I didn’t think so. She wasn’t too happy with our remarks but I think she got the message. 30 • Reply • Share › Avatar cowgirl20 • 2 hours ago • parent
Excellent, keep up the good work. I have a couple of friends that are not registered to vote but keep complaining about odumbo….so far I have gotten one of them to register and I am working on the other one. I think I’m winning but It’s too early to tell. I am going to show him this article tomorrow and then take him for a drive to the court house to register. 16 1 • Reply • Share › Avatar KimmyInCali • an hour ago • parent
I have 4 bumper stickers on the back of my car…one on the left that says “Don’t blame me, I didn’t vote for him!” and two on the right “How’s that whole hopey changy thing workin out for ya?” with a Big “Obummer” sticker below that. Of course a “MITT for President” sticker above in the middle. I am happy to say I have had more positive reaction than negative (1 hispanic) I have also been asked if I worry about some koolaide drinking liberal on the left vandalizing my car? No, I don’t. I believe this man is a danger to the United States I have grown up in and USED TO know. Also, It is worth the risk to protect my children and grandchildren’s future! 9 • Reply • Share › Avatar Jack • an hour ago • parent
I hope you also gave her a one finger salute too 6 • Reply • Share › Avatar krdave • an hour ago • parent
I was talking to 3 upper middle class white women who are all gaga over Obama and they just couldn’t believe that I felt the way I did. I said that I couldn’t understand how they felt because of the Muslim treatment of women and what Sharia law meant to women. Not a one of them had heard of Sharia law and didn’t believe what I was telling them. They kept saying he was a Christian and wouldn’t allow that stuff to happen.—–Go figure 4 • Reply • Share › Avatar cowgirl20 • an hour ago • parent
I don’t understand how anyone can be gaga over odumbo, they must be braindead idiots. It only takes less than an ounce of brains to see what this muslim fraud is doing to America and Americans. 0 • Reply • Share › Avatar lolajmay • an hour ago • parent
It’s next to impossible to get through to liberals. They love to keep talking over any common sense words we give them. “Don’t give me any facts” is a perfect motto for them. Don’t know how many facts it would take for most of them to get the message that Obama wants to take this country down. For me, it only took listening to him the first time, and not believing anything he said!! 4 • Reply • Share › Avatar Ort • an hour ago • parent
Tiger: it would have taken all my will not to clobber the idiot. 4 • Reply • Share › Avatar Roger Behrens • an hour ago • parent
Communists and Marxists always try to silence the truth. Good for you. Some people might have given her the one finger salute. 1 • Reply • Share › Avatar fryer01 • an hour ago • parent
they can’t be americans….none of them….he is our enemy..thats it folks WAKE UP !!!! APOLIGING TO THEM??? LOW…REAL LOW !!!!! 4 • Reply • Share › Avatar pointdan • 2 hours ago
Nov 6th cannot get here soon enough . . . . Obama is a nightmare x 10 and counting . GO TEA PARTY !!! 44 • Reply • Share › Avatar jbenat97 • 2 hours ago
How about everyone who voted for this poor excuse for a President apologizing to the rest of us! 31 • Reply • Share › Avatar krdave • an hour ago • parent
How ’bout just moving them all to Iran? 3 • Reply • Share › Avatar fryer01 • an hour ago • parent
when obama kills their family in some manner maybe they will wake up….shame on them !!!!!! 3 • Reply • Share › Avatar cae973 • 2 hours ago
obama owes an apology to the American people who he has deceived, misled and failed in everyway imaginable! 21 • Reply • Share › Avatar gmarshall • 2 hours ago
Just another reason we have to vote this guy out of the White House. Read the book by Ed Klein, “The Amateur” and you’ll understand why this administration is so incompetent. 26 • Reply • Share › Avatar 529_Barb • 2 hours ago • parent
….and while your at it…..read Fool me Twice and get the video Dreams from my REAL Father……..it’ll cause you cardiac arrest. 18 • Reply • Share › Avatar fryer01 • an hour ago • parent
read the book…and ALL truths….wild just wild…so true…and complete…this guy is a monster out to ruin our country..and anyone who votes for them are in the same bracket…god help them !!!!! 4 • Reply • Share › Avatar BillS • 2 hours ago
Very interesting comment on the radio this morning by a caller. Who is really to blame? The caller pointed out that the attackers were shouting ” We are a thousand bin Ladens Obama” This strongly suggests that the constant spiking of the football by the President, the DNC, Biden with his “bin Laden is dead GM is alive” bumper sticker, is the real reason for the violence and murders not the movie or Terry Jones. The rapid response by the left to blame Governor Romney, the movie and Terry Jones is once again irrefutable evidence that the mainstream media is totally in the tank for Obama and is typical of the Administration’s total refusal to take responsibility for anything that happens that does not support his presidency or the left agenda. 19 • Reply • Share › Avatar colleenf • 2 hours ago • parent
If these idiots in the media thing obama and his thugs will protect them when he finally attempts his take over of our country and declares himself dictator……they are sadly mistaken. The press is one of the things that the communists take over as they take over a nation. THEY are the stupid cows. 16 • Reply • Share › Avatar Jack • an hour ago • parent
They have already succeeded in taking over almost all of the media 4 • Reply • Share › Avatar adamenochnoah • 2 hours ago
Tis our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world.”
George Washington 24 • Reply • Share › Avatar Doodlebug • 6 hours ago
This really shows what an arrogant, lying, nose in the air dummicrat donkey this jerk is! Romney certainly did show himself to be more presidential in his response. Who do you want to answer the phone when it rings at 3:00 a.m.? 49 • Reply • Share › Avatar Warren • 2 hours ago • parent
OH DOODLEBUG…. Didn’t you hear all of the Liberal rhetoric after Governor Romney spoke. They were up in arms because he was critical of the way Obama’s Administration handled this. LET’S SEND THEM TO LYBIA TO REPLACE THE AMERICAN’S THAT WERE JUST KILLED FOR DOING THEIR JOB’S… I’m beginning to LOATHE these people that think their way should be the ONLY WAY..! 18 • Reply • Share › Avatar Jerry Ray Johnson • 2 hours ago • parent
get him on his cell phone on the golf links 12 • Reply • Share › Avatar T-Mex • 2 hours ago • parent
He won’t answer. Unless the call is from one of his Muslim cohorts or co-conspirators. You and I are insignificant and unimportant in this impostor’s eyes. What a national disgrace and embarrassment Obama is. Counting the days when I can do my part to kick his butt out of office. The White House will have to be well disinfected after he’s gone. 9 • Reply • Share › Avatar fryer01 • an hour ago • parent
someday soon..we will never have to see obama and piggy ever again..out of sight out of mind…we are all having a HUGE party like a super bowl only LARGER..”.BYE BYE PIGGIES…..HELLO AMERICA “ 2 • Reply • Share › Avatar fryer01 • an hour ago • parent
MITT by far….i listened to day and MITT was more presential..them odumbo.. obama ewas reading what someone else wrote…..mitt read from his heart!!! big difference!!!( i doubt after 4 yrs..obama can’t even find the phone !!) 2 • Reply • Share › Avatar Roger Behrens • 31 minutes ago • parent
Obozo doesn’t believe in the goodness of this country. He hates traditional American values as all of the nutcases on the left do. Romney needs to show some spine and talk about how food and gas prices have gone up under Odumbo. How the American family has lost net worth under this administration. The Canadian Dollar is now worth more than the U.S. Dollar. We are also about to have our credit rating lowered again. 0 • Reply • Share › Avatar Screeminmeeme • 10 hours ago
SOMEONE SHOOT ME!!……….Pleez………
Here we go again! Our Ambassador to Libya and 3 other embassy workers have been murdered, our embassy stormed, our flag destroyed and the Islamic flag raised on what is America soil!!
In Egypt, a similar scene, but thank God, without the loss of life.
Once again, the ”Religion of Peace” is proving it is neither. That these events took place on 911 is not lost to those of us who understand Islam. NOTHING is done without there being some connection to a past event in Islamic history. In fact, the 911 attacks on America were payback for something that happened in 1683,
In that year, 138,000 Muslims Ottoman Turks surrounded Vienna, Austria, which was defended by only 11,000 Hapsburg soldiers. For two months they starved Vienna’s troops.. Then the Polish King, Jan Sobieski, left his own country undefended and led a coalition of 81,000 Polish-Austiran-German forces to Vienna’s rescue…on SEPTEMBER 11, 1683 and within 30 minutes time, the battle was won.
The Battle of Vienna, a war between Muslims and Christians ended the 300 year continuous effort of Islam to conquer Europe. And so it was an apt date to loose the vengeance of allah on ”Christian” America in the greatest act of war in our history.
Yesterday’s attacks are also ACTS OF WAR and the government responds with an appeasing apology!!
Once more with feeling: THESE ARE ACTS OF WAR!!
Ironically, in May, the White House released a statement saying that the war on terror is over. That might come as a surprise to our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and to all of our embassy officials in the MIddle East.
We need to IMMEDIATELY stop all transfers of money from our gov to Egypt. We need to IMMEDIATELY close both embassies and bring all Americans home. We need to IMMEDIATELY deport the Egyptian and Libyan Ambassadors and their staffs from the U.S. We need to IMMEDIATELY send ships to the area as a show of strength and in readiness to respond with force.
And MOST OF ALL….we MUST REMOVE OBAMA. HE’S KILLING US.
The thing that is most difficult to absorb is the people who will still vote and support this man who is ILLEGAL, and has had a FAILURE OF THIS ADMINISTRATION, and is determined to destroy this nation, and want 4 more years to finish it. If he doesn’t win watch what he will do between Nov. and Jan. He will try to take us down and I am afraid CONGRESS (Reid and Pelosi, ad infinitum) will help him do it! 24 • Reply • Share › Avatar gooseroot • 2 hours ago • parent
november 7th he should be executed for being a spy. 9 • Reply • Share › Avatar lolajmay • an hour ago • parent
Obama should be impeached, but continue on with the process to get him completely out of offIce. Bill Clinton got to stay after his impeachent. They need to start the proceeding now, IF ONLY CONGRESS HAD A BACKBONE AND BRAINS. 1 • Reply • Share › Avatar Jack • an hour ago • parent
Not unless he can convince the members of congress to go along with him & the house is controlled by the gop so he can only do so much more damage 1 • Reply • Share › Avatar Indylady • 37 minutes ago • parent
He can still issue executive orders, Jack. 0 • Reply • Share › Avatar Mark Ward • an hour ago • parent
WHY the FOCK should WE give a Rat’s Rear End about “hurting the feelings” of Muslims – when THEY don’t give a Rat’s Rear End about MURDERING our embassador (and others)?!
WHERE are the (so-called) “Muslim Leaders” CONDEMNING the actions of “their” people?
Don’t tell ME we have to “understand” that MOST Muslims are “peace loving” people – when THEY are UNABLE (or unwilling) to IMMEDIATELY condemn the actions of their fellow Muslims (albeit the “Radical” wing thereof)!!!
What’s a SHAME, is you KNOW there would be IMMEDIATE CONDEMNATION (from Obama, the Democrats and the “Main Stream” Media) if some group of Christians (or Jews) were to “occupy” the Muslim “community center” near Ground Zero! 3 • Reply • Share › Avatar Screeminmeeme • an hour ago • parent
Mark Ward….Those of us with a brain who are not politically correct don’t give a rat’s behind about hurting their feelings.
PC is avoidance of the truth and it is killing America. We need to call Islam what it is: our enemy and the enemy of all non-muslims.
NO doubt about it….if Christians and Jews began acting like the Muslims, Obama would declare martial law and lock us all up.
3 • Reply • Share › Avatar Jack • an hour ago • parent
Let’s also get every muslim out of this country too, they are mandated to have 11 children it only a matter of time before they take over America, & with 11 children they collect welfare. Take a look at Detroit to see what can happen to the entire country 4 • Reply • Share › Avatar fryer01 • an hour ago • parent
AND WHEN OBAMA HEARD ABOUT THE KILLING…SOMEONE WROTE SOMETHING FOR HIM TO SAY…nothing from the heart..JUST WHAT SOMEONE WROTE FOR HIM…MY GOD..IS OBAMA HUMAN??? HAVE ANY FEELING FOR THE DEAD??? HE HAS TO READ IT?????? WHAAAAAAA???? 2 • Reply • Share ›
Discussion
Community
Jerry• 2 hours ago
−
Personally I feel that only a traitor and an idiot would go around apologizing to a bunch of maggot mobsters.
Granpa David• 2 hours ago • parent
He hates this country and his “hope” and “change” is he “hope” to destroy our system and “change” it to an income redistribution communist system.
fryer01• an hour ago • parent
and there are actually REAL people who will for for this @#@$@# shame on america !!!
Raymond • 40 minutes ago • parent
Obama supporter explains why she supports him… .
daves• 44 minutes ago • parent
Romney’s latest foreign policy flub began late Tuesday night, when he broke his own “no politics on September 11th” embargo to release a statement slamming President Barack Obama for alleged sympathy toward those who attacked the embassies in Cairo and Benghazi.
“It’s disgraceful that the Obama administration’s first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks,” Romney said.
The problem, of course, is that President Obama did no such thing. The response to which Romney was referring — in which the U.S. Embassy in Cairo condemned “the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims — as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions” — was released several hours before the embassies were attacked. In other words, it was not a response at all.
Furthermore, on Tuesday night the White House distanced itself from the Cairo embassy’s statement — telling ABC News that “no one in Washington approved that statement before it was released and it doesn’t reflect the views of the U.S. government” — and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued a statement of her own, saying “let me be clear: There is never any justification for violent acts of this kind.”
On Wednesday morning, faced with the fact that his attack was absurdly misleading, Romney nevertheless chose to double down.
Wayne Peterkin• 29 minutes ago • parent
The embassy statement was very poor regardless of the timing when issued. Since each embassy represents our State Dept., they also represent the administration. It was a statement deriding free speech and American values; and therefore inexcusable. By the way, more recent reporting indicates that the attacks may have had nothing to do with that movie but had been planned for sometime to occur on 9/11.
T• 2 hours ago
This is the most shameful and cowardly president ever to walk the halls of the white house!
joe• 2 hours ago
They’re his muslim al qaeda brothers, what do we expect.
Eric Zarahn• 2 hours ago
I would accept no apology from Obama. He’s the enemy.
cowgirl20• 2 hours ago • parent
Yes he is the enemy and it’s too bad that more of his “supporters” can’t see it.
leaping1• 2 hours ago
And any American would vote for this effin, lying, racist, illegal alien, non U.S. Citizen, Muslim P.O.S.?
Tiger716• 2 hours ago • parent
Oh yeah. There are a whole bunch of stupid sheeple out there who are going to vote for the jerk again. Ran into one today on the road. We had a bit of a verbal one-on-one. Apparently she didn’t like that I gave her the thumbs down to her Obama ’12 sticker and at a red light came up to us and asked what our problem was. We decided to enlighten her since she was really so stupid. Her brilliant retort was “Well! You need to keep your opinions to yourself!” Really? Some one correct me….is the 1st Amendment only for idiot liberals? I didn’t think so. She wasn’t too happy with our remarks but I think she got the message.
cowgirl20• 2 hours ago • parent
Excellent, keep up the good work. I have a couple of friends that are not registered to vote but keep complaining about odumbo….so far I have gotten one of them to register and I am working on the other one. I think I’m winning but It’s too early to tell. I am going to show him this article tomorrow and then take him for a drive to the court house to register.
KimmyInCali• an hour ago • parent
I have 4 bumper stickers on the back of my car…one on the left that says “Don’t blame me, I didn’t vote for him!” and two on the right “How’s that whole hopey changy thing workin out for ya?” with a Big “Obummer” sticker below that. Of course a “MITT for President” sticker above in the middle. I am happy to say I have had more positive reaction than negative (1 hispanic) I have also been asked if I worry about some koolaide drinking liberal on the left vandalizing my car? No, I don’t. I believe this man is a danger to the United States I have grown up in and USED TO know. Also, It is worth the risk to protect my children and grandchildren’s future!
Jack• an hour ago • parent
I hope you also gave her a one finger salute too
krdave• an hour ago • parent
I was talking to 3 upper middle class white women who are all gaga over Obama and they just couldn’t believe that I felt the way I did. I said that I couldn’t understand how they felt because of the Muslim treatment of women and what Sharia law meant to women. Not a one of them had heard of Sharia law and didn’t believe what I was telling them. They kept saying he was a Christian and wouldn’t allow that stuff to happen.—–Go figure
cowgirl20• an hour ago • parent
I don’t understand how anyone can be gaga over odumbo, they must be braindead idiots. It only takes less than an ounce of brains to see what this muslim fraud is doing to America and Americans.
lolajmay• an hour ago • parent
It’s next to impossible to get through to liberals. They love to keep talking over any common sense words we give them. “Don’t give me any facts” is a perfect motto for them. Don’t know how many facts it would take for most of them to get the message that Obama wants to take this country down. For me, it only took listening to him the first time, and not believing anything he said!!
Ort• an hour ago • parent
Tiger: it would have taken all my will not to clobber the idiot.
Roger Behrens• an hour ago • parent
Communists and Marxists always try to silence the truth. Good for you. Some people might have given her the one finger salute.
fryer01• an hour ago • parent
they can’t be americans….none of them….he is our enemy..thats it folks WAKE UP !!!! APOLIGING TO THEM??? LOW…REAL LOW !!!!!
pointdan• 2 hours ago
Nov 6th cannot get here soon enough . . . . Obama is a nightmare x 10 and counting . GO TEA PARTY !!!
jbenat97• 2 hours ago
How about everyone who voted for this poor excuse for a President apologizing to the rest of us!
krdave• an hour ago • parent
How ’bout just moving them all to Iran?
fryer01• an hour ago • parent
when obama kills their family in some manner maybe they will wake up….shame on them !!!!!!
cae973• 2 hours ago
obama owes an apology to the American people who he has deceived, misled and failed in everyway imaginable!
gmarshall• 2 hours ago
Just another reason we have to vote this guy out of the White House. Read the book by Ed Klein, “The Amateur” and you’ll understand why this administration is so incompetent.
529_Barb• 2 hours ago • parent
….and while your at it…..read Fool me Twice and get the video Dreams from my REAL Father……..it’ll cause you cardiac arrest.
fryer01• an hour ago • parent
read the book…and ALL truths….wild just wild…so true…and complete…this guy is a monster out to ruin our country..and anyone who votes for them are in the same bracket…god help them !!!!!
BillS• 2 hours ago
Very interesting comment on the radio this morning by a caller. Who is really to blame? The caller pointed out that the attackers were shouting ” We are a thousand bin Ladens Obama” This strongly suggests that the constant spiking of the football by the President, the DNC, Biden with his “bin Laden is dead GM is alive” bumper sticker, is the real reason for the violence and murders not the movie or Terry Jones. The rapid response by the left to blame Governor Romney, the movie and Terry Jones is once again irrefutable evidence that the mainstream media is totally in the tank for Obama and is typical of the Administration’s total refusal to take responsibility for anything that happens that does not support his presidency or the left agenda.
colleenf• 2 hours ago • parent
If these idiots in the media thing obama and his thugs will protect them when he finally attempts his take over of our country and declares himself dictator……they are sadly mistaken. The press is one of the things that the communists take over as they take over a nation. THEY are the stupid cows.
Jack• an hour ago • parent
They have already succeeded in taking over almost all of the media
adamenochnoah• 2 hours ago
Tis our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world.”
George Washington
Doodlebug• 6 hours ago
This really shows what an arrogant, lying, nose in the air dummicrat donkey this jerk is! Romney certainly did show himself to be more presidential in his response. Who do you want to answer the phone when it rings at 3:00 a.m.?
Warren• 2 hours ago • parent
OH DOODLEBUG…. Didn’t you hear all of the Liberal rhetoric after Governor Romney spoke. They were up in arms because he was critical of the way Obama’s Administration handled this. LET’S SEND THEM TO LYBIA TO REPLACE THE AMERICAN’S THAT WERE JUST KILLED FOR DOING THEIR JOB’S… I’m beginning to LOATHE these people that think their way should be the ONLY WAY..!
Jerry Ray Johnson• 2 hours ago • parent
get him on his cell phone on the golf links
T-Mex• 2 hours ago • parent
He won’t answer. Unless the call is from one of his Muslim cohorts or co-conspirators. You and I are insignificant and unimportant in this impostor’s eyes. What a national disgrace and embarrassment Obama is. Counting the days when I can do my part to kick his butt out of office. The White House will have to be well disinfected after he’s gone.
fryer01• an hour ago • parent
someday soon..we will never have to see obama and piggy ever again..out of sight out of mind…we are all having a HUGE party like a super bowl only LARGER..”.BYE BYE PIGGIES…..HELLO AMERICA “
fryer01• an hour ago • parent
MITT by far….i listened to day and MITT was more presential..them odumbo.. obama ewas reading what someone else wrote…..mitt read from his heart!!! big difference!!!( i doubt after 4 yrs..obama can’t even find the phone !!)
Roger Behrens• 31 minutes ago • parent
Obozo doesn’t believe in the goodness of this country. He hates traditional American values as all of the nutcases on the left do. Romney needs to show some spine and talk about how food and gas prices have gone up under Odumbo. How the American family has lost net worth under this administration. The Canadian Dollar is now worth more than the U.S. Dollar. We are also about to have our credit rating lowered again.
Screeminmeeme• 10 hours ago
SOMEONE SHOOT ME!!……….Pleez………
Here we go again! Our Ambassador to Libya and 3 other embassy workers have been murdered, our embassy stormed, our flag destroyed and the Islamic flag raised on what is America soil!!
In Egypt, a similar scene, but thank God, without the loss of life.
Once again, the ”Religion of Peace” is proving it is neither. That these events took place on 911 is not lost to those of us who understand Islam. NOTHING is done without there being some connection to a past event in Islamic history. In fact, the 911 attacks on America were payback for something that happened in 1683,
In that year, 138,000 Muslims Ottoman Turks surrounded Vienna, Austria, which was defended by only 11,000 Hapsburg soldiers. For two months they starved Vienna’s troops.. Then the Polish King, Jan Sobieski, left his own country undefended and led a coalition of 81,000 Polish-Austiran-German forces to Vienna’s rescue…on SEPTEMBER 11, 1683 and within 30 minutes time, the battle was won.
The Battle of Vienna, a war between Muslims and Christians ended the 300 year continuous effort of Islam to conquer Europe. And so it was an apt date to loose the vengeance of allah on ”Christian” America in the greatest act of war in our history.
Yesterday’s attacks are also ACTS OF WAR and the government responds with an appeasing apology!!
Once more with feeling: THESE ARE ACTS OF WAR!!
Ironically, in May, the White House released a statement saying that the war on terror is over. That might come as a surprise to our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and to all of our embassy officials in the MIddle East.
We need to IMMEDIATELY stop all transfers of money from our gov to Egypt. We need to IMMEDIATELY close both embassies and bring all Americans home. We need to IMMEDIATELY deport the Egyptian and Libyan Ambassadors and their staffs from the U.S. We need to IMMEDIATELY send ships to the area as a show of strength and in readiness to respond with force.
And MOST OF ALL….we MUST REMOVE OBAMA. HE’S KILLING US.
Shell• 2 hours ago • parent
The thing that is most difficult to absorb is the people who will still vote and support this man who is ILLEGAL, and has had a FAILURE OF THIS ADMINISTRATION, and is determined to destroy this nation, and want 4 more years to finish it. If he doesn’t win watch what he will do between Nov. and Jan. He will try to take us down and I am afraid CONGRESS (Reid and Pelosi, ad infinitum) will help him do it!
gooseroot• 2 hours ago • parent
november 7th he should be executed for being a spy.
lolajmay• an hour ago • parent
Obama should be impeached, but continue on with the process to get him completely out of offIce. Bill Clinton got to stay after his impeachent. They need to start the proceeding now, IF ONLY CONGRESS HAD A BACKBONE AND BRAINS.
Jack• an hour ago • parent
Not unless he can convince the members of congress to go along with him & the house is controlled by the gop so he can only do so much more damage
Indylady• 37 minutes ago • parent
He can still issue executive orders, Jack.
Mark Ward• an hour ago • parent
WHY the FOCK should WE give a Rat’s Rear End about “hurting the feelings” of Muslims – when THEY don’t give a Rat’s Rear End about MURDERING our embassador (and others)?!
WHERE are the (so-called) “Muslim Leaders” CONDEMNING the actions of “their” people?
Don’t tell ME we have to “understand” that MOST Muslims are “peace loving” people – when THEY are UNABLE (or unwilling) to IMMEDIATELY condemn the actions of their fellow Muslims (albeit the “Radical” wing thereof)!!!
What’s a SHAME, is you KNOW there would be IMMEDIATE CONDEMNATION (from Obama, the Democrats and the “Main Stream” Media) if some group of Christians (or Jews) were to “occupy” the Muslim “community center” near Ground Zero!
Screeminmeeme• an hour ago • parent
Mark Ward….Those of us with a brain who are not politically correct don’t give a rat’s behind about hurting their feelings.
PC is avoidance of the truth and it is killing America. We need to call Islam what it is: our enemy and the enemy of all non-muslims.
NO doubt about it….if Christians and Jews began acting like the Muslims, Obama would declare martial law and lock us all up.
Jack• an hour ago • parent
Let’s also get every muslim out of this country too, they are mandated to have 11 children it only a matter of time before they take over America, & with 11 children they collect welfare. Take a look at Detroit to see what can happen to the entire country
fryer01• an hour ago • parent
AND WHEN OBAMA HEARD ABOUT THE KILLING…SOMEONE WROTE SOMETHING FOR HIM TO SAY…nothing from the heart..JUST WHAT SOMEONE WROTE FOR HIM…MY GOD..IS OBAMA HUMAN??? HAVE ANY FEELING FOR THE DEAD??? HE HAS TO READ IT?????? WHAAAAAAA????
I appeared on this week’s edition of the Press TV show Remember Palestine. I used the platform that Press TV graciously provided me with to argue that those of us who want to bring an end to the Israel-Palestine conflict ought to capitalize on the evidence of Israeli involvement in 9/11 rather than neglect the subject because it is deemed by some to be “controversial”.
I think most would agree that without the U.S. government altering its stance vis-à-vis Israel that there is little hope for justice in Palestine. The only conceivable way of the U.S. undertaking a volte-face vis-à-vis Israel is if a sufficient proportion of the citizens of the U.S. become conscious of
a) the extent to which Israel and its affluent supporters are distorting U.S. Middle East policy as well as
b) the extent to which such pro-Israel forces lack any respect for the U.S. taxpayer.
Arabs and Muslims have been dehumanized and stigmatized in the Western media
Unfortunately, Arabs and Muslims have been dehumanized by opportunist journalists and careerist academicians who have jumped on the anti-Islam, pro-Israel bandwagon, post 9/11, which has resulted in a preponderance of U.S. citizens lacking any empathy with the beleaguered Palestinians and the other benighted inhabitants of the region.
I argued on Remember Palestine that the abundant evidence linking Israel to 9/11 provides the pro-Palestinian movement with a unique opportunity to foster such empathy among the U.S. body politic. Those in the pro-Palestinian movement, I argue, must stop shying away from the evidence linking Israel to 9/11 and must actively educate the people of the U.S. and other nations that nearly 3000 U.S. citizens were slain on 9/11 with the complicity of the Israeli government.
I suspect that many U.S. citizens would be unmoved if you informed them that 3000 or even 3 million Arabs and Muslims had been killed by Israel. Indeed Dr. Gideon Polya has deduced that the (largely Israeli concocted) 9/11 wars have resulted in the deaths of as many as 2.3 million Iraqis and 4.5 million Afghans and, yet, the anti-Islamic 9/11 wars continue unabated. The most recent phase of the 9/11 wars includes an illegal incursion into Libya and increased meddling in Syria. The main goal from the perspective of the Israeli government has been to foment sectarianism and civil war in the Middle East so those who dwell in the Middle East are fighting each other rather than the Israeli hegemon.
I am of the view that the pro-Palestinian movement ought to emphasize the fact that 3000 mostly Caucasian and non-Muslim U.S. citizens were killed on 9/11 with the complicity of the Israeli government. It’s not that U.S. or caucasian blood should be deemed more valuable than Palestinian or Arab blood. The Western media have created an intellectual environment where, in the eyes of many U.S. citizens, Palestinian and Arab blood isvalueless. Thus, those of us who are serious about promoting peace in the region ought to emphasize crimes of the Israeli government that will have the most efficacy in mobilizing support for the Palestinians.
It is likely that if enough U.S. citizens became aware of the Israeli involvement in 9/11 that they would begin to voice criticism of the U.S.-Israeli “special relationship.” Thus, this is the tack I am taking in most of my media appearances. I encourage others to do so.
Noam Chomsky, a self-proclaimed Zionist, perplexed many when, unburdened by evidence, he affirmed the official story of 9/11 within months of the terrorist atrocities
I very much hope that those academicians who focus on the Israel-Palestine conflict such as Norman Finkelstein, Stephen Walt, John Mearsheimer, Noam Chomsky, Ali Abunimah, Ilan Pappé and others will likewise acknowledge the evidence implicating Israel in 9/11 as this evidence could be decisive in ending the Israel-Palestine impasse. [For more on Chomsky’s 9/11 denialism, which was presaged by his dismissal of conspiracy in the death of JFK, see: http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/12/18/the-assassination-of-cpl-pat-tillman-usa/]
Such scholars have since 9/11 presupposed the veracity of the official story of 9/11 and in doing so have based much of their scholarship on a false-premise, namely that bin-Laden and al-Qaeda were responsible for 9/11, when this theory, which is a conspiracy theory, has been debunked by numerous credible scholars including David Ray Griffin who has written ten books addressing very specific claims made by adherents to the official story of 9/11 demonstrating them to be inconsistent with the available evidence and in many cases even with the laws of physics and of aerodynamics. Indeed many ears should have pricked up when, in the immediate hours following 9/11, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine was blamed and footage of Palestinians dancing, albeit from 1993, was projected to the U.S. public.
I think history will not absolve those in the so called “pro-Palestinian” movement who have helped to suppress evidence implicating Israel in 9/11. Imagine if the Afrikaners, during the 1980s, out of desperation had killed 3000 Americans and blamed this act of terrorism on the ANC so as to make it’s enemies (in this case black africans) the perceived enemy of the American people thus justifying the continuance of the U.S.-South African “special relationship”. Would the anti-apartheid movement not have been feckless, indeed insane, if they had failed capitalized on this blunder of the pro-apartheid forces?
It does a disservice to the Palestinians and non-Palestinian victims of Israeli foreign policy to try to divorce the Palestine Question from the broader manifestations of the locus of power which James Petras has referred to as the “Zionist Power Configuration” (ZPC). This ZPC operates at both a global and local level as was indicated on 9/11. As Naomi Klein accurately wrote in the Guardian “[the] Likudisation of the world [is] the real legacy of 9/11.”
For those of us living in Western countries, especially in North America, the most efficient way for us to engender empathy with the Palestinians in the eyes of uninformed Westerners, especially U.S. citizens, is for us to illuminate Israel’s involvement in the massacre of U.S. citizens on 9/11. A failure to capitalize on Israel’s most egregious crimes and blunders is tantamount to complicity in the oppression of the Palestinians and the other victims of Israeli foreign policy.
In recordings released yesterday and earlier in August, Richard Clarke, the former White House Director of Counter-Terrorism alleges that top CIA officials including George Tenet intentionally withheld crucial intelligence from the FBI concerning known Al Qaeda operatives in the US before September 11 which could have possibly prevented the attacks.
This is only the most recent reason to immediately indict Tenet as he is also proven to have lied before the joint congressional inquiry after 9/11 by stating that he did not meet with Ex-President Bush in August of 2001 when CIA records later proved that they met twice; once in Crawford, Texas on August 17th and again in Washington on August 31.
The identities of other officials involved in the coverup include Alfreda Frances Bikowsky, the current Director of the CIA Global Jihad Unit, CTC Director J. Cofer Black and Richard Blee of Alec Station.
Holding a top U.S.A. intelligence position does not give anyone the right to purger themselves in congressional hearings. These actions classify as obstruction of justice and need to be brought to national attention and courts immediately.
Sources: CSPAN | George Tenet Lied Before The 9/11 Commission | www.youtube.com/watch?v=BF_Y4oRsDqE
Opinion: 9/11 a decade later: Viewed from Istanbul, ‘a milestone in history’
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
BY AYDOGAN VATANDAS
AYDOGAN VATANDAS IS AN INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST AND THE MEDIA REPRESENTATIVE OF TURKISH CIHAN NEWS AGENCY IN NEW YORK SINCE 2006.
ON Sept. 11, 2001, the United States was attacked by a group of terrorists who believed in a holy war, called jihad.
Nearly 3,000 victims died.
They were Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and atheists.
They were human beings working for their lives and families.
On that day, at that moment, I was in Istanbul, at the headquarters of my newspaper.
A friend of mine in the newsroom just screamed in a daze: “The World Trade Center was attacked by airplanes.”
Confused, a colleague ran to the window to check and see whether our World Trade Center, which was a building just across from us, was still out there.
It was in its place.
The entire newsroom gathered around the TV screen.
We all watched with an astonishing fear and sadness as the airplanes hit the Twin Towers in New York, again and again. We called our New York bureau chief to get more information about the incident. He said that it was probably a terrorist attack, but the perpetrators were unknown yet.
A friend who was working at the foreign desk said that the usual suspect was al-Qaida.
Another colleague surmised that “Aum Shinrikyo,” an apocalyptic cult in Japan, could have done it as well.
Yet another colleague speculated that al-Qaida couldn’t afford to do such an organized and well-planned evil action.
It was, to us, a milestone in history.
It was one of the most evil acts of all times.
We were willing and wishing (and praying) that Muslims were not involved in this act.
To be honest, we never wanted to believe that this was possible.
We would have preferred to believe that it was an inside job, which would be used as an excuse to attack the Muslim world and control the energy resources in the region.
On the other hand, there stood a chance of another reality. Some Muslims believed terrorism is the only way to fight and defeat the western world culturally and politically.
What was the reason for this hatred?
Most definitely, these Muslims were affected by an era of colonialism in the region.
Due to the colonialist era, like other newly created states, Egypt was faced with the problem of how to govern itself. Egypt, like Turkey, chose a totalitarian secular nationalism as opposed to Islam as its new national identity. These regimes were encouraged and endorsed by Western governments. Islamic opposition lived under the oppression of their totalitarian government for years and, according to the rhetoric, America and its allies were primarily responsible for that.
But the difference between Turkey and Egypt was that Turkey was never colonized. Therefore, the tone of the Islamic opposition to their totalitarian secular regimes was not the same.
It can be argued that three ideologues have been most influential in the development of radical Islam: Hassan al-Banna, Mawlana Mawdudi and Sayyid Qutb. Mawdudi was from Pakistan. Benna and Qutb were from Egypt. We should remember that Pakistan was also colonized as well.
Hassan al-Banna founded the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Mawdudi Jamaat-e-Islami in Pakistan. Members of those groups believed that their totalitarian secular regimes were the extension of Western capitalism and imperialism. This notion was to be strengthened later by Sayyid Qutb.
It is definitely not a coincidence that the second man of al-Qaida, Ayman Al Zawahiri, was from Egypt and had close ties with the Muslim Brotherhood in his past.
It is definitely also not a coincidence that Osama bin Laden was found and killed in Pakistan.
As a Turkish Muslim journalist, I was frustrated by what happened in Manhattan on Sept. 11, just like thousands of Norwegians today are frustrated by Anders Behring Breivik.
What was the word that both Bin Laden and Breivik hated most?
Dialogue.
Sept. 11 triggered the interfaith dialogue efforts of Muslims all over the world.
I believe that the era of dialogue has just begun.
via Opinion: 9/11 a decade later: Viewed from Istanbul, ‘a milestone in history’ : page all – NorthJersey.com.
New America Media, News Report, Frank Viviano, Posted: Sep 02, 2011
In 1995, the city of Gaziantep, on the southeastern edge of Turkey’s Anatolian plain, was under siege. Its crumbling medieval center was swamped with refugees from a civil war between insurgent Kurds and the Turkish Army that eventually left 40,000 dead and 3,000,000 people homeless. Along the borderlands with Syria and Iraq, smoke rose from rural Kurdish villages obliterated by F-15 strikes.
A New Look at Shariah Law
Frank Viviano
A central tenet of Islam is the conviction that the Koran, the Muslim book of revelation, is God’s final and direct word to humankind, as related to the Prophet Mohammed in 610 A.D. in what is now Saudi Arabia.
But the Koran is not the sole compendium of Islamic values. It is in an epochal project involving a second Islamic text, known as the “Hadith,” that Turkey’s bold reform movement may pave its most fruitful ground.
The Hadith is a digest of the conversations and deeds of Mohammed after the revelations of the Koran. It is the chief source of rules that inform Muslim life, including customs, social mores, dress codes and an estimated 90 percent of Shariah law.
For the past nine years, 80 eminent historians and theologians commissioned by Turkey’s Department of Religious Affairs have been working on a 21st-century revision of the Hadith. It is scheduled for publication by the end of 2011.
“We want to bring out the positive side of Islam — that promotes personal honor, human rights, justice, morality, women’s rights, respect for the other,” Professor Mehmet Gormez, vice-president of religious affairs and senior Hadith lecturer at Ankara University, recently told The Times of London.
The revision would eliminate such medieval aphorisms as, “the best of women are those who are like sheep,” and “Your prayer will be invalid if a donkey, black dog or a woman passes in front of you.”
Instead, it will emphasize other passages, often of pointed significance to the contemporary scene. “Religion is very easy and whoever overburdens himself in his religion will not be able to continue in that way. So you should not be extremists,” Mohammed cautions his followers in a key Hadith.
“God does not judge you according to your bodies and appearances,” the Prophet says, in a conversation that seems aimed straight across the centuries at controversies over matters of dress and sexuality in Saudi Arabia, Iran and Afghanistan. “He looks into your hearts and observes your deeds.”
Turkey’s religious authorities have also subsidized advanced theological training for 450 women, appointing them as senior imams (“vaizes”) empowered to explain the “original spirit of Islam” in rural communities.
“A revolution is taking place here,” according to Taha Akyol, a Turkish political commentator.
Nationwide, the economy was mired in triple-digit inflation and soaring joblessness, with a GDP of less than $116 billion, under $2,000 per person. Turkey in the 1990s epitomized a devastating crisis among Muslim-majority nations – a desperate spiral of poverty, violence and authoritarian rule.
Today, a decade after the September 11 terrorist attacks that turned much of the Islamic world into a chaotic battleground, Turkey has emerged as Islam’s most prominent icon of hope.
In 2011, it boasts the world’s 15th largest GDP, measuring $1.2 trillion – nearly $15,000 per person and rising by $125 billion annually. The Turkish economy now ranks ahead of such highly-developed nations as Australia and the Netherlands, and oil-giant Saudi Arabia. With a current growth rate of 11 percent, outstripping China’s and defying the effects of a global recession, it could surpass G-8 member Canada in the next few years.
More than 99 percent of Turkey’s 74 million citizens are Muslim.
Gaziantep, when I returned there on another assignment in 2010, had transformed itself into a city of manicured parks, architecturally stunning museums, carefully restored 10th century neighborhoods and 21st century shopping malls. High-rise residential suburbs had sprung from empty fields where army tanks were once marshaled. On a per capita basis, this city of 1.3 million is now the number one exporter and importer in the country.
The chief architect of Turkey’s miracle is the Justice and Development Party – popularly known by its Turkish initials, “AK” – an Islamic political group that took power in a landslide 2002 election.
Over the following decade, under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the new government dramatically reformed the bureaucracy-ridden Turkish economy, setting off an unprecedented boom in business starts, jobs and exports. Ten years ago, notes Bloomberg analyst Ben Holland, Turkey struggled under a debt load that dwarfed Greece’s on the eve of the global financial crisis in 2009. By 2010 Turkey’s debt was down to 46 percent of GDP, compared with 143 percent percent for Greece.
Turkey in 2011 is the thriving proof that a Muslim majority, democracy and economic modernization are compatible – the new model that, in the eyes of many, political Islam has been waiting for.
The Old Model: Saudi Arabia
In 2003, thanks to the sponsorship of a Saudi official, I was able to participate in the haj, the pilgrimage to the Arabian Peninsula that is an obligation for Muslims but normally closed to others. Although I wasn’t permitted to enter Mecca, the epicenter of Islamic faith, I joined a vast throng silently marching to the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, the site of Mohammed’s tomb and Islam’s second most important shrine.
During shared evening meals at another Medina mosque, I spoke with pilgrims from China, Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Malaysia, Indonesia and Uzbekistan – and also from France and Holland, home today to two of Western Europe’s largest Muslim communities.
The sense of peace and inner reflection, of profound tolerance and solidarity among far-flung people from every walk of life, was deeply moving. “This is what we see in our religion,” a young man from western China’s Yunnan Province said, “not suicide bombers or planes flying into sky-scrapers.”
Yet it was impossible to ignore the fact that Chinese and Uzbek women on the haj — few of whom wear more than a light scarf in their own countries, and then only during prayers — were obliged to cover themselves in the head-to-toe black abaya, required of all women by Saudi law, including millions of Christians, Hindus and Buddhists who work as domestics in the country.
None of those non-Muslims are allowed to honor their own religious beliefs while in Saudi Arabia, a country that bans the establishment of churches or temples.
It was also impossible to ignore the Mutaween, the 5,000-strong religious police force formally known as the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. The Mutaween stalk supermarkets, shopping malls, schools and apartment complexes in search of any breach of Wahabbism, the sternly fundamentalist brand of Islam favored by the ruling Saud family.
They can arrest and jail a woman with a single strand of hair exposed, along with unmarried couples – Saudi or foreign – who socialize in public, residents who are discovered with a bottle of beer or a Bible in their apartment, or anyone who observes “infidel superstitions” such as sending St. Valentine’s Day cards.
Indescribably wealthy as the source of the planet’s largest oil reserves, and respected as the home and protector of Islam’s most important holy sites, Saudi Arabia wields weight far beyond its own size (population 28 million) in an international community of believers that numbers 1.6 billion. One result is that political Islam — whether in the violent form practiced by Al Qaeda or the state theocracy of Iran – widely echoes the Saudi model of hectoring authoritarianism.
But in socio-economic terms, it is difficult to view Saudi Arabia as a functional model at all. Its resources are so vast and its distortions so extreme that virtually no country beyond the hyper-affluent oil states can really emulate it.
Saudi citizenship means free education, health care and housing – but often a life without gainful employment. According to the Saudi Labor Ministry, imported temporary workers account for a staggering 90 to 95 percent of private-sector jobs. It’s not much exaggeration to say that the only Saudis who actually work are those with the connections to acquire high administrative posts in the bureaucracy, or in enormous state enterprises tightly controlled by the Sauds and their retainers.
Ranks of young men on the streets of Riyadh, the capital, are visibly lost to boredom, in a land where movie theaters, clubs and mixed-gender socializing are illegal — and much of modern culture is only virtual, observed on the Internet or via satellite television broadcasts from uninhibited Beirut and Cairo. Frustrated and without clear purpose, they recall the kind of young man that the teenaged Osama bin Laden is said to have been, or the 15 Saudis among the 19 hijackers on September 11, 2001.
The establishment of an elected parliament with formal powers has been under discussion in Riyadh for two generations, but remains a vague distant goal.
As for women – who have played frontline roles in the mass protests of Iran in 2009 and the Arab Spring of 2011 – they are forbidden by law to drive in Saudi Arabia, and may not even be passengers in a car unless accompanied by a male member of their family.
The contrast with Turkey could not be more striking.
Faith Without Repression
At the outset of the Erdogan era, many secular-minded Turks warned that the AK party would eventually transform their country into another Saudi Arabia. But 10 years later, Istanbul reminds no one of Riyadh or the Mutaween.
The city’s main commercial thoroughfare, Istiklal Avenue, is a two-mile-long corridor of seething artistic and intellectual ferment, its surrounding streets and squares ringed with avant-garde theaters and cinemas, restaurants and nightclubs, art galleries and bookshops. By 2010, when the European Union named Istanbul the “European Capital of Culture” – despite the fact that Turkey is not an EU member-state – the district’s attractions were drawing up to 3 million people per day.
The dynamic street life of Istanbul, as well as Gaziantep and smaller urban centers across the country, shatters the notion that a Muslim nation must be repressive and uncompromising.
On the foreign policy front, the AK government has come closer than any government in the nation’s history to ending the Turks’ historic enmities with their Armenian, Greek and Arab neighbors.
In southeastern Anatolia, the expression of Kurdish culture has been legalized for the first time since the fall of the Ottoman Empire, permitting school courses, radio and TV broadcasts and books in the Kurdish language. After the bloody carnage of the civil war, tensions remain, and separatists from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) still launch periodic assaults that bring targeted police or army reprisals.
But in the sprawling new suburbs of cities like Diyarbakir, the Kurds’ de facto cultural capital, “most young people prefer to speak Turkish these days, because they regard it as the language of modern life and opportunity,” says a 35-year-old Kurdish woman who once led militant protests.
Last month, in a gesture that remains unthinkable almost anywhere else in the Muslim bloc, Prime Minister Erdogan announced that Ankara will return or offer compensation for churches, synagogues, schools, hospitals and cemeteries that were confiscated by the state over the past 75 years.
“Times that a citizen of ours would be oppressed due to religion, ethnic origin or different way of life are over,” he said, speaking before representatives of more than 150 Christian and Jewish organizations.
Step-by-careful-step, the Erdogan administration – which won every national election after 2002 by huge margins, most recently last June – has broken the long reign of the Turkish Army as behind-the-scenes political powerbroker, in a world where dictatorial regimes rule most Muslim-majority states.
In the name of democracy, rather than religion, the expression of selected Muslim customs has been legalized, notably the right of devout women to wear light headscarves in public institutions if they choose. But today few observers speak of a hidden plan to impose theocracy.
The number of women in Turkey’s parliament increased by more than 50 percent in the 2011 national elections, to 78 seats.
“Secularism, one of the main principles of our republic, is a precondition for social peace as much as it is a liberating model for different lifestyles,” AK second-in-command Abdullah Gul insisted in his inauguration speech as president of Turkey in 2007.
Justice and Development, he says, is no different than the Christian Democratic parties that ruled Italy and Germany for most of the half century after World War Two. If religious values supply part of the AK identity, its outlook is resolutely centrist and modern.
Quietly, just months after September 11, it embarked on a controversial revision of the principal sources for Shariah law, the code that defines and regulates daily behavior for believers. The deliberate aim, say the project’s insiders, is to reconcile Islamic doctrine and Shariah law with the modern world. The final draft, due by the end of 2011, will be closely read by Muslims everywhere.
To the Wahabbist hardliners of Riyadh, the reforms proposed by Ankara look like heresy. But their fellow citizens overwhelmingly disagree. In 2002, according to a survey of Islamic world attitudes conducted annually by pollster James Zogby, a scant 20 percent of Saudis had a favorable view of Turkey. In 2011 the favorable rating reached 98 percent.
