Usually moments of silence are solemn and dignified events that can help heal wounds left in the aftermath of tragedies. Two such occasions this week however show how they can leave troubled feelings in their wake. The first blown event was G-20 Moment of Silence for the victims in Paris. The problem is that it turned out to be a G-19 Moment of Silence because President Obama walked in late. While one would hope that this deeply symbolic moment would be sufficiently important to get the President there on time, problems can occur. Yet, this President has been criticized for years for being consistently late to events, which shows a lack of respect as well as organization. This is one of the worst such failures in a long line of delayed arrivals. The second incident was far more disturbing in Turkey.
Before the soccer game between Turkey and Greece, the officials called for a moment of silence for the Paris victims. The response from Turkish fans was to start yelling “Allahu Akbar” in Istanbul and booing the expression of sympathy for the hundreds of dead and wounded victims of the attack by Muslim extremists.
The scene at the Basaksehir Fatih Terim Stadium in Istanbul was deeply disturbing and Turkey manager Fatih Terim was quoted as saying: “Our fans should have behaved during the one minute silence.” That is an understatement.
I understand that, like American football games, fans at soccer games are not necessarily the best behaved crowd. However, this raises more obvious concerns for many who have watched changes in Turkey under the current government. The attacks have been widely condemned by Islamic scholars and groups — making this response even more disconcerting.
It is deeply concerning that, even with a disgusting massacre of innocent people like the one in Paris, many fans would still see their allegiance with the murderers due to religion. It also deepens the concern of the impact of the disastrous tenure of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who has fueled the rise of Islamic parties in that country. 
We have been following the gradual erosion of Turkey as a symbol of secularism in the Islamic world under Erdogan. Erdogan was elected by Muslim parties and has steadily broken down secular traditions and introduced more and more Islamic influences in government.
I often write about my great love for Turkey and Istanbul, a city that defies description for its beauty and history. I have been fortunate to visit Turkey and I have met many Muslim civil libertarians and secularists who have bravely resisted the encroachment of religion into their government. Erdogan has destroyed the one major Muslim country that showed that it was possible to have separation of mosque and state in a Muslim nation. The result seems to be a rise in extremists like those seen at the game. We have seen the same trend in countries like Pakistan where the government seeks to encourage but control religious parties despite rising extremist elements.
Unfortunately, this moment of silence spoke loudly about the direction of Turkey under Erdogan.
Ari
I posted this earlier in response to your comment that we need to realize that all “muslims” are not the same. Yes. We do.
BUT….the burden of showing us this lies on those “muslims” who have chosen to move to another country. In light of what has been happening and what IS happening, the moderate and peaceful muslims should be actively marching against the radical jihadist. If they want us to know the difference and to know them, then it is upon THEM to get out and educate us.
Reaching out instead of remaining insular. Assimilating into the community and showing the people who they are. THEY cam here, not the other way around. It is on them. If they remain strangers, remain covered up and disdain to mingle, refuse to play by the laws and rules in the country that they have moved to….they will remain strangers and remain “the OTHER”. Dangerous to be “the other”.
If they do not, in mass, loudly and repeatedly, make some sort of real showing that they do not stand with the radicals, I fear that it will not go well for them.
PO … BTW, I don’t think Karen S or Bam Bam are irrational. They have opinions and express them just as you or I do. That’s what we’re here for, or am I wrong?
On that point, Obama is the epitome of the eyes closed mentality. He seems incapable of intellectual discrimination. Which is too bad given his high office.
Po … I am frequently criticized for what appears to be my defense of various groups others want to lump in a adversary group…when what I really advocate is getting to know them and distinguish the good from the bad as well as the ambivalent. Whether Arabs or Asians they are NOT all your friend, some really do hate you, for irrational reasons IMO, but knowing the difference is key. If you sweep any population in to one group, all good or all bad, you defeat the purpose of knowing them. And them knowing you. And we continue in a world of chaos. where our eyes are closed, on both sides, all sides.
“Four legs good! Two legs Baaaaad!
— Animal Farm.
Inside Every Liberal Is A Totalitarian Screaming To Get Out
Obama Inc: Refuses to Give Law Enforcement Info on Syrian Refugees
That’s how extreme Obama is
November 18, 2015
Daniel Greenfield
Two points here.
1. Obama Inc. is predictably refusing to slow down or stop Syrian migrant dumping in US states. Including those states which have said no to it.
2. Obama Inc. is refusing to even work with Democratic governors who are pro-resettlement, like Jerry Brown in California, to provide local law enforcement with information about risks.
In a call with senior Obama administration officials Tuesday evening, several governors demanded they be given access to information about Syrian refugees about to be resettled by the federal government in their states. Top White House officials refused…
On the call several Republican governors and two Democrats — New Hampshire’s Maggie Hassan and California’s Jerry Brown — repeatedly pressed administration officials to share more information about Syrian refugees entering the United States. The governors wanted notifications whenever refugees were resettled in their states, as well as access to classified information collected when the refugees were vetted…
That’s the surprising thing. Obama won’t even throw Jerry Brown a bone.
Brown said he favored continuing to admit Syrian refugees but wanted the federal government to hand over information that would allow states to keep track of them, the GOP state official said.
McDonough responded to Brown that there was currently no process in place to give states such information and the administration saw no reason to change the status quo. The non-governmental organizations that help resettle the refugees would have such information.
Brown countered by noting that state law enforcement agencies have active investigations into suspected radicals and that information about incoming Syrian refugees could help maintain their awareness about potential radicalization. He suggested the U.S. had to adjust the way it operates in light of the Paris attacks.
McDonough reiterated his confidence in the current process. While promising to consider what Brown and other senators had said, he emphasized that the administration had no plans to increase information sharing on refugees with states as of now.
So now we have the White House openly saying that the VOLAGS that resettle migrants operate at a higher level than state governors and that states are excluded from the process. And Obama Inc. is refusing to cooperate with local law enforcement even when asked to do so by one of the most liberal governors in the country.
That’s how extreme Obama is.
The turkish crowd does not respect dead people in France. Just imagine a moment of silence at a Dallas Cowboy football game for the dead in Afghanistan. A moment of silence at an NBA game for the dead in Syria. Just imagine anyone anywhere caring about people they have been taught to think of as pawns in a game of governments. If you don’t care about everyone across the whole world……… don’t expect them to care about you.
Symbolism is far less crucial than actual actions ( or inactions ) in the real world.
By the way, someone can be smart, realize they are smart and publicly say they are smart. Smartness comes in many different packages.
Gus in Denver aka 99guspuppet
Inside Every Liberal Is A Totalitarian Screaming To Get Out
Caninophobic Muslim Suicide Bomber Blows Up Hero Police Dog
Dogs are on the front lines in the war against Muslim terrorism
November 18, 2015
Daniel Greenfield
Mohammed, the prophet of Islam, hated Jews, Christians and all non-Muslims. He also hated a long list of animals. Including dogs. In a rabid fit of Dogophobia, he even ordered his crazed murderous followers to kill all dogs. Or all black dogs.
So it’s only fitting that dogs are on the front lines in the war against Muslim terrorism. Now a French anti-terror police dog was killed by a Muslim suicide bomber during the raids.
An anti-terror police dog has died after being blown up by a female suicide bomber during a firefight with suspected ISIS militants behind the Paris massacre.
The seven-year-old Belgian Shepherd named Diesel was killed during a raid by up to 100 police and soldiers on a flat in the French capital this morning.
Diesel was sent in to the building to sniff out booby traps but was blown to pieces when a jihadi bride came out firing her AK-47 at police before detonating her suicide vest.
Tributes quickly poured in to the decorated canine, with one police handler saying: ‘It’s a little like losing one of our colleagues.’
One Twitter user said Diesel had ‘died to defend our colours’.
The official profile for Police Nationale tweeted that Diesel ‘was killed by terrorists in the current operation in Saint-Denis’.
The gunfight started at 4.30am when SWAT teams and special forces surrounded the building believing the architect of the massacres that killed 129 people, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, 27, was inside. It is not known if he is dead or alive.
A woman ‘with long blonde hair’ who may be Abaaoud’s jihadi bride is said to have fired her AK-47 at police before blowing herself up as an assault squad first stormed the apartment block.
Survivors of the Bataclan massacre where 89 people died insisted there was a female shooter.
While Diesel was only a dog, she died a hero helping save lives. The human garbage that blew herself died trying to take lives because she was following the hateful words of a murderous 7th century warlord. (Considering that Muslim men get 72 virgins, I’m not sure what she was expecting to get.)
Islamists like to taunt non-Muslims as being dogs, but they have made themselves less than dogs. A dog like Diesel has more value than all of them combined together will ever have. Her life is worth far more than theirs ever will. In her own way she contributed to mankind, while Muslim terrorists only seek to destroy human civilization for the sake of their barbaric beliefs.
Kalb, or dog, is one of the worst possible insults in the Muslim world. Call a man Kalb or Kalb ibn Kalb, if you want the knives to come out. In Afghanistan, those who fled the Taliban and returned to help the Coalition rebuild the country are called “Sag shouey” or “Dog washers” since Americans are infidel dogs and the Afghans who cooperate with Americans are menial servants of the dogs.
After Osama bin Laden’s execution, an imam of the Al-Aqsa mosque castigated the “Western dogs” who had done it. And as it turned out a dog actually did accompany the SEAL team that took down Osama. Unlike the billions spent on trying to win over Pakistanis and Afghans, who went on aiding terrorists anyway– the dogs remained true and loyal friends.
On September 11th, among the first responders were our four footed friends who risked their lives clambering around the smoking rubble in search of survivors. Muslims believe that an angel cannot enter a home when a dog is inside. But after the Muslims had killed thousands of Americans, it was the dogs who acted as the angels finding the bodies where they could and helping give the families of the dead something to bury.
When Muslims plot terrorist attacks, it is the bomb sniffing dogs who serve as the front line of defense against them. Military dogs walk the front lines searching out Taliban explosives and have become primary targets of enemy snipers. At airports, we would do much better to fire the TSA’s gropers and luggage thieves, and dump the naked scanners, and replace them with dogs. The enemy may fool our politicians, our clergy and our law enforcement– but they will never fool a dog.
How can a dog tell the difference between a Muslim and a non-Muslim even when there are no racial or ethnic differences? There may be no physical differences, but there are moral ones. It may be the casual cruelty that Islam inculcates in its followers that is as visible in the body language and attitude to a sensitive animal– as a gun is to an airport metal detector.
In Iran, visitors tell of dogs who could distinguish between Zoroastrians and Muslims; “In Sharifabad the dogs distinguished clearly between Moslem and Zoroastrian, and were prepared to go…full of hope, into a crowded Zoroastrian assembly, or to fall asleep trustfully in a Zoroastrian lane, but would flee as before Satan from a group of Moslem boys.”
Dogs are good judges of character. So you can see why a monster like Mohammed hated them. He could fool his followers into thinking that he was a good man. But he couldn’t fool a dog.
Aux Larmes, Citoyens ?
The day after the Islamic attacks on Paris, I wrote a poem (see below), instigated by the predictable plethora of resultant feel-good sappy and downright fraudulent turn-a-blind-eye cartoons, echoing Obama’s predictable feel-good, fraudulent, post-Paris platitudes, as in “…an attack not just on Paris, it’s an attack not just on the people of France, but this is an attack on all of humanity and the universal values we share.”
Clearly, however, as others have noted, freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and vigorous debate—democracy’s very cornerstones—, for example, are NOT universally shared values. The Muslims who slaughtered 129 defenseless people in Paris did not share those values! Islam does NOT share those values! Do Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Syria, Iran, ISIS, and other Muslim nations share those values? Of course not! Millions of Muslims do not share those values! But Obama and many others, unable to fathom that reality, are entrenched in a multiculti-pro-Islamic, turn-a-blind-eye fantasy cocoon… spun by the Muslim Brotherhood.
The plethora of feel-good cartoons fail to express what Islamists did in Paris… without evoking—even just slightly hinting—Islam as the culprit. Solidarity sadness, as a means of dealing with the horrendous Paris massacre, in a sense, is a cowardly escape, a cowardly multiculti-avoidance of the problem: the Quran. What motivated the terrorists? Islam motivated the terrorists! Obama should manifest the courage to alter his now infamous pro-Islamic statement “the future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam” to “the future must not belong to those who murder in the name of the prophet of Islam.” But he will not do that. Again, it is the multiculti-feel-good cocoon that blinds him. “Aux larmes, citoyens”? Mais non! “Aux armes, citoyens!”
The Aftermath: Vacuity Lame cartoonists,
given voice by the lame press,
cartoon the Paris terror attacks,
producing… lame cartoons.
What else is new, eh?
But would it not have been better to keep
the pens holstered, rather than sketching
pitiful, ineffectual, PC-conform,
feel-good affectation—
a blind eye turned, Sharia-fine-tuned?
And the hacks—Obama, Merkel, Hollande
—spew their nauseous platitudes,
ever spinning their failed policies,
obsessed with their vapid egocentric legacies…
What else is new, eh?
……………………………..
For the cartoon I drew today, a composite of several lame cartoons with my right eyeball added, see wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com
There still is a much greater probability that I might accidentally be killed by a crazed American gunman in my supermarket than by a jihadist anywhere in the USA. I am more fearful of the former than of the latter.
Saudi Arabia is the largest twitter user concerning posts about the greatness of ISIS. The USG just sold that nation a very large amount of deadly weapons. Why is that? Why did the stocks of the world’s weapons corporations go through the roof after the Paris attack? (see wikileaks)
So far, none of the bombers are refugees from Syria. (see Glenn Greenwald)
People cheering over the death of civilians is repulsive. US citizens should stop cheering the death of civilians by our own govt. In the same way, these spectators who evidently loved the bloodshed committed against Parisian civilians should stop their own madness. What is it about killing civilians that makes people proud of their nation or religion? To kill the innocent is an act of cowardice and cruelty. It shows weakness, not strength. To celebrate this cruelty and weakness is a sign that a person neither feels nor thinks with honor, justice or integrity.
Since I lived in Turkey for a couple of years at Incirlik AFB, I am dismayed to see the course of events in Turkey. When I was there, it was a military dictatorship imposed after killing the leftist Premier, and the Turks were not too happy about that. So we had three major anti-government riots there in which a lot of GIs had to run for our lives. The average Turk was not at all religious and the reforms Ataturk had instituted were popular and wide spread. The problem is that the US and Turkish military destroyed the left, and thus the only thing left in the political landscape was the right wing. This is similar to the result in Iran where a secular, democratic government was overthrown, and the Shah installed. The only place to protest or plot against the state of things was the mosque. Thus any left group was killed or exiled, while the religious right could organize under the cover of the mosque.
The elite of Turkey was secular and controlled the military which made sure no dissent got out of hand for the elite. So my impression is that if you hate the government and the situation in your life, then Erdogen can pose as the one to change things since he is not secular and hates the West. So I was quite surprised to find no left wing party in the elections other than the Kurdish ones. That is not the way to change Joe Turk’s mind since it runs counter to the nationalism of most Turks. I wish I knew more, but I have limited contacts and knowledge of recent events. I found that the propaganda tries to use Ataturk as a rallying point and they go so far as to actually lie about him. I posted with one Turk who tried to claim he was a good Muslim, which is outlandish since he was a militant atheist and hated Islam. He leveled many mosques and got rid of the Muslim influence and land holdings in the course of his revolution. He also got rid of the Arabic alphabet the Turks had used and installed the Roman one.
Did you see today’s interview 11/18/15, on NBC Today with Matt Lauer and former Homeland Security chief, Tom Ridge?
http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/kyle-drennen/2015/11/18/nbcs-today-former-dhs-chief-tom-ridge-blasts-obama
DBQ: I recently watched an interview with the former intelligence advisor, who said the FBI currently has the manpower to follow about 68 to 70 suspects 24/7.
Obama plans to import 10,000, 90% of which have no documents, the rest of which may have forged documents. They may be from Syria, they may not. Syria is a common training ground for terrorists. They could have worked for Assad torturing people, they could be jihadis, or they could be just desperate for a Western free life. There is no database of complete information on them to peruse. They’re just blank slates, coming from a region of high terrorist activity, where ISIS is active. The vast majority of them are young males.
Just what is the intelligence community supposed to do to vet them? How much resources do we have to follow 10,000 and learn what they do when they get here? And what about those who have already arrived in European countries, who can now come here without a visa? The numbers are staggering. Resources to cover 70 people, and we have 10,000 more coming, with hundreds of thousands in the rest of Europe, now with access to the US.
What could go wrong?
I do think that real refugees, with no terrorist ties or inclinations, are welcome to come. But we have to have the time and the information to prove who they are.
And isn’t it interesting that the wealthy Middle Eastern countries have absorbed none of them?
Po:
I said Israel was not behind the 9/11 attacks. Is that what you consider defending extremist Judaism?
Also, I have condemned Jews when they do wrong. I do not use religion, or politics, to suspend judgement. I said the Jewish rabbis statements in the above article were wrong. In another post I criticized Orthodox Jews for holding up an entire flight because they demanded to have their female neighboring passengers moved.
I’ve also stated many times that Westernized, modern Muslims live quite peacefully here in the US, just like any other religion. I’ve had many Muslim friends, and enjoy many aspects about the culture. For me, as for most people, I only take issue with extremist Islam.
From your documented behavior on this blog, you take great offense when I criticize extremism. That says a lot about your own beliefs.
Can you imagine what Muslims, globally, would do if Jews tried to take over Mecca? If they strapped on suicide vests and blew it up periodically? Israel is Mecca to the Jews. Most Palestinians descend from Arab migrant workers who arrived to benefit from the British building projects as they worked on the Jewish Homeland. It has a few sacred sites to Muslims, but nowhere near Mecca.
Israel has the right to exist. I oppose extremist Islam, especially when it stones women and drops gay men off of buildings. If that’s an extremist position to you, then you’ve destroyed your image as a moderate.
Phil S
Turkey may have helped ISIS on but they did not create it. Pakistan helped the Taliban-armed them with tanks-to quell the tribal warring that was leaking over the border from Afghanistan into their areas. That worked for Pakistan until the ultra religious and inbred muslims morphed into al qaeda. This brought death and destruction to the taliban and al qaeda but also fueled their argument. Both ISIS and the Taliban resulted from the void and chaos created by the US in Iraq and Russia in Afghanistan. An oppressed people can always find recruits from the impoverished and otherwise useless dregs of their society. Who other than those who have nothing going for them would jump at the bait of being able to rape girls, chop off heads, and be big in this disgusting way? There is a dark side of the human condition here that goes beyond religion. Islam happens to be in bed with this dark side and that needs to be realized where ever it surfaces. The only good radical imam is a dead imam.
The answer is to attack on all fronts: continue to admit refugees but enhance the verification process, use the moment to train and enhance the special force units from not just the US but France, GB, etc.-go in surgically in large numbers, wax as many as possible, take back the oil, and continue the bombing, arm the Kurds to the teeth and sponsor a country for them, increase the monitoring of suspects and remove all those who have contributed to ISIS-if a lad, regardless of ethnicity, goes to Syria and fights for ISIS then he or she should never be allowed back in, if someone is found to have been sending funds to ISIS then they should lose their citizenship and/or be imprisoned, establish safe zones for those refugees who are attempting to leave Syria and Iraq and send back those who have entered Europe and the US without going through the proper immigration procedures. In short use every existing means but at an enhanced level.
The time has come for the US to reduce its armed forces and recalibrate them based on special forces and surgical strikes. If there is ever a need for a half million man army to invade a country that can be put together quickly enough. The wars of the future will be the cutting out of cancers. The paradigm is the FFL in Africa. No one hears about a hundred or so Legionaires dropping in to wax belligerents. It is happening on a regular basis. The French have been doing it for a while. They just don’t publish it. That is counterproductive. A well coordinated series of strikes by thousand man special force groups in several spots all at once would do more to put ISIS down than any other move. It is the way of the future. The West needs to get with this program. As far as ‘boots on the ground’ and ‘sending our boys and girls into harm’s way’ goes, there are enough young men and women who yearn for this sort of action, regardless of the cause. It is nature’s way, use it.
Aridog says:
1, November 18, 2015 at 9:36 am
…to a better understanding of Muslims.
The first step should be to stop thinking of “Muslims” as one unified religious group. They are not, any more than Christians, Jews, Buddhists, or most other religious groups are. Many varieties make it confusing, but the misconception is aided by things like “Arabs” (although “Arabs” are a minority in the Muslim world) who are easy to notice due to appearance, language, and cultural distinctions.
—————————————————————–
Thank you, again, Ari for being the voice of reason. It should be easily graspable but seems to challenge most people here.
Arabs constitute 20% of Islam. Not that difficult to get.
Syria was very a modern and secular of a nation (and as for civilization, do your research people, they are one of the oldest and advanced civilization), and they were sacrificed to the West’s lust for world domination.
Interesting to see as usual Bambam and Karen defend extremist Judaism yesterday then attack Islam today!
Unsurprising.
Obama and his administration, as well as most liberals have shown a complete lack of interest in protecting the United States from invasion, from illegal aliens, from importing (at great expense) possible Islamic terrorists who meld into the public into sleeper cells who want to kill us. Obama has refused to do anything at all constructive in the middle ease and has actually made it worse, creating this Syrian “refugee” crisis. His dithering is pathetic or worse, purposeful.
I find it greatly ironic that the fight to push back on this war is coming from Russia and now France while the US, supposedly the strongest nation is sitting in the corner sucking its collective thumbs.
It may be Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church, which has survived communism, that will lead the fight. Obama won’t. Obama has created a vacuum and someone will step in.
Whether that is a good thing or not, since Putin isn’t really a “good guy” in the sense of the white hat cowboy coming to the rescue, and has his own agenda will be a thing to see in the future. Is our choice going to be cow to the Islamist and Sharia Law, or ally with Putin and a strong Mother Russia? I know which choice I would make.
.
Understanding the pity, General George Patton Hollywood style.
Here’s what should be chanted back at them. Let’s just say, it has to do with making bootlaces out of barbarian skins and hoisting the cross above the Hagia Sophia.