Europe is approaching a crisis as the region’s debt crisis and austerity measures increase the rates of depression, suicide and psychological problems – just as governments cut healthcare spending by up to 50 percent, according to campaigners, policy makers and health organizations.
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Since the last century, Iran has been methodically pursuing the in-house capability of developing a missile-delivered nuclear bomb. The regime of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is now closer than ever — probably in the latter stages of perfecting an atomic bomb with a multipoint detonation mechanism, compact enough to insert into a Shahab-3 missile nosecone.
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Earlier this month, a group of 48 men from Iran entered Syria, ostensibly to visit a Shi’ite shrine.
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The cardinal died on Friday, aged 85.

Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera has published his last interview, recorded in August, in which he said: “The Church is tired… our prayer rooms are empty.”
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The host committee for the Democratic National Convention is raising a number of eyebrows after choosing to proceed with featuring Islamic “Jumah” prayers for two hours on the Friday before its convention, though Democrats earlier denied a Catholic cardinal’s request to say a prayer at the same event.

Watch the promotional video via the Bureau of Muslim Affairs, which claims it is hosting the event “at the Democratic National Convention.”

The first two minutes are rather dry, but around 2:04 a muezzin sings the call to prayer with an American flag background, and the video “picks up” considerably:

Up to 20,000 people are expected to attend the Friday prayers and Jibril Hough, a spokesman for the Bureau of Indigenous Muslim Affairs (BIMA), said its purpose is to hold political parties accountable for the issues faced by Muslim-Americans.

In particular, the event will target the Patriot Act, the NYPD, the National Defense Authorization Act, and anti-Shariah sentiment.

And while Muslim-Americans undeniably face distinct challenges, those who are well-informed on the dangers of radical Islam are expressing their doubts.

Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, a devout Muslim and the Founder and President of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, wrote:

    The leaders of this event – Jibril Hough and Imam Siraj Wahhaj [are not] moderates. They are radicals. These individuals embrace Islamist supremacy and have demonstrated support for radical ideologies.

A quick Google search by the DNC would have shown them that Hough and Wahhaj are leaders in the separatist American Islamist movement. While they may be able to get a few thousand Muslims to attend the event, they are NOT going to be mainstream Muslims.  Most will likely come from Hough and Wahhaj’s radical networks that have long been entrenched in the Charlotte area. Make no mistake they are part of the Islamist movement.

[…]

Their jummah (group) prayer is…about empowering their Islamist and MB sympathetic groups into the very fabric of the political system so that Americans become anesthetized. We need American Muslims to speak up and marginalize these radicals. The DNC needs to understand and reject them because of their radical history and ideas.

The mosque of Jibril Hough, mentioned by Dr. Jasser, is owned by the North American Islamic Trust, which was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trial as one of the entities “who are and/or were members of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood.”

Siraj Wahhaj, the “Grand Imam” for Jumah at the DNC, is often considered a “moderate” because he was the first Muslim to give an invocation in the U.S. Congress, but as Robert Spencer notes, he has a number of troubling ties to dangerous radicals.  In the early 1990′s the man reportedly sponsored talks by “the Blind Sheikh” Omar Abdel-Rahman in New York and New Jersey mosques, and told his followers that the United States will fall unless it “accepts the Islamic agenda.”

Wahhaj elaborated, according to bestselling author Brigitte Gabriel, to say: “If only Muslims were clever politically, they could take over the United States and replace its constitutional government with a caliphate.”

He continued: “Take my word.  If 6-8 million Muslims unite in America, the country will come to us.”

When an imam like Siraj Wahhaj says “it his duty and our duty as Muslims to replace the US Constitution with the Quran…we need to speak up!” Dr. Jasser reiterated in response, adding that Americans “should be concerned” if this is who the DNC is “consorting with.”

Robert Spencer speculates that the Democrat National Committee is simply so “in thrall to multiculturalism” that “few, if any” are even aware of the radical connections.

“To raise any concerns about such a speaker would be ‘Islamophobic,’ violating every rule of the anti-American, anti-Western ethos that prevails among so many Democrats today,” Spencer concluded.

*The “Charlotte in 2012” page was established by the city of Charlotte to help coordinate the DNC. It advertises itself as “the official location for all the latest news, information and ways to get involved.” It is also the official website for the host committee. Additionally, all events listed on the site have to go through an approval process.

Jews who came to Israel from Arab countries are not refugees, because they left their homes voluntarily and under pressure from Zionist groups and the Jewish Agency, Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, said over the weekend.

In an article published in a number of Arab media outlets, Ashrawi, who is also a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, said the “claim that Jews who migrated to Israel, which is supposed to be their homeland, are ‘refugees’ who were uprooted from their homelands… is a form of deception and delusion.”

She explained: “If Israel is their homeland, then they are not ‘refugees;’ they are emigrants who returned either voluntarily or due to a political decision.”

Ashrawi’s comments came in response to Israeli efforts to hold a summit on the issue of Jewish refugees from Arab countries next month.

The Foreign Ministry – together with the World Jewish Congress and the Senior Citizens Ministry (formerly the Pensioners Affairs Ministry) – is stepping up its campaign to bring the issue of Jewish refugees to public and diplomatic attention.

The Foreign Ministry says more than 850,000 Jews from Arab countries fled their homes following persecution that ensued after the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.

Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told The Jerusalem Post last week that the government was finalizing plans to institute a national day of recognition for the Jewish refugees. It also plans to build a museum to document the historical events of these communities, as well as their cultural heritage; collate testimony from thousands of refugees; and bring the issue front and center on the diplomatic stage.

Ashrawi, however, rejected the assertion that Jews left their countries of birth because of persecution.

“Arab Jews were part of the Arab region, but they began migrating to Israel after its establishment,” she argued. “They did so in accordance with a forethought plan by the Jewish Agency to bring Jews from all around the world to build the State of Israel.”

Ashrawi did, nonetheless, acknowledge that “some Arab countries at that time were ruled by tyrannical regimes.”

But, she noted, “all citizens, regardless of their religion, were subjected to suffering.

Jews were not singled out, although there had been some suspicious incidents of persecution or individual violence [against Jews] to encourage them to emigrate [to Israel]. The emigration of Jews was a voluntary act that was influenced by factors of pressure and temptation by Zionist movements and the Jewish Agency.”

Ashrawi called for drawing a distinction between Arab and Jewish refugees.

Zionist gangs, she said, “forced Palestinians out of the land that had belonged to the Palestinian people for thousands of years, while Jews voluntarily and collectively left.”

Ashrawi also voiced hope that Jews would be allowed to return to Arab countries.

She claimed that Iraq and Morocco had welcomed the return of Jews.

“We expect the Arab countries to welcome the return of their Jewish citizens in the context of democratic regimes that respect pluralism,” Ashrawi stressed.

“From a legal perspective, the first right – before compensation – is the right of return of the refugee to his/her original homeland.

Approximately 20,000 Muslims are expected to attend a three-day event called “Jumah at the DNC,” according to the published itinerary of the upcoming Democratic National Convention to be held in Charlotte, North Carolina’

The Jumah event is being sponsored by the Bureau of Indigenous Muslim Affairs (BIMA, the national Muslim American non-profit organization that seeks status with the United Nations as a non-governmental organization (NGO). 

The Charlotte Observer reported that the event will kick off August 29  with a Friday afternoon jumah prayer service in Marshall Park in uptown Charlotte, followed by an Islamic issues conference that will address such topics as “Islamophobia, Anti-Shariah, Middle Eastern Crisis, the Patriot Act, the National Defense Authorization Act.” This will be capped off with the Islamic Regal Banquet and an Islamic cultural festival.

The purpose, according to BIMA, is to attract national and international attention to the plight of American Muslims and to hold political parties accountable for issues that affect them.

At a press conference in early July, Jibril Hough, the spokesman for BIMA and a local activist said, “Thousands of Muslims are going to perform the Friday ritual prayer. We hope our people will leave feeling rewarded about who they are and what their issues are and have a candidate checklist.”

However, not all Muslims feel that BIMA represents their perspectives and M. Zuhdi Jasser M.D., founder and president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy has expressed serious concerns.

“It is troubling that the Democratic National Convention has decided to promote and lend its name and national political platform to the organizers of the ‘Jumah at the DNC'”, he said. “The leaders of this event, Jibril Hough and Imam Siraj Wahha,j are advertised as moderates. They are radicals. These individuals embrace Islamist supremacy and have demonstrated support for radical ideologies.”

Dr. Jasser added, “Their jumah group prayer is against the Patriot Act, the NYPD, and Islamophobia. Their views on these topics have nothing to do with preserving our democracy as we know it, but it is about empowering their Islamist and Muslim Brotherhood sympathizers into the very fabric of the political system so that Americans become anesthetized. We need American Muslims to speak up and marginalize these radicals. The DNC needs to understand and reject them because of their radical history and ideas.”

As the leader of the Islamic Center of Charlotte, a Sunni mosque, Jibril Hough is known as being an outspoken opponent of North Carolina Congresswoman Sue Myrick, a Republican member of the House Intelligence Committee. He has called her plan to expose and enact legislation against jihadist activity in America “a fear campaign” and has labeled it as the “new McCarthyism (or Myrickism)”.

Moreover, Jibril Hough is the North Carolina leader of the Islamic Political Party of America (IPPA), based in Charlotte. According to Dr. Jasser, the IPPA issued a press release in 2002 claiming the Jews were behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. He asserts that the IPPA has close ties to another organization known as Jamaat Al Muslimeen (JAM), The Islamic Peoples Movement, who have gone on record as being Holocaust deniers.

During an interview with radio station talk show host Keith Larson on the WBT station in Charlotte, it was revealed that Hough’s mosque is owned by The North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), an organization blacklisted by the U.S. Justice Department as an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terror finance case in U.S. history.

According to government reports, NAIT is also a front group for Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood in America. Hough denied any knowledge that his mosque was owned by NAIT and said he was unaware that they had been blacklisted, although during the interview he defended Hamas and accused the U.S. and Israel of the only “real” terrorism.

The other organizer of the “Jumah at the DNC” event is Imam Siraj Wahhaj, who heads the Masjid Al-Taqwa mosque in Brooklyn, New York. He is the leader of The Muslim Alliance in North America and is a member of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) who is an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

During the 1995 trial of Omar Abdel Rahman (the Blind Sheikh), who was convicted of plotting to blow up the World Trade Center and other New York City landmarks, Wahhaj served as a character witness, describing Rahman as a “respected scholar” and as “bold; as a strong preacher of Islam.”

Wahhaj is also a Board of Trustee member of the North American Imams Federation (NAIF) (who’s website currently features an anti-Jewish, anti-black rant), and is also considered to be a Muslim Brotherhood front organization.

Like Hough, Wahhaj is connected to NAIT by way of his membership in the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), which was also found by the government to be a front for Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

According to the Militant Islam Monitor web site, in 1992, while addressing an audience of New Jersey Muslims, Wahhaj said that if Muslims were more clever politically they could take over the United States and replace its constitutional government with a caliphate.

“If we were united and strong, we’d elect our own emir [leader] and give allegiance to him. Take my word, if 6 to 8 million Muslims unite in America, the country will come to us”, he was quoted as saying.

The other organizer of the “Jumah at the DNC” event is Imam Siraj Wahhaj, who heads the Masjid Al-Taqwa mosque in Brooklyn, New York. He is the leader of The Muslim Alliance in North America and is a member of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) who is an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

During the 1995 trial of Omar Abdel Rahman (the Blind Sheikh), who was convicted of plotting to blow up the World Trade Center and other New York City landmarks, Wahhaj served as a character witness, describing Rahman as a “respected scholar” and as “bold; as a strong preacher of Islam.”

Wahhaj is also a Board of Trustee member of the North American Imams Federation (NAIF) (who’s website currently features an anti-Jewish, anti-black rant), and is also considered to be a Muslim Brotherhood front organization.

Like Hough, Wahhaj is connected to NAIT by way of his membership in the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), which was also found by the government to be a front for Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

According to the Militant Islam Monitor web site, in 1992, while addressing an audience of New Jersey Muslims, Wahhaj said that if Muslims were more clever politically they could take over the United States and replace its constitutional government with a caliphate.

“If we were united and strong, we’d elect our own emir [leader] and give allegiance to him. Take my word, if 6 to 8 million Muslims unite in America, the country will come to us”, he was quoted as saying.