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U.S. President Barack Obama's endorsement of a longstanding Palestinian demand on the borders of their future state sets the stage for what could be a tense meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday.

Netanyahu, who has had strained relations with Obama, headed for Washington saying the president's vision of a Palestinian state on the borders of 1967 -- as part of his vision for an elusive U.S.-brokered peace deal -- could leave Israel "indefensible."

The White House talks had never been expected to yield any significant progress to revive long-stalled peace talks, but now that prospect seemed dimmer than ever.

Obama, in a policy speech on Thursday on the "Arab spring" uprisings across the Middle East, laid down his clearest markers yet on the compromises Israel and the Palestinians must make for resolving their decades-old conflict.

His position essentially embraces the Palestinian view that the state they seek in the West Bank and Gaza should largely be drawn along the lines that existed before the 1967 war in which Israel captured those territories and East Jerusalem.

On the eve of Netanyahu's visit, it was seen as a message that Obama expects Israel to eventually make big concessions.

"The viability of a Palestinian state cannot come at the expense of Israel's existence," Netanyahu said in a statement before flying to the United States for his talks with Obama.

Effigy of Barack Obama burned in Afghanistan

Islam is the greatest killer of all time, worse than Christianity, fascism or communism. The history of political Islam is the destruction of Christianity in the Middle East, Egypt, Turkey and North Africa. Half of Christianity was lost. Soon it was the fate of the Persian Zoroastrian and the Hindu to be the victims of jihad. Before Islam, North Africa was the southern part of Europe (part of the Roman Empire). Around 60 million Christians were slaughtered during the jihadist conquest. Half of the glorious Hindu civilization was annihilated and 80 million Hindus killed. The Jews similarly annihilated.

Warner: Let’s start at the beginning. When Islam burst out of Arabia into a decaying Byzantine world, the unbelievers recorded it as an Arabic invasion. Similarly, the invasion of Eastern Europe was by Turks; the invasion of Spain was by Moors. Our scholars were incapable of even naming the invaders.

Mohammed killed every single intellectual or artist who opposed him. It was fear that drove the vast majority of the media not to reprint the Mohammed cartoons, not some imagined sensitivity. Fear is a fabulous basis for ignorance, but that is not enough to explain it all. What accounts for the almost psychotic aversion to knowledge about Islam? Beyond fear is the realization that political Islam is profoundly foreign to us.


Let’s examine the ethical basis of our civilization. All of our politics and ethics are based upon a unitary ethic that is best formulated in the Golden Rule:

Treat others as you would be treated.

The basis of this rule is the recognition that at one level, we are all the same. We are not all equal. Any game of sports will show that we do not have equal abilities. But everyone wants to be treated as a human being. In particular, we all want to be equal under the law and be treated as social equals. On the basis of the Golden Rule—the equality of human beings—we have created democracy, ended slavery and treat women and men as political equals. So the Golden Rule is a unitary ethic. All people are to be treated the same. All religions have some version of the Golden Rule except Islam.

FP: So how is Islam different in this context?

Warner:
The term “human being” has no meaning inside of Islam. There is no such thing as humanity, only the duality of the believer and unbeliever. Look at the ethical statements found in the Hadith. A Muslim should not lie, cheat, kill or steal from other Muslims. But a Muslim may lie, deceive or kill an unbeliever if it advances Islam.


There is no such thing as a universal statement of ethics in Islam. Muslims are to be treated one way and unbelievers another way. The closest Islam comes to a universal statement of ethics is that the entire world must submit to Islam. After Mohammed became a prophet, he never treated an unbeliever the same as a Muslim. Islam denies the truth of the Golden Rule.

By the way, this dualistic ethic is the basis for jihad. The ethical system sets up the unbeliever as less than human and therefore, it is easy to kill, harm or deceive the unbeliever.

Political Islam’s most famous duality is the division of the world into believers, dar al Islam, and unbelievers, dar al harb. The largest part of the Trilogy relates to treatment of the unbelievers, kafirs. Even Hell is political. There are 146 references to Hell in the Koran. Only 6% of those in Hell are there for moral failings—murder, theft, etc. The other 94% of the reasons for being in Hell are for the intellectual sin of disagreeing with Mohammed, a political crime. Hence, Islamic Hell is a political prison for those who speak against Islam.

Mohammed preached his religion for 13 years and garnered only 150 followers. But when he turned to politics and war, in 10 years time he became the first ruler of Arabia by averaging an event of violence every 7 weeks for 9 years. His success did not come as a religious leader, but as a political leader. ...

After Mohammed’s death, Abu Bakr, the second caliph, settled the theological arguments of those who wished to leave Islam with the political action of death by the sword. The jihad of Umar (the second caliph, a pope-king) exploded into the world of the unbelievers.
Jihad destroyed a Christian Middle East and a Christian North Africa. Soon it was the fate of the Persian Zoroastrian and the Hindu to be the victims of jihad. The history of political Islam is the destruction of Christianity in the Middle East, Egypt, Turkey and North Africa. Half of Christianity was lost. Before Islam, North Africa was the southern part of Europe (part of the Roman Empire). Around 60 million Christians were slaughtered during the jihadic conquest.

Half of the glorious Hindu civilization was annihilated and 80 million Hindus killed.

The first Western Buddhists were the Greeks descended from Alexander the Great’s army in what is now Afghanistan. Jihad destroyed all of Buddhism along the silk route. About 10 million Buddhists died. The conquest of Buddhism is the practical result of pacifism.

Zoarasterianism was eliminated from Persia.

The Jews became permanent dhimmis throughout Islam.

In Africa over 120 million Christians and animists have died over the last 1400 years of jihad.

Approximately 270 million nonbelievers died over the last 1400 years for the glory of political Islam. These are the Tears of Jihad which are not taught in any school.

President Obama statement on Afghanistan violence and deaths, as provided by the White House

Today, the American people honor those who were lost in the attack on the United Nations in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan.

Once again, we extend our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of those who were killed, and to the people of the nations that they came from.
The desecration of any holy text, including the Koran, is an act of extreme intolerance and bigotry.

However, to attack and kill innocent people in response is outrageous, and an affront to human decency and dignity.

No religion tolerates the slaughter and beheading of innocent people, and there is no justification for such a dishonorable and deplorable act.

Now is a time to draw upon the common humanity that we share, and that was so exemplified by the U.N. workers who lost their lives trying to help the people of Afghanistan.

In New York, 500 people demonstrated near Times Square to protest the hearings and to call on Mr. King to expand his witness list to include other groups.

“That’s absolute nonsense,” Mr. King said in a telephone interview, adding that Al Qaeda was trying to radicalize Muslims and that its effort was the leading homegrown terrorism threat.

“The threat is coming from the Muslim community,” he said, “the radicalization attempts are directed at the Muslim community. Why should I investigate other communities?”

(Aug. 3) -- Every protest movement needs a theme song. In the '60s, antiwar demonstrators sang along to tunes by Bob Dylan and Creedence Clearwater Revival. Legendary trumpet player Hugh Masekela energized South Africa's anti-apartheid struggle with "Mandela (Bring Him Back Home)."

Now Iran's pro-democracy campaign has its own rallying cry, courtesy of an exiled duo who've reworked Pink Floyd's 1979 hit "Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)" into an anti-Ayatollah anthem.

The video for the track -- performed by Blurred Vision, two brothers whose parents fled Iran for Canada in the mid-'80s -- has been watched more than 140,000 times on YouTube and notched up millions of views on other sites. Shot on a tight budget by Iranian director Babak Payami, the video splices together footage of the band and clips of pro-government militia beating demonstrators after last summer's disputed presidential election. The song itself is a Persian-influenced take on the Pink Floyd original, which climbs to the shouted chorus: "Hey Ayatollah, leave those kids alone!"

Toronto-based musicians Sepp, 28, and Sohl, 35 -- the pair refuses to give out their surname over fears that relatives in Iran could be put in danger -- say they've received e-mails from fans inside the Islamic Republic, who play the track as a protest against the regime's brutality.

But the track they chose to convey that message of solidarity has a powerful historical resonance with many Iranians.

"[Pink Floyd's] 'Another Brick' was released in 1979, the same year as the Islamic Revolution, and it really spoke to people who realized all the things the ayatollahs had promised them were lies," said Sepp. "After the Islamic Republic banned rock 'n' roll, Iranian kids used shortwave radios to transmit 'Another Brick' to one another. It just exploded, and became their anthem."

When the brothers saw the coverage of protests against the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he added, "we realized we were watching the same thing happen again -- the youth of Iran was rising up against a brutal regime, and this song had to be reawakened."

But before Blurred Vision could put out the track -- which can be downloaded on iTunes, with all proceeds going to Amnesty International -- they needed the approval of "Another Brick's" writer, Pink Floyd founder and front man Roger Waters.

"The band are huge heroes of ours, so we didn't want to do anything until they said it was OK," Sepp said. Waters did more than just approve the track's release; he also handed over all rights to the cover version to Sepp and Sohl. "We haven't met the great man yet," said Sepp, "but when we do, there are going to be a lot of thank-yous."