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These will continue to be in the news. This week it is the Arabic word KAFIR on the right arm of the US Secretary of Defense. Raymond Ibrahim explains the meaning.
"Translating the word to “non-Muslim” or “unbeliever” — as almost every modern, English-language Koran does — completely misses the all-important and decidedly negative connotations associated with the word and its definition. (This, incidentally, is why older English translations rendered the word kafir as infidel, as I often do; although still an imperfect translation, it sought to capture the pejorative sense of the Arabic in one English word.)
To Muslim ears, kafir (singular) and kuffar (plural) are virtually synonymous with “evildoers” and “enemies.” In fact, virtually every vile human characteristic — and several connected to animals — is associated with the word kafir.
As usual, let us turn to the Koran; it refers to kuffar as the “worst of beasts” (8:55, 98:6), similar to cattle and just as dumb (47:12, 8:65); they are inherently “guilty,” “unjust,” and “criminal” (10:17, 45:31, 68:35; 39:32); they are the “sworn enemies” of Muslims (4:101); and are “disliked” and “accursed” by Allah (2:89, 3:32, 33:64). The Islamic deity is himself their declared enemy (2:98) who requires that “terror be cast into their hearts” (3:151).
According to Koran 9:5, Muslims must “slay” those who reject Islam, “wherever you find them — seize them, besiege them, and make ready to ambush them!”
If that sounds familiar, perhaps it’s because the Muslim ambassador of Barbary (North Africa) paraphrased this verse when explaining to Thomas Jefferson and John Adams why his Muslim countrymen were raiding American vessels and killing and enslaving their kafir sailors. As Jefferson wrote in a letter to Congress in 1786,
The ambassador answered us that it was founded on the laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, … that it was their right and duty to make war upon them [non-Muslims, kuffar] wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners."
"Thousands of civilian victims were murdered, wounded, raped, tortured, mutilated and over two hundred fifty civilians were kidnapped and held hostage by these terrorists including those from HAMAS, PIJ, PFLP and HEZBOLLAH (“October 7th Attack”)."
Plaintiffs allege the UNWRA enabled and funded the training of militants to commit acts of war, terrorism and war crimes.
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Putin has been consistent from the before the Military Operation that he simply wants to be left alone by NATO, the EU and the US. His terms for peace have been reasonable and have not changed.
Alastair Crooke:
"There are reports that Macron and Starmer agreed in a conversation that Zelensky must conduct some provocative operation [this week]
"--a false flag operation or a provocative attack into Russia, into the depth of Russia or something else--sufficient to create an absolute pressure on Putin to respond, and thus to destroy the meeting altogether, to stop the meeting taking place.
"The Europeans are terrified of the [Alaska] meeting taking place [on Friday] and they want to stop it. I believe the Russians have probably picked up on it, suggesting that there is going to be an attempt to create some incident, some security catastrophe, that creates the impossibility of following up on this meeting. And the Euros are trying to insert Zelensky into Alaska, whether invited or ...
"For four hundred years, Americans lived in a world wherein your brother, your neighbor, your town and region were your responsibility. And where you yourself, could do anything under the commodious carapace of the King of Kings.
"More than anything, the CIA wanted Christianity destroyed; it bred self-determination and strength. Under MKUltra, and mostly at Stanford’s Research Center, using the flower children and rock scene of L.A. and San Francisco, they figured out how to ruin human potential.
"In fact, they called it the human potential movement, in a typical inversion of reality. What it did was celebrate and encourage your worst impulses, praise your degradation, tell you that weakness is your strength, supplant your heritage with the heritage of foreign faiths and experimental practices."
Elizabeth Nickson
