Thursday, March 06, 2008

Our Man in the OIC

The Organization of the Islamic ConferenceThe United States has appointed a presidential envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, and the OIC speaks approvingly of him.

I don’t know about you, but that makes me nervous. And President Bush, in announcing the appointment on February 28th, did nothing to alleviate my nervousness.

According to The Austin American-Statesman:

President Bush tapped Austin technology executive Sada Cumber on Wednesday to represent the United States to Muslims around the world.

[…]

“The core of his mission,” Bush said in announcing the appointment, “is to explain to the Islamic world that America is a friend — is a friend of freedom, is a friend of peace, that we value religion.”

[…]

Bush said part of Cumber’s role will be to correct misperceptions about the United States. “A lot of people love America, don’t get me wrong,” Bush said. “After all, there’s a lot of people trying to come here because of what we stand for. But we’ve got work to do in certain areas.”

I respectfully disagree. The core of Mr. Cumber’s mission — or the mission of any American envoy or ambassador — is to represent the interests of his country to his host organization or country. Nothing more, nothing less.

And what work do we have “to do in certain areas”? This sounds rather ominous. Is it now time to regulate “hate speech” about Islam, the way the European governments do?

In any case, we’ve got no business trying to prove our friendship to Muslims. That’s a real monkey trap, and we’ll be left standing there like idiots with our hand stuck in the jar while the Caliphate is constructed around us.

We’ve no need to explain anything to do to Islam; Islam has some explaining to do to us.

They can start by explaining the discrepancies between the pious English-language platitudes uttered at the UN and the “death to infidels” rhetoric shouted to the crowds at home in Arabic.

They can explain why their clerics issue death fatwas against people who draw cartoons, make movies, or publish books.

They can explain why they demand more mosques and special accommodations in Western countries when no one can build a church or read a Bible in Saudi Arabia.

And that’s just for starters.

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A point in his favor is that Mr. Cumber is an Ismaili, a member of an Islamic sect that has often been persecuted by Sunni Islam. His appointment also received glowing approval from the World Muslim Congress, which has observer status at the OIC.

But what is the World Muslim Congress? You can spend hours searching the internet for information on the organization and find nothing very alarming — it is a recognized NGO at the UN, has chapters all over world, and has gone on the record repeatedly with laudable sentiments against the excesses of Islamic radicals, including CAIR.

But the World Muslim Congress (Motamar Al-Alam Al-Islami) was founded in 1926 under the leadership of King Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia, with the assistance of Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. In 1931 Sheikh al-Husseini became the first president of the organization.

The Grand Mufti, as you will recall, was also an admirer of the Nazis, and assisted the Reich during World War Two. He was greeted as friend by Hitler and Himmler in Germany, and enthusiastically discussed with the Nazi leaders their plans for the extermination of European Jewry.

So I’m still nervous.

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Here’s the full text of yesterday’s press release from the OIC about the appointment of Sada Cumber. I’ve highlighted the interesting parts:
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The OIC Secretary General receives the US Special Envoy to the OIC

The US Special Envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) Mr. Sada Cumber called on the OIC Secretary General Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu at the latter’s office today on March 5, 2008. Mr. Cumber is appointed last week as the Special Envoy of the USA to the OIC by US President Mr. George W Bush following his announcement made in this regard in June 2007 while delivering a speech at the Islamic Center of Washington.

The appointment is a part of the US President’s effort to strengthen USA’s friendship with the Muslim Community worldwide.

The Secretary General appreciated the initiative of the USA to reach out to the Muslim World in a positive manner and underlined Mr. Cumber’s appointment as a significant step towards having respectful and meaningful dialogue and continued friendship between the Muslim World and West.

The Special Envoy informed the Secretary General that he enjoys a direct mandate from the President to find out the ways and means of cooperation with the OIC and its Member States especially within the framework of the OIC Ten Year Program of Action. He sought the guidance and suggestions from the Secretary General and his staff for making his endeavor a success. He said that the USA is fully committed to engaging itself with the Muslim World in order to enhance the friendly relationship towards eliminating the misgivings and misperceptions about each-other.

The Secretary General said that the OIC expects the Special Envoy to exert sincere efforts to project the true image of Islam in the US Society and convey the views and expectation of the Muslim World on various issues to the US public opinion. Mr. Cumber said that this would be one of the major thrusts of his assignment as the Special Envoy and his office would be in constant touch with the OIC for furthering the cooperation in a concerted manner.

The Secretary General invited the US Special Envoy to the 11th OIC Summit to be held in Dakar on 13-14 March 2008. Mr. Sada Cumbers expressed his gratitude to be invited and accepted the invitation.

The meeting ended with the Secretary General and the Special Envoy giving a short audience and briefing to the Press.

strengthen USA’s friendship with the Muslim Community worldwide.

What friendship with the Muslim community? Who is friends with whom?

President Bush is friendly with any Muslim who sits atop a trillion barrels of oil. But who else?

respectful and meaningful dialogue

We know the meaning of “respectful and meaningful dialogue”. The Motoon crises, the fate of Theo Van Gogh, and the treatment of Geert Wilders have taught us that.

Dialogue is respectful and meaningful when it never, ever says anything critical or insulting about Islam.

the OIC expects the Special Envoy to exert sincere efforts to project the true image of Islam

The “true image of Islam”? What is truth?

And especially: what is Islamic truth? Is it told by Islam itself?

What if I say this: “Hundreds of millions of people have been slaughtered and enslaved by Islam since the 7th century, and many thousands more are killed every year in the name of the Prophet.”

Is that true? Does it project a true image of Islam?

If not, then I guess Pilate was right.

And, by the way, I’m still nervous.


Hat tips: KGS for the WMC blog entry, TB for the OIC statement.

6 comments:

Al-lat said...

"Mr. Cumber is an Ismaili, a member of an Islamic sect that has often been persecuted by Sunni Islam."

There's many sects. What's an ismaeli? Is that the same as shiite? Don't they, in Iran, in turn, persecute the sunnis?

VinceP1974 said...

First I want to say this article makes me want to vomit all over myself and throw myself out the window of the hi-rise I work in. But I shall restrain myself.

Secondly:

al-lat: I looked up Ismalli in wikipedia because I had no clue what that was.

The description of it reminded me that in fact I have heard of this sect before, but I must have forgotten it's name. The description in Wiki seems to match with what I remember hearing about it. It's a branch of Shia Islam.. but they are not Twelvers... I think soemone told me they're Fivers or something like that... so here part of it is from Wiki:




The Ismāʿīlī (Urdu: اسماعیلی Ismāʿīlī, Arabic: الإسماعيليون al-Ismāʿīliyyūn; Persian: اسماعیلیان Esmāʿīliyān) branch of Islam is the second largest part of the Shī'a community, after the Twelvers (Ithnāʿashariyya). The Ismaili get their name from their acceptance of Ismail bin Jafar as the divinely appointed spiritual successor (Imam) to Jafar al-Sadiq, wherein they differ from the Twelvers, who accept Musa al-Kazim, younger brother of Ismail, as the true Imam. The Ismaili and the Twelvers both accept the same initial Imams from the descendants of Muhammad through his daughter Fatima Zahra and therefore share much of their early history.

Tracing its earliest theology to the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad, Ismailism rose at one point to become the largest branch of the Shia religion, and climaxed as a political power with the Fatimid Empire in the tenth through twelfth centuries.[1]

After the passing away -- or occultation (according to Sevener Ismailis) - of Imam Muhammad ibn Ismail in the 8th century CE, the teachings of Ismailism further transformed into the belief system as it is known today, with an explicit concentration on the deeper, esoteric meaning (batin) of the Islamic religion. With the eventual development of Twelverism into the more literalistic (zahir) oriented Akhbari and later Usooli schools of thought, Shiasm developed into two separate directions: the metaphorical Ismaili group focusing on the mystical nature of the Imams and the mystical path to Allah, and the more literalistic Twelver group focusing on divine law (sharia) and the deeds and sayings (sunnah) of Muhammad and his successors (Ahl al-Bayt).[2]

Diamed said...

"A lot of people love America, that's why they want to come here."

That's outrageous. They come here for the MONEY, nothing else. They don't love America, they hate it. They perpetually whine about how racist and xenophobic and uncaring we are. They perpetually demand more handouts and special rights, attack our history, attack our flag, attack our language, attack our freedom, and many of them have straight out said they come here not to assimilate but to conquer and replace America with 'Atzlan' or 'The Caliphate.' Love America? Where does this man live?

America is not JUST an employment office, it's also a HOME for the people living here. All 19 terrorists on 9/11 were 'immigrants who loved America,' I guess, since they wanted to come here too.

John Sobieski said...

That would be the Org. for the Islamic Caliphate and we are sending a representative to help with the planned islamization of the West. Great.

Zenster said...

The United States has appointed a presidential envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference ...

Two words: John Bolton

I respectfully disagree. The core of Mr. Cumber’s mission — or the mission of any American envoy or ambassador — is to represent the interests of his country to his host organization or country. Nothing more, nothing less.

END OF STORY.

What's more, sending a Muslim—of any stripe—to represent American interests in the Islamic community is a fool's errand at best.

Taqiyya and kitman alone cause any chance for reliable progress to be strangled in the cradle. Of far more importance would be appointing a non-Muslim representative—preferrably a woman—to the OIC and see if these minions of Satan's buttboy will cooperate with that person for more than a millisecond.

None, repeat, NONE of this serves to put Islam on the defensive. So long as Muslims are allowed to call the shots, we will remain permanently behind the eight ball. We must take control of the tempo—to use a chess term— and begin forcing all of Islam's moves. They must dance to the tune of reciprocity until their feet blister.

Until that day, the timer relentlessly counts down to American cities vanishing in mushroom clouds. Ropes should await all those who make that result so inevitable.

laine said...

Is all the advice that the President is getting on Islam from Muslims? This is like choosing Soviet experts back in the day who were card carrying communists. Can't anyone recognize a potential conflict of interest?

Treating Islam solely like a religion or similar to the other world religions is treating a wolf like a lamb. It is a totalitarian scimitar heading for our necks behind the religious trappings.

At the very least, there should be non-Muslims versed in Islam like Spencer who are part of high level discussions and can elucidate how Islam is NOT like the others.

It's as though the decision makers have never heard of takkiya, kitman or DHIMMI.

Someone needs to be speaking up for the 98% of American citizens who are not Muslim and do not wish to be. The Muslim tail appears to be wagging entire countries now already. What will happen as they increase their percentage of the population?

Sarkozy, womanizer that he is put on his president hat only to proclaim that he agrees with the abjectly cowardly Dutch prime minister that freedom of speech requires responsibility (to toe the Muslim line and respect their devil god and prophet) and he recognizes the importance and value of France's Muslim population! That's at the 6-10% mark. Guess at 20% they'll make a mosque out of Notre Dame.

Unfortunately, there is no Churchill out there in any country even on the opposition benches who will shake some sense into the sleepwalking dhimmi elites. Australia didn't re-elect its straight talker and put an apologist in his place who's warming up his knees by groveling to the aborigines. Geert
Wilders bless him is trying to do something, being vilified for it in the West and not long for this world as Pim Fortuyn's and Theo Van Gogh's fates can attest but he doesn't have the stature to turn things around.