Michelle Malkin’s appalling new series on her blog, Stuff Muslims Don’t Like: A new feature, is inflammatory, insulting and ignorant. My husband is a MSG in the Army and a Religious Leader Engagement subject matter expert in the war on terror, particularly relating to Iraq, and he is equally appalled. She justifies her series by comparing it to a blog called Stuff White People Like:

“Of course, Stuff Muslims Don’t Like doesn’t purport to characterize the entire Muslim population anymore than Stuff White People Like purports to characterize the entire population of white people. It’s a look at predictable predilictions, proclivities, and trends.”

Sure it doesn’t, Michelle.  She makes no distinction between an entire population and whoever her swipes are intended for.  Her flawed analogy doesn’t consider that Islam is a religion, not a race.

What’s worse is her comment section. The ignoramuses posting their have listed these examples of Stuff Muslims Don’t Like:

God (and all He stands for).

The United States of America

The Armed Forces of The USA

Out - respect and love for family

In - killing your daughters because they “shamed” you by having boyfriends

Grilled pork chops and chardonnay.

Daylight Savings Call to Prayer

Truth, Justice and the American Way!

Bathing…above the ankles.

People who think for themselves.

Women (in general)

and God forbid that they should see a woman bodybuilder!!

Learning how to land a plane.

Good hygiene

Unbelievable. It goes on with comments of blathering ignorance of proportions that make me shudder.  Do Malkin readers hold those views toward this man and his son? Or these Muslim women who are laying down their lives for their country?  How about this man?  Or these blind children and their amazing teacher?  They’re Muslim, too. How about this Muslim who teaches children that the United States is their friend?  Or this man and his son?  Or these Muslims who reached out to the Vatican in a gesture of unity and peace?  How about this Iraqi volunteer who saved U.S. troops and civilians by throwing himself on a suicide bomber?  

Funny, because I thought she and her readers typically praise these Muslims, despite the fact that they don’t bathe and don’t like “God and all he stands for.”  FOOLS!

What if her feature were a What Catholics Don’t Like?  What Philippino-American Women Don’t Like?  What Mormons Don’t Like? 

Malkin and her commenters ought to be ashamed of themselves. They say they support the war efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq but systematically insult the allies GEN Petraeus and our troops are making on the ground in the combat zone. Their words are as poisonous as any Democrat’s who continue to call Iraqis too lazy to fight for their own country. While politicians like Ron Paul or Dennis Kucinich argue that a U.S. presence in the Middle East in and of itself has provoked Muslim nations to take aim at U.S. interests around the globe, it is sentiments like Michelle Malkin’s that make it more difficult for Muslims to want U.S. soldiers on their soil. If these people are the friends of the troops, who needs enemies?

I realize it’s easier to paint a broad stroke of Islam because it is a very complicated religion and that I have turned off some of my readers defending Muslims, but this isn’t about condoning Islamic theology, it is about condemning Islamic apostates and heretics like Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda and defeating terrorism. I don’t condone Mormonism but I love Mitt Romney. See how that works?

It boils down to this: Do we want to win the war or not?  Do we want to defeat terrorism or not?  Do we want world peace or not?  If we do, we must stop flaunting our enormous cultural and religious ignorance and arrogance before it’s too late.

PREVIOUSLY:
GEN Petraeus on Relationships (including with Muslims, who want the same things we want) 

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As increased security comes to Iraq, life returns to normal.  That includes the theater as well.  In Wasit Province, a comedy played to a packed house of 1500 as 3000 more waited outside the theater.  The show was held over for an encore presentation. 

From Multi-National Force Iraq:

FORWARD OPERATING BASE DELTA — Actors from the popular Iraqi sitcom, “Mud House,” performed the first comedic play May 4 in Wasit Province since 2003.

Fifteen hundred people filled the Municipality Hall in al-Kut to see the play, which was sponsored by the U.S. Department of State in coordination with the 214th Fires Brigade and the Iraqi Police.

The IP estimated another 3,000 people were waiting outside the theater, said Vanessa Beary, public diplomacy officer for the Wasit Provincial Reconstruction Team.

“The large turnout was a positive indicator of Wasit’s desire for a return to normalcy,” she said.

Iraqi Security Forces handled security for the event.

This showed a big step forward in security and a good community gathering, said 1st Lt. Randy Heath, a platoon leader for Company F, 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), from Fort Campbell, Ky.

“The community had trust in the security provided by the Iraqi Police and the Iraqi Army,” he said. “They seemed to really enjoy the play.”

Baker said ISF remained conscious of the opportunity for mishap because of the large number of people gathered. “It’s an indication of the growth of their capabilities. They are more proactive and organized. There were no incidents.”

Because of the large turnout, the actors held an encore performance May 5.

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Marines in Iraq met and befriended an Iraqi police lieutenant whose son had a hole in his heart, which would have killed the boy if not repaired. The Marines found a way to fund the operation and transportation for the boy and his father through private donations….. watch this touching story:

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Mario, the 21 year old multi-platinum selling R&B /Pop singer on Dancing with the Stars, made a point during final remarks as he left the show last night to thank the men and women serving in our Armed Forces overseas as he reflected on comments by a Dancing with the Stars judge that he was an inspiration to young people.

“The comment about me being brave and being an inspiration for young people, I want to say that the real brave ones are the young men and women fighting for our country overseas.”

Cool.

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Fr. Frank Pavone, the National Director of Priests for Life, makes a persuasive argument that if you are a Christian, your political affiliation matters. He argues that the Church has the right and obligation to pass moral judgement “even in matters relating to politics, and even when the task of moral teaching appears to be partisan.”

Fr. Pavone writes that it isn’t about an endorsement of a particular candidate or political party, but a correct moral observation about the obligation of the Christian to endorse what we know to be right: “if we are to teach moral principles only when they have no practical consequences, then we render the Church irrelevant.”

Truly, our vote is an outward expression of how seriously we take Christ and whether He is to us an abstraction or a reality.

Yes, The Party Matters by Fr. Frank Pavone

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“You can now return, and do not worry. Everything is fine now.”

Excerpts below:

BACK FROM SYRIA 
By Mohamed Hussein, an Iraqi employee of The New York Times in Baghdad

After spending more than a year in Syria one day my father called me saying: “You can now return, and do not worry. Everything is fine now.”

I felt happy for them and for me, but only for a moment.

Later, that feeling began to become a mixture of happiness and wariness. I wanted to return, but at the same time I hesitated. I wanted to know if the situation there was as people said, or if they just exaggerated.

During my travel from Syria to Baghdad I was completely relaxed. There were no worries, no fear of looters and terrorists with Al Qaeda, or Ansar al-Sunna (Protectors of the Sunni), Jaish al-Mohammed (Army of Mohammed) who used to control everything on the expressway between Syria and Baghdad.

Then when we stopped to get some rest near a big restaurant called Bilaad ash-Sham I saw many Iraqi and Syrian buses filled with travelers, and many four-wheel-drive vehicles.

They told me that everything was going fine and that stories that I had heard about the security situation in some Baghdad districts were right.

I put my luggage inside my mother’s car and we drove to my neighborhood. While driving I was amazed to see what I had heard about: the huge difference in security, which was much better than when I left.

……Now I felt really safe because those people were working properly, not like the security forces in my neighborhood before who were making a secure path during the night for militia members to pass through, targeting everything there.

I think that the Iraqi police and army are working in the right way because there is an American military center inside my neighborhood. But all the people I met said that if the Americans left, those militias would eat our flesh without mercy.

I spent my first night without hearing any kind of shooting and mortar bombing, not like a year earlier when my daughter was asking me about all the sounds around and I was telling her, “Do not panic, baby, that is fireworks.”

This morning I heard the man who sells cooking gas knocking on the cylinders shouting “gaz, gaz, gaz ” which is something that had not happened for two years in my neighborhood.

This meant that all the things I heard about the improvements are true. Even the people are more friendly and I can say that there is now a kind of mutual trust between the people and the soldiers, not like before when there was no trust between each other.

Now, maybe if we think deeply about it, we will find that each needs the other. People need the soldiers to secure them. At the same time the U.S. troops are now in a safe place, maybe they can have more than one Green Zone.

Will it stay safe or not?

I guess that all depends on the American troops, since we will not have qualified Iraqi forces soon. Although most Iraqi forces are sincere you find some have been infiltrated by groups of gunmen and sectarian people who made the mess all around us.

So we still need the Americans because if they intend to leave, there will be something like a hurricane which will extract everything - people, buildings and even trees. Everything that has happened and all that safety will be past, just like a sweet dream.

As people say in my neighborhood: “The Americans are now Ansar al Sunna.” Protectors of the Sunni.

AMAZING!

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Last year when U.S. Marine Major General Doug Stone took over Camp Bucca, the largest detainee facility in Iraq, it was literally going up in flames. The 20,000 detainees were essentially inmates running the asylum. U.S. guards were at the point of shooting prisoners to regain control. Consequently Major General Stone said he feared this camp would earn a reputation that would out-do Abu Ghraib and cause an international scandal.

Enter: great counterinsurgency strategy.

Stone began to separate what GEN Petraeus calls the “reconciliables” from the “irreconcilables”. The al-Qaeda loyalists were isolated into a different part of the camp from the detainees who were reformable.

Stone introduced religion classes to the detainees who could be rehabilitated, bringing in Muslim clerics to teach good Islam from bad. The inmates were educated, some earned degrees. Thousands of these detainees now end up arguing their case before the U.S. military and are released back into the custody of their families.

It’s working. Not only is the camp under control, but the turn over rate is remarkable. Of the 7,000 detainees who have been reformed and released, only 7 have been detained again. In fact many go on to help Coalition Forces gather intelligence against al-Qaeda.

Incredible!

PREVIOUSLY:
Muslim Clerics Teach Iraqi Detainees to Resist False Teachings of Extremists
Winning Hearts and Minds in Iraqi Jails  
Counterinsurgency For Dummies

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Did you know one Super Delegate equals about 10,000 regular votes? How democratic is that?

Elitists. It makes you wonder whose is really the party of the people.

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 Democrat and Detroit City Council President Pro-Tempore Monica Conyers has a history of bad behavior on the Detroit City Council. The wife of Democratic Congressman John Conyers, Monica has been in several bar fights (nice black eye), publicly defended the philandering Detroit mayor Kilpatrick amid his sex and money scandal and even threatened to kill an aide to the scummy mayor with her gun. 

Her latest scuffle was caught on tape at a Detroit City Council meeting arguing, interrupting and calling the Council President “Shrek” because he is bald.

Conyers met at the City Council with a group of 6-8th graders to discuss the name calling issue and they teach the councilwoman a thing or two: 

“You’re the adult, we’re the kids. That’s something a second grader would do.”

Conyers gets schooled! Know your boundaries councilwoman and learn respect from school girls!

Gotta love Democrats.

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Wonder why Arab countries don’t seem to be supporting Iraq’s new democracy? Iraqi government spokesman Ali Al-Dabbagh tells Al-Salam TV on April 7, 2008 it’s because the other Arab countries see what happened to Saddam Hussein and believe if they don’t change their ways, their turn will come.

Democracy runs counter to Islamic states in which leadership is generally inherited or believed have been empowered to them by Allah, and they believe they have a holy mandate to rule the people.

Iraqi government spokesman Ali Al-Dabbagh on Al-Salam TV on April 2, 2008:

(transcript)

Interviewer: What is the real reason that no Arab leader has visited Iraq? Why are there no [Arab] diplomatic missions in Baghdad? This question is being asked by people in cafés as well.

Dr. Ali Al-Dabbagh:  Brother, they are not happy about what happened in Iraq. One of them [Qadhafi] declared this in the Arab summit. He expressed sorrow over the execution of Saddam, and said: “Your turn will come.” Of course, he forgot to mention that his own turn would come too. This reflects the position of the Arabs.

The Arabs are not happy about what happened in Iraq, because this constitutes no less than an earthquake. In Arab and Islamic states, the rulers either inherit the regime or else they are empowered by Allah – from the days of Mu’awiya ibn Abu Sufyan to Saddam Hussein and those who rule the Arab countries today. They all believe they have a holy mandate to rule the people. In some Arab countries, the ruler makes people’s lives difficult for 20 years, and every year, he changes the constitution. After what happened in Iraq, no one can ever do it again to the Iraqis. The Iraqis are the ones who will elect their president and their parliament. This is a new formula in the region, and the Arab brothers are not happy about it.

Ali Al-Dabbagh made reference in his interview to Mu’ammar Al-Qadhafi, the Libyan leader with ties to terrorism, at last month’s Arab Summit in Syria. Qadhafi surrendered Libya’s WMD program in December 2003 after the invasion of Iraq. Qadhafi said at the summit.

Libyan leader Mu’ammar Al-Qadhafi, at the Arab League summit in Syria aired on Al-Jazeera TV on March 29, 2008:

(transcript)

Qadhafi: Along comes a foreign power, occupies an Arab country, and hangs its president, and we all sit on the sidelines, laughing. Arafat was in captivity for several years, and we sat on the sidelines, and even convened a summit without him. Why didn’t we refuse to convene the summit unless Arafat was released? Eventually, they killed him by poison.

Why won’t there be an investigation into the killing of Saddam Hussein? An entire Arab leadership was executed by hanging, yet we sit on the sidelines. Why? Any one of you might be next. Yes.

The bottom line is that while people love to blame Bush for the unrest in the Middle East, our mission in Iraq is a powerful message to rogue leaderships and bad guys Arab countries who want to obtain WMD or rule in an Islamic state that suppresses the will of the people. Iraq is a model that shows Muslim countries can have both democracy and religion front and center in their governments.

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Politics is the sleaziest business, said Leno, besides Hollywood, said Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal on the Tonight Show this week. They discussed how Jindal is turning a previously corrupt Louisiana around and rumors that he may be on the Republican ticket as John McCain’s VP.

Running on an ethics platform, Republican Bobby Jindal became America’s youngest governor at the age of 36 when he won 54% of a 4-way race in Louisiana in 2007. Jindal is also Catholic and the first Indian-American governo