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	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; Dawn Perlmutter</title>
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		<title>The Signs &amp; Symbols of a Ferguson Folk Saint</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dawn-perlmutter/the-signs-symbols-of-a-ferguson-folk-saint/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-signs-symbols-of-a-ferguson-folk-saint</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 08 Dec 2014 05:34:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Dawn Perlmutter]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ferguson]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Michael Brown]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[myths]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[signs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[symbols]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=246732</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When disregarding evidence is required to perpetuate radical myths. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/lp.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-246735" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/lp-450x329.jpg" alt="lp" width="334" height="244" /></a>The August 9, 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO by Officer Darren Wilson was the origin of a national myth. Myths are sacred stories that serve to explain the world view of a people. They often originate as distorted accounts of real historical events that storytellers repeatedly elaborate on until the primary figure in the account achieves the status of a saint or a god. A culture&#8217;s myths provide a sense of identity, shared lifestyle, affirm beliefs and values and are expressed in symbols and rituals. A national myth is a fictional narrative that omits important historical details, or adds details where there is no evidence, but is held as true due to its symbolic meaning for the nation. Michael Brown has become the symbol of racism, police brutality and social injustice. Evidence is irrelevant because myths are symbolic not literal truths.</p>
<p>Disregarding forensic evidence and a grand jury decision is necessary and required to perpetuate the national myth of institutionalized racism, oppression and inequality. The mythology functions as a method to demonize police, inculcate fear, justify violence, promote vengeance and achieve political agendas. The death of Michael Brown has been formatted and packaged by the mainstream media that serve as an outlet for state-sponsored propaganda. Correspondents use selective and biased reporting to propagate the national mythology. However, protest signs, graffiti, hand signs, flags, masks and other symbols in Ferguson reveal a different alternative narrative.</p>
<p>Highly publicized slogans written on protest signs and in graffiti such as RIP Mike Brown, No Justice No Peace, Black Lives Matter and many more supported the narrative of the peaceful protester airing legitimate grievances. Although the media was more than happy to incessantly write negative stories on the so called militarization of the police most neglected to include images of graffiti and signs that read ‘The only good cop is a dead cop’, No more pigs in our community, Kill Cops, Fuck The Police, Die Pig Die and wanted posters with pictures of Officer Darren Wilson that read wanted for racist murder. Wanted Dead or Alive was on the Facebook page of a lead advisor and liaison for the New Black Panther Party.</p>
<p>Vandalism of St. Louis landmarks were reported primarily because the graffiti was inspired by the recently released film the Hunger Games. &#8216;If we burn, you burn with us&#8217; was spray painted on the 1897 arch known as the Flora Place Gates. Written one day prior to the grand jury decision it was a reference to a quote from the popular film in which the oppressive government is overthrown by heroic rebels. The full quote is “You can torture us and bomb us and burn our districts to the ground, but do you see that? Fire is catching! And if we burn, you burn with us!” Unsurprisingly almost all of the news accounts neglected to report the letters FTP written next to the quote, FTP stands for Fuck the Police. The 150 reportedly peaceful protesters were members of the group Anarcho-Communist Solidarity Alliance who proudly took credit for desecrating the arch. They also defaced a 100 year old statue known as ‘Naked Truth’ by painting FTP on the front. The statue was a memorial to three civil rights heroes.</p>
<p>The quintessential symbol of the Ferguson incident is ‘Hands Up, Don’t Shoot’ which is both a hand sign and a symbol. It has become the protest meme for Ferguson and has been extremely effective in perpetuating the national myth that Michael Brown had his arms up surrendering when he was shot by Officer Wilson. This lie was essential to the legend that transformed Michael Brown from a felon to a folk saint. Hands Up, Don’t Shoot is the emblem of black victimhood and racist cops. Everyone from small children to the elderly, from Rams football players to members of congress have raised their arms making the gesture to demonstrate their solidarity with Michael Brown and the protesters in Ferguson. The gesture has become a rallying cry for this new anti-police movement. It will soon escalate to a sacred ritual practice in the veneration of the new saint Michael Brown.</p>
<p>Similar to the Muslim Brotherhood R4BIA sign the new symbol allegedly originated with a story of martyrs gunned down by authorities. The phrase Hands Up, Don’t Shoot is often written on protest signs and graffiti with two hand prints or simply depicted as two handprints symbolizing the expression. Handprints used to have such lovely connotations such as children’s first finger paintings and signs of ancient civilizations on rock art, now they symbolize the national myth of Mike Brown’s martyrdom.</p>
<p>Michael Brown was familiar with hand signs. Several images from his social media accounts show him wearing red and throwing hand signs that demonstrate allegiance to the Bloods street gang. It was reported that his stepfather Louis Head, who urged protesters to Burn this bitch down on the evening of riots, looting and arson, has a documented affiliation with the notorious Bloods street gang. Although gangbangers don’t flaunt their colors in public as much as they used to, colors and other identifiers are displayed at gang functions and funerals. This may explain why Louis Head and Michael Browns mother Lesley McSpadden both wore red to his funeral. A family of gangbangers does not fit into the national myth of an innocent unarmed black youth being shot down by a white racist police officer.</p>
<p>Flags also frequently appeared during the Ferguson protests, everything from Pan African to Palestinian flags were displayed. Communist flags were also flaunted. It was a regular Anti-American, Anti-capitalist, multicultural, anarchist, victimhood hootenanny. There were American flags but they were routinely desecrated, burned in effigy and frequently flown upside down. Displaying an American flag upside down is an official distress signal that should only be used in instances of extreme danger to life or property. The protesters fly it upside down to signify political distress. On one occasion a group of National Guardsmen who understand the sanctity of the American flag walked into the crowd of protesters to collect the remains of one of the burned flags. According to an article in the Blaze a protester couldn’t comprehend why they cared so much about the flag since it was just a piece of cloth. That symbolizes the real national problem.</p>
<p>Another prevalent symbol in the Ferguson protests were Guy Fawkes masks. These masks which depict a white face with an over-sized smile, red cheeks, a wide moustache upturned at both ends, and a thin vertical pointed beard originally referred to Guy Fawkes, a member of the Gunpowder Plot, an attempt to blow up the House of Lords in London in 1605. After the stylized version of the mask was used in the 2006 film V for Vendetta it has come to represent anarchists in general and has been visible in anti-government and anti-establishment protests around the world including the Occupy Movement. Often during pro-Palestinian protests a keffiyeh scarf will be wrapped around the mask. The mask is also the symbol for the online hacktivist group Anonymous who were very involved in Ferguson by organizing protests through their online Operation Ferguson. Anonymous was also responsible for several cyber-attacks including hacking into the City of Ferguson’s website shutting down email and phones, and releasing personal information on almost all city employees as vengeance for perceived attacks against protesters. They also hacked into Ku Klux Klan social media accounts and published the names of Klan members because they threatened protesters with the use of lethal force.</p>
<p>Fortunately there are anti-mask laws that are currently enforced in cities like New York. Ironically the origin of anti-mask laws was to prevent the KKK from concealing their identities. Many protesters were also wearing gas masks which serve two functions; to hide their identity and protect against fumes so they can continue to burn and loot without interruption. Gas masks which used to symbolize danger, war and environmental pollution have also been adopted by the Occupy Movement as a symbol of defiance and fortitude. But the real reason is to prevent facial recognition of the cowards who hide behind them.</p>
<p>A national myth is incomplete without sacred shrines and memorials to the martyred saint. A road side shrine with flowers and candles immediately appeared on the spot where the shooting occurred, others soon followed. In keeping with the racial injustice myth there were allegations that a police dog urinated on one memorial and that the police burned down one of the others. The proximity of candles to stuffed animals was not taken into consideration since it did not contribute to the racist cop narrative as much as the alleged desecration of sacred shrines. There have also been several murals painted in homage to Mike Brown. A Trenton, N.J. mural that depicted Brown’s face with the caption “Sagging pants … is not probable cause” was painted over due to concerns that it sent the wrong message about community and police relations and is now a civil rights controversy in that city.</p>
<p>The Ferguson mural has Mike Brown’s name, portrait, the letters RIP, stop the violence and Hands Up. Murals signify street shrines and are the final phase in the canonization of the Folk Saint. Future protesters will make annual pilgrimages to reenact the death of their martyr. Many protesters are already performing rituals referred to as ‘die in’ protests where they lay on the ground with chalk outlines to represent a mock crime scene, posing as individuals shot by police. Rituals, shrines and roadside memorials are the necessary symbolic attributes for the evolution of a folk saint. Like the Mexican Narco Saint Jesus Malverde Mike Brown has become the patron saint of the disenfranchised, racially oppressed and impoverished. The legend of Malverde has many similarities, he is depicted as a generous bandit who stole from the rich to give to the poor and was killed by local police. Michael Brown was transformed from a street thug into a Folk Saint to propagate the national myth of institutionalized racism.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p><em>Don&#8217;t miss <strong>Dawn Perlmutter</strong> on the <strong>Glazov Gang</strong> discussing <strong>Why ISIS Beheads</strong>:</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/joXLdNnxKd8" width="460" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
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		<item>
		<title>Latest IS Beheading Video: New Levels of Ritual Madness</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dawn-perlmutter/latest-is-beheading-video-new-levels-of-ritual-madness/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=latest-is-beheading-video-new-levels-of-ritual-madness</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 17 Nov 2014 05:56:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Dawn Perlmutter]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[beheading]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[IS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ISIS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[islamic state]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jihadi John]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Peter Kassig]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Video]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=245350</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A preview of what the Islamic State intends to do.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/article-kassig2-1116.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-245352" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/article-kassig2-1116-413x350.jpg" alt="article-kassig2-1116" width="316" height="268" /></a>On November 16, 2014 the Islamic State released a <a href="http://reblop.com/breaking-video-isis-video-which-shows-beheadings-of-syrian-pilots-and-an-american-aid-worker/"><span style="color: #0433ff;">16-minute video</span></a> that displayed the severed head of 26-year-old former U.S. Army Ranger Peter Kassig. The video was characteristically different than the four previous Islamic State beheading videos of American and British hostages by the man known as Jihadi John. Although there have been many previous videos of mass beheadings by various al Qaeda-linked groups and Islamic State militants, this film is unique in content and quality. The Islamic State is the first terrorist group to film and stage a formalized ritual mass beheading. Shot in high definition, slickly produced and edited with Hollywood precision, 19 jihadists simultaneously behead 19 Syrian air force pilots and military officers in a ceremonial ritual execution.</p>
<p>Prior to the ritual mass murders the first half of the video is the usual propaganda that provides justification for the violence. The video opens with images of a map of the world graphically indicating the Islamic State’s goals of world domination. The title that appears in segments throughout reads &#8220;Although the disbelievers dislike it.&#8221; The first 4 ½ minutes is a history of the Islamic State with tributes to its fallen leaders beginning with Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the father of modern beheading. There are images of alleged victims of American airstrikes, including dead children to evoke hatred and clips of Islamic State battles to demonstrate that the jihadist militants are the heroic good guys. This is all a prelude to the featured segment.</p>
<p>At exactly 8 minutes, halfway through the video, the Islamic State ritual begins. Syrian military personnel each accompanied by a jihadist militant are marched through the desert, led by Jihadi John. The militants are dressed in camouflage uniforms with black head coverings but their faces are not concealed. The Syrian soldiers are dressed in dark blue. Jihadi John is dressed in his usual black uniform with his face covered. The ritual procession continues with each jihadist taking a black handled knife out of a wooden box that contains the ceremonial weapons. The footage is very dramatic and powerful, zooming in with slow motion visual effects and melodramatic sounds as each blade is taken from the box. The ritual procession continues until the jihadists file into a formal line with nine on each side of Jihad John and their victims on their knees in front of them.</p>
<p>The jihadists hold their knives in their right hand and their victims in their left. The ritual execution begins with a reading of offenses by Jihad John who also has a Syrian soldier in front of him. Jihad John begins the ritual execution by insulting and threatening President Obama:</p>
<blockquote><p>To Obama, the dog of Rome. Today we are slaughtering the soldiers of Bashar and tomorrow we will be slaughtering your soldiers. And with Allah&#8217;s permission we will break this final and last crusade. And the Islamic State will soon, like your puppet David Cameron said, begin to slaughter your people in your streets.</p></blockquote>
<p>He points the knife at the camera during the threats to America. Then there is silence as the camera pans over the faces of the men who know they are about to suffer a horrible death and the faces of the executioners who are about to pledge their allegiance in sacrificial blood. Dramatic images and sound effects portray the moment as a sacred solemn rite. The camera fades to black and appears with Jihad John signaling with one word for the ritual killing to commence.</p>
<p>The victims are immediately pushed to the ground, the camera keeps fading in and out of black in-between the cutting of throats, with the loud sound of hearts beating in the background. In one of the most inconceivable mass murders ever committed, 19 men are simultaneously beheaded at one time by 19 other men. The camera returns to focus on Jihadi John. Of the four previous videos this is the first time we ever see him actually kill anyone, and it is obvious that he has experience. As he is cutting through the carotid artery the sound of blood hitting the ground is exaggerated adding to the horror. Then the culmination of the ritual killing and the most disturbing act in the entire film occurs when Jihadi John pulls his knife out of the throat of his victim and looks directly at the camera while exposing the partially decapitated neck. The look in Jihadi Johns eyes is chilling; pure, unadulterated feral bloodlust. Then the camera in fast motion displays Jihad John pounce on his victim in a wild animal movement to finish the decapitation. The camera then pans over all of the soldiers completing their beheading and zooms in on a large stream of blood.</p>
<p>The ritual ends with each soldier holding his bloodstained knife standing above his sacrificial victim, whose heads are placed on the center of their backs. The camera then shows the faces of the jihadist executioners, all from different countries, a multicultural mass murder team. They are somber and serious, not laughing or desecrating the bodies, demonstrating how a warrior should behave during and after the kill. Then as the camera slowly pans over images of the beheaded men a voiceover from Islamic State&#8217;s leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Arabic says, “Know that we have armies in Iraq and an army in Sham of hungry lions whose drink is blood and play is carnage.” After viewing the ritual murders that is an apt description.</p>
<p>The next segment, also titled &#8220;Although the believers dislike it,&#8221; demonstrates how many individuals and groups from around the world have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.  The final segment at the 14:30 mark opens with the disarticulated head of American Peter Kassig at the feet of Jihadi John. The camera pans up Jihad John’s body and he makes the following statement in English:</p>
<blockquote><p>This is Peter Edward Kassig, a U.S. citizen of your country. Peter, who fought against the Muslims in Iraq while serving as a soldier under the American army, doesn&#8217;t have much to say. His previous cell mates have already spoken on his behalf.&#8217; But we say to you Obama &#8230; you claim to have withdrawn from Iraq four years ago. We said to you then that you are liars, that you have not withdrawn and that if you had withdrawn that you would return, even if after some time.&#8217;You would return. Here you are. You have not withdrawn. Rather, you hid some of your forces behind your proxies and withdrawn the rest. Your forces will return, greater in number than they were before.&#8217;You will return and your proxies will not benefit you.&#8217;And we also remind you of the haunting words that our Sheikh Abu Musab al-Zarqawi told you. The spark has been lit here in Iraq and its heat will continue to intensify by Allah&#8217;s permission until it burns the crusader army in Dabiq. &#8216;And here we are, burying the first American crusader in Dabiq. Eagerly awaiting for the remainder of your armies to arrive.</p></blockquote>
<p>The video ends with the classic image of the jihadist carrying a large Islamic State flag across the land. Dabiq is a highly symbolic location which has historical and religious significance for Islam. The Islamic State has designated the place for the &#8220;Final Hour&#8221; where Armageddon will begin in an Islamic apocalyptic tradition that designates the West as modern-day Romans. That is why Jihadi John referred to president Obama as the dog of Rome.</p>
<p>This video goes way beyond just propaganda and psychological warfare &#8212; it is the documentation of an Islamist ceremonial ritual mass murder. For the jihadist executioners it was an initiation ritual, a somber rite of passage that grants them status and honor as Mujahideen warriors. As a recruitment tool it is a tour de force, a murder masterpiece that will resonate with young men around the world. This video will recruit more soldiers for the Islamic State, incite lone wolves and inspire more beheadings in Western countries than any of the others that preceded it. Unlike the unsophisticated beheading videos that involve laughter and body desecration that diminishes the sanctity of the act, it elevates beheading to a ceremonial rite of purity that distinguishes it from accusations of barbarism.</p>
<p>The video also functions as proof of death of Peter Kassig and proof of life of Jihadi John who reportedly had been injured in a U.S.-led air strike. Significantly there is no new victim displayed at the end of this video as in the prior four. That is because the Islamic State has successfully sent its message. They no longer need to do their own dirty work. They have inspired lone wolves all over the world to continue their beheading tradition. The threat in this video that &#8220;tomorrow they will be slaughtering American soldiers&#8221; should be taken very seriously. The Islamic State has made good on every threat to murder hostages. This video should be viewed as a preview of what they intend to do. For example, if the Islamic State breaches the American Embassy in Baghdad they are going to make the Fall of Saigon look like a garden party. Instead of Syrian pilots it will be American Marines ritually murdered and filmed.</p>
<p>President Obama’s response was that this incident was &#8220;pure evil by a terrorist group.&#8221; How large does the Parents of Beheaded Americans Club have to get before President Obama will use the words &#8220;Islamic terrorists&#8221;? There should be no doubt that these murders are done in the name of Islam and for the honor of the Prophet Muhammad, whom they are emulating. Beheadings are ritual expressions of authentic Islam and the Islamic State has turned them into Hollywood blockbusters.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p><em>Don&#8217;t miss <strong>Dawn Perlmutter</strong> on the <strong>Glazov Gang</strong> discussing <strong>Why ISIS Beheads</strong>:</em></p>
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		<item>
		<title>American Jihad Black Supremacy Style</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dawn-perlmutter/american-jihad-black-supremacy-style/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=american-jihad-black-supremacy-style</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 28 Oct 2014 04:52:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Dawn Perlmutter]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=243856</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When Black Nationalism and Islamic Supremacism converge.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/kj.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-243859" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/kj.jpg" alt="kj" width="304" height="227" /></a>On Thursday October 23, Zale Thompson, 32, attacked four New York Police Department officers with an 18 inch hatchet slashing one officer in the head and another in the arm before he was fatally shot by another officer.</p>
<p>Although New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton declared that the hatchet attack was a terrorist act by a self-radicalized Muslim convert it was widely reported that authorities were also trying to determine if Thompson had any history of mental illness. The axe attack was one month after Muslim convert Alton Nolen beheaded a co-worker and nearly beaded another woman in Moore, Oklahoma. Early reports in that incident suggested that Nolen may have suffered from mental illness.</p>
<p>One of the primary reasons law enforcement, the media and the public almost always interpret these inexplicable acts as a form of mental illness is that violence in American culture is understood in the context of a Western rational worldview that can only fathom bizarre aberrant acts as the result of a psychologically disturbed individual. Even after overwhelming evidence demonstrates that violent incidents are committed in the goal of jihad, the offender is still widely considered to be an emotionally disturbed person whose mental illness made him vulnerable to jihadist messaging.</p>
<p>It is simply too frightening to comprehend that beheadings and axe attacks are the result of a rational choice to kill designated enemies in the name of Islam. It is much easier to sleep at night if you assume that this is just two crazy disaffected loners instead of followers of an organized international religious movement comprised of thousands of true believers who are willing to kill and die on the orders of their charismatic leader, particularly when those orders are delivered via twitter.</p>
<p>Investigations into these crimes are hindered by justice department policies that ban the use of race, religion and ethnicity in profiling by law enforcement officers. In addition to these politically correct impediments, FBI profiling is inherently problematic. The field of psychological profiling is based on Western behavioral analysis theories that interpret criminal behavior as a form of psychopathology. Ironically, criminal behavioral analysis is one of the few academic fields that has not implemented culturally diverse methodologies. Behavioral analysis utilizes a Western outsider perspective that interprets offenders’ violence and motivations based on the premise that concepts of deviant behavior and personality traits and disorders are universal. Culture, race and religion are not primary necessary criteria for psychological profiling. Therefore Nolen and Thompson are viewed as disturbed individuals who were psychologically and socially vulnerable to bad influences, hence predisposed to violence and radicalization.</p>
<p>This is consistent with Western sociological theories of violence that attribute criminal behavior to economics, racism, poverty and other social injustices. Consequently, future threat assessments result in a lone wolf profile that focuses on psychologically or emotionally disturbed individuals, depressed loners and disaffected individuals who have withdrawn from family and society.</p>
<p>A politically neutral symbolic anthropological analysis of these violent acts produces a more specific offender profile. A symbolic anthropological approach utilizes interpretive methodologies that examine how offenders create meaning out of their own experiences uncovering their cultural beliefs, worldview and motivations for violent acts. This provides an alternative interpretation to standard behavioral science methodologies typically used in criminal investigative analysis. Instead of psychologically disturbed individuals, an interpretive symbolic analysis profiles Nolen and Thompson as true believers that made rational choices to commit ritual murders in the goal of social justice achieved through global jihad. Further analysis reveals that both Nolen and Thompson’s violent crimes were a unique manifestation of jihad that blends Black Nationalism with Islamic supremacism. Hence, the root cause of their violence is not psychopathology, it was culturally constructed.</p>
<p>Both men had a history of serious interest and identification with black supremacist ideologies prior to their radicalization into Islamic jihad. Alton Nolen’s alias Yah’keem Yisrael is derived from Hebrew, not from Arabic. On his Facebook page he talked about how African-Americans are the true Israelites. In his &#8220;about me&#8221; section he wrote,</p>
<blockquote><p>“About Me -Im an Muslim from the Tribe of Judah who Was Pretty Much Raised In Killeen Texas. My Ancestors Who Are The True Jews Here In America Today Are Originally From Israel. They Were Bombed Outta Israel By The Roman Catholic Army So They Fled To Egypt And The Afrikans Sold Us To The White Man As Slaves Along With Any Other Black Person Here In Amerika Today Aka The True Jews From Israel. Our Ancestors Are Originally From Israel.”</p></blockquote>
<p>His alias, writings and identification as a true Jew are all indicators that prior to being radicalized into Islam he identified with the Black Hebrew Israelite Movement which has spawned some violent extremist black supremacist groups. It is not unusual for spiritual seekers to mix and match different ideologies and religious beliefs. Nolen&#8217;s posts demonstrate that he also identified with the Moors, medieval Muslim conquerors. He posted a painting depicting Black African Moors in Spain and wrote,</p>
<blockquote><p>“It inspires me to no end, to know that my illustrous ancestors who were black African Moors (boldly invaded white caucasion Europe and conquered the portuguese, Spanish Italian and Southern French). We black Moors enslaved white Europeans (long before we were enslaved) and also had white harems which pleasured us. Black Moors then civilized the white barbarians, graciously teaching the caucasoid cave-dwellers, Science, astronomy, geography, meteorology, botanics, cosmetics, culinary art and fashion and an Arabic numerical system that is still being used now, algebra and beautiful architecture that was and still is superior to anything that these caucasion savages had previously built.”</p></blockquote>
<p>Nolen’s post reflects an attraction to Islamic Jihad and black supremacist revisionist history.</p>
<p>Similarly Zale Thompson combined black supremacist ideals with radical Islam. He was described by a classmate as a proponent of Black Power, a big fan of Malcom X and the photo on his Facebook page is an image of a 14<sup>th</sup> century Moor that is from the cover of the book, The Golden Age of the Moors, a popular book among Black Nationalists. Thompson posted a comment under a music video called &#8216;No white God&#8217; that read,</p>
<blockquote><p>“It’s ok for white people to draw pictures of a white jesus, and then colonize Africa, and enslave the negro in America, wipe out the native American, and invade the middle east. They call black people racist for rejecting the oppression they suffered from whites. Listen, when black people have colonized the entire continent of Europe, enslaved its people, and sold them into bondage to foreign lands, then you can call them racist..”</p></blockquote>
<p>On his Facebook page he wrote.</p>
<blockquote><p>“If you’re looking for &#8216;perfect&#8217; muslims who never make any mistakes in their Jihad, then you will be looking in vain! If the Zionists and the Crusaders had never invaded and colonized the Islamic lands after WW1, then there would be no need for Jihad! Which is better, to sit around and do nothing, or to Jihad fisabeelallah!&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>Even Zale’s father Ralph Thompson said that his son Zale wanted to kill white people. &#8220;He just said, &#8216;They have to pay for all their unfairness,’ ” the father added. “Unfairness for the way they treat black people.”</p>
<p>Both Nolen and Thompson were filled with Black Nationalist anti-American ideologies that fomented hatred, instilled anger and inculcated a sense of injustice that initiated their withdrawal from society. They became spiritual seekers searching for a way to alleviate their resentment, isolation and frustration. The Islamic State provided the perfect solution: a sense of identity and belonging that sanctions and glorifies vengeance against white oppressors.</p>
<p>On September 21, when the Islamic State called on its followers to kill disbelievers, especially police and military, it activated both men. They did not use guns, they chose a knife and an axe, the weapons of beheadings. There can be no doubt that Thompson was attempting to behead the NYPD officers. Historically an axe is one of the most prevalent methods of beheading, tactically it was more efficient than a small knife, symbolically much more provocative than gunshot wounds, it garnered much more attention to the cause of global jihad.</p>
<p>Black supremacist ideologies that blame slavery, colonialism and the white man&#8217;s oppression made Nolen and Thompson uniquely susceptible to Islamic State propaganda and violent attacks. Black supremacist ideology continually reinforces the idea that blacks have been shamed, humiliated and harassed by whites, often alleging police brutality. This new virulent strain of lone wolf attacks is the blowback from post-colonial, multicultural, anti-American theories that promote class warfare and foment anger and feelings of oppression.</p>
<p>The Islamic State offers what every Black supremacist movement has promised: vengeance against the white man, a way to restore black peoples&#8217; honor, alleviate their shame andto  die a heroic death in the goal of overthrowing America. A new breed of American jihad has evolved. U.S. cities and prisons are filled with disgruntled angry black supremacists who are ripe for recruitment and the FBI is prohibited from using race and religion in profiling future lone wolf terrorist attacks.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p><em>Don&#8217;t miss <strong>Dawn Perlmutter</strong> on the <strong>Glazov Gang</strong> discussing <strong>Why ISIS Beheads</strong>:</em></p>
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		<title>Analyzing the Oklahoma Beheading Crime Scene</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dawn-perlmutter/oklahoma-beheading-crime-scene-analysis/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=oklahoma-beheading-crime-scene-analysis</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 30 Sep 2014 04:51:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Dawn Perlmutter]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Alton Nolen]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[beheading]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jihad]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Oklahoma]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Vaughan Foods]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=241980</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Why the gruesome incident will inspire more jihadists. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/crimescene1.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-241981" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/crimescene1-450x337.jpg" alt="crimescene1" width="318" height="238" /></a>At approximately 1600 hrs. on September 24, 2014  30-year-old Alton Nolen was fired at Vaughan Foods in Moore, Oklahoma. He immediately drove to the front of the business, struck a vehicle and walked into the front office area. He attacked 54-year-old Colleen Hufford with a knife until he severed her head. Then he began attacking 43-year-old Traci Johnson with the same knife. He would have severed Ms. Johnson’s head if Mark Vaughan, an Oklahoma County reserve deputy and a former CEO of the business, hadn’t taken him down with three gunshots. Both Hufford, who was pronounced dead at the scene, and Johnson, who suffered multiple knife wounds, were random victims.</p>
<p>Nolen had a history of violence. He was convicted in January 2011 of multiple felony drug offenses, assault and battery on a police officer and escape from detention. But it was the murder MO and the fact that Nolen had recently converted to Islam and had been trying to convert people at Vaughn Foods to Islam that prompted the local police to call the FBI to assist in the investigation.</p>
<p>Nolen&#8217;s conversion to Islam, digital footprint and most significantly his decision to not just kill but behead his victim has prompted a heated debate over whether this crime is a case of workplace violence or lone wolf terrorism. Distinctions between the two are not based solely on the motivation for the murder. Forensics, victimology, weapons and crime scene indicators factor into classifications of violent crimes. Aspects that are consistent with workplace violence are that the incident occurred at a work place, was triggered by Nolen being fired, the victims were employees and that Nolen probably intended to die at the scene.</p>
<p>There are notable aspects of the homicide that are inconsistent with workplace violence. Nolen did not target the person who fired him or others who he perceived wronged him, he did not take hostages, the attack was not mission oriented and most significantly he did not use multiple firearms. Workplace homicides typically involve active shooters with an abundance of weapons (semiautomatic assault weapons), ammunition and other gear to support a sustained attack. Similarly lone wolf terrorist attacks typically are highly organized, involve specific targets, are preplanned paramilitary type operations and usually involve firearms and/or explosives. The victimology, crime scene, weapons, trauma and offender characteristics of the Oklahoma homicide technically do not neatly fit into either workplace violence or lone wolf terrorism categories.</p>
<p>The Crime Classification Manual (CCM), the standard system for investigating and classifying homicides and other violent crimes, has specific categories for every type of homicide. Workplace violence almost always is classified in the category of Personal Cause Homicide which is described as motivated from interpersonal aggression resulting from an underlying emotional conflict and is not sanctioned by a group. The most common workplace violence homicide subcategories are Authority Murder and Domestic Homicide. Lone wolf terrorist attacks are classified under the category of Group Cause Homicide which is described as motivated by ideas based on a particular political, economic, religious or social ideology. Lone wolf terrorism subcategories include Extremist Religious Homicide and Extremist Political Homicide. Although the motivation for this homicide category applies to the Oklahoma incident, Group Cause Homicide generally involves multiple offenders, multiple crime scenes and multiple victims. The Boston Marathon bombings were a classic example of lone wolf terrorism in the category of Extremist Religious Homicide.</p>
<p>According to the Crime Classification Manual (CCM) the murder of Colleen Hufford is a textbook case of Individual Extremist Religion Inspired Homicide which describes the motivation for the murder as based on a fervent devotion to a cause or system of beliefs and to further the goals and ideas of the group. The victims may be strangers or acquaintances of the offender and since many religious killings are relatively spontaneous, victims are most frequently opportunistic targets. A disorganized crime scene reflects the spontaneity and distress of the perpetrator. The homicide is intended to communicate some message on behalf of the group and the forensics demonstrate the calling card or signature aspect of the group. The killing may have ritualistic features such as religious symbolism, messages and particular corpse defacement and frequently involves uncommon weapons that have a relationship to religious symbolism. The offender may not be outwardly devout, but often evidence of traditional observance is found in the suspects home, including literature, pamphlets, symbols, writings and videotapes pertaining to the offenders belief system. Suspects may have experienced a recent loss or loss of self-esteem due to rejection. Committing the murder in the name of religion is a method to restore a sense of significance and respect.</p>
<p>The Moore Oklahoma murder meets all the criteria of Individual Extremist Religion Homicide. A symbolic analysis of the crime scene confirms the religious motivation. Colleen Hufford and Traci Johnson were not just employees they were also uncovered non-Muslim women, hence to a jihadist, legitimate targets. If the women were wearing hijab he would have moved on to other victims. Colleen Hufford was ritually murdered. Nolen picked up a 10 inch filet knife to stab her in the throat. He did not grab a hammer or pipe to inflict blunt force trauma he grabbed a standard knife used by employees and chose to completely sever her head from her body. Beheading in the context of Islam is symbolic of jihad.  Witnesses heard Nolen shouting in Arabic while killing her. He most likely was saying &#8220;Allahu Akbar.&#8221; Shouting Arabic phrases is highly symbolic and one of the calling card signature aspects of the crime. Quoting the Quran or praising Allah ritualizes and justifies the violence as a religious execution sanctioned under Islam. Body positioning, mutilation or dismemberment is an extremely significant identifier when analyzing crime scenes. Nolen may have taken a few seconds to position her head on the back of her body which is the Al Qaeda in Iraq/Islamic State forensic signature. This crime was tactically, symbolically and forensically different than other disgruntled employee homicides.</p>
<p>This is neither workplace violence, nor lone wolf terrorism; this is a new tactic in the global jihad that I have previously referred to as a Jihad murder M.O.  The distinction between lone wolf terrorism and Jihadist murder is important particularly when investigating active and cold case homicides that are not immediately recognizable as having links to Islamist jihadists.  Homicides with similar forensic trauma have gone unsolved and unrecognized such as the triple ritual murder of Brendan Mess, Erik Weissman, and Raphael Teken in Waltham, MA by Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the Boston bombers, and Ibragim Todashev. The case was initially investigated as a drug deal gone wrong although all three victims were nearly decapitated on September 11, 2011. The reason these cases are difficult to solve directly corresponds to the prohibitions on law enforcement training that banned any references to Islamic jihad or Islamism as the underlying ideology motivating crimes. So when evidence involves writings such as “Sharia law is coming!!!” that Nolen posted on his Facebook page, officers have no idea what that means and cannot perform an accurate threat analysis.</p>
<p>Further impediments to homicide investigations is that there is no training in Jihadist murders and little if none in Islamist terrorist identifiers, although similar to gangs, they have emblems, symbols, hand signs, flags, graffiti, headbands and clothing. Nolen’s Facebook page has a photo of him standing between two men dressed in Muslim garb throwing the ‘Tawheed’ hand sign, the index finger pointing up that is the most popular hand sign of Salafi Jihadists. It represents the doctrine of Tawheed (monotheism) and their willingness to die as martyrs to attain paradise. Even tattoos, one of the most prevalent law enforcement identifiers have been compromised by political correctness and lack of training in Islamist ideologies. Nolen’s conversion from Christianity to Islam is written on his body. His tattoos include an image of Jesus Christ on his chest, RIP Lil Kris, Judah tattooed on his left arm, an image of praying hands on his right arm and tattooed on his abdomen as-salaamu alaikum,  Arabic for “peace be with you.” His religious tattoos are symbolic of a spiritual seeker who was ripe for recruitment. His Facebook page demonstrated that his radicalization was complete. His new Islamic identity included changing his name to Jah&#8217;Keem Yisrael and glorifying the ideals of global jihad.</p>
<p>Nolen was not simply a disgruntled employee seeking revenge, he envisioned himself as a Mujahideen warrior who was publicly dishonored by infidel unbelievers. Islamist propaganda that continually reminds young recruits like Nolen that they do not have to suffer the humiliation of non-believers prompted the murder. The shame of being fired triggered overwhelming emotions of disrespect that could only be alleviated by restoring his honor through violence.  Nolen understood that whether he lived or died beheading would increase his status and reputation among jihadists worldwide. The murder of Colleen Hufford transformed an ex-con loser who can’t hold down a job into a Mujahideen rock star who will be hailed as a hero on jihadist forums and by the Islamic State. This will inspire more Jihadist murders not more workplace violence.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p><em>Don&#8217;t miss <strong>Robert Spencer</strong> on The Glazov Gang discussing<span id="productTitle" class="a-size-large"><strong> The Fog of Jihad-Denial</strong>:</span></em></p>
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		<title>Blood In: Beheading as Islamic State Initiation</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dawn-perlmutter/blood-in-beheading-as-islamic-state-initiation/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=blood-in-beheading-as-islamic-state-initiation</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 26 Sep 2014 04:45:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Dawn Perlmutter]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[beheading]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[French]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hervé Gourdel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hollande]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ISIS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[islamic state]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Algerian jihadists perpetrate their first decapitation to please ISIS -- who will strike next? ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/perl.png"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-241838" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/perl.png" alt="perl" width="229" height="217" /></a>A beheading video of French hostage Hervé Gourdel was released on September 24, 2014 by the Algerian group Jund al-Khilafah (Soldiers of the Caliphate). The video is significantly different than the three previous high production Islamic State beheading videos of Americans James Foley and Steve Sotloff and British hostage David Haines. The Algerian jihadist group kidnapped Gourdel, a 55-year-old mountaineering guide, while he was hiking in the Djurdjura National Park in Algeria. They released a video two days prior to the beheading giving France an ultimatum, either stop the aggression against the Islamic State or Gourdel would die within 24-hours. France rejected the ultimatum and the jihadists made good on their threat.</p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">The video</span><span class="zw-portion"> begins with a clip of French President Francois Hollande at a press conference announc</span><span class="zw-portion">ing</span><span class="zw-portion"> strikes against </span><span class="zw-portion">the Islamic State</span><span class="zw-portion"> in Iraq</span><span class="zw-portion"> and then the title appears on the screen</span><span class="zw-portion">.</span><span class="zw-portion"> The </span><span class="zw-portion">black</span><span class="zw-portion"> flag emblem of the Islamic </span><span class="zw-portion">S</span><span class="zw-portion">tate</span><span class="zw-portion"> flies in the corner throughout. </span><span class="zw-portion">That</span><span class="zw-portion"> is where the </span><span class="zw-portion">similarity</span><span class="zw-portion"> between </span><span class="zw-portion">the </span><span class="zw-portion">I</span><span class="zw-portion">S</span><span class="zw-portion"> videos end.</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">The </span><span class="zw-portion">re</span><span class="zw-portion">st of </span><span class="zw-portion">the content of the </span><span class="zw-portion">beheading</span><span class="zw-portion"> video is</span><span class="zw-portion"> much more similar to the dozens of other </span><span class="zw-portion">al Qaeda-linked </span><span class="zw-portion">beheading</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">videos that have </span><span class="zw-portion">been posted </span><span class="zw-portion">on the Internet.</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">What distinguishes it from other videos</span><span class="zw-portion"> is that</span><span class="zw-portion"> the film was edited </span><span class="zw-portion">so that the violent imagery is</span><span class="zw-portion"> framed in and softened</span><span class="zw-portion"> giving it the appearance of a painting</span><span class="zw-portion">.</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">Th</span><span class="zw-portion">is portion</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">begins in an outdoor area with</span><span class="zw-portion"> Gourdel on his knees with his hands behind his back in front of four armed militants</span><span class="zw-portion">. Their</span><span class="zw-portion"> faces </span><span class="zw-portion">are </span><span class="zw-portion">covered except for their eyes.</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">Two jihadists are holding AK47 rifles</span><span class="zw-portion">,</span><span class="zw-portion"> one is holding a paper he is reading from </span><span class="zw-portion">and the </span><span class="zw-portion">other</span><span class="zw-portion"> is</span><span class="zw-portion"> holding a blindfold. There is a sheet behind them with some kind of hand-drawn emblem and other imagery.</span><span class="zw-portion"> The ritual execution</span><span class="zw-portion"> begins with a statement by Gourdel expressing</span><span class="zw-portion"> his love for his family</span><span class="zw-portion">. Then there is the mandatory</span><span class="zw-portion"> reading of offenses by o</span><span class="zw-portion">ne of the jihadists</span><span class="zw-portion"> which includes</span><span class="zw-portion"> denounci</span><span class="zw-portion">ng</span><span class="zw-portion"> the actions of the “French criminal crusaders” against Muslims in Algeria, Mali and Iraq</span><span class="zw-portion"> and to</span><span class="zw-portion"> “avenge the victims in Algeria… and support the caliphate” proclaimed by IS in Iraq and Syria.</span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">There</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">can</span><span class="zw-portion"> be no </span><span class="zw-portion">doub</span><span class="zw-portion">t</span><span class="zw-portion"> that this is their first </span><span class="zw-portion">beheading</span><span class="zw-portion">.</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">They are all </span><span class="zw-portion">fidgeting</span><span class="zw-portion"> and seem to have trouble staying still</span><span class="zw-portion">. </span><span class="zw-portion">Interestingly they are all wearing a black wrist</span><span class="zw-portion"> band</span><span class="zw-portion"> on their right hands</span><span class="zw-portion">. This is unique to them,</span><span class="zw-portion"> perhaps signifying their role as executioners. </span><span class="zw-portion">Gourdel </span><span class="zw-portion">is </span><span class="zw-portion">the bravest</span><span class="zw-portion"> person </span><span class="zw-portion">there. He makes his statement and</span><span class="zw-portion"> honorably does not show fear</span><span class="zw-portion">.</span><span class="zw-portion"> He is </span><span class="zw-portion">not</span><span class="zw-portion"> dressed in the </span><span class="zw-portion">orange</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">jumpsuit</span><span class="zw-portion"> of the previous victims, most likely because there was not one </span><span class="zw-portion">available</span><span class="zw-portion">. After the statement of offenses is read justifying the </span><span class="zw-portion">execution, the blindfold is quickly placed </span><span class="zw-portion">over</span><span class="zw-portion"> his eyes and he is thrown to the ground</span><span class="zw-portion"> and held down by two of the men</span><span class="zw-portion">. </span><span class="zw-portion">The jihadist who held the blindfold i</span><span class="zw-portion">s</span><span class="zw-portion"> the executioner</span><span class="zw-portion">. He</span><span class="zw-portion"> pulls the knife out of his shirt and starts to cut his </span><span class="zw-portion">t</span><span class="zw-portion">hroat. </span><span class="zw-portion">The</span><span class="zw-portion"> murder is not shown on the video</span><span class="zw-portion"> and was</span><span class="zw-portion"> most </span><span class="zw-portion">likely</span><span class="zw-portion"> edited out by whoever added the news footage and the </span><span class="zw-portion">Islamic State </span><span class="zw-portion">emblem. </span><span class="zw-portion">The video f</span><span class="zw-portion">ades to black and</span><span class="zw-portion"> then</span><span class="zw-portion"> the four </span><span class="zw-portion">jihadists</span><span class="zw-portion"> are standing behind </span><span class="zw-portion">Gourdel’s</span><span class="zw-portion"> body whose head </span><span class="zw-portion">has been</span><span class="zw-portion"> placed on </span><span class="zw-portion">his</span><span class="zw-portion"> chest. </span><span class="zw-portion">This is </span><span class="zw-portion">slightly </span><span class="zw-portion">different than the</span><span class="zw-portion"> Islamic State</span><span class="zw-portion">’s</span><span class="zw-portion"> forensic</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">beheading </span><span class="zw-portion">signature</span><span class="zw-portion"> which has </span><span class="zw-portion">the bo</span><span class="zw-portion">d</span><span class="zw-portion">y facing down and the head on the back. </span><span class="zw-portion">A detail they </span><span class="zw-portion">got</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">wrong. It</span><span class="zw-portion"> fades to </span><span class="zw-portion">b</span><span class="zw-portion">lack again and now a fi</span><span class="zw-portion">f</span><span class="zw-portion">th jihadist appears with his foot on the body as a </span><span class="zw-portion">sign of </span><span class="zw-portion">desecration and </span><span class="zw-portion">disrespect</span><span class="zw-portion"> while </span><span class="zw-portion">the </span><span class="zw-portion">e</span><span class="zw-portion">xe</span><span class="zw-portion">cutioner</span><span class="zw-portion"> hold</span><span class="zw-portion">s </span><span class="zw-portion">Gourdel’s</span><span class="zw-portion"> head in the air, displaying his trophy </span><span class="zw-portion">head </span><span class="zw-portion">to the </span><span class="zw-portion">Islamic State and the </span><span class="zw-portion">world.</span><span class="zw-portion"> The </span><span class="zw-portion">fifth</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">jihadist</span><span class="zw-portion"> who is quite chubby has his entire head </span><span class="zw-portion">covered</span><span class="zw-portion"> with a black cloth, he appears to be the leader.</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">Disconcertingly the loud sound of what must be beautiful birds are chirping </span><span class="zw-portion">in the background </span><span class="zw-portion">throughout the </span><span class="zw-portion">entire </span><span class="zw-portion">ritual execution</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">rev</span><span class="zw-portion">e</span><span class="zw-portion">aling that the location is probably</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">in or </span><span class="zw-portion">near the</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">Djurdjura</span><span class="zw-portion"> National Park</span><span class="zw-portion"> which was </span><span class="zw-portion">Gourdel’s</span><span class="zw-portion"> hiking destination.</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">This video shows much more violent imagery and for a longer period of time than the I</span><span class="zw-portion">slamic State beheading </span><span class="zw-portion">videos</span><span class="zw-portion">,</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">32 seconds </span><span class="zw-portion">of proof of death </span><span class="zw-portion">versus ten seconds</span><span class="zw-portion">.</span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">The </span><span class="zw-portion">beheading</span><span class="zw-portion"> is a direct response to the Islamic State</span><span class="zw-portion">’s</span><span class="zw-portion"> Sept 21, 2014</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">audio</span><span class="zw-portion"> recording that was widely distributed on </span><span class="zw-portion">social media</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">urg</span><span class="zw-portion">ing</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">jihadists</span><span class="zw-portion"> all over the world to attack citizens of Western states, including the U.S., France and their allies.</span><span class="zw-portion"> The Algerian jihadists </span><span class="zw-portion">heeded</span><span class="zw-portion"> the call to vengeance by </span><span class="zw-portion">kidnapping Hervé</span><span class="zw-portion"> Gourdel</span><span class="zw-portion"> soon after the Islamic State called on its supporters to harm Europeans. The </span><span class="zw-portion">Soldiers of the Caliphate didn’t just shoot </span><span class="zw-portion">Gourdel;</span><span class="zw-portion"> they chose to perform a ritual </span><span class="zw-portion">beheading</span><span class="zw-portion"> to </span><span class="zw-portion">increase</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">status with other jihadists and to impress the </span><span class="zw-portion">Islamic</span><span class="zw-portion"> State. The beheading of Hervé Gourdel by the obscure new splinter group </span><span class="zw-portion">Jund</span><span class="zw-portion"> al-</span><span class="zw-portion">Khilafa</span><span class="zw-portion"> was </span><span class="zw-portion">a blood</span><span class="zw-portion"> initiation ritual. They </span><span class="zw-portion">earned</span><span class="zw-portion"> their stripes and pledged their allegiance to Abu</span><span class="zw-portion"> Bakr al-Baghdadi with the murder of a French infidel. This </span><span class="zw-portion">is no</span><span class="zw-portion"> different tha</span><span class="zw-portion">n the blood-in gang </span><span class="zw-portion">initiation</span><span class="zw-portion"> ritual that requires new members to kill</span><span class="zw-portion">.</span><span class="zw-portion"> Even the</span><span class="zw-portion"> title of the video “A Message with Blood to the French Government” symbolizes a blood ritual. </span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">The</span><span class="zw-portion"> Islamic State </span><span class="zw-portion">pro</span><span class="zw-portion">paganda</span><span class="zw-portion"> audio</span><span class="zw-portion">tape</span><span class="zw-portion"> utilizes</span><span class="zw-portion"> the language of the streets with loaded words that evoke disrespect and humiliation. The </span><span class="zw-portion">statement</span><span class="zw-portion"> entices </span><span class="zw-portion">recruits</span><span class="zw-portion"> with the promise of war booty and specifically calls for blood </span><span class="zw-portion">vengeance</span><span class="zw-portion">. Most significantly the Islamic State incites violence by telling their recruits that murder and plunder is sanctioned</span><span class="zw-portion"> by Allah</span><span class="zw-portion">, hence murder becomes righteous slaughter.</span></p>
<blockquote>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">Kill the disbeliever whether he is civilian or military, for they have the same ruling. Both of them are disbelievers. Both of them are considered to be waging war [the civilian by belonging to a state waging war against the Muslims]. Both of their blood and wealth is legal for you to destroy, for blood does not become illegal or legal to spill by the clothes being worn. The civilian outfit does not make blood illegal to spill, and the military uniform does not make blood legal to spill. The only things that make blood illegal and legal to spill are Islam and a covenant (peace treaty, dhimma, etc.). Blood becomes legal to spill through disbelief. So whoever is a Muslim, his blood and wealth are sanctified. And whoever is a disbeliever, his wealth is legal for a Muslim to take and his blood is legal to spill. His blood is like the blood of a dog; there is no sin for him in spilling it nor is there any blood money to be paid for doing such.</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">Jihadists are</span><span class="zw-portion"> leaving al </span><span class="zw-portion">Qaeda</span><span class="zw-portion"> and pledging allegiance to the </span><span class="zw-portion">Islamic</span><span class="zw-portion"> state because it is the badd</span><span class="zw-portion">est and richest gang in town. They </span><span class="zw-portion">receive</span><span class="zw-portion"> honor, wealth and </span><span class="zw-portion">can morally commit </span><span class="zw-portion">murders</span><span class="zw-portion">. They are absolved of any remorse</span><span class="zw-portion"> and in fact achieve honor and status through violence.</span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">T</span><span class="zw-portion">he same </span><span class="zw-portion">Islamic State </span><span class="zw-portion">video that inspired the </span><span class="zw-portion">new </span><span class="zw-portion">Algerian</span><span class="zw-portion"> group praised another jihadist group, </span><span class="zw-portion">Ansar</span><span class="zw-portion"> Bayt al-</span><span class="zw-portion">Maqdis</span><span class="zw-portion">,</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">operat</span><span class="zw-portion">ing in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula</span><span class="zw-portion"> for their beheadings</span><span class="zw-portion">. Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis pledged </span><span class="zw-portion">allegiance</span><span class="zw-portion"> to the Islamic State </span><span class="zw-portion">by beheading </span><span class="zw-portion">eight</span><span class="zw-portion"> people, </span><span class="zw-portion">videotaping</span><span class="zw-portion"> and posting </span><span class="zw-portion">the</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">beheadings</span><span class="zw-portion"> online. </span><span class="zw-portion">By</span><span class="zw-portion"> prais</span><span class="zw-portion">ing the beheadings</span><span class="zw-portion"> the Islamic </span><span class="zw-portion">State sanction</span><span class="zw-portion">ed</span><span class="zw-portion"> the violence and sen</span><span class="zw-portion">t</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">a message</span><span class="zw-portion"> to others </span><span class="zw-portion">that </span><span class="zw-portion">you </span><span class="zw-portion">too </span><span class="zw-portion">will be honored by beheading our enemies.</span></p>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">A lone wolf also</span><span class="zw-portion"> heeded the Islamic State’s call to vengeance</span><span class="zw-portion">. On Sept. </span><span class="zw-portion">23 </span><span class="zw-portion">an </span><span class="zw-portion">Australian</span><span class="zw-portion"> teenager</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">Numan</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">Haider</span><span class="zw-portion"> attacked</span><span class="zw-portion"> a Victorian police officer and a federal police agent outside Endeavour Hills police station in Melbourne, Australia. The 18-year-old slashed one </span><span class="zw-portion">officer</span><span class="zw-portion"> with a </span><span class="zw-portion">knife</span><span class="zw-portion"> pretending to shake his hand and stabbed another officer in the arm, stomach and head. He was immediately </span><span class="zw-portion">k</span><span class="zw-portion">illed with a single shot. </span><span class="zw-portion">When</span><span class="zw-portion"> his body was</span><span class="zw-portion"> searched </span><span class="zw-portion">they found</span><span class="zw-portion"> a larger knife and an Islamic State flag.</span><span class="zw-portion"> It was reported that he was under instructions from the Islamic State to </span><span class="zw-portion">behead</span><span class="zw-portion"> the</span><span class="zw-portion"> officers</span><span class="zw-portion">,</span><span class="zw-portion"> cover the</span><span class="zw-portion">ir</span><span class="zw-portion"> bodies in the </span><span class="zw-portion">IS </span><span class="zw-portion">flag and then take photos to post </span><span class="zw-portion">on </span><span class="zw-portion">social media</span><span class="zw-portion">.</span><span class="zw-portion">  </span><span class="zw-portion">Islamic State</span><span class="zw-portion"> propaganda</span><span class="zw-portion"> inspired </span><span class="zw-portion">all of these beheadings. Their messaging</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">appeal</span><span class="zw-portion">s</span><span class="zw-portion"> to</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">disaffected young </span><span class="zw-portion">people who feel humiliated</span><span class="zw-portion"> and disenfranchised. They provide a method for them to r</span><span class="zw-portion">estor</span><span class="zw-portion">e their honor and respect</span><span class="zw-portion"> through</span><span class="zw-portion"> blood </span><span class="zw-portion">vengeance</span><span class="zw-portion">.  In their </span><span class="zw-portion">Sept</span><span class="zw-portion">.</span><span class="zw-portion"> 21</span><span class="zw-portion">st</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">audiotape, two days prior to </span><span class="zw-portion">stabbing </span><span class="zw-portion">two</span><span class="zw-portion"> police officers</span><span class="zw-portion">, the language in the video</span><span class="zw-portion"> promise</span><span class="zw-portion">d </span><span class="zw-portion">Numan</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">Haider</span><span class="zw-portion"> honor in life or death.</span></p>
<blockquote>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">An </span><span class="zw-portion">Islamic State soldier</span><span class="zw-portion">… &#8220;</span><span class="zw-portion">has realized that the life of his nation is through blood and the honor of his nation is through blood. So he went on with a bare chest and bare head towards death eagerly searching for life and honor. If he survives, he lives as a victor with freedom, might, honor, and authority. And if he is killed, he illuminates the path for those after him and goes on to his Lord as a joyful martyr. He has taught those after him that might, honor, and life are through jihad and being killed, and that humiliation, disgrace, and death are through submission and subservience.</span><span class="zw-portion">”</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p class="zw-paragraph" style="color: #000000;"><span class="zw-portion">Pledging</span><span class="zw-portion"> allegiance through a ‘blood in’ </span><span class="zw-portion">beheading</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">initiation</span><span class="zw-portion"> ritual is the latest phenomenon in the global jihad. The next</span><span class="zw-portion"> beheading ritual could be a</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">lone wolf in the United States, Canada or Europe or it could</span><span class="zw-portion"> be </span><span class="zw-portion">Philippine</span><span class="zw-portion"> jihadist</span><span class="zw-portion">s</span><span class="zw-portion">,</span><span class="zw-portion"> members of the</span><span class="zw-portion"> Abu Sayyaf</span><span class="zw-portion"> group</span><span class="zw-portion"> who</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">according to a transcript provided by </span><span class="zw-portion">the </span><span class="zw-portion">SITE</span><span class="zw-portion"> Institute</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">ha</span><span class="zw-portion">ve</span><span class="zw-portion"> announced that it is holding two German citizens and ha</span><span class="zw-portion">ve</span><span class="zw-portion"> threatened to kill them if Germany does not back out of the intervention in Syria</span><span class="zw-portion">.</span><span class="zw-portion"> </span><span class="zw-portion">Blood-in.</span></p>
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		<title>Beheading Raises Islamic State Street Cred</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dawn-perlmutter/beheading-raises-islamic-state-street-cred/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=beheading-raises-islamic-state-street-cred</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 16 Sep 2014 04:35:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Dawn Perlmutter]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[beheading]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Britain]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[David Cameron]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[David Haines]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ISIS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jihad]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=241062</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The strategic advantages of our jihadist enemies. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/378657_ISIL-David-Haines.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-241064" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/378657_ISIL-David-Haines-450x341.jpg" alt="378657_ISIL-David-Haines" width="342" height="259" /></a>The Sept. 13, 2014 beheading video of David Haines, British aid worker and military veteran, is almost identical to the Foley and Sotloff productions establishing an Islamic State forensic signature, PSYOPS pattern and a winning recruitment strategy. The David Haines beheading video titled “A message to the allies of America” is addressed to Prime Minister David Cameron who failed rapper turned jihadi executioner calls the “obedient lapdog” of America. This expression is a double insult signifying that he is controlled by America and intrinsically impure. The in your face disrespect will have particular appeal in recruiting British Islamists. Although the latest victim David Haines is British, the beheading video continues to symbolically reference Gitmo by making the hostages wear orange clothing. The disarticulated head placed on the center back of the body is identical to the forensic signature of the beheadings by Al Qaeda in Iraq, the predecessor group to Islamic State. The end of the video is a uniquely terrifying characteristic of IS messaging displaying their next victim, in this case hostage Alan Henning.  Similar to the two previous videos, Haines is not murdered on film and only ten seconds of the 2:30 second film displays violent imagery. Unlike the Foley and Sotloff videos that humiliated President Obama the Haines video was easily accessible online.</p>
<p>Although the beheading video was addressed to Prime Minister Cameron it was also a response to the ineffectiveness of President Obama’s September 10, 2014 speech that obviously did not strike fear into the hearts of the IS. The Presidents refusal to call the Islamic State by their chosen name or to recognize them as Islamic or a state not only demonstrated his inability to understand the threat but symbolically reflected an unwillingness to know and face the enemy. A semiotic principle expressed in magical thinking is that fear of naming something represents actual fear of the thing itself. Ancient societies believed in word magic, the idea that words, particularly names are imbued with magical powers. They attached great importance to the knowledge of names and believed that to know the true name of something gives one power over it. Furthermore it was a common belief that pronouncing the names of gods or demons in their original form and language would bring them into existence. That is the origin of the expression ‘speak of the devil and he will appear’. To name something makes it real and a force to be reckoned with. Hence to choose politically correct messaging that creates taboo words such as Islamic, State or War has the unintended consequence of evincing fear and weakness. Conversely, tribal warrior cultures like the Islamic State instinctively understand the power of words.</p>
<p>The significance of names as a form of symbolic warfare is evident in gang graffiti where it is common for gang members to cross out names of rival gangs. For example, to spray paint over another gangs tag, cross it out and then put your name up right next to it is an act of disrespect. Crossing out a rivals name and putting a &#8216;K&#8217; next to it, signifies your intent to kill a member of that rival gang if they come into your territory. This is precisely the same message that the Islamic State sent in their beheading videos, if you enter our territory we will kill a member of your gang. By making good on their threats to kill, the Islamic State raised their street cred. Their credibility and level of respect is what attracts new recruits. Islamic State beheading videos and social media messaging should be interpreted in the same manner as gang codes. For example, the hundreds of IS beheadings of soldiers and civilians can be understood as initiation rituals similar to the concept of ‘Blood in Blood Out’ which requires a new member to commit murder. The beheading videos can be viewed as similar to the revenge threats coded in gang graffiti dissing President Obama and Prime Minister Cameron. Similar to gangs without the appropriate timely, symbolic and proportional response the videotaped revenge killings will not only continue but escalate.</p>
<p>Islamic State recruitment has been so successful because they understand the signs, symbols and language of the street and the urge to jihad. This is evident in the thousands of Westerners they recruited to join the fight in Syria and Iraq. Conversely The State Department’s ‘Think Again Turn Away’ campaign demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of jihadist messaging. The campaign which utilizes twitter, Facebook and jihadist own violent imagery to attempt to dissuade foreign recruitment into IS is based upon a nonexistent we-are-the-world shared humanitarian rational worldview that presumes everyone is appalled by acts of brutality.  The campaign is based on a false premise that permeates President Obama’s policies and strategies, a fallacy of universal characteristics of human nature, in this case the belief that all people are inherently good and strive for the same things. The Obama fallacy can only comprehend beheadings, violence and terrorism as a direct or indirect result of oppression, colonization, child abuse, poverty, lack of education or some other social ill.  This dangerous misconception is also responsible for the inexplicable denial that countries can be invaded and conquered in the 21st century and the denial that Islamist jihadists around the globe want to rule the world.</p>
<p>While the state department sometimes utilizes the words shame and honor in their messaging they completely misunderstand the nature of warrior honor cultures, particularly the importance of instilling fear, showing strength and making good on their threats. Once the Islamic State took control of cities, like any gang or cartel, any attempts to reclaim designated territory provokes revenge killings.  The president’s refusal to acknowledge the conquered territory in Iraq and Syria as an Islamic State reveals that the administration does not comprehend that when Westerners join IS they are essentially pledging allegiance to another country, the enemies of America. Instead of ‘Think Again Turn Away’, a better slogan would be ‘Join Jihad, Lose Citizenship, Stay Away’.</p>
<p>Similar to President Obama the Prime Minister refuses to call the enemy by name and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg does not recognize them as a state. In response to the beheading of David Haines Prime Minister David Cameron said, ‘They are killing and slaughtering thousands of people – Christians, Muslims, minorities across Iraq and Syria. They boast of their brutality. They claim to do this in the name of Islam. That is nonsense. Islam is a religion of peace. They are not Muslims, they are monsters”….“This murderous organisation calls itself Islamic State. But it is not a state, it is a brutal terrorist outfit” The hundreds of potential British recruits interpret this language as punk ass fear unworthy of respect. The Islamic State names their enemies and through the power of words, images and videos they sounded a call to arms throughout the world. Their first strategic advantage is their willingness to name their adversary, hence the acknowledgement that they are ready, willing and able to confront the West. Their second strategic advantage is the West’s reluctance to name them which allows Islamist jihadists to live in America and Britain hiding in plain sight. It’s time for the West to properly name, thereby, accept the nature of their enemy.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p><em>Don&#8217;t miss <strong>Robert Spencer</strong> on <strong>The Glazov Gang</strong> discussing Jihad-Denial and the hazardous danger our society faces by indulging in it:</em></p>
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		<title>The Politics of Islamic Beheading</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dawn-perlmutter/the-politics-of-beheading/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-politics-of-beheading</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 03 Sep 2014 04:29:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Dawn Perlmutter]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=240113</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The taboo truths about Jihadists' information warfare tactic.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/islam2.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-240123" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/islam2-450x332.jpg" alt="islam2" width="291" height="215" /></a>The videotaped beheading of a second American journalist Steven Sotloff by the Islamic State is titled Second Message to America. Scripted and filmed in the same manner as the videotaped beheading of James Foley both videos are primarily about disrespecting President Obama. The language, gestures and violence signified disrespect in the same manner as a gangbanger calling out a rival gang leader. The executioner in this latest video, who appears to be Jihad John from the first video, implements the philosophy of honor/shame cultures where ‘word is bond’.</p>
<p>Hence the Islamic State followed through on their threat and demonstrated that when they set a red line they mean it. If there were prizes for jihadist propaganda videos both of these would win academy awards in the category of recruitment. In the Sotloff video the executioner ratcheted up his in your face rhetoric stating,</p>
<blockquote><p>“I’m back Obama, and I’m back because of your arrogant foreign policy towards the Islamic state, because of your insistence on continuing your bombings ……, despite our serious warnings. You Obama, have but to gain from your actions but another American citizen. So just as your missiles continue to strike out people, our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people.”</p></blockquote>
<p>Referring to the President of the United States without title but simply as Obama symbolically strips him of the honor of that title and the position it represents. Pointing the knife at the camera while calling President Obama out is the kind of gesture that appeals to young men who respect strength and action, particularly if that action involves what is perceived as badass violence such as cutting off the head of your rival with a small knife as revenge for crossing your turf. This type of rebellious message attracts failed rappers and disaffected misfits who last year were wannabe gang bangers and this year are joining the Islamic State to become Mujahideen fighters.</p>
<p>The response to the James Foley video demonstrates how out of touch the main stream media is with global jihadist violence. The James Foley video prompted the ‘don’t share’ campaign to censor Islamic State propaganda on social media. This campaign was slightly effective in making it more difficult to view the Sotloff video. There should be no doubt that the campaign to remove the Foley beheading video was more about protecting President Obama, the primary subject of the film, than protecting the privacy of the family or reducing Islamic State propaganda. The call to remove these videos from the internet is political not ethical. Strategically it doesn’t work. There is an entire dark side of the internet that will always post murders on one of the many popular shock sites.</p>
<p>After the Foley murder several news headlines announced that beheadings are back. Beheadings never went away. There are hundreds of both cartel and jihadist beheading videos easily accessible on the internet that are far worse than the Foley video. Many display torture, crucifixion, castration, flaying and dismemberment. Most of them involve threats to commit further violence if their requests are not met. One depicts jihadists <a href="%20http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d46_1388104476">playing soccer</a> with human heads. <a href="http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2012/06/pakistani_taliban_re_3.php">Several display</a> multiple beheadings with as many as <a href="http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e14_1366810534">17 victims </a>at a time.</p>
<p>One of the significant differences in the Foley and Sotloff beheading videos are that they openly and blatantly denigrate President Obama. The first portion of the Foley video displays news clips of the President authorizing military operations against the Islamic State. Jihad John, the executioner, directly calls out President Obama. “..any attempt by you, Obama, to deny the Muslims their rights of living in safety under the Islamic Caliphate will result in the bloodshed of your people.” “The life of this American citizen, [hostage Steven Joel Sotloff ] Obama, depends on your next decision.”</p>
<p>The 4 minute 40 second Foley beheading video only shows ten seconds of violent imagery at the end, 04:20 &#8211; 04:30, that depicts a knife to the neck, fades to black and then the decapitated body as proof of kill. Similarly, there is only a few seconds of violent imagery at the end of the Sotloff video. The few seconds of violence could easily be edited out of both films, however the message that clearly disrespects President Obama is the real reason the media has collectively decided to censor the video.</p>
<p>There was no call for the removal of beheading videos in June 2006 when two American soldiers Pfc. Kristian Menchaca and Pfc. Thomas Tucker were tortured, mutilated and beheaded in Iraq. Pfc. Kristian Menchaca and Pfc. Thomas Tucker had their eyes gouged out, had their heart cut out, were castrated and their bodies were dragged through the streets beaten, kicked and left on the roadside booby trapped with IED’s. That video which is much more violent than Foley’s is still available on the internet, including Liveleak, a site that inexplicably decided to remove the Foley video after it aired for several days and did not post the Sotloff video. The<a href="http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=550_1174212040"> 2006 video</a> shows members of Al Qaeda in Iraq, the predecessor to ISIS, desecrating and playing with the American soldiers dead bodies and holding up Tuckers head for the camera. The liberal media did not get enraged over their deaths because the Mujahideen Shura Council who put out the horrific video as propaganda, falsely claimed that the soldier’s deaths were in retaliation for the Mahmudiyah killings, an incident that defines the Iraq war for liberals.</p>
<p>Beheading videos are an effective information warfare tactic. But part of their success is dependent upon instilling fear and influencing American policies such as restricting freedoms by censoring information. As horrible as the Foley and Sotloff videos are, a more effective reaction than censorship is to not demonstrate fear but to reply with conviction and strength. For example, a public response from Nick Powers, a Marine Corps veteran who sent an unambiguous message of strength and power, the message that President Obama should have sent:</p>
<blockquote><p>“Remember we are armed to the teeth in the US and I can promise you this… the Geneva Conventions will not apply to you. You attack us and there will be no mercy. We will bring the righteous hand of God down upon you and crush you.”</p></blockquote>
<p>Thank God for the United States Marines. They understand honor and know what kind of message to send to the enemy.</p>
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		<title>Beheading as Symbolic Warfare</title>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 22 Aug 2014 04:10:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Dawn Perlmutter]]></dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[Deeper meanings hidden in the recording of James Foley's horrific death. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/bn.png"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-239164" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/bn-450x251.png" alt="bn" width="301" height="168" /></a>The videotaped beheading of American journalist James Foley on Tuesday August 19<sup>th</sup> has shocked the American public even though there has been thousands of beheadings by Islamist jihadists around the world. Last week at the Annual International Association for Identification (Crime Scene) Conference I presented a three hour lecture titled Beheading Epidemic and it was not nearly enough time to cover the forensic and investigation aspects of this widespread global phenomenon.</p>
<p>The videotaped murder of James Foley demonstrates the evolution of beheading as a jihadist tactic made popular by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the predecessor group of the Islamic State Army. The similarities and differences are significant. James Foley’s execution involved the classic Al Qaeda forensic signature. Similar to the dozens of Iraqi and foreign hostages that were beheaded by Al Qaeda in Iraq, James Foley had his hands cuffed behind his back, was kneeling in front of his captor and was dressed in the orange clothing symbolic of the type worn by detainees in U.S. prisons and Guantanamo Bay.</p>
<p>Al-Zarqawi’s videotaped ritual beheadings typically included a reading of offenses, confession, judgment, last words, execution, and a verbal statement of demands. The executioner was dressed in military type uniform consisting of black clothing, including ski mask covering his face and prominently displaying the murder weapon, his knife. The ritual pattern typically began with a statement from the executioner reciting the reason for the death sentence, which alluded to current political events, usually teeming with religious language justifying the violence, praise for Allah and often containing future threats. The victim then had the opportunity for last words; sometimes he confessed to being a spy or whatever the group had coerced him into confessing, or pleaded with the audience to acquiesce to the kidnappers’ demands and secure his release. At that point the head was cut off with a small knife by the leader, held in the air and then placed on the victim’s back.</p>
<p>Differences in the ISIS beheading video of James Foley include the high production value, outdoor scenic space and slick editing. Instead of an interior space decorated with terrorist group banners, it is a stark outdoor scene with just blue sky and desert as background placing all focus on the two men and the message to America. Instead of a flag hanging on the wall behind several terrorists, the ISIS black flag emblem is flying in the top left corner occasionally displaying the al-furqan media emblem underneath. Instead of nasheeds playing in the background, the quiet emphasizes both Foley&#8217;s scripted speech and the Jihadists threat to kill more Americans. Significantly the sound of screaming, the image of blood gushing out of the wound and the praising of Allah has been edited out. The only bloody graphic is a quick screen shot of the head placed on the center of the back of Foley’s body, proof of death and the classic Islamist Jihadist forensic signature. The impact of the film immediately cutting to and ending with the image of Steven Sotloff, another American journalist dressed in the same orange jumpsuit, the obvious next victim if President Obama does not meet their demands, is exceedingly powerful.</p>
<p>The most significant difference in the James Foley beheading video is the absence of religious language, particularly praising Allah during the execution. There should be no doubt that Allah was praised while cutting Foleys throat and that detail of the murder was deliberately edited out. Praising Allah ritualizes the murder and justifies the violence in the name of Islam. It is extremely atypical that the executioner and other participants during beheadings would not shout the phrase Allahu Akbar. The editing demonstrates that the focus of this propaganda video was political. The message to the American public was that Foleys death was not the result of Islamist ideology but that his death was the consequence of America getting involved in the war against ISIS. This message will most likely resonate with many Americans and illustrates the media savvy of ISIS.</p>
<p>Other than the ritual execution the most disturbing aspect of the murder is that the terrorist is speaking with a British accent. This high production beheading video served several purposes. One was to pressure the American public to stay out of Iraq and Syria and it also functions as a recruitment video for more Westerners to join ISIS. The British jihadist earned his stripes by murdering Foley and he will become a rock star among other radicalized Westerners.</p>
<p>Although beheading is an ancient method of warfare, the use of cell phones and video cameras to film and document ritual executions is a contemporary phenomenon that has evolved into a new tactic of war. Beheading videos are inherently symbolic, in fact they are the personification of symbolic warfare, they function as both strategic and psychological operations and have been extremely successful in radicalizing Western Muslims into fighting in the global jihad. They have particular appeal to young Muslim men who view the violence as vengeance against perceived oppression and offenses of Islam and to young Muslim men living in Western countries who feel marginalized. The warrior ethos appeals to vulnerable men who find a sense of purpose by identifying themselves as Mujahideen soldiers fighting for a heroic cause. Many of these young men have become desensitized to violence through videogames which often involve graphic decapitation of enemies.</p>
<p>Beheading videos have taken on a life of their own significantly contributing to the recruitment of young American and European Muslims into violent jihadists. This was evident in the case of Mohammed Merah, the 23-year-old French citizen who killed seven people in a series of three gun attacks targeting French soldiers and Jewish civilians in the cities of Montauban and Toulouse, France in March 2012. Two years prior to the shootings, Merah attempted to recruit other Muslim boys for jihad by showing them beheading videos. Merah was so impressed with jihadist beheading videos that he filmed all of his killings with a camera strapped to his body, edited the film of his murders into a video and sent the video to al Jazeera to ensure that he would receive proper recognition. Beheading videos played a significant role in inspiring him to commit the killings, he not only starred in but directed his own propaganda film so he could achieve notoriety and live in infamy as a heroic jihadist warrior in Islamist cyberspace.</p>
<p>The influence of beheading videos as a propaganda tool is also apparent in the arrests of failed terrorists in Europe and the United States. Beheading videos were discovered in the homes of six men who attempted to bomb the London Underground and a bus on July 21, 2005 and in the home of two of the men who plotted a terrorist attack against Fort Dix, U.S. Army base in New Jersey. An alarming examples of the effect of beheading videos was made public on January 31, 2007, when nine British Pakistanis were arrested in Birmingham England for planning to kidnap and behead a British Muslim soldier. They planned to videotape the beheading of the soldier in the same manner as the beheading of hostages in Iraq. Several beheading videos were found in a raid on their house. This plot was a prelude to the actual murder of Lee Rigby, a British soldier who was beheaded in broad daylight on a London street on May 22, 2013 by a British jihadist who gave public interviews with the bloody knife in his hand.</p>
<p>In a July 2012 incident police found beheading videos and bomb-making materials in the home of a British Muslim couple who were convicted for plotting to bomb Jewish targets in Manchester. In 2008 there was a disturbing report of a 12-year-old non-Muslim British boy who had a collection of beheading videos on his mobile phone. The videos were found by teachers who reported the child to police after he sent clips to his classmates. To a twelve-year-old beheading videos are the perfect combination of horror films and videogames both of which desensitize them to the reality of violence. Al Qaeda and ISIS exploit those addicted to video violence by supplying them with an ideology, weapons, training and real life targets so they can fulfill their heroic violent fantasies. James Foley’s executioner was one of their successful recruits. A trail of beheading videos may lead to his identity.</p>
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		<title>Black Flag in Jersey: A Jihadist Identifier Camouflaged</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dawn-perlmutter/black-flag-in-jersey-a-jihadist-identifier-camouflaged/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=black-flag-in-jersey-a-jihadist-identifier-camouflaged</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 19 Aug 2014 04:20:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Dawn Perlmutter]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[Does the flag of ISIS really not mean anything?]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/bb.png"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-238839" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/bb-450x336.png" alt="bb" width="245" height="183" /></a>On Tuesday August 12, Marc Leibowitz alerted Homeland Security that a black flag of the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) was hanging on a house in Garwood, New Jersey. As a former Israeli paratrooper he understood the importance of reporting suspicious activity. The black flag that was hanging in New Jersey is an indisputable identifier of jihadist terrorist groups including al-Qaeda. It is one of several variations of the ‘Black Flags of Jihad’. It is a variant design of the Black Standard Al-Rāya flag a.k.a. The Black Banner, Banner of the Eagle and The Banner. The white writing is the shahada, the declaration of Islamic faith: There is no god but God, Muhammad is the messenger of God. In this variant the second phrase of the shahada is in the form of the historical signet ring seal of the Prophet Muhammad in the center circle. The black flag is found in terrorist emblems, websites and often appears in violent protests. On September 11, 2012 angry protesters scaled the walls of the U.S. embassy in Cairo and replaced the American flag with the same black flag that was hanging on the porch in this Jersey neighborhood.</p>
<p>The black flag signifies the battle flag of the Prophet Muhammad. It also denotes an end times concept called the Black Flags of Khorasan that refers to a Muslim Army that will rise from the land of Khorasan carrying black flags/banners. Khorasan is a geographic area that includes parts of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. According to hadiths this army will conquer several occupied lands of Muslims till it reaches Jerusalem. The final battle is to take place in the Levant &#8211; Israel, Syria, and Lebanon. The name of the terrorist group ISIS, an acronym for Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham refers to the historical geographic area known as the Levant. Hence, the alternative acronym for their name Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) Al-Sham denotes the province of Bilad al-Sham that was established after the Muslim conquest of Syria. It includes what today is Syria, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon and part of Turkey. In 661 Bilad al-Sham became the seat of power of the Muslim Caliphate. The symbolism of the ISIS army’s name and black flag signifies the territory it plans to conquer as it reclaims the province of Bilad al-sham during its expansion of a new Islamic Caliphate.</p>
<p>Either Mark Dunaway, the 44 year old, who was flying the black flag on his home, is sympathetic to the goals of global jihad or the Muslim convert is one of their useful idiots, with the emphasis on idiot. Dunaway denied knowing what the flag represents or that he ever intended to offer support to ISIS. Symbolic evidence should always be analyzed in the context of other identifiers. Dunaway’s black flag was hanging next to what appeared to be the Turkish national flag, a red flag with the Islamic star and crescent on it. Dunaway not only claimed that he didn’t know that he had hung the ISIS flag he also insisted that the flag he hung next to it was simply a ‘flag of Islam.’ Refusing to acknowledge it is a Turkish flag is suspicious. If it was just a flag of Islam why didn’t he choose one of many other countries flags that display the star and crescent? Perhaps he didn’t want a known affiliation with Turkey. Recent reports revealed that there has been significant recruitment of Turks by ISIS, that at least 1,000 Turks were fighting with ISIS in Iraq and Syria and that Turkey provided Sunni jihadists, including ISIS, funding, arms and sanctuary. The Turkish flag is almost identical to the last flag of the Ottoman Empire, the only difference are slight variations in the proportions of the star and crescent. The Ottoman Empire, the last Caliphate, was abolished in 1924. The two flags together symbolize the restoration of the Islamic Caliphate. A new Islamic Caliphate is precisely what ISIS decreed when it renamed itself Islamic State.</p>
<p>Dunaway also claimed that he has been hanging the flag for ten years. If this is true, it is hard to believe that he did not know what it represented and even more disturbing that it was not recognized by anyone until now. This demonstrates how many people are unaware of the signs and symbols of jihad. Neighbors characterized Dunaway as a loner, one woman said that he is ‘totally harmless’. Of course neighbors of serial killers often say similar things. In FrontPage Mag Daniel Greenfield established that Dunaway may have Islamist sympathies and is not as innocent as he professed.</p>
<blockquote><p><em>“A Facebook page that appears to be his shows that he &#8216;liked&#8217; Zaid Shakir and Bilal Philips. Both are vile bigots and terrorism supporters. Philips was also named an unindicted co-conspirator in the World Trade Center bombing. He also likes Khalid Yassin who called for killing gays and the Wahhabist Abubakar Gumi. Also liked was Abu Mussab Wajdi Akkari and the Islamic Emirate. These are the sorts of figures you might like if you’re a convert with Islamist sympathies. These are the sorts of Muslim figures that you’re more likely to like if you have a Salafist orientation. These are the sorts of Islamic leaders who are fairly blunt about calling for the full force of Islamic law to come down on anyone and everyone… including the United States.”</em></p></blockquote>
<p>The obvious question is where did Dunaway get the black flag from, it’s not like you can just buy it at a flag store or a gift shop. Although jihadi flags, t-shirts and other terrorist gear can be purchased on-line through militant shops that operate on e-bay, Facebook and other venues. Dunaway claimed that a friend gave the flag to him years ago. If true, was it part of his recruitment process or like other homegrown terrorists was he radicalized on-line? This would not be the first time that black flags were identifiers of radicalization. Tamerlan Tsarnaev one of the Boston Marathon bombers posted a video on his YouTube page titled, The Emergence of Prophecy: The Black Flags From Khorasan.</p>
<p>After the photo went viral on twitter and received media attention, a spokesman for CAIR immediately disseminated misinformation about the flag. Ibrahim Hooper told ABC News that the flag is simply “a profession of Muslim faith,” and “Every Muslim in America has this phrase somewhere in their home,” “This man just chose to put it on a flag.” Hooper added “that ISIS is a relatively new organization and Dunaway&#8217;s flag flying predates it.” The CAIR spokesman neglected to mention that prior to being the ISIS flag it was the flag of the Islamic State of Iraq and is currently the flag of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and the al Shabaab war flag. It also often appears on jihadist forums, Facebook and twitter pages.</p>
<p>CAIR’s claim that the flag is just a nonthreatening expression of Islamic faith serves to perpetuate their misinformation strategy that characterizes every incident as a form of Islamophobia and Muslim persecution. CAIR’s Muslim victimhood campaign in combination with the liberal medias reluctance to further investigate these seemingly innocuous incidents results in good citizens like Marc Leibowitz apologizing to Dunaway for what he now thinks is a misunderstanding. Leibowitz should be congratulated for recognizing and reporting the signs of radical Islam, not made to think he overreacted and endangered an innocent Muslim. Unfortunately this undermines the Department of Homeland Security’s national public awareness campaign ‘If You See Something, Say Something’ designed as a simple program to raise awareness of indicators of terrorism and to emphasize the importance of reporting suspicious activity to the proper local law enforcement authorities. Regardless of Dunaway&#8217;s intent the result is that an obvious terrorist identifier, the ‘Black Flag of Jihad’, has been successfully camouflaged as a benign symbol of faith, protected in the media by political correctness and Muslim apologetics. Instead of focusing on a potential radicalized American citizen who had the audacity to fly the flag of ISIS news reports portrayed Dunaway as a nice guy that took his Muslim flags down because he did not want to offend his neighbors. Case closed; move on, nothing to see here. Disinformation mission accomplished.</p>
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		<title>Bowe Bergdahl Dances With Wolves</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dawn-perlmutter/bowe-bergdahl-dances-with-wolves/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=bowe-bergdahl-dances-with-wolves</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 10 Jun 2014 04:52:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Dawn Perlmutter]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Afghanistan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[honor code]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sex slaves]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sioux Indian tribe]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Taliban]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=233564</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The heavy price a deserter paid for idealizing the Taliban as the "Noble Savage."]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/dw.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-233567" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/dw-450x335.jpg" alt="dw" width="316" height="235" /></a><em>Dances with Wolves</em> is a 1990 film starring Kevin Costner as an army lieutenant who leaves his unoccupied American frontier military post because he is attracted to the lifestyle and customs of a Sioux Indian tribe. He learns their language, is accepted as an honored guest, and eventually abandons his post after he falls in love with one of their women. When U.S. army soldiers reoccupy the post the lieutenant is captured, arrested as a traitor, and charged with desertion. While being transported back east as a prisoner, the Sioux track down the convoy, kill the soldiers, and free the lieutenant. The film ends with him riding into the mountains with his Sioux wife. This liberal love story—similar to many others that demonize the white man and the military, as well as misrepresent the barbarism of their enemies—is the type of fairytale that may have inspired Bowe Bergdahl to walk off into the mountains of Afghanistan.</p>
<p>Like Kevin Costner in the film, Bergdahl began learning the native language of Pashto, and reportedly spent more time with the Afghans than he did with his platoon. A few days before he went missing, he told his parents in an e-mail that he “was ashamed to be an American,” and that “the horror that is America is disgusting.” Several news reports claimed that the night he disappeared from his base in Afghanistan he left a note in his tent saying “he wanted to renounce his citizenship and go find the Taliban.”</p>
<p>Bergdahl’s disillusionment seems to be based upon a combination of the belief in the mythology of the Noble Savage and liberal propaganda derived from postcolonial and anti-hegemonic theory that interprets history, politics, and culture in the context of Western domination and oppression. This form of disillusionment is perpetuated in Hollywood films and revisionist history that portray white men as the oppressors in every conflict regardless of factual historical accounts. <em>Dances with Wolves</em> depicted the Sioux as pacifists and environmentalists when they were the most bloodthirsty of all the Plains Indian tribes, raping, pillaging, and torturing people for entertainment.</p>
<p>Bergdahl seemed to have similar misconceptions idealizing the Taliban and not understanding the threat. His fellow platoon members contend that he was a deserter. If that is the case, then similar to the army lieutenant in the film <em>Dances with Wolves,</em> Bergdahl “Turned Injun,” a pejorative, but accurate expression for traitors who willingly convert to their enemies’ ideology and adopt their traditions, language, and customs.</p>
<p>“Turning Injun” should not be equated with “Stockholm Syndrome,” in which a person is taken hostage and may begin to sympathize and identify with their captives. The difference is significant: the latter relinquishes culpability. By choosing to abandon his unit Bergdahl was not a typical hostage who was taken captive eventually suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, rather he was a victim of liberal idealism who was mugged by reality. His suffering involved severe disillusionment &#8212; the result of bitter disappointment that the Taliban whom he idealized as the Noble Savage turned out simply to be savages.</p>
<p>Conflicting reports of Bergdahl converting to Islam and working with the Taliban while also trying to escape has provoked disagreement and contradictory interpretations of the situation. Understanding some of the Taliban sexual practices may explain some of the inconsistency in Bergdahl’s behavior. The Taliban are ethnic Pashtun who combine Islam with their Pastunwali honor code, often resulting in differences in perceptions of honor and shame particularly as it relates to sexuality. A practice that is designated as strictly taboo in Islam but widely practiced by the Pashtun and Taliban is sex between men. Pashtun reject the label of homosexuality and describe relationships with other men as something they do, not who they are. In addition, it is common for men to have sexual relationships with young boys. Pashtun men shun women both socially and sexually and one of their most popular sayings is “women are for children, boys are for pleasure.” For Pashtun men, having a young boy lover (ashna) is not only not taboo, but increases status and reputation. This is exemplified in a prevalent cultural practice called “bacha bazi,” or “boy play.”</p>
<p>Bacha bazi is essentially the practice of trafficking pre-teen and teenage boys to be used as sex slaves by Afghani Pashtun men of status. The young boys are kidnapped into the trade or sometimes sold by their parents who are desperate for money. The boys are forced to dance and sing, wear make-up, and dress like girls at parties where they are often shared with their owners&#8217; close friends for sex. Dancing boys are a lucrative business. Men pay a lot of money to purchase boys who are placed up for auction, kept as permanent sex slaves, traded, or resold. The practice was originally more common in northern Afghanistan but has spread to the South. Afghans view this tradition with pride.</p>
<p>The Taliban attempted to suppress homosexuality and eliminate the tradition of bacha bazi, but it was so pervasive among Taliban militants that there was little effort made to stop the practice or crimes related to the activity. In an attempt to mitigate the abuse of young boys, the Taliban came up with a set of 30 laws in 2007. Law #19 stated that Taliban fighters must not take young boys without facial hair into their private quarters. For the Pashtun it is simply a way of life not any different than the practice of child brides to older men, so it is neither immoral nor shameful. In fact, it is socially sanctioned, has historical precedence, and is glorified in Pashtun poetry and literature. The only instance where shame is attached is serving in the female role, and that is mitigated by growing into the male role.</p>
<p>Regardless of whether Bergdahl was a collaborator who naively joined the Taliban to help the Afghan people, or whether he was captured after wandering off base, he most likely was repeatedly raped. Bergdahl may have been relegated to one of the Taliban ‘Ashna’ boys that are groomed for sex—in prison parlance, he was their “bitch.” This may explain his attempts at escape and his clean shaven appearance during his handover to American Special Operations troops. In recent reports Bowe Bergdahl told military officials that he was tortured, beaten and locked in a shark cage in total darkness for weeks at a time as punishment for trying to escape. The Taliban also gang rape men, women and children as punishment. If he were raped by the Taliban or kept as a sex boy it is unlikely that it will become public knowledge.</p>
<p>This entire scandal can be analyzed in terms of honor. Bergdahl did not comprehend military honor as he did not have any loyalty for his fellow soldiers or allegiance to his country. He certainly did not have any comprehension of the Pastunwali honor code or he would have understood that the Taliban could never respect someone who betrayed his own people. If National Security Advisor Susan Rice had any concept of honor, she would not have stated that Bergdahl served with honor and distinction. The administration also obviously has no concept of military or Pashtun honor, as they would have understood that a prisoner swap only demonstrates weakness, shame and a loss of face for both the military and America.</p>
<p>The Bergdahl scandal exemplifies how political correctness has infected every aspect of the military, from suspending counter jihad training courses, to relaxing uniform rules to make religious allowances. The epitome of political correctness is exemplified in the fact that although Bergdahl left written notes indicating he abandoned his platoon, he was promoted in absentia twice from private first class to sergeant, and almost received a third promotion to staff sergeant.</p>
<p>Army basic training is supposed to transform civilians into disciplined infantrymen that possess the Army values, fundamental soldier skills, physical fitness, character, confidence, commitment, loyalty, and the warrior ethos ready to accomplish the mission of the infantry. Now, however, their hands are tied by a Commander-in-Chief who in one year fired nine senior commanding Generals and whose politically correct policies led to the degradation of traditional military culture. This resulted in a soldier who acted upon misguided ideals of social justice, viewed violent enemies as oppressed occupied victims of American aggression and who had no concept of loyalty and allegiance to his brothers in arms. The Army was supposed to teach Bowe Bergdahl about honor and shame; instead the Taliban did.</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank"><strong>Click here</strong></a><strong>.   </strong></p>
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		<title>Jihadist Trophies of War</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dawn-perlmutter/jihadist-trophies-of-war/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=jihadist-trophies-of-war</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 12 May 2014 04:50:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Dawn Perlmutter]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Girls]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[islamic holy war]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[jihadist]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kidnapping]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[trophies]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=225102</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[How the jihadist warrior achieves status and honor in Islamic holy war. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/tr.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-225104" alt="tr" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/tr-450x325.jpg" width="315" height="227" /></a>To fully comprehend how jihadists can abduct over three hundred schoolgirls for the purpose of selling them into sexual slavery and how they can behead, dismember and cannibalize their enemies, these incidents need to be understood as Islamist trophies of war. Human trophy taking is an ancient and widespread practice that appears in almost every culture throughout history. Historically, the classic example of trophies of war are human body parts, most often the head, but also skulls, teeth, fingers and soft body parts such as scalps, ears and genitalia. The second most common trophies of war are women who are taken as slaves or wives. Human trophies are material status symbols of the successful warrior. The origin of the term trophy is derived from the Greek tropaion referring to arms, property, human captives and body parts captured in battle that commemorate victory over a state, army or individual combatant.  The abducted Nigerian girls are Boko Haram’s war trophies in the Islamic global holy war (jihad). The practice of sexual slavery of apostates and non-Muslim women is justified by Islamic law, as is the practice of beheading, dismembering and mutilating the enemies of Islam.</p>
<p>Historically, for many cultures, the most important trophy was the human head. This is true of Islam where beheading has long historical and theological precedents. The trophy head still is the Jihadist’s emblem of war, a sign of victory, martial prowess and power appropriated from the victim. It confers status and honor upon the jihadist warrior. From serial killers to Syrian jihadists, human trophy taking involves ritual behaviors that demonstrate dominance over the victim and commemorate the kill.  Disarticulated human body parts obtained from fallen enemies historically were collected, exhibited, displayed, saved or worn. In the 20<sup>th</sup> century photography became another method of commemorating victory. Photos of the killing or posing with dead enemies replaced taking the actual body part. Photos of murders are often referred to as souvenirs and photos from combat as war porn. Traditionally human trophies required actual body parts as proof of the kill. However, mobile phone technology and internet video sites have introduced a new phenomenon in human war trophies: videotaped beheadings, dismemberment and mutilation. Instead of having a necklace of ears or a belt of scalps, jihadists preserve their kills on their cell phones. Similar to other warrior contests, a rivalry over who can videotape the worst atrocity escalates.  The violent image that goes viral wins.</p>
<p>Videotaped beheadings and atrocities are the new trophies of war. The father of modern beheading , Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, was notorious for beheading dozens of Iraqi and foreign hostages and distributing videos of the beheadings on the Internet. Zarqawi’s videotapes can be considered Beheading 1.0. They were formal ritual executions that involved a reading of offenses (transgressions), confession, judgment, last words, execution, praising of Allah and a statement of demands. Today, ten years later the Syrian jihadists, Afghan and Pakistani Taliban, Somali Al Shabaab, al Qaeda and Salafi jihadists around the world are engaged in Beheading 2.0, exemplified by savagery unleashed.  Jihadist beheadings have devolved into primal feral warfare with cannibalism, feeding body parts to dogs, grilling heads on stoves, playing soccer with human heads and many other atrocities, videotaped and uploaded on the internet. These murders are always ritualized even if it is just the proclamation of Allahu Akbar to sanction the violence.</p>
<p>This type of violence is often misinterpreted by Western analysts as deviant behavior. It is often construed as similar to the actions of serial killers who photograph their victims to relive the experience or as aberrant soldiers who were predisposed to psychopathy. Indeed most of the general public can only comprehend these horrors as the actions of the mentally ill. Beheadings, cannibalism, dismemberment is not the result of psychopathology, it is authentic Islam. Violent atrocity committed for the cause of global jihad is Islam in its natural state, unveiled, without political correctness, voices of apology or revisionist history. It is also al Qaeda’s stated ideological goal, the purification of Islam through violent struggle. Culturally sanctioned violence is not pathological it is the norm. The violence, no matter how inexplicable, is justified as purification rites to cleanse Islam from its exposure to Western influence.</p>
<p>Authentic Islam sanctions beheadings and sexual slavery. Trophy heads and women have always been the spoils of war. To understand how Islam permits men to buy and sell girls, captured in jihad, as sexual slaves read Islam, Slavery and Rape in FrontPage May 7, 2014. In a recent video Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau arrogantly proclaims, &#8220;I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market, by Allah,&#8221;…. “I abducted a girl at a Western education school and you are disturbed. I said Western education should end. Girls, you should go and get married,” he said. “I will marry off a woman at the age of 12. I will marry off a girl at the age of nine. “God instructed me to sell them, they are his properties and I will carry out his instructions,”… &#8220;There is a market for selling humans. Allah says I should sell. He commands me to sell. I will sell women. I sell women.” During his video jihadists militants are firing rifles in the air and crying, &#8220;Allahu Akbar!&#8221; Shekau’s message is not intended as a justification for his actions it is a recruitment video, a brilliant piece of propaganda that will appeal to sexually frustrated men who will join the fight just so they can engage in morally sanctioned sex.</p>
<p>Women and human body parts are traditional trophies of war. Videos that display the severing of body parts and depict men laughing and playing with human heads and holding up severed heads are the new trophies of war. Now technology allows jihadists to display their trophies to the whole world.  These videos are badges of honor that demonstrate military prowess, bestow status and most significantly inspire others to join. Al Qaeda understands that sex, violence, heroism and other rewards of battle sells. The history of Islam is a history of trophies of war.</p>
<p><em>Dawn Perlmutter Director of Symbol &amp; Ritual Intelligence and adj. Professor in the Forensic Medicine Program at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine is considered one of the leading subject matter experts (SME) in the areas of symbols, unfamiliar customs, ritualistic crimes and religious violence. She has advised police departments and prosecutors offices on numerous cases of ritual homicide and presented expert witness testimony on ritualistic crimes.</em></p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>.   </b></p>
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		<title>‘Jinn’ &#8211; Supernatural Thriller versus Real Life Horror</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dawn-perlmutter/jinn-supernatural-thriller-versus-real-life-horror/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=jinn-supernatural-thriller-versus-real-life-horror</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 07 Apr 2014 04:05:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Dawn Perlmutter]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dominic Rains]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[jinn]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[new film]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[quran]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=222796</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Why are all references to Islam scrubbed from a new film about an Islamic reality? ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/kj.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-222828" alt="kj" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/kj.jpg" width="360" height="239" /></a>Spoiler alert &#8211; The film ‘Jinn’ from Exxodus Pictures, written and directed by Ajmal Zaheer Ahmad and starring Ray Park, Dominic Rains, Serinda Swan, Faran Tahir and William Atherton opened on 4-4-14. Promoted as a supernatural thriller, movie goers in the U.S. can now add Jinn to Vampires, Zombies, Poltergeists and other manifestations of evil spirits /creatures depicted in horror films. The film was supposed to &#8220;introduce the accurate mythological concept of the jinn to western audiences&#8221;.  Instead it presents a multicultural version of what a large segment of the world&#8217;s population regard as real, tangible beings that significantly affect their lives. For millions of Muslims around the world jinn exist and are experienced as real among both the illiterate and the educated.  Jinn are an integral part of Islamic theology. Jinn are mentioned in the Quran and the prophetic tradition and are described as actual, intelligent life forms. The Quranic message itself is addressed to both humans and jinn.  Michigan born Director Ahmad portrays jinn as if they are also found in Judaic and Christian theology. In fact the entire film never once mentions Muslims, Islam or the Quran.</p>
<p>The main character Shawn (Dominic Rains), an orphaned automotive designer, and his new wife Jasmine (Serinda Swan) live in present day Ann Arbor, Michigan. They are haunted by jinn as the result of a curse that has plagued his family for generations.  Aided by Gabriel (Ray Park), a good jinn, Father Westhoff (William Atherton), a priest and Ali (Faran Tahir), a shackled mental patient, Shawn uses his customized muscle car, the Firebreather, to elude the jinn, protect his family and save the world from evil. The car designed by Director Ahmad was created for the sole purpose of this film and is the first vehicle in motion picture history available to the public for purchase. Several of the 50 limited editions, produced as exact replicas of the vehicle in the movie, sold before the film debuted. The Firebreather, a modified Camaro SS with a V8, Edlebrock E-Force Supercharger System 599 horsepower engine that resembles a classic Pontiac Firebird is arguably the best part of the film.</p>
<p>Director Ahmad accurately portrays the phenomena associated with the concept of jinn. In the film jinn shape shift to black smoke and feral creatures, are made of fire, can fly, have super strength, possess people, haunt homes and inhabit caves, sewers and graveyards. Symbolically, evil Jinn dwell in ritually unclean places because they are intrinsically impure, signifying contagious evil, intensifying the inherent primal fears associated with defilement of Islamic purity. The film also accurately depicts an Islamic mystical practice known as chilla, a 40 day ascetic ritual that is used to summon and control jinn. The main character Shawn wears a taweez, an Islamic protective amulet, although it is not identified as such in the film.</p>
<p>In general, evil jinn are characteristically similar to the Western concept of demons and ghosts, while good jinn have attributes similar to the Western concept of guardian angels. Evil jinn are often believed to haunt people and places while good jinn can protect, empower and assist humans in many ways. Director Ahmad inaccurately equated the Islamic concept of Jinn with the Christian conception of angels and demons. This serious error resulted in portraying a cathedral as sacred space, interpreting a passage in the Old Testament Book of Ezekiel as a description of jinn and depicting a priest instead of a Muslim cleric as the guardian of sacred knowledge and keeper of the holy sword to battle the jinn.</p>
<p>In real life Muslim exorcists who practice Quranic medicine are the only individuals qualified to expel jinn. Muslims around the world believe that jinn cause illness, depression, health, wealth, natural disasters, war, and all mundane and inexplicable phenomena.  The most common belief is that evil jinn are spiritual entities that can haunt, enter and possess people exercising supernatural influence over them. For this reason physical or mental illness is often attributed to being cursed, haunted or possessed by jinn and can only be cured through Islamic healing. The popular practice of spiritual healing through Quranic medicine, specifically exorcism, is known as Ruqyah.  Since millions of people believe in Jinn, there are hundreds of professional exorcists who perform Quranic healing around the world. Islamic spiritual healers must be pious individuals who consider themselves to be an instrument of Allah, invoke Allah’s help and utilize the Quran or a phrase of Allah in Arabic to invoke His protection. Most of the treatments typically involve recitations from the Quran to remove black magic curses and to evict jinn. Many healers are fraudulent but nonviolent. Unfortunately, many other Quranic exorcisms involve sexual abuse, torture and violent atrocities that are much more of a horror film than the jinn creatures in this fictional thriller.</p>
<p>In the film ‘Jinn’, the character Ali has been shackled to the floor of a mental institution for 20 years because he failed his chilla ritual and the jinn took control of him. In Afghanistan and Pakistan it is a common practice of chaining the mentally ill, who are believed to be possessed by Jinn, to shrines. This is a version of the chilla ritual in which they are chained by their foot to a wall in a shrine cell for 40 days to ritually exorcise the Jinn. In Saudi Arabia a 29-year-old man was chained in a basement apartment in Mecca for more than six years because his father believed he was possessed by jinn.</p>
<p>In the film Shawn fights the jinn by reciting verses, using a sacred dagger to repeatedly stab them and submerging the jinn in a fountain of holy water. The same methods are commonly used in Islamic exorcism rituals. Many men, women and children accused of Jinn possession are subjected to exorcisms that involve violent assaults. Quranic exorcisms are performed by Muslim clerics, healers and family members throughout the world, including  Western countries, and involve atrocities that are far worse than any of the violence  depicted in the film. Many Jinn exorcisms entail ritualistic torture including beatings with sticks, the use of hot knives, submersion in water, burnings, disembowelments and other mutilations often resulting in death. The torture is justified by the belief that the Jinn need to be beaten out of the person. The use of water and fire are purification rituals to expel evil Jinn. If the person cries out in pain it is believed that it is the jinn reacting to the pain and not the person. Some exorcists believe that a person’s organs can be possessed and must be removed.</p>
<p>The reality of belief in jinn is stranger and more violent than fiction. On December 16, 2010, in East London, Shayma Ali, 36, stabbed her four year old daughter 40 times and cut out her liver while Quranic verses played in the background. She was convinced that the child was possessed by an evil Jinn. On July 8, 2009 in Birmingham, England,  21 year old Naila Mumtaz was murdered by her in-laws and husband when they attempted to drive out an evil Jinn spirit. Naila was six months pregnant when she was assaulted, smothered and suffocated during the exorcism. On October 10, 2009 in Antwerp, Belgium, 18 year old Layla Hachichi died of severe burns after a Moroccan exorcist poured boiling hot water on her for three days during an exorcism ritual. Her parents hired the Quranic healer because they attributed Layla’s lesbianism to being possessed by devils. In Abu Dhabi, UAE in 2012 an Emirati father and his girlfriend tortured his 8 year old daughter Wudeema to death and injured her 7 year old sister Meera to exorcise jinn from their bodies.  For six months they beat, burned and tortured the girls with cigarettes, an iron, electric prods and poured hot water on their bodies. These are just a few examples of the dozens of ritual killings that occur during jinn exorcisms.</p>
<p>Director Ahmad was born and raised in West Bloomfield, Michigan to parents who migrated from Pakistan in the early 1980’s. Some of the worst atrocities committed during jinn exorcisms occur in Pakistan. In July 2011 an exorcist was arrested in Ghakhar Mandi , Pakistan for torturing a 16 year old boy during an exorcism. The boy’s muscles were damaged when hot blades and knives were used to force Jinn demons to leave his body. In December, 2012 in Mansoorabad, Pakistan, an exorcist was arrested for torturing a 19 year old mentally challenged man to death and beating his twin brother to exorcise jinn from their bodies. All of these incidents and many more occurred while ‘Jinn’ the movie was in production.</p>
<p>Islamic exorcisms resulting in the victim’s death are ritual killings. Exorcisms are another manifestation of Islamic ritual murder. The film was publicized as ‘the secret that half the world has been keeping’.  The real secret is that exorcisms, similar to honor killings, Jihadist murder and beheadings are justified by Islamic theology. If writer Director Ajmal Zaheer Ahmad really wanted to give horror fans something they had never seen before he should have just made a documentary of the ritual atrocities performed in jinn exorcisms. Instead he equated jinn to Christian conceptions of angels and demons and scrubbed any reference to Islam from the film. As a savvy business man he understood that exposing any of the real life horrors of Islam would provoke protests, censorship and prevent any sequels. Check out the car, skip the film.</p>
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		<title>The Boston Black Widow</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dawn-perlmutter/the-boston-black-widow/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=the-boston-black-widow</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 12 Mar 2014 04:35:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Dawn Perlmutter]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Boston Marathon bombing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dzhokhar Tsarnaev]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Heda Umarova]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jihad]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Radical]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=220790</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Where is Heda Umarova -- Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's longtime friend?]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/bw.gif"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-220793" alt="bw" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/bw-350x350.gif" width="280" height="280" /></a>Another member of the Chechen terrorist cell operating in Boston has eluded authorities. Heda Umarova, a 23 year old Boston student and longtime friend of Boston marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is being sought by U.S. counterterrorism officials for posting disturbing jihadi imagery online. Similar to the Tsarnaev family, the Umarova Family were in the U.S. after seeking political asylum but still traveled back and forth to the country that they fled from. Although Heda and her brothers were under suspicion for their online support for the Tsarnaev brothers and Heda was the author of the #freejahar network, the family was permitted to travel to their native Chechnya just four months after the Boston bombings. Regardless of her round-trip ticket Heda failed to return to Massachusetts with her parents at the end of August. They claimed she stayed in Chechnya to get married to a “lovely” groom that Heda met during Ramadan services.</p>
<p>Heda Umarova&#8217;s Internet posts clearly demonstrate that her radicalization is complete and that she is ready for her final training in preparation for jihadist operations. Her posts include a photo-shopped image of a U.S. passport in a carry-on bag covered in the jihad black flag and photos of female jihadist soldiers. Her social media page also linked to the Kavkaz Center, which is affiliated with the designated terrorist group the Caucasus Emirate. Vilayat Dagestan, formerly known as Shariat Jamaat, is one of several Salafi jihadist groups under the umbrella of the Caucasus Emirate.  Vilayat Dagestan claimed responsibility for the twin suicide attacks in Volgograd in December 2013. Similar to Hezbollah and Hamas, the Caucasus Emirate and its affiliate groups have a huge media presence including on-line blogs, twitter, websites, Facebook, news, radio and television stations. There is even a division called Anonymous Caucasus also known as the Electronic Army of the Caucasus Emirate.</p>
<p>Chechen Islamists often utilize women as suicide bombers and refer to them as ‘Black Widows’. They are often the wives or daughters of Chechen militants killed by Russians. Black Widows were involved in several suicide attacks from 2000 to 2004 against Russian targets and became active again in 2010. Chechen women also participated in hostage operations, including the October 2002 seizure of a Moscow theater and the September 2004 seizure of a school in Beslan.  Since 2010 their operations have been backed by the Islamic Caucasus Emirate group, al Qaeda&#8217;s affiliate in the Caucasus. This may explain how Heda is supporting herself in Chechnya. Most of the women are from Dagestan, the epicenter of violence in the conflict between Islamists and Russian federal forces. However, Heda’s anger is directed at the United States for the death of Tamerlan and the imprisonment of Dzhokhar. This makes her more likely to target Americans.</p>
<p>Prior to going operational Black Widows have posted photos of themselves on social media, knowing they will be used in reports covering their bombings and in Islamist propaganda.  On March 29, 2010, two female Chechen suicide bombers killed 40 people and wounded more than 100 in Moscow’s subway system during rush hour. One of the bombers was 17 year old Dzhanet Abdurakhmanova, from the Khasavyurtsky region of Dagestan. She was the widow of Dagestani militant leader Umalat Magomedov, who was killed by federal troops the previous year. Dzhanet posted photos of herself wearing a black hijab and clutching a gun. She also posed with her husband brandishing weapons.</p>
<p>On October 21, 2013 a Dagestani woman named Naida Asiyalova detonated an explosive belt containing 500–600 grams of TNT inside a bus at a train station in Volgograd killing 7 civilians and injuring at least 36 others. This was one of three suicide attacks in the southern Russian city of Volgograd prior to the Sochi Winter Olympics. In 2010 Naida met Dmitry Sokolov on a Russian dating website, fell in love and converted him to radical Islam. Three years later Dmitry built and strapped on the explosive belt which blew up his wife and five others. A few weeks later he was killed in a standoff with police. This is the jihadist version of Romeo and Juliet. Young men and women romanticize the Islamist cause and their heroic role in it. Al Qaeda propaganda glorifies their martyrdom which further inspires them to kill and die in the global jihad.  It appears that Heda Umarova has succumbed to the same jihadist love story. There should be no doubt that Heda is training in Chechnya for terrorist operations.  If she succeeds she will be the first American Black Widow.</p>
<p><em>Dawn Perlmutter Director of Symbol &amp; Ritual Intelligence and Shillman/Ginsburg Writing Fellow at the Middle East Forum is considered one of the leading subject matter experts (SME) in the areas of symbols, unfamiliar customs, ritual murder and religious violence.</em></p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>.   </b></p>
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		<title>Jihadist Gang Graffiti</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dawn-perlmutter/jihadist-gang-graffiti/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=jihadist-gang-graffiti</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 25 Feb 2014 05:35:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Dawn Perlmutter]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[graffiti]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jihad]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Palestinian]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[vandalism]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=219650</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The hip, cool new medium of spreading the message of Islamic holy war. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/1unnamed.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-219651" alt="1unnamed" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/1unnamed-450x300.jpg" width="315" height="210" /></a>Young Islamists and their sympathizers are tagging, stenciling, painting, vandalizing and using every genre of graffiti to spread the global jihadist message. Similar to other gangs they are using spray paint to mark their territory, demonstrate their allegiance, advertise their gang&#8217;s status and power, memorialize fallen fellow gang members, praise violence and threaten their enemies. Jihadist graffiti functions as communication and recruitment and is popping up in cities around the world including: Toronto, London, Dublin, Derry, Glasgow, Augsburg, Munich, Moscow, Toulouse, Frejus, Helsinki, Rome, Crete, Jerusalem, Beirut, Salt lake City, New York City, Washington, D.C. Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia, Oakland and many others. Islamist graffiti is a popular artistic form of rebellion that portrays the global jihad movement as hip and cool. It appeals to young people who do not consider graffiti vandalism but view it as artistic expression and an agency for popular resistance and change. Spray painting Islamist slogans and jihadist phrases goes beyond graffiti as protest art. Islamist graffiti is a symbolic warfare tactic, a successful stealth information strategy camouflaged as street art.</span></p>
<p>Although Islamist graffiti is relatively new to Western cities, the words, signs and symbols of terrorist groups have been proudly spray painted on their home turf for decades. Similar to gangs who mark their neighborhoods with slogans or symbols exclusive to the gang, Palestinian terrorist groups spray paint their emblems on the walls of Nablus, Gaza City and Ramallah, often not far from posters glorifying suicide bombers. Gang graffiti also frequently includes the territory claimed by the gang. Similarly Palestinian graffiti often depicts the map of Israel to represent what they consider to be their turf.</p>
<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/unnamed.jpg"><img class="alignright  wp-image-219652" alt="unnamed" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/unnamed-450x299.jpg" width="270" height="179" /></a>Gang graffiti often includes threats and challenges to rival gangs. Islamist gang graffiti functions the same way. On December 10, 2009, the words ‘Islam will dominate the world &#8211; Osama is on his way’ and ‘Kill Gordon Brown’ were spray painted on a war memorial in Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. On August 4, 2011 a swastika and the message &#8220;Islam will rule&#8221; were spray-painted on the Robbins Hebrew Academy, an elementary school attached to a Synagogue in Toronto. On May 13, 2008 stores, pavements and the walls of four synagogues in Stamford Hill and Clapton Common neighborhoods in London were spray painted with 40 pieces of graffiti that read “Jihad to Israel&#8221; and &#8220;Jihad to Tel Aviv. Often Jihadist gang graffiti is not even considered vandalism or threatening and goes unrecognized as hate speech or terroristic threats. This is because the most common words that appear in Islamist graffiti: Jihad, Intifada and Allahu Akbar, are regarded as non-threatening expressions of faith and/or resistance to oppression.</p>
<p>The word Jihad has been the subject matter in graffiti for years, often flying under the radar as street art. On June 15, 2013 JIHAD was spray painted in black lettering, nearly 20 feet high, on a wall along the northbound lanes of Interstate 95 in Delray Beach, Florida. In Oakland, California a graffiti writer who goes by the name of JIHAD is part of the PI Crew and has been painting large scale (master) pieces of the word JIHAD all over Oakland. The incongruity of the term jihad appearing in large graffiti pieces makes one question if the street artist name was chosen to garner attention and perhaps completely unrelated to Islam.  Images of hijab clad women by the same graffiti artist put to rest any doubt. Imagine the response if a graffiti writer chose ‘RAHOWA’, a white supremacists acronym for Racial Holy War, as his street name and painted 50 foot murals of the white supremacist call to holy war all over the city. He would be accused of racism and charged with a hate crime. Even if this young street artist believes jihad means inner struggle and is unaware that he is advocating holy war, his ‘JIHAD’ graffiti is extremely popular on the internet spreading the message. Jihadists around the world must be enjoying the fact that their battle cry is being proudly displayed in American cities. Perhaps Jihad of the PI Crew is a young Muslim convert who knows exactly what he is doing and his graffiti bombing is a prelude to actual bombings.</p>
<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/2unnamed.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-219653" alt="2unnamed" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/2unnamed-450x299.jpg" width="270" height="179" /></a>Jihadists often spray paint the phrase Allahu Akbar on war memorials and churches symbolizing Islam’s supremacy over other religions. On December 4, 2013 the gates of the Augsburg Cathedral, the Moritz church and the evangelical Ulrich church in Augsburg, Germany were sprayed with white Arabic letters spelling out Allahu Akbar. The next day &#8220;Allahu Akbar, Jihad” in Arabic was sprayed on St. Michael’s and St. Benedict’s churches in Munich, Germany. On September 30, 2013, “Allahu Akbar” in Arabic was spray painted in red on a paratrooper memorial in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in Jerusalem. In August 2013 the Helsinki Living Word Church located in Eastern Pasila, was vandalized three times with Islamist graffiti. The messages read ”Allahu Akbar”, “Jesus is a Muslim” and ”Islam is the answer”.</p>
<p>Gangs often leave graffiti at the scene of a burglary or other crime. Similarly, jihadist gangs write Allahu Akbar at the scene of their crimes as a mark of victory and supremacy. Victory graffiti that read “Allahu Akbar” and &#8220;Death to Russians!&#8221; was spray painted on the wall of Planernaya subway station in the Moscow subway on April 3, 2010 marking the success of two suicide bombings  that occurred a few days earlier. On September 11, 2012 after murdering the American Ambassador to Libya members of al Qaeda gang set Ansar al Sharia spray-painted Allahu Akbar on the burned out buildings of the U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi marking their turf and further dishonoring America. A burned out house in Windsor, Connecticut also had Allahu Akbar painted on it. A photo of the house was posted on Jihad watch on August 17, 2013. On June 28, 2012 the words &#8220;Allah Wakbar&#8221; were written in pink and black marker on a seat in the World Trade Center memorial plaza. The misspelled word could be the result of a non-English speaker or a young American recruit who has not yet learned how to spell the battle cry. These are just a few examples of Jihadist gang victory graffiti left at the scene of crimes.</p>
<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/3unnamed.jpg"><img class="wp-image-219654 alignright" alt="3unnamed" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/3unnamed-450x299.jpg" width="270" height="179" /></a>Graffiti is often used to promote or enhance the names and reputations of the gang and to memorialize dead gang members. Osama bin Laden, the Sheik of the Mujahideen gangbangers has been both glorified and memorialized in graffiti. Similar to the word ‘Jihad’ the name Osama has been spray painted by graffiti writers in large letters on walls and trains. A popular method of glorifying bin Laden is a stencil graffiti of his portrait similar in style to the iconic image of Che Guevara. The stenciled graffiti portrait that sometimes includes the words Rest in Peace have popped up everywhere from Brooklyn, New York to Bangor, Wales. On May 2, 2011, immediately after the news of his death, a 50 foot long tribute to bin Laden was spray painted in black on the sound wall of Orange County’s I-405 freeway in Westminster, California. The memorial to the al Qaeda gang leader depicted an upside down American flag with the words un-American written over it flanked by the script &#8220;R.I.P. Osama&#8221; and &#8220;Forever.&#8221;</p>
<p>Mohamed Merah, the 23 year old al Qaeda Mujahideen gangbanger who killed three French paratroopers, a rabbi and three children ages 4, 5, and 7 in a series of three gun attacks in March 2012 in Toulouse and Montauban, France has several graffiti tributes.  Graffiti on the wall of a French house in Tarbes read, &#8220;You were a valiant Knight of Islam! You fought the shit Zionist and the false Muslims. You died guns in hand&#8230; I salute you Mohamed my brother, my friend&#8230; Rest in peace!&#8221; Graffiti in Toulouse read &#8220;Viva Merah&#8221;, and in the Sainte-Croix neighborhood of Fréjus graffiti paying respect to Mohamad Merah and al Qaeda was spray painted on a house. Who knows how many other young discontented French teens were inspired by Merah and look forward to having their name celebrated in spray paint.</p>
<p>Jihadists use graffiti in the same manner and for the same reasons as any other criminal street gang. The writings need to be recognized and documented using methods that law enforcement currently employ to track gang activity, membership, rivalries and affiliations with larger gangs. Spray painting the words Jihad, Intifada or Allahu Akbar does not represent benign expressions of faith or popular resistance. Jihadist gang graffiti embodies Islamist messaging that has a significant impact in recruiting homegrown terrorists, inciting violence and is an indicator of future criminal and terrorist activity.</p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>. </b></p>
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		<title>Benghazi &#8211; The Signs of Al Qaeda</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dawn-perlmutter/benghazi-the-signs-of-al-qaeda/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=benghazi-the-signs-of-al-qaeda</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 02 Jan 2014 05:43:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Dawn Perlmutter]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[al Qaeda]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Benghazi]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hand signs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jihad]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New York Times]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[A review of the jihadist hand signs and graffiti that were used during the Benghazi attack.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Jihadist-Hand-Sign.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-214390" alt="Jihadist Hand Sign" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Jihadist-Hand-Sign-366x350.jpg" width="293" height="280" /></a>The latest version of the Benghazi cover up is being argued with semantics of whether the jihadist group that attacked the U.S. consulate in Benghazi on September 11, 2012 was part of the &#8220;core&#8221; al Qaeda network. State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said,</p>
<blockquote><p>“…at this point, we have no indications that core al-Qaida, which I think is what most people are referring to when they talk about, quote, al-Qaida, directed or planned what happened in Benghazi. …..So it is not the U.S. Government’s assessment or position that Ansar al-Sharia is an affiliate of core al-Qaida. We don’t recognize them as an affiliate of core al-Qaida… These folks don’t carry ID cards. They don’t come out and wear a t-shirt that says, &#8216;I belong to al-Qaida,&#8217; right?”</p></blockquote>
<p>I beg to differ. In addition to the tremendous amount of evidence and statements by members of the House Intelligence Committee claiming that intelligence indicates al Qaeda was involved and that Ansar al Shariah is widely believed to be affiliated with al Qaeda, there are simpler, more obvious indicators. Ms. Harf is correct, they don’t carry ID cards or wear T-shirts that say “I belong to al Qaeda,” but they do throw hand signs and leave graffiti behind in the same manner as gangbangers that just marked their territory after murdering their rival.</p>
<p>The quintessential image that is used in almost every news report about the Benghazi attacks depicts one of the assailants in a white T-shirt with an assault rifle posing with his index finger pointing up in front of the burning consulate. The man is seen in several photos making this gesture using both his left and right hands. This does not signify that he is number one. This gesture is one of the most prevalent Salafi jihadist hand signs. There are images of every al Qaeda leader, including Osama bin Laden, Abu Musab al Zarqawi and others, with their index fingers pointing skywards. Ayman al Zawahiri, the current leader of al Qaeda, is often seen in images making the hand sign. His former top lieutenant Mohammed al Jamal, of the Jamal Network, is believed to have had fighters in the assault on the U.S. diplomatic compound and they would be familiar with this gesture. In October, the State Department designated the Jamal Network as a terrorist group tied to al Qaeda.</p>
<p>The hand gesture also appears on jihadist forums, protest posters, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and in almost every form of al Qaeda propaganda. It is also a favorite gesture among Chechen jihadists, members of the Caucasus Emirate, those most likely responsible for the recent suicide bombings that killed at least 31 people in the city of Volgograd, Russia. Their leader, Doku Umarov, has also been photographed making the jihadi hand sign. For Salafi jihadists groups, the hand gesture of the index finger pointing up represents one God and their willingness to die for Islam, thus attaining martyrdom and entrance into paradise. This Islamist hand sign is also commonly used by radical Imams around the globe while they are recruiting young men to join the global jihad and murder soldiers in their own countries. Although this hand gesture is one of the most recognizable signs of al Qaeda-affiliated jihadist groups, the Obama administration either overlooked, or worse, were unaware of the identifier when they portrayed the attack as a spontaneous protest against an anti-Islam film.</p>
<p>If there is any doubt that Ansar al Sharia Libya is affiliated with al Qaeda, the hand with the index finger pointing up is the central image of their logo. It also happens to be the primary image in the center of al Qaeda’s logo and al Qaeda-affiliated group logos, such as Jaish al Muhajireen awl Ansar in Syria, al Qaeda in Iraq, Palestinian Taliban and others. Similar to street gangs, symbols and gestures demonstrate affiliation with their larger organizations, such as Folk Nation or People Nation. Like the Bloods or the Crips, Ansar al Sharia should be viewed as one street gang in the al Qaeda Nation. Distinctions between &#8220;core&#8221; al Qaeda are irrelevant as these Mujahideen gang bangers share the same goals and the same enemies.</p>
<p>If the gesture was not enough, the Jihadist gangbangers also decided to leave their mark in graffiti. Two different spray-painted Arabic-language graffiti messages that read &#8220;Allahu Akbar&#8221; were scrawled on the buildings of the U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya during the 2012 terror attack. Spray painting &#8220;Allahu Akbar&#8221; is becoming very popular among young jihadists who are vandalizing churches and war monuments with their battle cry in graffiti. Of course, the State Department could claim that the graffiti was just a benign expression of faith, except for the four dead Americans and the burned-out U.S. consulate building.</p>
<p>In combination with the quintessential photo of the assailant using the al Qaeda jihadist hand gesture, the messaging was clear that it was not an anti-Islam film protest. Of course, you have to suspend political correctness to be able to interpret the signs that are literally on the wall. Gang identifiers are visual or verbal ways that <em>gang members</em> identify their affiliation. Law enforcement is trained on gang identifiers so that they can recognize violent incidents as being affiliated with particular street gangs or Security Threat Groups. Unfortunately, training on Islamist identifiers is currently prohibited under the Obama administration, which is why obvious signs continue to go unrecognized.</p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>.   </b></p>
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		<title>Jihadist Murder MO</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dawn-perlmutter/jihadist-murder-mo/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=jihadist-murder-mo</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 06 Dec 2013 05:15:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Dawn Perlmutter]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Adebolajo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[British soldier]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jihad]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lee Rigby]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Shaheedala]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[UK]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=212223</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Islamic symbolism behind the horrific killing of Britian's Lee Rigby. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/pl.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-212226" alt="pl" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/pl-450x253.jpg" width="315" height="177" /></a>The murder trial of British soldier Lee Rigby, 25, the father of one, a member of the Corps of Drums with the 2nd Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Fusilier and a veteran of the Afghan War, is underway in London. Michael Adebolajo, 28, and Michael Adebowale, 22, are on trial charged with murdering Rigby as he walked back to Woolwich Barracks in southeast London on May 22, 2013. Adebolajo and Adebowale, both British citizens, drove a car straight at Rigby in broad daylight as he walked across the road, hitting him from behind and then repeatedly stabbing him with a meat cleaver and knives in front of a crowd of bystanders. Fusilier Rigby died of multiple stab wounds. Instead of fleeing the scene, Adebolajo gave interviews to the crowd while holding the murder weapon in his bloody hands. He wanted to make it clear that the Islamic motivation for the attack was known, he said: “We swear by the almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you until you leave us alone. We must fight them as they fight us. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” Adebolajo also handed a letter to one of the witnesses that read, &#8216;To my beloved children know that to fight Allah&#8217;s enemies is an obligation. …&#8217;Seek Shaheedala oh my sons so that you might be raised together.” There is no dispute that the motivation for the murder was vengeance against the enemies of Islam. The two men were successfully radicalized and incited to murder by jihadist propaganda that continually asserts that their honor has been disrespected, that Muslim territory has been occupied, that Muslim holy lands must be purified of infidels and that cleansing Islam of infidel unbelievers is a function of jihad, holy war and a justification for murder.</p>
<p>Headlines and news reports of the trial describe the murder of British soldier Lee Rigby as shocking, chilling, barbaric and callous. The reporting demonstrates a serious lack of knowledge of the prevalence and trauma affiliated with Islamist murders. The murder of Lee Rigby was incorrectly described by the prosecutor and reported by some news agencies as an attempted decapitation.  The prosecutor told jurors “He was repeatedly stabbed and Adebolajo made a serious and almost successful attempt to ­decapitate him with multiple blows to his neck with the meat cleaver. “ Rigby was not decapitated he was beheaded. The distinction between decapitation and beheading is extremely significant in the prosecution of murders in the U.S. Decapitation occurs post mortem &#8211; after death- and is designated as abuse of a corpse which is a misdemeanor. Beheading occurs perimortem &#8211; at or around the time of death while the victim is alive -and can be designated as murder involving torture which is a capital offense punishable by death. Eyewitness testimony clearly establishes that Lee Rigby was unconscious but alive while having his throat cut. Specifically, Adebolajo held Mr. Rigby’s head by the hair before repeatedly hacking at the right side of his neck with a meat cleaver. Exposing the neck by grabbing the hair of the victim is the standard jihadist execution method depicted in dozens of beheading videos easily accessible on line.</p>
<p>Both decapitation and beheading are ritual murders that have specific symbolic significance. Mexican Cartels leave narco messages and publicly display bodies in humiliating positions. Serial killers who commit similar atrocities imbue their own symbolism, victimology and trauma into the crime. However, jihadists who commit ritual murders have a shared symbolism, trauma, victimology and motivation establishing a pattern, a ‘Jihadist Modus Operandi’. The jihadist MO involves neck trauma, partial or full beheading, decapitation, and often facial and other mutilation committed by Muslim offenders whose motivation and victimology are connected to Islamist ideology or Islamic controversies. Contrary to popular belief, a jihadist MO does not always entail a complete severing of the head from the body. Typically in beheadings in Western countries the throat is slit and not detached from the body. Complete severing of the head from the body is more common in the hundreds of Islamist beheadings that occur in Muslim countries and war zones.  Cause of death from sharp cuts or knife wounds to the throat often involving near decapitation is a common forensic signature of the jihadist MO. Cutting the throat is consistent with Quranic scripture verse 47:4 ‘So, when you meet (in fight Jihad in Allah&#8217;s Cause), those who disbelieve smite at their necks till when you have killed and wounded many of them’.</p>
<p>The murder of Lee Rigby was inspired by the hundreds of beheadings committed by young Mujahideen all over the world. New beheading videos appear almost every day on the internet and the offenders are glorified on jihadist internet forums, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Jihadist ritual murders are occurring more frequently in Western countries. Examples include:  Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the Boston bombers, and Ibragim Todashev who ritually murdered three Jewish men in Waltham, MA on September 11, 2011. Similar to Lee Rigby their bodies had multiple stab wounds and their throats were slit from ear to ear with such force that they were nearly decapitated. The case was initially investigated as a drug deal gone wrong. On September 15, 2013 Nabil Huruy, 23, attempted to behead Canadian firefighter Dominic Parker by repeatedly stabbing him with a knife in his face, neck and head.</p>
<p>The attack was unprovoked and the motivation appeared to be that Parker was sitting in a Middle Eastern Toronto cafe drinking a cup of tea. Mr. Parker who had been married for 23 years had two daughters,18 and 19 years old, died two days later from severe head wounds. On February 3, 2013, 27-year-old Yusuf Ibrahim of Jersey City, N.J., shot to death two Coptic Christians before severing their heads and hands and burying their bodies in the backyard of a relative’s abandoned home in Buena Vista, N.J. Since the men were decapitated and not beheaded he was charged with two counts of murder and two counts of desecration of human remains. Authorities attributed the decapitation and dismemberment as an attempt to prevent identification of the victims. That may well have been the case; however, it is difficult for a medical examiner to determine the precise cause of death and whether the bodies were decapitated perimortem or postmortem when the body is moved from the crime scene. Although the murder was not a classic beheading and the victims were shot, the fact that the victims were Coptic Christians, the offender was Muslim and it involved decapitations initially indicates a jihadist MO.</p>
<p>On February 12, 2009, in Suburban Buffalo, New York Muzzammil Hassan used two hunting knives to stab his wife more than forty times in the face, back and chest and then behead her while she was still conscious.  Aasiya Hassan had filed for divorce a few days earlier. Muzzammil Hassan did not just shoot his wife, he bought knives and took her head with them, a classic jihadist MO. In Houston, Texas, on August 6, 2003, 23 year old Mohammed Ali Alayed, a Saudi Arabian student at Houston Community College, slashed the throat of Ariel Sellouk, a Jewish college student, with a 6-inch butterfly knife nearly decapitating him. The two were friends until Alayed became radicalized and decided to commit a jihadist ritual murder. On November 19, 2003, Sebastien Selam a 23-year-old Paris disc jockey, was jumped in the parking garage by his Muslim neighbor Adel who slit Selam’s throat to the point of near-decapitation, mutilated his face with a carving fork and gouged out his eyes. Afterward Adel climbed the stairs of the apartment house and yelled, “I have killed my Jew. I will go to heaven.” Four days after the murder of Lee Rigby a French soldier was stabbed in the neck with either a knife or a box cutter while on patrol on the western outskirts of Paris by a man wearing a robe and Muslim prayer cap. Inspired by the London jihadists the soldier was targeted because of his military service. These are just a few examples of jihadist beheadings committed in Western countries.</p>
<p>Law Enforcement should investigate these murders in the same manner as gang murders. Similar to gangs these young jihadist are protecting territory (Muslim lands), defending honor (the honor of Islam or family honor) and earning respect through violence. When these jihadist gangbangers kill they achieve status, become rock stars on jihadi internet forums and are highly respected by fellow Islamists inside and outside of prison. They are not just members of People Nation or Folk Nation alliance of street gangs, they are Mujahideen who are part of the global Islamist movement, the largest gang in the world. Unlike gang members their murders are rooted in Islamic historical and theological precedents and a vision of the afterlife that promises rewards in Paradise making these true believers much more dangerous than typical gang members.</p>
<p>Unsolved murders and cold case homicides need to be reexamined in the context of the jihadist M.O. For example, on November 10, 2013, local news reported that Detroit police discovered a decapitated body burned beyond recognition in a vacant school building, the former Cody Ninth Grade Academy. The little information provided said that the property on Detroit’s west side was dark due to several broken streetlights and that several homes close to the building were vacant. The assumption is that this murder was the result of gang violence. There was no mention that the abandoned school is one mile away from Dearborn, MI, and the largest mosque in North America, and within a two mile radius of 5 mosques and Islamic centers. Interestingly, in the nearby town of Farmington Hills there was an ongoing controversy and long legal battle over a mosque being built. The Islamic Cultural Association, which is linked to terrorist supporting organizations, had purchased a vacant elementary school that they planned to turn into a mosque.</p>
<p>The combination of a jihadist MO and the symbolism of the location and its proximity to mosques in Dearborn MI should not be overlooked. Court battles over mosques are perceived as disrespecting Muslims, a dishonor to the community and a personal insult. A few weeks prior to the body being discovered the mosque officially gave up the fight for the Eagle Elementary School and acquired a property in another location. Perhaps this incited a frustrated a young jihadist. Detroit investigators similar to the Waltham detectives are more than likely investigating the murder as gang violence which is a viable direction to pursue in the investigation. It is certainly possible that the decapitation and burning of the body was a forensic countermeasure to avoid identification of the body. The body being left in a vacant school could have been chosen because of its seclusion. However it is just as reasonable to investigate evidence associated with a jihadist MO. For instance, the location of the decapitated body could have been symbolic of the vacant school in the center of the mosque controversy. Decapitation as a jihadist identifier certainly should not be excluded due to political correctness or fear of offending Muslims. There should not be any qualms in looking at any Arabic or jihad graffiti on the walls, or if the murder occurred on September 11, or if the victim was Jewish, Christian, or someone who was actively protesting against the mosque. The shocking details of the Lee Rigby murder would not be shocking at all if investigators and prosecutors recognized Jihadist identifiers and acknowledged a Jihadist MO. Who knows how many other cold case homicides are connected to Islamist ideologies and controversies that would be solved if law enforcement were not hampered by limitations on training, political correctness or prohibited from acknowledging that the motivation is the direct result of Islamist ideology. Similar to calling the Fort Hood shooting workplace violence, not recognizing Jihadist murders diminishes the threat of Islamic terrorism and hampers murder investigations.</p>
<p><i>Dawn Perlmutter, Director of Symbol &amp; Ritual Intelligence and Shillman/Ginsburg Writing Fellow at the Middle East Forum, is considered one of the leading subject matter experts (SME) in the areas of symbols, unfamiliar customs, ritual murder and religious violence.<br />
</i></p>
<p><b>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank"><b>Click here</b></a><b>.   </b></p>
<p><i> </i></p>
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		<title>Jihadist Ritual Murder &amp; Mutilation at the Mall</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dawn-perlmutter/jihadist-ritual-murder-mutilation-at-the-mall/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=jihadist-ritual-murder-mutilation-at-the-mall</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 01 Oct 2013 04:45:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Dawn Perlmutter]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mall]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mutilation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NAIROBI]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Torture]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=205717</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Sacred acts against the enemies of Islam revealed.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/nrb.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-205720" alt="nrb" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/nrb.jpg" width="280" height="183" /></a>During the four-day siege in Kenya’s Westgate shopping Mall, al-Shabaab jihadists raped, tortured, beheaded, dismembered, castrated, gouged out eyes, amputated fingers and hung hostages on hooks from the roof. According to a forensic medical doctor, “They [the al-Shabaab attackers] removed eyes, ears, noses. Fingers are cut by pliers, noses ripped by pliers”… “Those are not allegations. Those are f****** truths,”… “They removed balls, eyes, ears, nose. They get your hand and sharpen it like a pencil then they tell you to write your name with the blood. They drive knives inside a child’s body. Actually, if you look at all the bodies, unless those ones that were escaping, fingers are cut by pliers, the noses are ripped by pliers.” There were also reports that hostages were beheaded and their heads thrown out of the windows.</p>
<p>This inexplicable savage violence is typically attributed to psychological warfare, military tactics or individual acts of brutality but for Jihadists they are justifiable sacred acts against the enemies of Islam. They are ritual murders that are consistent with a growing global Jihadist method of operation [MO]. Similar acts of torture, rape, beheading and mutilation regularly occur in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Egypt, Syria and other countries. The Westgate Mall massacre is comparable to the mass murder of 166 people by members of the Islamist Jihadist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, in ten coordinated shooting and bombing attacks across Mumbai, India on November 26 -29, 2008. During their siege operation the LeT Jihadists also took the time to sexually humiliate, torture and mutilate some of the victims before shooting them dead.</p>
<p>The Jihadist M.O. is also evident in murders, honor killings and war crimes. On June 20, 2006 in al-Yusufiyah outside of Baghdad, Iraq, the bodies of American soldiers Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, members of the 101st Airborne division, were found mutilated beyond recognition. Like the hostages in the Westgate shopping Mall there were reports that their eyes were gouged out, they were castrated, their ears and noses were cut off and they were beheaded.  Jihadist murders that involved throat slashing, multiple stabbings and body desecration also occurred in London and in Waltham, Massachusetts. On May 22, 2013 on the streets of London two jihadists used meat cleavers to publicly behead and disembowel a British soldier while shouting &#8220;Allahu Akbar&#8221;. On September 11, 2011 in Waltham, MA the suspects in the Boston Bombings and their Chechen friend are suspected of ritually murdering three men by slitting their throats from ear to ear with such force that they were nearly decapitated and of desecrating their mutilated corpses. [Read the entire case at Prelude to the Boston Bombing http://www.meforum.org/3618/boston-bombings-prelude]. These are just a few examples of dozens of Islamist ritual murders that involve torture, dismemberment and mutilation.</p>
<p>Islamist mutilation entails a specific kind of ritualistic crime; a collective, provocative and incendiary desecration of the enemy. Mujahideen throughout the world expend extra effort brutalizing the enemies of Islam including women and children.  To understand the significance of these violent ritualistic acts they have to be analyzed in the context of Islamist honor and shame. The primary motivations of Islamist atrocity is an irrepressible impulse to alleviate shame and a sacred duty to restore honor, serve vengeance, preserve purity, maintain tradition and save face. For Islamists honor is signified by stereotypical male characteristics such as courage, bravery, heroism, power, virility, and strength; dishonor is signified by stereotypical female characteristics such as weakness, vulnerability, helplessness and submissiveness.</p>
<p>Honor is what defines Islamists as men and psychologically is experienced as dignity and pride; conversely dishonor is indicated by female traits of weakness experienced as humiliation and shame. Islamists are in a constant struggle with fear of disgrace and maintaining manhood particularly those that are living in countries that they consider to be occupied or run by ‘un-Islamic regimes’. Emotions of weakness, helplessness, shame are always just below the surface triggered by a hypersensitivity to any real or perceived act of humiliation. Even a sideways glance can be misinterpreted as a questioning of manhood. Islamist recruitment and indoctrination functions to cultivate the honor shame paradigm so that boys will grow to be ruthless soldiers that require blood vengeance to restore honor and maintain power.</p>
<p>The fear of even the appearance of weakness or vulnerability provides one explanation for the torture of men, women and children. For Mujahideen mercy, compassion, sympathy and kindness symbolize weakness; cruelty, brutality, violence and atrocity symbolize strength. This explains incomprehensible cruel violent acts.  Jihadists want to evince their strength and alleviate feelings of shame. Through murder and mutilation these Islamist jihadists experience relief from a sense of humiliation.  Psychologically they equate their relief with violent atrocity. Symbolically blood cleanses their impurity. Culturally the violence is sanctioned and they are viewed as heroic. It becomes natural and moral to punish disrespect with torture, mutilation and ritual murder.  Strategically it sends a message that there is no mercy for infidel unbelievers.</p>
<p>From a Western behavioral science perspective torture, murder and mutilation are categorized as pathological acts of violence. However, from the jihadist worldview these seemingly inexplicable acts of violence are neither random nor pathological.  Atrocity has historical and theological precedents in Islam, is a socially acceptable punishment for infidels and significantly is a projection of cultural taboos. For Islamists the blood of enemies washes away dishonor, disrespect and the Western impurities that have polluted Islam.  A symbolic analysis of the types of mutilation reveals jihadists motivations. Mutilating the body is a deliberate act of defilement, impurity and stigmatization. Islamists torture hostages to humiliate and shame them. Cutting off fingers, hacking off noses, cutting out tongues, castration, and dismemberment represent power and control of the body at the moment of death. The slow destruction of the body prevents the person from having any dignity in death.</p>
<p>Rape and gang rapes are a common form of Islamist punishment including men raping other men. The symbolic meaning of male on male rape is that the victims are being turned into women, which in a machismo and homophobia culture is one of the worst forms of humiliation. Similar to prison culture the victims become their bitch. For the same reason castration is the archetypal sign of dishonor and signifies that the victim is no longer a man.  Another common form of Jihadist mutilation is gouging out eyes and/or chopping off parts of a person’s face such as lips, ears and most often the nose. It was reported that all of these atrocities were inflicted on the hostages in the Westgate Mall.  Disfigurement has historical, symbolic and theological meaning in the context of Islamism. In fact mutilation is a form of judicial corporal punishment that occurs in many Islamic countries and includes among other things amputations, floggings, beheadings and stoning to death. In Saudi Arabia and Iran eye gouging is considered a legitimate judicial punishment. Surgically removing one or both eyes is based on the literal interpretation of lex talionis, the law of retaliation or best known from the formulation &#8220;an eye for an eye&#8221;.  There are hundreds of women in Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Turkey and other countries who are mutilated for dishonoring their families and men accused of being traitors, spies or simply designated as infidel unbelievers who are victims of similar atrocities.</p>
<p>Victims of torture and mutilations are always potential witnesses to jihadists unspoken and often imagined shame. The Somali jihadists had to gouge out the hostages eyes so they could not mock them, cut out their tongues so they could not talk about them and cut off their ears so they could not hear of their offenses. They were indoctrinated to believe that non-Muslims disregard them and think of them as less than. This imagined disrespect is experienced as shame that originates and resides in the eyes of the innocent people who unfortunately went to the mall that day. Killing the hostages kills shame, without witnesses shame no longer exists. Honor, purity and respect is restored. Torture felt good.</p>
<p>Simply shooting the hostages would have demonstrated weakness and sympathy. Similar to gang initiations and narco cults the Somali jihadists earned their status by brutalizing victims.  Dismemberment, eye gouging, castration, beheadings, and body desecration are marks of jihad, what genteel people use to refer to as unspeakable acts. The members of al Shabaab were able to torture and mutilate because Sharia law sanctions atrocities committed against infidel enemies of Islam. Ritualizing violence legitimizes it as acceptable punishment allowing the Somali jihadists to murder in the name of Islam.  According to Sharia Law mutilation is not a barbaric act, the violence is prescribed so brutality is transformed into a sacred ritual that cleanses impurities through bloodshed. For the al Shabaab jihadists torture and murder was not immoral but righteous blood vengeance that restored honor to Somali Muslims. Through murder and mutilation the jihadists acquire strength, alleviate dishonor and achieve heroic status as ruthless Mujahideen warriors. Torturing and killing the hostages transformed them from men ashamed of their status in life into badass Mujahideen, soldiers of Allah, respected by Islamists all over the world.</p>
<p><i>Dawn Perlmutter, Director and founder of Symbol &amp; Ritual Intelligence and Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum, is considered one of the leading subject matter experts (SME) in the areas of symbols, unfamiliar customs, ritual murder and religious violence.</i></p>
<p>*</p>
<p><em>Don&#8217;t miss Jamie Glazov&#8217;s video interview with author Raymond Ibrahim about Islam&#8217;s war on Christians:</em></p>
<p><iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/i-UBjuUOBHw" height="315" width="420" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank">Click here</a>.  </strong></p>
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		<title>A New Muslim Brotherhood Symbol: R4BIA</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dawn-perlmutter/a-new-muslim-brotherhood-symbol-r4bia/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=a-new-muslim-brotherhood-symbol-r4bia</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 09 Sep 2013 04:03:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Dawn Perlmutter]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[black hand]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[islamists]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Morsi]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[muslim brotherhood]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[R4BIA]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=203449</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The rebranding of jihad. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/R4BIAwwww.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-203452" alt="R4BIAwwww" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/R4BIAwwww-345x350.jpg" width="276" height="280" /></a></p>
<p>There is a new Islamist symbol appearing in protests, on social networking sites and at demonstrations throughout the Middle East. The symbol allegedly originated as a four-fingered hand sign by pro-Morsi protesters during demonstrations in Egypt’s Rabia al-Adawiya Square. The hand gesture quickly evolved into an image of the hand commonly depicted in black on a bright yellow background. It is called the “R4BIA sign.” In English it is officially spelled in capital letters and the letter &#8220;A&#8221; is replaced with the number 4. It has become the symbol of the massacre of pro-Morsi supporters in Rabia al-Adawiya Square on August 14, 2013. This new sign already has its own history, legend and mysticism and it contains all the attributes that Islamists favor in their symbology, particularly martyrdom.</p>
<p>The design of the symbol has been endowed with characteristics of the sacred in Islam: the color yellow used in the background signifies the golden Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and the hand depicted in the color black denotes the black cloth that covers the Kaaba. The official R4BIA website alleges that protesters originated the sign and explained the meaning:</p>
<blockquote><p><i>&#8220;This is the &#8216;Rabia sign.&#8217; &#8216;Rabia&#8217; means four or fourth in the Arabic language. The name of this square comes from Rabia al-Adawiya, a blessed lady among the pious servants of Allah. She received the name Rabia because she was the fourth child in the family. We use the sign to cherish her legacy.” “The second reason why this sign bears significance is the fact that Mohamed Morsi was the fourth President of Egypt after Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak. We make the sign to remind people of his presidency.” “In addition, those who gather in Tahrir Square to support the military coup prefer the V sign made with the two fingers. We cannot be the same as those people. We use and spread the Rabia sign in order to distinguish ourselves from them.” </i></p></blockquote>
<p>According to the R4BIA website, the protestors who provided the explanation for the symbol were killed with hundreds of other Muslim Brotherhood supporters who had camped out in the tent city for weeks. The violent incident and the symbol that has come to represent it have been endowed with supernatural qualities. The number four has acquired mystical connotations signified by the name of the square, the succession of Egyptian presidents and the birth order of Rabia al-Adawiya.  The slain supporters have been bestowed with heroic status and the Islamist honor of martyrdom and are now referred to as the &#8220;Rabia Martyrs.&#8221;  A new Islamist legend was born out of the blood of Egyptian protesters. It would not be surprising if pilgrimages to Rabia al-Adawiya Mosque to commemorate the new martyrs occur each year on the anniversary of the violence.</p>
<p>The symbol is quickly evolving into a full-fledged R4BIA movement. A mythology surrounding the R4BIA martyrs is emerging. One of the new myths is that the blessings of the new martyrs are responsible for spreading the symbol beyond Egypt’s national borders to become the symbol of awakening to the global Muslim community. Although the new blessed martyrs are getting credit for spreading the message, they are receiving a lot of help from the Muslim Brotherhood propaganda machine and Turkish Islamists. A Turkish website R4BIA.com has been launched in three languages, Arabic, English and Turkish, explaining the origin of the symbol and promoting a R4BIA movement. R4BIA.com contains photos and videos of protesters and includes a R4BIA song whose lyrics are comprised of the writings of Sayyid Qutb, an influential leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and the father of violent Islamism.</p>
<p>The site also contains a video showing family photos and the letter written by senior Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Beltagy to his 17-year-old daughter Asma, who was shot and killed during the protests. The letter will become a classic in Muslim Brotherhood propaganda, as it includes a heart rending eulogy filled with the symbolism of female martyrs as brides of paradise when her father describes her death in a dream as a wedding.</p>
<p>A section of the website that reveals the true significance of the R4BIA symbol and the fledgling movement posits the question: “What is R4BIA?” The anonymous web master claims the responses were compiled from a selection of interpretations provided by Muslims around the world. They read:</p>
<p><i>R4BIA is a symbol of freedom</i></p>
<p><i> R4BIA is the birth of a new movement for freedom and justice</i></p>
<p><i> R4BIA is the birth of a new world</i></p>
<p><i> R4BIA is the return of Muslims to world stage</i></p>
<p><i> R4BIA means justice, freedom and conscience</i></p>
<p><i> R4BIA is the place where the so-called values of the West collapsed</i></p>
<p><i> R4BIA means the Egyptian heroes who became free by dying</i></p>
<p><i> R4BIA is Egypt, Syria, Palestine and the whole geography of Islam</i></p>
<p><i> R4BIA is the name of those who wake all the Islamic world with their death</i></p>
<p><i> R4BIA is the place of people who show the death is a revival</i></p>
<p><i> R4BIA is our daughter Asma</i></p>
<p><i> R4BIA is the grandchildren of Hasan Al Banna</i></p>
<p><i> R4BIA is the new name of our children who will change the world</i></p>
<p><i> R4BIA is a new breath to humanity</i></p>
<p><i> R4BIA is justice for everyone against rotten Western values</i></p>
<p><i> R4BIA is the soul of a free man and a free woman</i></p>
<p><i> R4BIA is the tear, the sadness, the sobbing</i></p>
<p><i> R4BIA is the joy, the happiness, the good news</i></p>
<p><i> R4BIA is the child, the woman, the young, the old</i></p>
<p><i> R4BIA is a man like a man</i></p>
<p><i> R4BIA is straight as an Aleef, humble as Waw</i></p>
<p><i> R4BIA is a pure martyrdom</i></p>
<p><i> R4BIA is a new world</i></p>
<p><i> R4BIA is Ummah</i></p>
<p><i> R4BIA is solidarity, togetherness, brotherhood</i></p>
<p><i> R4BIA is unification of Islamic World</i></p>
<p><i> R4BIA is the shame of the accomplice of the massacres</i></p>
<p><i> R4BIA is the end of munafiqeen who support the massacres</i></p>
<p><i> R4BIA is the end of oil sheikhs</i></p>
<p><i> R4BIA is the end of capitalists</i></p>
<p><i> R4BIA is the end of Zionists</i></p>
<p><i> R4BIA is the end of immoral press</i></p>
<p><i> RABIA is the arena of martyrdom</i></p>
<p><i> R4BIA is the mother of martyrs</i></p>
<p><i> R4BIA is a smiling martyrdom</i></p>
<p>Many activists on social media have confirmed that the sign originated in Turkey, which officially opposed the military coup in Egypt. Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan was one of the first to promote the R4BIA hand sign during a speech on August 17 when he saluted crowds several times with the four-finger sign. Turkish footballers also began to use the hand sign after scoring goals, soon after the symbol became popular on Turkish social media. It used to take years, sometimes decades, for a symbol to achieve global recognition, however, in the age of technology, with Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and the Internet, this new Islamist sign went viral in days. Although the R4BIA symbol may have originally signified solidarity with massacred protesters, the meaning and the imagery has rapidly been radicalized to embody the primary concepts of Islamist propaganda: honor, heroism and martyrdom in the goal of establishing an Islamic caliphate. Images of the R4BIA symbol now include the fingers being depicted as rifles, the hand holding the black flag of jihad and writing on the hand calling for an Islamic Caliphate.</p>
<p>Perhaps many of those holding placards, wearing t-shirts and raising the four-finger salute do not understand the radical implications. Similar to movie stars and students who wear keffiyeh scarves, they may just assume it’s a cool, hip solidarity thing to do. However, there is no doubt that the Muslim Brotherhood understands the significance of disguising their true Islamist agenda, which is why they rebranded their name to the Freedom and Justice Party and removed images of the Quran and crossed swords from their logo.</p>
<p>The R4BIA sign is not a benign peace symbol; it is a symbol of resistance, Islamism, martyrdom, and a visual call to arms comparable to the black flag of jihad. The black hand on the bright yellow background is appropriately similar to highway warning signs that caution us against danger and indicate a hazard ahead on the road that may not be readily apparent.</p>
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		<title>‘Branding Terror’ and the Art of Propaganda</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dawn-perlmutter/branding-terror-and-the-art-of-propaganda/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=branding-terror-and-the-art-of-propaganda</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 03 Jul 2013 04:05:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Dawn Perlmutter]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[A new book conceals the insidious nature of jihadist symbols. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Branding-Terror-HR21.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-195000" alt="Branding-Terror-HR21" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Branding-Terror-HR21-272x350.jpg" width="163" height="210" /></a><a href="http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/1858946018"><em>Branding Terror, The Logotypes and Iconography of Insurgent Groups and Terrorist Organizations</em></a> is a new book that claims to present an objective analysis of terrorist symbols. The authors, Odessa-born, German Artur Beifuss, a former United Nations counter-terrorism analyst, and Italian professional graphic designer Francesco Trivini Bellini, produced a beautiful but biased reference guide for members of the intelligence and law enforcement communities. Merrell, the book&#8217;s publishing company, specializes in art, fashion and gardening books, which should be the first clue that the information in this counter terrorism reference guide is problematic. The book&#8217;s 60 beautifully illustrated emblems, accompanied by a symbolic analysis and description of each group’s ideology, have a decidedly anti-American, anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian liberal bias that only serves to perpetuate the propaganda issued by the very terrorist organizations that are included in the book.</p>
<p>Beifuss and Bellini are more fascinated with the branding, marketing and visual communication of the terrorist groups than with the ugly realities of what these symbols represent. The book smells of political correctness, beginning with its disclaimers and apologies for the terrorist groups represented in the book, making it clear that the selected emblems were the result of a combination of designated terrorist lists from five countries.  As if compensating for having to have to include so many Palestinian terrorist organizations, the authors perpetuate anti-Israel bias in their analysis of five Palestinian group symbols that include the map of Israel in their logo (Palestinian Islamic Jihad p. 173, Palestinian Liberation Front, p. 255,  Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine p. 263, PFLP military wing p. 265 and the PFLP General Command p. 271). In each emblem the authors neglect to identify the obvious image as the map of Israel and choose to refer to it as an outline of Palestine. It is difficult to imagine that Beifuss, who worked for the United Nations as a counter-terrorism analyst, would not be aware of the fact that depicting the map of Israel as Palestine proliferates this classic anti-Semitic propaganda. This is reinforced by their descriptions throughout the book of the perception of Israel as occupying Palestine.</p>
<p>Political correctness is also evident in Beifuss and Bellini&#8217;s analysis of the emblems of Islamist jihadist terrorist groups, particularly their choice to camouflage the meaning of very significant concepts such as jihad, dawa, sharia and the phrase &#8220;Allahu Akbar.&#8221; The phrase &#8220;Allahu Akbar&#8221; appears in three emblems in the book and in each symbol the authors refer to it as the &#8220;takbir&#8221; which they define in their glossary as ‘The Arabic term for the Arabic phrase Allahu Akbar (&#8220;god is the greatest&#8221;) used by Muslims as an expression of faith; in prayer; in times of distress; and to express celebration or victory, determination or defiance” (p. 329). The terrorist organizations in the book that used this phrase in their emblems include: the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which is linked with the attack on the American embassy in Benghazi; The Caucasus Emirate, the Chechen group that is likely affiliated with the Boston Marathon bombing; and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which committed numerous suicide attacks, killing dozens of civilians. The phrase &#8220;Allahu Akbar&#8221; in their emblems does not represent a benign expression of faith, it represents the battle cry of the Mujahideen before, during or after they are killing the enemies of Islam.</p>
<p>The Kahane Chai logo, the only Israeli symbol in the book is depicted by a clenched fist inside a Star of David and is described as conveying courage, strength and militancy and illustrating “the violent means Kahane Chai is prepared to use in order to achieve its objectives” (p. 195). Similarly, the clenched fist depicted in the emblem of the Northern Ireland group, the Ulster Freedom Fighters, which interestingly also sits within a six-pointed star (that represents the six counties of Northern Ireland) is described as meaning “courage, strength and militancy, and symbolizing the UFF’s commitment to the use of violence” (p. 305). However, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad emblem that contains two clenched fists, two rifles, the dome of the rock and the map of Israel, are interpreted as justifiable and benign. The fists and rifles are characterized as “a protective frame for the mosque and thus the Palestinian nation; these elements also refer to the group’s militancy and its commitment to jihad in order to liberate Palestine from perceived Israeli occupation” (p. 173).</p>
<p>There are two clenched fists in the emblem of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), which are described as representing “unity and resistance” (p. 103). The other three symbols in the book that have clenched fists all are holding a rifle and are all Iranian groups. In the logo of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, the clenched fist holding a rifle is described as standing for armed resistance (p. 149); the fist holding an AK47 in the emblem of the Hezbollah Brigades in Iraq is described as a symbol of the group&#8217;s militancy (p. 199); and the fist holding the rifle in the logo of Hezbollah is described as emerging &#8220;from the letter known as ‘alef’, the first letter of the word Allah” (p. 147). Violence is only associated with the Israeli and Irish emblems, both of which do not have any weapons in their logo.</p>
<p>Anti-Americanism is evident in the authors&#8217; description of al-Qaeda in Iraq, which is characterized as “a reaction to the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq&#8221; (p. 53) instead of as the U.S.-led Coalition Forces. The authors also neglect to mention the dozens of beheadings carried out by al-Zarqawi&#8217;s group and misidentify the imagery in the al-Qaeda in Iraq symbol. An image of a hand with the index finger pointing up is described as “a fist with the index finger pointing up to God” (p. 55) and interpreted to simply mean “legitimizing the militant struggle” (p. 55). They do not expand on that very prevalent image of the hand with the index finger pointing up that is found in numerous Salafi jihadist groups and represents their willingness to be killed, attaining martyrdom and entrance into Paradise.</p>
<p>The book &#8220;Branding Terror&#8221; essentially sugarcoats the jihadist threat by applying a biased interpretation of the emblems, minimizing the iconography of martyrdom and sanitizing obvious violent indicators, such as the black flags of jihad and swords that are depicted in many of the Islamist logos. The sword is described throughout the book as a premodern weapon that represents the historical struggle in early Islam. Two crossed swords in the emblem of the Indonesian group Jemmah Anshorut Tauhid are described as indicating &#8220;JAT’s commitment to jihad. As a pre-modern weapon, the sword is linked to early Islamic jihad campaigns; it is also associated with the purity and nobility of early Islamic heroes. By using swords as a design element JAT confers legitimacy on its jihadi activities, and portrays them as a modern extension of historical jihadi campaigns” (p. 187). There is no reference at all to the swords&#8217; significance in representing &#8220;the sword verses&#8221; in the Quran, which jihadists use to justify their violence or that they represents Jihad by the sword (jihad bis saif), which refers to armed fighting in holy war.</p>
<p>The foreword, written by former <em>New York Times</em> art director Steven Heller, sets the tone for the liberal bias and functions as a disclaimer for the liberal sin of producing a book on terrorism. The first sentence reads: “Any irregular fighting force can technically be seen as a terrorist organization,” and in the next paragraph he writes, “Terrorists (or freedom fighters, depending on one’s perspective).&#8221; On the same page Heller says, “Those whom we call terrorists, even the most ragtag rebels, wherever they reside, usually have a cause they are fighting for” (p. 7). This is quite an apologetic foreword to a counter-terrorism reference book. The introduction is even more indicative of the biased and/or bad research in the book, for instance, when the authors describe a cute story about how an Italian amateur football club appropriated the Hezbollah logo for their team in order to frighten their adversaries, and neglect to reveal that the choice also fit in with the center-left Italian government’s policy of encouraging Middle Eastern radicals.</p>
<p>Merrell, the book&#8217;s publisher, claims on its website that “Branding Terror does not seek to make any political statements; rather, it offers insight into an understudied area of counter-intelligence, and provides an original and provocative source of inspiration for graphic designers.”  The statement that this book&#8217;s aim is to be a source of inspiration for graphic designers is truly obscene and makes it clear that the authors have no concept of what these symbols represent. These groups are not selling cereal; they are selling fear and their &#8220;brand&#8221; is backed up by murder, suicide attacks, beheadings and bombings. They are not misunderstood freedom fighters, or peaceful protestors &#8212; they are mass murderers. Sugarcoating the violence minimizes the threat, and referring to their emblems as &#8220;brands&#8221; also diminishes the seriousness of their violent ideologies.</p>
<p>It is important that these symbols represent a threat to both the public and to law enforcement so that terrorists can be identified. The authors should stick to producing art books, as they have no training in the significant subtleties of the subliminal and covert imagery contained in terrorist propaganda. Unfortunately, the media is now peddling this book as if it is another coffee table fad. The Huffington Post describes how the authors are deconstructing symbols of 60 global terrorist groups, and, more disturbing, the Times of Israel has given it a glowing review without realizing the anti-Israel content. Beifus and Bellini do not demystify the visual imagery of terrorism, they just undermine the threat.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Palestinian-Group-Symbols.jpg"><img class=" wp-image-195047 aligncenter" alt="Palestinian Group Symbols" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Palestinian-Group-Symbols-450x104.jpg" width="405" height="94" /></a></p>
<p><em>Palestinian terrorist group symbols in the book Branding Terror that have a map of Israel in their logo. The map of Israel is identified as an outline of Palestine in the new book.</em></p>
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