How Pakistan Celebrated Easter ...And The Message it Sends Us

Today was Easter Sunday, and many people took their families for an outing. In Lahore, Pakistan, many Christians took their children to Gulshan-e-Iqbal park for a special outing in an area set aside for them.

A Taliban faction called Jamaat-ul-Ahrar set off a huge bomb in the parking area, right near the swings, the picnic area and the children's rides, with the exploding vehicles in the parking area adding to the carnage. One source, ARY News estimated that as much as five to six kg of explosives may have been used. The blast was heard all over the city. Javed Ali, a 35-year-old who lives opposite the park near the center of the city, said the force of the blast shattered the windows of his home. “After 10 minutes I went outside. There was human flesh on the walls of our house."

According to Senior police official Haider Ashraf, ball bearings were found all over the crowded park. That's a common tactic, one frequently used by the Arabs whom call themselves Palestinians against Israelis. The blast force turns the ball bearings into high velocity anti-personnel weapons, rather like shrapnel.

As Jamaat-ul-Ahrar spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan told the Associated Press in a phone call, "The target was Christians."

It was indeed. It was their way of saying 'Happy Easter, infidels.'

At least 72 people have been pronounced dead so far, many of them children. The injured are still being treated and number is over 300 so far, many of them in critical condition. The death toll will undoubtedly go higher.



The Pakistani authorities, of course, have officially condemned the attack and the chief minister of Punjab province, Shahbaz Sharif, has announced three days mourning and pledged to ensure that those involved in the attack are brought to trial.

But this is Pakistan, where Christian churches are routinely bombed and burned, where Christian girls are abducted, raped and forcibly converted to Islam and where Pakistan's ISI, the equivalent of MI5 or the CIA collaborated in the horrific attacks on Mumbai in 2008. Any action taken will likely be marginal and based on eliminating a few convenient jihadis rather than actually eliminating the cause...the hatred many of Pakistan's Muslims have for anyone who isn't one.

As I reread what I wrote after Mumbai, I sadly see I was exactly right when predicted that the open attacks on soft targets in large cities  was a successful tactic and that we would see it in the near future in places like Paris, Boston and Brussels.

And I also wrote that the West was wasting its time expecting Islam to moderate itself. Individuals can and do, but the faith as a whole never will. And it is more than just a few 'fanatics perverting a great religion' as President Obama is fond of saying in between golf games and tango sessions. It is a mainstream and accurate reading of the Qu'ran, Sunna and Hadiths, the Muslims scriptures. And a significant number of the Muslim world follows and agrees with that reading whether they actually participate in the killing, finance it, or simply cheer it on.

And for those Muslims whom don't, whom disobey Qu'ran 5:51 too openly*, they have a lesson to teach them and any others with the same idea. So even many of those Muslims disgusted by jihad and worried about the effects on their peaceful life in the West generally keep their mouths shut. It's not like the western governments, America included are listening to them anyway. Many others, who see the great strides triumphalist Islam is making in the appeasement minded West are listening to what's being preached in their mosques and on social media and moving in that direction, something called 'radicalization' by the usual suspects.

Is there a solution?

President Obama thinks he has one. As he mentioned today in an Easter message that barely mention Easter, his idea of a solution is to bring even more of these people to America expose them to our freedom and they will change like magic.  And to make it even harder to vet them, he's had his people openly tip off these 'refugees' to scrub their Facebook and other social media accounts.

Our president's solution is also to protect and empower Islamists, especially the Muslim Brotherhood and their jihad friendly mosques. Or to quote him,America and the world will never solve this 'problem' without the assistance of friendly, helpful Muslims And we had better be careful to avoid offending them in any way. Federal Agents are actually prohibited now from considering religion, immigration status or national origin in their investigations.

In Europe, it's even worse, where people actually get arrested for defending themselves against 'refugees' or merely speaking up about what's going on.



The thing is, we've been trying it Obama's way since the Clinton Administration. How has this approach worked? Have jihadist attacks in America and around the world increased or decreased?

I think the answer is obvious.

Our president's attitude, echoed by EU leaders like Angela Merkel is why Paris and Brussels happened, why the Tsarnaev brothers were able to enter America so easily and pull off a jihad attack in the heart of the Boston Marathon, why Nidal Hassan was able to kill American military at Fort Hood and why a jihadist Muslim couple were able to massacre people in San Bernardino. And why there's a lot more of the same coming, if our present path continues.

 And of course, as President Obama and his minions always say, none of this has anything to do with Islam. Except it obviously does unless we want to continue lying to ourselves, or continue believing the comforting lies of others.

"The frog in the pot felt like the water was a little warmer than he would have liked, but always figured it would cool down a bit as he got used to it. Oddly enough, it only got warmer."

 
That's exactly where we are right now. and as the water keeps getting hotter and hotter, people like Barack Obama, Angela Merkel and numerous others keep saying, 'turn up the heat....there's no problem here.'

We have normalized being attacked in this manner. We are committing suicide by inches, and it sickens me. Especially when it comes to our now routine responses.

Incidents like Brussels or Lahore are of no more import nowadays than a car accident, a train accidentally derailing or a celebrity suicide. They're all just 'tragedies.' What a shame. Anything good on TV tonight? 'Tragedy' just happens like that some times. Few of us, especially many of our self benighted elites want to call this what it is. Instead, they concentrate on idiocy like hashtags, cartoons, candlelight vigils and asinine, turgid platitudes. And too many people play follow the leader instead of screaming bloody murder and demanding forceful action. So of course, the carnage increases.

And why not? Warring against dar harb, the part of the world not controlled by Islam is exactly what Mohammed told his followers to do, to fight the infidels until they either killed them, converted them to Islam or until the infidels 'feel themselves subdued and pay the jizya  (tribute in money or slaves) willingly.**

For jihadis you see, it a win-win. Murder the kuffars, the non-believers  and you receive the  virgins and other sensual delights and are a heroic martyr even if you die in the attempt. If you survive, you're a hero and are rewarded with money, booty or sex slaves, depending on the locale and the circumstances.

Salam Al-Marayati is the head of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), a Muslim Brotherhood front group' He has a long history as both an apologist for Islamism and as President Obama's choice for an envoy to international forums and organizations.

Right after 9/11, he was a guest on a radio talk show in Los Angeles and as usual was attempting to blame the jihad attack on Muslim grievance in Israel and elsewhere ad nauseum. In response to a question from an outraged caller who complained that there was no legitimate excuse for the 9/11 attack, Al-Marayati simply replied, " What do you want? A holy war with a billion Muslims"?

Whether we like it or not, we are in that Holy War, perhaps not with all Muslims but with a substantial segment of Islam. And they realize it, even if we're in denial.

Are there Muslims whom are horrified at this? Yes. But no one in power is listening to them.And still many other Muslims  simply go along with the flow because it's safer and easier. Or because it's their tacit way of helping jihad along. Saleh Abdeslam, the chief suspect in the Paris attacks lived openly in his old neighborhood in  Molenbeek for months, protected and sheltered by the local Muslim community while he planned the Brussels bombings not far from where he was hiding out. He was only caught by chance.

Interesting place, Molenbeek. It shows what Europe once was and what much of it is becoming. Like Sweden, now the rape capitol of the world:



President Obama and those whom think like him would have us continue along that same path.

What's needed if we want to avoid that is not just a strategy but an entire change in attitude. The free peoples of the world, especially America  must utterly reject  any leadership that preaches appeasement of Islamic fascism.

Not only must we protect our borders, but we have to deal with the Muslim Brotherhood front groups here in America and utterly break them, intern them securely or deport them. We should actually follow the lead of Saudi Arabia of all countries and declare the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group.  At the very least, a new version of the Smith Act is called for, requiring these groups to reveal their memberships, assets and sources of funding. Mosques must be monitored and shut down if their imams preach sermons designed to  promote Islamic fascism, jihad  or  Islamism in any way.

And instead of cuddling up to Islamists, we need to approach American Muslims and invite them  to make a choice to either be part of our American family or leave. As former Australian Prime Minister John Howard once famously told Muslims in his country, "Live here, be Australian."

Many Muslims in America would be ecstatic to be listened to for a change and given the opportunity to make that choice openly. The ones that can't or won't we can do without, frankly.

We need to take a clear look at many of the almost one million Muslims President Obama has allowed into America during his term. Many of the ones let in as refugees have had little or no vetting, and a number of them have committed crimes, have been on public assistance for years or have certain undesirable associations. They need to be vetted properly.  In Sweden after a huge public outcry, over 80,000 Muslim refugees have had their visas cancelled and are  finally being deported, a fraction of what is needed demographically but at least a start. There's no reason America can't do the same. And no reason we can't have a temporary ban on migration from countries like Somalia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, the Palestinian Authority and other countries with similar problematic ideologies.

If what I'm suggesting sounds vaguely familiar, it's pretty close to what President Franklin Roosevelt did after Pearl Harbor to secure the American homeland. He arrested and deported anyone whom looked, talked or smelled like a security risk, he completely broke up  groups like the Nazi funded  German-American Bund and some of their copycats, he strengthened controls on the border, and he gave the FBI carte blanche to monitor phone calls, mail, and cable traffic to root out spies and saboteurs. He didn't even shrink from interning Japanese citizens until the perceived danger to our Pacific Coast was no longer a problem.

Even more importantly, he got Americans involved in the war effort on the home front as well as Hollywood and  the media. They understood that temporary measures were necessary to save the country.And it worked fairly well, even if FDR was fairly blind to the Soviet spies and sympathizers in his own administration.  

What's even more interesting is that the majority of the American people actually seem to favor steps like this today. They're far smarter than their ruling class.

In terms of our military strategy, once our base is secure we need to be fairly hard line with countries that finance and import jihad or Islamism. It can no longer be business as usual with Qatar, the Saudis, The Emirates or Turkey.  Erdoğan is no ally of ours. Since our need for their oil is a thing of the past, we have a fair amount of leverage and persuasion  we can use.


We need to get rid of the PC brainwashing of our military, lose the ridiculous Rules of Engagement that actually endanger both our military and their mission and bring back superb combat generals like McCrystal,  Mattis and Carter Ham who were forced out of the service during the Obama Regime, and address the severe morale problem in our military as well replenishing its equipment and numbers.

We need to re-engage with Russia's Putin in areas of mutual interest, and revive our relations with the Israelis, the Kurds and our other friends in the Middle East like Egypt's President al-Sissi who recently begged for our help in taking out jihadis in Sinai and has not yet gotten an answer.  

And if we're going to  concentrate on defeating ISIS, we need to avoid George W. Bush's mistake of taking out the Sunni counterbalance to Shi'ite Iran as we did with Saddam Hussein. If we are really to win this war, we need a realistic plan not just to deal with ISIS but with Iran's threat as well. In terms of our national security, recognizing that both are equally dangerous is vital.

Do we have the stomach for this? Perhaps not. The rot  indeed goes deep. But delay in confronting an existential threat is like taking out a high interest loan on your future. You always play heavy interest, and if you delay too long, sometimes the price is even higher than you can pay and still survive.

 If our freedom means anything to us as a people, as a nation  we have no choice. Or rather we do, but that choice involves numerous atrocities committed on our soil, a horrendous body count  and the loss of everything  our Founders bequeathed to us.

The reality is that stark.


* "Believers, take neither the Jews nor the Christians for your friends. They are friends with one another. Whoever of you seeks their friendship shall become one of their number..." Quran 5: 51

** "Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued."- Qu'ran, 9:29

(Pickthal translation. There are numerous similar statements recorded in the Qu'ran and Hadiths, the life, times and pronouncements of Mohammed as recorded by his closest followers.)