Osama Bin Commie!

William Arkin at The Washington Post.com has written an oped saying what we were all thinking. Radical Islam, as practiced by al Qaeda is clearly very compatible with the far left.

In his piece, entitled, Bin Laden The Communist, he notes that Bin Laden’s message has changed from railing on Christian and Jewish crusaders, and the occupying of the Holy Land, to taking a rather generous position towards the Jews, actually welcoming into the Arab world.

Bin Laden saves his vitriol for corporate interests.

It’s the major corporations, you see, that are behind:

a long history of American killing, of the “Red Indians,” in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It’s also those corporations, he says, that have prevented the Democrat majority in Congress from changing the course of the war in Iraq.

He uses the language of the left when he speaks of

Americans “reeling … under the burden of interest-related debts, insane taxes and real estate mortgages; global warming and its woes; and the abject poverty and tragic hunger in Africa: all of this is but one side of the grim face of this global system.”

And taking a page right out of Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth, he fusses about global warming:

“life of all of mankind is in danger because of the global warming resulting to a large degree from the emissions of the factories of the major corporations.

Bin Laden says that America should “liberate” itself “from the deception, shackles and attrition of the capitalist system.” Oh, and also “embrace Islam.”

Robert Spencer took note of that last bit at Jihad Watch:

“I invite you to embrace Islam,” says Osama bin Laden in his latest videotape. Most analysts take this as pious window-dressing and focus on what they believe to be the more substantive points of his message: his comments on the war in Iraq, his critique of capitalism, the similarity of much of what he says to Democratic Party talking points, and the like. But in fact the invitation to Islam is the heart, and the most revealing aspect, of bin Laden’s entire statement. The chief reason for this, of course, is because in traditional Islamic law, the invitation to Islam must precede an attack on non-Muslims. The Islamic prophet Muhammad makes this clear, directing Muslims to issue this invitation first, and if the unbelievers refuse, to invite them to enter the Islamic social order as second-class dhimmis, and if they refuse both, to goto war with them.

Is, then, a major attack imminent? There are numerous indications of that – suggesting that one of the primary audiences, at least for this part of Osama’s message, is the Islamic world. If such an attack comes, Osama has by means of this videotape attempted to forestall criticism by Muslims, and has laid claim to Islamic legitimacy for Al-Qaeda’s actions.

Meanwhile, on talk shows over the week-end, White House Homeland Security Advisor, Frances Fragos Townsend said,

the fugitive al-Qaida leader is “virtually impotent” beyond his ability to hide away and spread anti-American propaganda.

Rumor Mill:

Speaking of William Arkin:

Inside Cable News asks:

Is William Arkin off of NBC News’ Military analysts roster? That’s the rumor I’ve heard but so far have not been able to get a confirmation out of anyone I have asked.

NYC Muslim Day Parade Met With Protests

The media coverage describe a peaceful event that was marred by uncouth protesters.

From Newsday.com:

Thousands of Muslims from across the New York region marched down Madison Avenue in Manhattan Sunday, waving flags and flashing peace signs to protesters.

The 22nd annual United American Muslim Day parade was a peaceful affair on a warm, bright day that drew hundreds of beaming children. Though few people gathered on the sidewalk to watch the parade, the street was filled with proud participants. Rita Thompson, 44, traveled with her boyfriend from their home in Redington Beach, Fla., to protest the parade.

Thompson later shouted expletives at marchers and said, “They’re all going to be bin Ladens.”

“I’m so appalled by this, two days before the anniversary of 9/11,” she said later in an interview, adding that she called City Hall earlier in the week to urge Mayor Michael Bloomberg to cancel the event.

WCBSTV.Com:

About 20 protesters shouted anti-Muslim slogans from behind police barricades along Manhattan’s Madison Avenue and sought to link the marchers to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

A member of the parade organizing committee, Dr. Hafiz Ur Rehman, a pediatrician from Bay Shore, said the marchers condemned the 2001 attacks.

“We are law-abiding citizens, and we want the people of New York to know that Muslims are part and parcel of the landscape,” he said. “The motto of this parade is that Islam holds human dignity high. And that is what we want to demonstrate.”

NY1:

“All Americans should know that we are Americans too, this is our land, we love this land, we will do everything possible for peace and tranquility, and love, because long as their love among human beings so we can surpass any difficulties.”

“They’re Americans and they’re not. They’re essentially a jihad group,” said protestor Madeline Maccabbe. “They’re practicing the ancient Islamic art of takeia, trying to fool people with their hideous lies.”

All of the comments of the protesters that these media outlets chose to print, do sound rather uncouth. Not everyone in the parade was a “Jihadi”, or a “bin Laden”, obviously.
Atlas Shrugs has pictures and video that tell a slightly different story.

Commenters at her website mention that there were at least 50 protesters.

I wasn’t there, so I don’t know.
I report, you decide.

Um um um!

Gateway Pundit has more pictures from the parade, including one of a man wearing a tee-shirt that says, “A Matter of time….khalifah“. For you morons who won’t follow the links, the picture on the tee-shirt depicts an hour glass with all of the flags of the world sifting through to the bottom where there are only two Islamic flags.

Gateway asks, “Was this really the appropriate T-shirt to wear if you want to portray a moderate image of Islam to the masses two days before the anniversary of 9-11?”

Indeed.

The best commentary I’ve seen so far, on the parade can be found at The Autonomist.

He fairly notes that the general tone of the event was moderate, but that the street vibe contained a steady whiff of menace:

Speaker after speaker preached reconciliation with Christians, Hindus and Jews. But not a single speaker offered specific condemnations of Al Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood, Osama bin Laden or any other radical Islamist individual or group.

After speaking to many people at the event he could get none of them to admit that Islam ic groups are cutting a wide swath of murder and destruction across the globe in the name of God.

Most thought that America and Israel were the major forces of injustice against Muslims in the world. When the Autonomist pointed out most Muslims being oppressed or killed in the world were the victims of other Muslims, they got “very edgy”.

One female supporter of the march suggested I should read Noam Chomsky, since he had the best take on the problem of America as a terrorist state.

Chomsky, popular with Commies, OBL, and “moderate Muslims”.

Another Muslim woman tried to brush off my condemnations of the violence committed in the name of Islam by implying that radical Christians like David Koresh and Timothy McVeigh are as much of a problem as extremist Muslims are. I have heard that same lame attempt at moral and empirical equivalence from nearly every leftist I’ve ever engaged in conversation with about either Iraq or the general War on Islamic Terror.

Oh man, ain’t that the truth.