Education Makes a Difference, Especially With the Large Proportion of "Undecideds"

The following was sent by ACT! for America to its subscribers. If you have not yet subscribed to their free email updates, I strongly recommend it. They will not overwhelm you with too much information, but they consistently send out good stuff. Anyway, here is the update (slightly edited):

Any critique or expose of Islam is usually met with name-calling (e.g., “Islamophobia”) from Islamists and their enablers, rather than rational or factual responses and rebuttals.

There are at least two reasons for this.

First, Sharia law does not provide for nor protect free speech. Criticism of Islam, Allah or Mohammad is a criminal offense. When Muslims attempt to suppress free speech critiques of Islam they are abiding by Sharia law, and insisting that we non-Muslims bow before Sharia law as well. They frequently get furious when we refuse to do so.

Second, as two examples below will attest, public discourse and debates about radical Islam reveal the truth that Islamists don’t want Americans to see. Hence, they rant, rave, and name call in the hopes of demonizing those who dare to expose the truth so as to keep the truth from the American people.

Two recent events reveal why Islamists and their enablers avoid genuine debate.

* A recent event held in Des Moines, Iowa, entitled “A Forum on Being An American Muslim,” produced a very illuminating exchange, where ACT! for America chapter leader Steve Kirby’s question about Sharia law and free speech was completely ignored by the Muslim moderator. The moderator went so far as to prevent Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, a reformist Muslim, from answering the question by taking the microphone from him! To read Steve’s short summary of this incident, please click here. (You will need Adobe Acrobat to open the PDF).

* A recent debate was held in New York, debating the motion “Is Islam a religion of peace?” To view this fascinating debate, please click here. It's a long debate, but there's a link on that page that allows you to download the audio file for free. It's an MP3 file, which you can put on your iPod and listen to later.

Prior to the debate, the audience members were polled as to their position on the motion.

41% were for the motion
25% were against the motion
34% were undecided

After the debate, the audience was polled again. Check out these eye-popping results!

36% were for the motion (a decrease of 5 percentage points)
55% were against the motion (an increase of 30 percentage points)
9% were undecided

In other words, after seeing only one debate, most of the undecideds and some of those who initially agreed that “Islam is a religion of peace” changed their positions to opposing the motion.

Small wonder we see so few Muslims willing to step forward and defend Sharia law and the ideology of radical Islam! Truth and the facts are stacked so heavily against them they can only hope to “win” by suppressing speech that exposes the truth.

A similar result was obtained in another debate that used this as its proposition: Islam is Dominated by Radicals. Before the debate, the audience held these positions:

46% were for the motion
32% were against the motion
22% were undecided

After the debate, the audience was polled again. The results were:

73% were for the motion
23% were against the motion
4% were undecided

Again, a huge jump in people who grasped the real situation: Islam is dominated by radicals. Even if the majority of Muslims are peace-loving people, they are essentially irrelevant because they have so little impact on any of the realities non-Muslims must live with, they have no voice, they are politically inactive, and they are not stopping the devout Muslims pursuing Islam's prime directive.

Islam is, in fact, dominated by radicals. When people are given the chance to hear both sides, to really listen to a full explanation and not merely soundbites, innuendo, or ad hominem attacks, the reality of the situation shines through clearly.

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Taking Action In Sherman Oaks

YESTERDAY I received the following email:

I want to thank you for encouraging me to start an ACT for America group out here in the San Fernando Valley. I have been very passionate about the issue of radical Islam and the Islamization of America for a very long time. Now that I am leading a chapter, I have more of a cohesive purpose to vent out my desire not to be one of those 'good people who do nothing.'

We just had our sixth meeting and I am excited about the ACTIONS we take at each meeting. The group members seem to like them also as when I report on our successes at the next month's meetings, they applaud... ;-)

At any rate, I wanted to tell you that I'm very excited about our upcoming meeting on October 12th out here in Sherman Oaks, CA. Through the very generous auspices of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, we are having the incomparable, Robert Spencer for a talk and a book signing! I am floating on air at the good fortune of being able to have such an esteemed expert at our group.

We are doing everything we can to spread the word and take actions to help stem the tide of a takeover of our country from within.

I thought you might be interested since you were the one who originally suggested I might start an ACT group. Thanks so much for the wonderful recommendation.

Nancy
Chapter Leader
San Fernando Valley
ACT! for America

IF YOU ARE frustrated, if you feel strongly that something must be done but you don't know what to do, the best thing I can recommend is that you join ACT for America. Read more about it here:

The Most Practical Thing You Can Do To Defeat The Third Jihad

Get Active, Get Involved

Whoever Is Most Organized Will Win

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Get Active, Get Involved

The following is a message from Brigitte Gabriel, founder of ACT for America:

Dozens of Islamic paramilitary camps, training Islamists in jihadist tactics and often using live ammunition, exist on American soil. Why is this being allowed to happen?

Hundreds of thousands of intelligence intercepts sit in boxes, untranslated, because the FBI doesn't have enough Arabic translators. Yet the FBI predominately hires Muslims to do translating, routinely rejecting the applications of qualified Christians and Jews. Why is this being allowed to happen?

A study of publications from 12 of the most prominent mosques and Islamic institutions in the U.S. uncovered hatred for any religion but Islam, hatred of "infidels" (non-Muslims), contempt for democracy, and calls for jihad to overthrow democratic governments and replace them with Islamic government and sharia law. Why is this being allowed to happen?

If you are shaking your head right now in frustration about these outrages, this is your time to say "enough is enough — I want to do something about this!" Become an ACT for America chapter leader.

It is vital that we build ACT for America to be the nation's largest, most successful citizen action network, whose backbone is a network of patriotic Americans organized in chapters in every city and state in our great nation. An organization that will hold our elected officials' feet to the fire, monitor bills on Capitol Hill, and actively influence policy on the local, state and federal levels.

Outrages like those mentioned above will continue so long as too many government and elected officials kowtow to what is politically correct, shirking their constitutional duties to do what is in the best interest of America's security and the defense of our liberty and our values.

We must unite our voices and demand that our elected officials put the safety, security and freedom of the citizens of the United States above concerns for "political correctness" or the "rights" of those who want to harm us or radically alter our way of life.

Many of you have emailed and asked "What can I do? I want to do something." This is your opportunity to get involved with ACT for America. You can either start a chapter or join a chapter that will be starting in your area. See chapters in your area here.

We can't afford to sit back and hope our government officials and elected representatives will do the right thing when it comes to protecting our liberty and security. Some will, and we are thankful for them. Unfortunately, the track record for far too many in government is not cause for optimism or exuberance.

Increasingly, I'm getting opportunities to inform and educate government officials. On September 10th I gave an address on Capitol Hill, sponsored by the House Republican Policy Committee. Just last Thursday I did a briefing for FBI personnel, and as you read this I'm finishing two days of presentations to high-ranking military officers at the United States Special Operations Command in Tampa. So the word is getting out at the highest levels.

But I need you to join with this effort so that the power of the grassroots can be joined to the power of information I am disseminating at the highest levels of government.

On Monday we sent over 10,000 petition names to Columbia University, demanding they not let Iranian President Ahmadinejad speak. Imagine how powerful our voice will be when we have 1,000 local chapters and twenty times the members we have now!

With your help we will create the most formidable, organized grassroots voice in America that will drown out the foolish voices of political correctness and help ensure our government officials and elected representatives do the right thing to protect our safety, security, liberty, and way of life.

Put your hand in mine and join me in organizing and mobilizing our country. Please click here now.

Together, We Rise in Defense of America.





You can find her original message here.

Learn more about ACT for America.

Learn about other practical actions you can take to help defeat the third jihad.

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The Most Practical Thing You Can Do About Islam

Since we started Citizen Warrior, we've been trying to find things an ordinary citizen can DO that will actually help stop or reverse the Islamization of the free world. ACT! For America (AFA) is one of the best things we've found so far. They are organized and they are successfully defeating Islam's relentless encroachment in one of the most important places: In the political arena.

As it says in AFA's brochure, "ACT! for America is a nationwide organization of concerned Americans who want to be informed, who want to inform others, and who are uniting together to speak out against and resist the rising tide of Islamofascism — and the 'political correctness' that excuses it, rationalizes it, dismisses it, or blames America for it."

In a series of messages from the founder of AFA, Brigitte Gabriel, she wrote about what AFA has accomplished so far. The following are quotes from her recent letters:

Less than 14 months ago we launched ACT! for America, and we now have close to 50,000 members and nearly 230 local chapters.

In January we launched a petition and legislator-contact effort to help get “Rachel’s Law” passed in the New York state legislature. “Rachel’s Law” was introduced to protect New York authors from intimidation lawsuits filed against them in foreign jurisdictions. Thousands of members signed the petition and/or contacted New York legislators, and in late March the bill passed and was signed into law. The momentum from this victory led to the introduction of similar legislation, entitled “The Free Speech Protection Act,” in the U.S. Congress.

In the spring, with the help of the erstwhile leadership of former board member Jerry Gordon and our colleague Joseph Shahda, some key terrorist websites were taken offline by their American internet service providers. Later in the year this “dynamic duo,” working closely with the staff of Senator Joe Lieberman, helped bring about a new policy at Google/YouTube, which will no longer allow the posting of videos depicting terrorist acts perpetrated against Americans.

In March news stories reported that a charter school in Minnesota, the Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TiZA), appeared to be engaging in impermissible promotion of Islam at its taxpayer-funded school. Through email alerts, the actions of our central Minnesota chapter, and other efforts aimed at the Minnesota Department of Education, we called on the Department to take action. It did, launching an investigation of the school. The investigation resulted in the Department of Education issuing two citations to the school for violations of law.

In June we launched a nationwide petition calling on Congress to convene hearings to review extremist materials found in American mosques, a petition we will present to the new Congress in early 2009.

In early August we learned that a Tennessee Tyson Foods plant had negotiated a labor contract with its employees that removed Labor Day as a paid holiday and replaced it with Eid al-Fitr, the Islamic holiday closing the month of Ramadan. In response to an email action alert we sent out, countless ACT! for America members called and emailed Tyson Foods to object to this action. Three days later Tyson Foods issued a press release reinstating Labor Day as one of its paid holidays and removing Eid al-Fitr as a required paid holiday for all employees.

So I want to thank you for all you did to help make all of this possible. When you forwarded one of our emails, or made a contribution, or contacted a chapter leader, or took action on one of our action alerts, you helped move us forward. You helped make these accomplishments possible. We are steadily growing, and our collective voice is getting stronger and harder for politicians to ignore.

We’ve had over 1,500 people sign up on our website to be members in just the past couple of weeks. Kelly Cook, our National Field Director, tells me we’ll add twice as many new chapters this month compared to the last six months.

In the words of our Founding Fathers, “these are the times that try men’s souls.” These are the times that test and strengthen our character. Thankfully, as difficult as things now appear they’re not yet as trying as the times our founders faced. We still have so much to be grateful for.

But we can’t afford to forget that our radical Islamist enemies not only welcome but thrive on chaos and confusion. They’re hoping we get so caught up in the economic challenges facing us that we’ll forget about them. They’re hoping we won’t see them using Shariah-compliant finance to exploit America’s financial challenges and uncertainties. They may very well launch a major terrorist attack in the very near future, calculating that a nation coping with economic distress led by a new President, inexperienced in foreign policy, will lack the will to respond. And without question they will accelerate their efforts to infiltrate every level of our government to manipulate public policy in their favor.

AFA is doing what needs to be done to overcome the political barriers to an effective defense against Islam's relentless encroachment. I urge you to sign up for the AFA newsletter, to tell your friends about AFA, to join a local chapter in your area, and to read her two books.

Whoever is the most organized is going to win.

And please, those of you in other countries who know of a similar organization in your country, please leave contact information for the organization in the comments to this article. Thank you.

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