Why Should Muslims Apologize for Other Peoples Crimes?

12 New Muslims Share Their Journey to Islam

Latino Converts to Islam 2014 (PBS)

Top 10 Celebrities Who Have Converted to Islam

Former Playboy Model Converts / Reverts to Islam - Her Journey to Islam ...

UK plea to imams to fight extremism draws charge of Islamophobia

LONDON (Reuters) - Muslim groups accused the British government of copying the language of the far right on Monday and of stoking Islamophobia after ministers wrote to imams asking them to explain to Muslims how Islam is compatible with being British.

In a letter to over 1,000 imams last Friday, Eric Pickles, the minister for local government and communities, asked them to explain to Muslims how Islam can be "part of British identity", arguing they had a duty to do more to fight extremism and root out anyone preaching hatred.
Muslim groups said the letter unfairly singled them out.
"The letter has all the hallmarks of very poor judgment which feeds into an Islamophobic narrative, which feeds into a narrative of us and them," Tahla Ahmad of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) told Sky News.
The row, which underscores tensions between the government and Muslims, comes as security forces warn an attack on Britain by Islamist militants is highly likely. Jews and Muslims say they are fearful, for different reasons, after the Charlie Hebdo shootings in Paris.
Harun Khan, deputy secretary general of the MCB, said his organization would be writing to the government to complain.
"Is Mr Pickles seriously suggesting, as do members of the far right, that Muslims and Islam are inherently apart from British society?," said Khan.
Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, said the letter was patronizing, factually incorrect, and "typical of the Government only looking at Muslims through the prism of terrorism and security."
Britain's 2.8 million Muslims have been mostly praised by politicians for peacefully condemning the Paris shootings, though Sajid Javid, the most senior Muslim in government, has said Muslims have "a special burden" to track down extremists.
In the letter, Pickles said imams needed to help the government do something it couldn't achieve on its own.
"You have a precious opportunity, and an important responsibility: in explaining and demonstrating how faith in Islam can be part of British identity," the letter read.
"We must show our young people, who may be targeted, that extremists have nothing to offer them ... show them these men of hate have no place in our mosques or any place of worship."
Prime Minister David Cameron defended the letter, saying he agreed with its message.
"Anyone frankly reading this letter who has a problem with it, I think really has a problem," he said. "I think it's the most reasonable, sensible, moderate letter that Eric could possibly have written."

(Additional reporting by William James; Editing by Dominic Evans)

Britain's Communities Secretary Eric Pickles arrives for a cabinet meeting at Number 10 Downing Street in London August 29, 2013. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett

Egypt court acquits 26 men in gay trial

An Egyptian court has acquitted 26 men arrested in a televised raid last month by police looking for gays at a Cairo public bathhouse.

The trial, which had caused an uproar among activists and rights groups, captured public attention after a pro-government TV network aired scenes of half-naked men being pulled from the bathhouse by police.
The men faced various charges, including debauchery and performing indecent public acts. Monday's verdict came after only three hearings, during which families quarrelled with journalists who tried to photograph their relatives in the dock.
Rights activists say 2014 was the worst year in a decade for Egypt's gay community, with at least 150 men arrested or put on trial.
"They destroyed our lives. God rescued us," said one of the defendants, who did not give his name to protect his privacy.
The trial opened only two weeks after the December 7 raid on the bathhouse, or hammam.
Five of the defendants in Monday's trial - the owner of the bathhouse and four staff members - were tried for facilitating debauchery in exchange for money.
In the official charges, the prosecutor said the investigation revealed the owner and the staff ran the bathhouse as a place for "parties of debauchery, orgies among male homosexuals in exchange for money." The rest of the defendants were charged with practising debauchery and "indecent public acts."

There are no laws in Egypt criminalising homosexuality but a decades' old law criminalising prostitution is often used in penalising the gay community.

Jesus: the Muslim prophet

Christianity is rooted in the belief that Jesus is the Son of God, so is Islam’s version of Christ a source of tension, or a way of building bridges between the world’s two largest faiths?

 

Christians, perhaps because they call themselves Christians and believe in Christianity, like to claim ownership of Christ. But the veneration of Jesus by Muslims began during the lifetime of the Prophet of Islam. Perhaps most telling is the story in the classical biographies of Muhammad, who, entering the city of Mecca in triumph in 630AD, proceeded at once to the Kaaba to cleanse the holy shrine of its idols. As he walked around, ordering the destruction of the pictures and statues of the 360 or so pagan deities, he came across a fresco on the wall depicting the Virgin and Child. He is said to have covered it reverently with his cloak and decreed that all other paintings be washed away except that one.
Jesus, or Isa, as he is known in Arabic, is deemed by Islam to be a Muslim prophet rather than the Son of God, or God incarnate. He is referred to by name in as many as 25 different verses of the Quran and six times with the title of "Messiah" (or "Christ", depending on which Quranic translation is being used). He is also referred to as the "Messenger" and the "Prophet" but, perhaps above all else, as the "Word" and the "Spirit" of God. No other prophet in the Quran, not even Muhammad, is given this particular honour. In fact, among the 124,000 prophets said to be recognised by Islam - a figure that includes all of the Jewish prophets of the Old Testament - Jesus is considered second only to Muhammad, and is believed to be the precursor to the Prophet of Islam.
In his fascinating book The Muslim Jesus, the former Cambridge professor of Arabic and Islamic studies Tarif Khalidi brings together, from a vast range of sources, 303 stories, sayings and traditions of Jesus that can be found in Muslim literature, from the earliest centuries of Islamic history. These paint a picture of Christ not dissimilar to the Christ of the Gospels. The Muslim Jesus is the patron saint of asceticism, the lord of nature, a miracle worker, a healer, a moral, spiritual and social role model.
“Jesus used to eat the leaves of the trees," reads one saying, "dress in hairshirts, and sleep wherever night found him. He had no child who might die, no house which might fall into ruin; nor did he save his lunch for his dinner or his dinner for his lunch. He used to say, 'Each day brings with it its own sustenance.'"
According to Islamic theology, Christ did not bring a new revealed law, or reform an earlier law, but introduced a new path or way (tariqah) based on the love of God; it is perhaps for this reason that he has been adopted by the mystics, or Sufis, of Islam. The Sufi philosopher al-Ghazali described Jesus as "the prophet of the soul" and the Sufi master Ibn Arabi called him "the seal of saints". The Jesus of Islamic Sufism, as Khalidi notes, is a figure "not easily distinguished" from the Jesus of the Gospels.
What prompted Khalidi to write such a pro­vocative book? "We need to be reminded of a history that told a very different story: how one religion, Islam, co-opted Jesus into its own spirituality yet still maintained him as an independent hero of the struggle between the spirit and the letter of the law," he told me. "It is in many ways a remarkable story of religious encounter, of one religion fortifying its own piety by adopting and cherishing the master spiritual narrative of another religion."
Islam reveres both Jesus and his mother, Mary (Joseph appears nowhere in the Islamic narrative of Christ's birth). "Unlike the canonical Gospels, the Quran tilts backward to his miraculous birth rather than forward to his Passion," writes Khalidi. "This is why he is often referred to as 'the son of Mary' and why he and his mother frequently appear together." In fact, the Virgin Mary, or Maryam, as she is known in the Quran, is considered by Muslims to hold the most exalted spiritual position among women. She is the only woman mentioned by name in Islam's holy book and a chapter of the Quran is named after her. In one oft-cited tradition, the Prophet Muhammad described her as one of the four perfect women in human history.
But the real significance of Mary is that Islam considers her a virgin and endorses the Christian concept of the Virgin Birth. "She was the chosen woman, chosen to give birth to Jesus, without a husband," says Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra, an imam in Leicester and assistant secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB). This is the orthodox Islamic position and, paradoxically, as Seyyed Hossein Nasr notes in The Heart of Islam, "respect for such teachings is so strong among Muslims that today, in interreligious dialogues with Christians . . . Muslims are often left defending traditional . . . Christian doctrines such as the miraculous birth of Christ before modernist interpreters would reduce them to metaphors."
With Christianity and Islam so intricately linked, it might make sense for Muslim communities across Europe, harassed, haran­gued and often under siege, to do more to stress this common religious heritage, and especially the shared love for Jesus and Mary. There is a renowned historical precedent for this from the life of the Prophet. In 616AD, six years in to his mission in Mecca, Muhammad decided to find a safer refuge for those of his followers who had been exposed to the worst persecution from his opponents in the pagan tribes of the Quraysh. He asked the Negus, the Christian king of Abyssinia (modern-day Ethiopia), to take them in. He agreed and more than 80 Muslims left Mecca with their families. The friendly reception that greeted them upon arrival in Abyssinia so alarmed the Quraysh that, worried about the prospects of Muhammad's Muslims winning more allies abroad, they sent two delegates to the court of the Negus to persuade him to extradite them back to Mecca. The Muslim refugees, claimed the Quraysh, were blasphemers and fugitives. The Negus invited Jafar, cousin of Muhammad and leader of the Muslim group, to answer the charges. Jafar explained that Muhammad was a prophet of the same God who had confirmed his revelation to Jesus, and recited aloud the Quranic account of the virginal conception of Christ in the womb of Mary:

And make mention of Mary in the Scripture, when she had withdrawn from her people to a chamber looking East,
And had chosen seclusion from them. Then We sent unto her Our Spirit and it assumed for her the likeness of a perfect man.
She said: Lo! I seek refuge in the Beneficent One from thee, if thou art God-fearing.
He said: I am only a messenger of thy Lord, that I may bestow on thee a faultless son.
She said: How can I have a son when no mortal hath touched me, neither have I been unchaste?
He said: So (it will be). Thy Lord saith: It is easy for Me. And (it will be) that We may make of him a revelation for mankind and a mercy from Us, and it is a thing ordained.
Quran, 19:16-21

Karen Armstrong writes, in her biography of Muhammad, that "when Jafar finished, the beauty of the Quran had done its work. The Negus was weeping so hard that his beard was wet, and the tears poured down the cheeks of his bishops and advisers so copiously that their scrolls were soaked." The Muslims remained in Abyssinia, under the protection of the Negus, and were able to practise their religion freely.
However, for Muslims, the Virgin Birth is not evidence of Jesus's divinity, only of his unique importance as a prophet and a messiah. The Trinity is rejected by Islam, as is Jesus's Crucifixion and Resurrection. The common theological ground seems to narrow at this point - as Jonathan Bartley, co-director of the Christian think tank Ekklesia, argues, the belief in the Resurrection is the "deal-breaker". He adds: "There is a fundamental tension at the heart of interfaith dialogue that neither side wants to face up to, and that is that the orthodox Christian view of Jesus is blasphemous to Muslims and the orthodox Muslim view of Jesus is blasphemous to Christians." He has a point. The Quran singles out Christianity for formulating the concept of the Trinity:

Do not say, "Three" - Cease! That is better for you. God is one God. Glory be to Him, [high exalted is He] above having a son.
Quran 4:171

It castigates Christianity for the widespread practice among its sects of worshipping Jesus and Mary, and casts the criticism in the form of an interrogation of Jesus by God:

And when God will say: "O Jesus, son of Mary, did you say to the people, 'Take me and my mother as gods besides God'?" he will
say, "Glory be to You, it was not for me to say what I had no right [to say]! If I had said it, You would have known it.
Quran 5:116

Jesus, as Khalidi points out, "is a controversial prophet. He is the only prophet in the Quran who is deliberately made to distance himself from the doctrines that his community is said to hold of him." For example, Muslims believe that Jesus was not crucified but was raised bodily to heaven by God.
Yet many Muslim scholars have maintained that the Islamic conception of Jesus - shorn of divinity; outside the Trinity; a prophet - is in line with the beliefs and teachings of some of the earliest Jewish-Christian sects, such as the Ebionites and the Nazarenes, who believed Jesus to be the Messiah, but not divine. Muslims claim the Muslim Jesus is the historical Jesus, stripped of a later, man-made "Christology": "Jesus as he might have been without St Paul or St Augustine or the Council of Nicaea", to quote the Cambridge academic John Casey.
Or, as A N Wilson wrote in the Daily Express a decade ago: "Islam is a moral and intellectual acknowledgement of the lordship of God without the encumbrance of Christian mythological baggage . . . That is why Christianity will decline in the next millennium, and the religious hunger of the human heart will be answered by the Crescent, not the Cross." Despite the major doctrinal differences, there remain areas of significant overlap, such as on the second coming of Christ. Both Muslims and Christians subscribe to the belief that before the world ends Jesus will return to defeat the Antichrist, whom Muslims refer to as Dajjal.
The idea of a Muslim Jesus, in whatever doctrinal form, may help fortify the resolve of those scholars who talk of the need to reformulate the exclusivist concept of a Judaeo-Christian civilisation and refer instead to a "Judaeo-Christian-Muslim civilisation". This might be anathema to evangelical Christians - especially in the US, where populist preachers such as Franklin Graham see Islam as a "very evil and wicked religion" - but, as Khalidi points out, "While the Jewish tradition by and large rejects Jesus, the Islamic tradition, especially Sufi or mystical Islam, constructs a place for him at the very centre of its devotions."
Nonetheless, Jesus remains an esoteric part of Islamic faith and practice. Where, for example, is the Islamic equivalent of Christmas? Why do Muslims celebrate the birth of the Prophet Muhammad but not that of the Prophet Jesus? "We, too, in our own way should celebrate the birth of Jesus . . . [because] he is so special to us," says Mogra. "But I think each religious community has distinct celebrations, so Muslims will celebrate their own and Christians their own."
In recent years, the right-wing press in Britain has railed against alleged attempts by "politically correct" local authorities to downplay or even suppress Christmas. Birmingham's attempt to name its seasonal celebrations "Winterval" and Luton's Harry Potter-themed lights, or "Luminos", are notorious examples. There is often a sense that such decisions are driven by the fear that outward displays of Christian faith might offend British Muslim sensibilities, but, given the importance of Jesus in Islam, such fears seem misplaced. Mogra, who leads the MCB's interfaith relations committee, concurs: "It's a ridiculous suggestion to change the name of Christmas." He adds: "Britain is great when it comes to celebrating diverse religious festivals of our various faith communities. They should remain named as they are, and we should celebrate them all."
Mogra is brave to urge Muslims to engage in an outward and public celebration of Jesus, in particular his birth, in order to match the private reverence that Muslims say they have for him. Is there a danger, however, that Muslim attempts to re-establish the importance of Jesus within Islam and as an integral part of their faith and tradition might be misinterpreted? Might they be misconstrued as part of a campaign by a supposedly resurgent and politicised Islam to try to take "ownership" of Jesus, in a western world in which organised Christianity is in seeming decline? Might it be counterproductive for interfaith relations? Church leaders, thankfully, seem to disagree.
“I have always enjoyed spending time with Muslim friends, with whom we as Christians have so much in common, along with Jewish people, as we all trace our faith back to Abraham," the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, tells me. "When I visit a mosque, having been welcomed in the name of 'Allah and His Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon Him', I respond with greetings 'in the name of Jesus Christ, whom you Muslims revere as a prophet, and whom I know as the Saviour of the World, the Prince of Peace'."
Amid tensions between the Christian west and the Islamic east, a common focus on Jesus - and what Khalidi calls a "salutary" reminder of when Christianity and Islam were more open to each other and willing to rely on each other's witness - could help close the growing divide between the world's two largest faiths. Mogra agrees: "We don't have to fight over Jesus. He is special for Christians and Muslims. He is bigger than life. We can share him."
Reverend David Marshall, one of the Church of England's specialists on Islam, cites the concluding comments from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, at a recent seminar for Christian and Muslim scholars. He said he had been encouraged by "the quality of our disagreement". "Christians and Muslims disagree on many points and will continue to do so - but how we disagree is not predetermined," says Marshall. "Muslims are called by the Quran to 'argue only in the best way with the People of the Book' [Quran 29:46], and Christians are encouraged to give reasons for the hope that is within them, 'with gentleness and reverence' [1 Peter 3:15]. If we can do this, we have no reason to be afraid."

 

Paris policeman’s brother: ‘Islam is a religion of love. My brother was killed by terrorists, by false Muslims’

Ahmed Merabet’s death was captured in a graphic video, as he was wounded by one of the two attackers and then shot in cold blood.

Ahmed Merabet, the police officer gunned down in the Charlie Hebdo attack, was killed in an act of barbarity by “false Muslims” his brother said in a moving tribute on Saturday, where he also appealed for unity and tolerance.
Speaking for a group of relatives gathered in Paris, Malek Merabet said the terrorists who ignored his brother’s plea for mercy as he lay wounded on the street may have shared his Algerian roots, but had nothing else in common.
“My brother was Muslim and he was killed by two terrorists, by two false Muslims,” he said. “Islam is a religion of peace and love. As far as my brother’s death is concerned it was a waste. He was very proud of the name Ahmed Merabet, proud to represent the police and of defending the values of the Republic – liberty, equality, fraternity.”
Malek reminded France that the country faced a battle against extremism, not against its Muslim citizens. “I address myself now to all the racists, Islamophobes and antisemites. One must not confuse extremists with Muslims. Mad people have neither colour or religion,” he said.
“I want to make another point: don’t tar everybody with the same brush, don’t burn mosques – or synagogues. You are attacking people. It won’t bring our dead back and it won’t appease the families.”
His brief speech was a moving tribute to the slain officer, loved as a son, brother, companion and uncle, but also a powerful call for harmony.
There has been a rising tide of Islamophobia in France following the Paris killings, including a grenade attack on one mosque, an explosion in a kebab shop beside a mosque and gunfire at a Muslim family in a car, although there have been no casualties.
Merabet’s death was captured in a graphic video, as he was wounded by one of the two attackers and then shot in the head in cold blood. He is shot in the groin, then falls to the pavement groaning in pain and holding up an arm as though to protect himself.
The second gunman moves forward and asks the policeman: “Do you want to kill us?” Merabet replies: “No, it’s OK mate,” but the terrorist then shoots him in the head.
The images were widely shared online and one was published on the front page of a national newspaper.
Malek berated media outlets and websites that showed the graphic content, which he said was extremely painful for the family. “How dare you take this video and broadcast it? I heard his voice, I recognised him, I saw him being killed and I continue to hear him every day.”
Ahmed’s partner, Morgane Ahmad, who said she had watched footage of the shooting without realising it was him, also appealed for calm.
“What the family and I want is for everyone to be united, we want everyone to be able to demonstrate in peace, we want to show respect for all the victims and that the demonstration should be peaceful,” she said.
Ahmed had been a pillar of the family since his father died 20 years earlier, Malek said. The 42-year-old grew up in Livry-Gargan, in the north-eastern suburbs of Paris, and graduated from the local lycée in 1995. He ran a cleaning company before joining the police force eight years ago, and worked hard for a promotion.
“Through his determination, he had just got his judicial police officer [detective] diploma and was shortly due to leave fieldwork. His colleagues describe him as a man of action who was passionate about his job,” Malek said.
Merabet was called to the scene of the attack while on a bicycle patrol and arrived just as the killers were making their escape. They stopped to add him to the long list of victims.
“He was on foot, and came nose to nose with the terrorists. He pulled out his weapon. It was his job, it was his duty,” said Rocco Contento, a colleague who was a union representative at the central police station for Paris’s 11th arrondissement, where Merabet was based. He described him as a quiet and conscientious officer who was always smiling and widely liked.
As news spread that the gunned down policeman was a Muslim, the hashtag #JeSuisAhmed began spreading on Twitter in solidarity. One user, identified as @Aboujahjah, said: “I am not Charlie, I am Ahmed the dead cop. Charlie ridiculed my faith and culture and I died defending his right to do so.”

watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7rE5f5dErc

Paris shooting: Murdered officer's family calls for calm

Malek Merabet calls Charlie Hebdo attackers 'pretend Muslims' and 'terrorists'

PARIS 

The family of the French police officer who was brutally shot dead by two gunmen as he came to the defense of the satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo have called for calm and an end to xenophobic attacks that increased in the wake of the recent deadly attacks in France.
Malek Merabet, brother of French Muslim police officer Ahmed Merabet, who was shot dead by the Kouachi brothers as he strove to defend Charlie Hebdo in Wednesday’s attack, made an emotional appeal.
“I address this to all racist, Islamophobic, anti-Semitic people out there, that one must not mix up extremists and Muslims. My brother was killed by people who pretend to be Muslims. They are terrorists, that's it."
"Stop attacking mosques, churches or any place of worship because you are attacking people … It won’t bring back the dead and it won’t comfort the families," stressed Malek.
Among the victims of the Charlie Hebdo attack, which killed 12 people, were satirical journalists and cartoonists regarded as legendary across France -- editor Stephanie "Charb" Charbonnier, Bernard "Tignou" Verlhac, Jean Cabu and George Wolinski.
Renowned economist and writer Bernard Maris was also killed. The journalists were attacked in the middle of an editorial meeting.
"I don’t want there to be any incidents in France or the world … Islam is a religion of peace, of love … My brother was a Muslim and he was killed by two terrorists," said Malek.
He said that officer Ahmed Merabet was a French Muslim of Algerian origin "very proud to represent the values of the French republic."
“He looked after his mother and his family since his father died 20 years ago. He was the pillar of his family," said Malek.
The family members expressed their  “devastation” because of this “barbaric act.”
Another family member denounced how some media have chosen to publish the picture of Ahmed Merabet in the moments before he was shot.
Asked how she received the news, Merabet’s wife said that she was watching TV in a restaurant that time but she couldn’t recognize the police officer as her husband. She told reporters that she texted him but he didn’t answer. She went back to work, and that’s when her sister in law called her and told her the news.
“I can only be proud of his commitment to defend others, but for now all I can do is to mourn him,” Ahmed’s wife said.
- “Je suis Ahmed”
The hashtag #JeSuisAhmed or I’m Ahmed has emerged in support of Ahmed after videos of his killing was shared by millions of people online, including Twitter.
Many people, including Muslims all around the world used the tag to honor Merabet, who left a wife and two children behind.
“#JeSuisAhmed, the policeman died defending a magazine's right to insult his religion and culture,” tweeted Haroon.
Lebanese activist Dyab Abou Jahjah tweeted: “I am not Charlie, I am Ahmed the dead cop. Charlie ridiculed my faith and culture and I died defending his right to do so. #JeSuisAhmed.”
The Huffington Post wrote that the hasghtag for the officer “reminds us that a French Muslim died to protect free speech.”
 #JeSuisAhmed got thousands of mentions in the past 24 hours, according to Topsy, a social analytics website, while #JeSuisCharlie was tweeted millions of times.
The three gunmen, including the two Kouachi brothers and Amedy Coulibaly, 32, were involved in the worst terror attacks France saw in decades, which resulted in the killing of 17 people. The three were also killed.

‘Praising God’ may send 23-year-old Dane to jail

Danish Muslim Ubaydillah is cited by police after he finds himself in hot water over a Facebook post on Charlie Hebdo attack

COPENHAGEN
Abu Ubaydillah, a 23 year old Danish Muslim, spokesman for the organization Call to Islam (Kaldet til Islam), has been cited by the Danish police, apparently for praising Allah in a Facebook-comment to a Danish TV2 News website article.
In an article on Friday, TV2 news reported that the perpetrators in the Charlie Hebdo attack in France claimed it to be “a revenge for the Muhammad-drawings.”
“I shared a link to this story on Facebook and commented with the words 'All Praise only belongs to Allah' in Arabic, Ubaydillah tells Anadolu Agency.
“It was totally absurd. I asked the police when they searched my apartment, whether it is now forbidden to praise Allah, and that they could ask any Arab speaking about the meaning of the sentence. But they responded that they interpreted it differently and maintained the charges, Abu Ubaydillah says.
According to Danish Radio 24/7, the sentence meant that God deserves the honor for the killings in Paris on Wednesday's deadly attack, killing 12 journalists at the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
“But that is not what I said, which any Muslim can confirm,” says Abu Ubaydillah.
“It is remarkable how Danes apparently fight for the freedom of speech, but as soon as a Muslim speaks out, he is deemed extremist and Islamist”, Ubaydillah says.
The Facebook post was deleted afterwards by Ubaydillah himself, but based on a screenshot the Danish police cited him under Article 136 of the Danish Penal Code, which outlaws “publicly approving” actions that are punishable under the nation’s terror laws. The penalty can range from a fine to two years in prison.
According to Ubaydillah, the police confiscated both his computers. Danish police has refused to comment on the matter.

Charlie Attack was an inside job

A former White House official says the terrorist attack that killed 12 people on Wednesday in Paris was a false flag operation “designed to shore up France’s vassal status to Washington.”

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, who was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal, made the remarks in an article published on Thursday.
“The suspects can be both guilty and patsies. Just remember all the terrorist plots created by the FBI that served to make the terrorism threat real to Americans,” he wrote.
He said that the French economy is suffering from the US-imposed sanctions against Russia. “Shipyards are impacted from being unable to deliver Russian orders due to France’s vassalage status to Washington, and other aspects of the French economy are being adversely impacted by sanctions that Washington forced its NATO puppet states to apply to Russia.”
Dr. Roberts stated that French President Francois Hollande this week said that the sanctions against Russia should end. “This is too much foreign policy independence on France’s part for Washington.”
He added that the CIA has apparently resurrected a policy that it followed against Europeans during the post-WW II era when the US spy agency would carry out attacks in European states and blame them on communist groups.
Dr. Roberts said now the US agencies have planned false flag operations in Europe to create hatred against Muslims and bring European countries under Washington’s sphere of influence.
He noted that “the attack on Charlie Hebdo was an inside job and that people identified by NSA as hostile to the Western wars against Muslims are going to be framed for an inside job designed to pull France firmly back under Washington’s thumb.”
The widely read columnist stated that the US “government tells Americans whatever story the government puts together and sits and laughs at the gullibility of the public.”
GJH/GJH

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts