This is not a Saturday Night Live sketch, this is real [I cannot stop laughing]. This has to be the ultimate representative optic of all things liberal and ridiculous.
In an effort to repair the optics stemming from the White House skipping the French “unity rally”, someone, somewhere, probably Secretary Kerry himself, thought it would be a great idea to take James Taylor to France to sing “you’ve got a friend” publicly, on stage, with Secretary Kerry – as the liberal audience/media look on swooningly….
I just cannot stop laughing. This is too funny to even be embarrassed. Watch:

Locally the Durham North Carolina media are reporting the typical leftist reason for backing down, threats from religious right wing extremists and zealots.  However, the reality is that Reverend Franklin Graham virtually single-handedly was about to destroy the University’s financial future….
Via Todd Starnes – Duke University has abandoned its plan to transform the bell tower on the Methodist school’s neo-gothic cathedral into a minaret where the Muslim call to prayer was to be publicly broadcast.
“Duke remains committed to fostering an inclusive, tolerant and welcoming campus for all of its students,” university spokesman Michael Schoenfeld said in a statement. “However, it was clear that what was conceived as an effort to unify was not having the intended effect.”
The first adhan, or call to prayer, had been scheduled to be broadcast on Jan. 16. University officials said, the Islamic chant, which includes the words “Allahu Akbar” would have been “moderately amplified” — in both English and Arabic.
However, the decision brought a firestorm of national criticism from a number of high profile leaders including Franklin Graham, the son of famed evangelist Billy Graham.

Graham said Muslims have a right to worship in America. He also said there are millions of “wonderful people in Islam that want to live their life and raise their children and they want to be free.” But he also said that Islam is not a peaceful religion.

In a Thursday interview with WRAL News, Graham refused to back down, even for those Muslims who have condemned radical Islamic actions.
“I don’t feel I owe an apology to anybody. I think Duke University, they owe an apology,” he said. “They’re the ones who owe the apology to Christian students and the ones who donated money for the chapel.”  (link)

(more…)

Asia Times Online,  Jan 16/2015:
Saudi reset with Iran unavoidable, as Saudi Prince Turki renames IS “Fahesh” (obscene)….

The terrorist strike last week on the Saudi border post facing the Iraqi province of Anbar — known to be the Islamic State’s first assault on the kingdom — could be the proverbial straw on the camel’s back, forcing Riyadh into a profound rethink of its regional strategies imbued with the rivalries involving Iran…
Tehran has effectively countered the Saudi plots in Syria and Iraq and at the moment would seem to have the upper hand. The last-ditch Saudi attempt to hurt the Iranian economy by forcing a steep decline in oil prices is not only not having the desired effect but, as President Hassan Rouhani explicitly warned yesterday, Riyadh may end up shooting at its own feet (as well as the Kuwaiti brother’s).

However, it is the attack on the Saudi post by the IS (killing two border guards and their commanding officer) that becomes a defining moment. The fact that the IS attackers included three Saudi nationals must be a rude awakening. To be sure, the blowback has begun. The Saudis hope to erect a ‘great wall’ and insulate themselves from the IS barbarians next door but that is sheer bravado.
(more…)

Belgium (AP) – Two people were killed when Belgian police halted what local officials are calling “a second Paris,” a reference to last week’s terror attacks in the French capital.

The deaths occurred Thursday evening as anti-terror police carried out an anti-terror operation in the small city of Verviers, about 80 miles east of Brussels, officials confirmed in a Thursday evening press conference. Another person was seriously injured and has been detained.
The suspected terrorists are Arab-French, recently returned from Syria and are believed to have Islamic State ties, according to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office. (more…)

HatTip Weaselzippers:  The article has been deleted (Hi Rand!) but you can still see it via Google cache.  Obviously someone at the Ron Paul institute realized how looney this appears – but not before it was widely read and shared.

(Via Weekly Standard) An institute named for the father of possible presidential candidate Rand Paul has published a piece saying the Charlie Hebdo massacre, like 9/11, was a false flag operation. The claim comes in piece titled, “Charlie Hebdo Shootings: False Flag?,” put online today at the Ron Paul Institute:

“The Charlie Hebdo affair has many of the characteristics of a false flag operation. The attack on the cartoonists’ office was a disciplined professional attack of the kind associated with highly trained special forces; yet the suspects who were later corralled and killed seemed bumbling and unprofessional. It is like two different sets of people,” reads the first paragraph of the piece: (more…)

[…]  ..”There are times for self-restraint, but in the immediate wake of the most threatening assault on journalism in living memory, you would have served the cause of free expression best by engaging in it”.  (source)

Credit where credit is due. The messaging from the White House about why they haven’t called the terrorist attacks “Islamic Terrorism” must have been a top priority in the past 48 hours. As noted in this shift expressed by Josh Earnest. The question was posed:

“The leader of France, your ally in this effort, has put a name on this ideology, which he calls radical Islam,” noted NPR’s Mara Liasson. “You have bent over backwards to not ever say that. There must be a reason.”

Josh Earnest Responds: “The first is accuracy. We want to describe exactly what happened. These are individuals who carried out an act of terrorism and they later tried to justify that act of terrorism by invoking the religion of Islam and their own deviant view of it. (more…)

People in France are now purchasing the first issue of Charlie Hebdo since the attack http://t.co/YFD7vbOIaI pic.twitter.com/VqEYnbJwvd

— Jim Dalrymple II (@Dalrymple) January 14, 2015

Long lines in Paris to buy the new Charlie Hebdo. Pic via @philippeshinai http://t.co/7MlHzP86eg

— Jim Dalrymple II (@Dalrymple) January 14, 2015

Paris: 08.15 AM. All new #CharlieHebdo magazines already everywhere sold out. pic.twitter.com/JnjXvSo3ys

— Harald Doornbos (@HaraldDoornbos) January 14, 2015

Remarkable bravery considering the backlash Recep Erdogan is likely to retaliate with.
(Via PJ Media) A newspaper in Turkey whose roots stretch to the founding of the modern republic will truly live the words “je suis Charlie” on Wednesday when it publishes the new Charlie Hebdo issue in Turkish despite threats.
Cumhuriyet (The Republic), founded in 1924 at the encouragement of Mustafa Kemal, tweeted that it will continue to “defend the freedom of expression” and will dedicate four of its pages to the French satirical paper’s content. They’ll also reportedly double their normal press run to 100,000 copies.
Besides French, the only other language of Charlie Hebdo in print will be Italian. English, Spanish, and Arabic versions will be available in online formats.
Threats have reportedly been pouring into the newspaper in the 99 percent Muslim country, and some overtly posted on Twitter. Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek, a member of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP), stoked the flames by tweeting in all caps that the paper was about to commit a “serious provocation” and asking followers to spread the word. He also accused the newspaper of working with some foreign power and declared it a “game of the enemies of Islam.” (more…)

I would expect this from Erdogan, but from Ron Paul it’s profoundly disappointing. Erdogan blames the generic “West” for creating racism and negative views of Islam, adjusting his view to present a massive conspiracy against the Islamic world. However, Ron Paul specifically blames the U.S.

(JPost) Erdogan accused the West of having a double standard with regard to Muslims. The Turkish leader said historically Muslims were never on the side of terror, nor did they perpetrate massacres.

Referring to last week’s deadly attacks in France, Erdogan said that racism, hate messages and Islamaphobia stood behind the acts.

“We hope that the those attacking nations, cease their assault on our mosques.”

“Take note that the acts of terror are not carried out in a vacuum. The acts follow a predetermined script and we should be alive to a plot against the Islamic world,” he added. (read more)

Erdogan’s position really does not come as a surprise.  Essentially his Muslim Brotherhood affiliation has been more open in the past several years.  Recently, as Qatar kicked out the five terrorist leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, Erdogan opened up a sanctuary for them.
In addition Erdogan has openly supported the Islamic State (ISIS) -as they fight against Syria’s Assad- by keeping the Kurds from crossing the border to battle ISIS in Kobane, and closing his NATO bases to the U.S. effort against the terror network. (more…)