Rajan Zed, president of the Universal Society of Hinduism based in the State of Nevada, USA.

Hindus are upset over “inappropriate” portrayal of Hindu goddess Kali in a mural at Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY.

This 60-foot mixed-media goddess Kali wall mural is part of recently opened “Eyes of Time” exhibition at Brooklyn Museum which is scheduled till July 12. It shows Kali with three legs, three breasts and six arms. Its face is a clock with no actual time.

Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada, said that goddess Kali was highly revered in Hinduism and was meant to worshipped in temples or home shrines and not to be thrown around loosely in reimagined versions for dramatic effects on museum walls. Such absurd depiction of goddess Kali with no scriptural backing was hurtful to the devotees.

Such trivialization of goddess Kali was disturbing to the devotees world over, Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, stated and urged Brooklyn Museum to withdraw it. Zed also asked Museum’s Director Arnold L. Lehman to tender a formal public apology.

Rajan Zed stressed that Hindus were for free speech as much as anybody else if not more. But faith was something sacred and attempts at belittling it hurt the devotees. Museums should be more sensitive while handling faith related subjects, Zed added.

Hindus welcomed museums and artists to immerse in Hinduism but taking it seriously and respectfully and not just for indecorous showing of Hindu symbols and concepts to advance their selfish agenda. Casual flirting sometimes resulted in pillaging serious spiritual doctrines and revered symbols and hurting the devotees, Zed pointed out.

Rajan Zed noted that Hinduism was the oldest and third largest religion of the world with about one billion adherents and a rich philosophical thought and it should not be taken frivolously. No faith, larger or smaller, should be ridiculed at; Zed said and added that if museums needed any assistance about Hinduism, he or other Hindu scholars would be glad to help.

Goddess Kali, who personifies Shakti or divine energy and considered the goddess of time and change, is widely worshipped in Hinduism. There are about three million Hindus in USA.

Museum seems to have three Kali paintings in its permanent collection, which includes “Siddha Lakhsmi with Kali” painting from 1600s. This exhibition is organized by Assistant Curator Saisha M. Grayson.

The Brooklyn Museum is one of the oldest and largest art museums in USA, whose roots extend back to 1823. Its permanent collection includes “ancient Egyptian masterpieces, African art, European painting, decorative arts, period rooms, and contemporary art”. Elizabeth A. Sackler is Museum’s Board of Trustees Chair while New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio serves on its Executive Committee as Ex-Officio.

SOURCE: Rajan Zed, president of the Universal Society of Hinduism based in Nevada, USA.

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Stephen Suleyman Schwartz, a fellow at the Middle East Forum, is executive director of the Center for Islamic Pluralism in Washington, D.C.

On Monday, December 15, as reported by the German news service Deutsche Welle (DW), some 15,000 people massed in Dresden, Germany, under the banner of a new and seemingly informal movement calling itself Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West — PEGIDA by its German-language acronym. The incident was the ninth PEGIDA rally in Dresden since the marches began in October “in response to clashes between Kurds and Sunni Muslims [in Germany] over the West’s intervention in Syria,” according to DW.

German chancellor Angela Merkel has condemned the PEGIDA phenomenon, declaring, “There is no place in Germany for those who are instigating hatred against immigrants.”

Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the Occident (PEGIDA) has organized numerous demonstrations in Germany against what it calls the Islamization of Europe during the last two months.

Americans and other Westerners have become accustomed to public criticism, some of it extreme, of Islam. But certain aspects of the Dresden events may have escaped their notice, and are enigmatic, to say the least.

Dresden, in the German state of Saxony, near the border with the Czech Republic, although the center of the anti-Islam movement, has the fewest population of foreigners in Germany, according to Rick Noack, writing in The Washington Post. Since Dresden is in former East Germany, or the “German Democratic Republic” (GDR), where economic immigration from Islamic lands was rare, most foreign workers in the GDR came from Communist Vietnam or from Soviet-aligned countries in Africa.

The pattern of German Muslim concentration in former West Germany, or the “Federal Republic of Germany” (FRG), has not changed. The whole of former East Germany — the “new states” — has only 25,000 Turks, or 0.2 percent of the entire population in the ex-Communist zone.

In 2010, even cosmopolitan Berlin had only 175,000 Turks, or 5 percent of its population of 3.5 million, overwhelmingly in the former West Berlin. This contrasts with the western industrial state of Nordrhein-Westfalen (NRW), with the largest Muslim representation, where Turks count a million, somewhat more than 5 percent of the total NRW state population of 18 million.

Why, then, are anti-Islam rallies taking place in a part of Germany where there are almost no Muslims? One explanation might be that having little experience with Muslims, the inhabitants of Dresden are frightened of any newcomers, especially refugees from Syria. “Many eastern Germans know only few or no foreigners; they are scared because they have no idea what to expect from the influx of refugees,” said Dresden-based political scientist Werner Patzelt to the previously mentioned Rick Noack.

But other factors merit consideration. The Dresden anti-Islam demonstrations have included slogans decrying Chancellor Merkel’s sharp attitude countering the aggressive machinations of Russian president Vladimir Putin in Ukraine and other former Communist countries, now independent.

Two photographs reproduced on The Huffington Post UK on December 9 showed signs from a PEGIDA mass meeting reading “Frieden mit Russland! Nie wieder Krieg in Europa!” (“Peace with Russia! Never again war in Europe!”) and “Wollt ihr den totalen Russlandfeldzug?” (“Do you want a total war campaign against Russia?”). The latter included a rudely defaced photograph of Merkel as an American servant.

Writing for Bloomberg View on December 17, Leonid Bershidsky spelled out a disturbing context for the Dresden turmoil. He pointed out that the anti-immigrant National Front in France “has loudly bucked Europe’s ongoing policy of ostracizing the Russian president, and has received millions of euros from Russia in return.” Given the PEGIDA mix of anti-Islam and pro-Russian slogans, he stated, “Putin’s strategy seems to be to build up a ‘fifth column’ of far-right parties in Europe willing to cooperate with the Kremlin.”

Bershidsky, citing the authoritative German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, noted that a seemingly bizarre slogan displayed at the PEGIDA turnout on December 15 was “Putin, hilfe uns!” (“Putin, help us!”).

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung itself published an image from the December 15 Dresden gathering of a placard reading “Weg mit der Kriegstreiber-Regierung! Deutschland RAUS aus der NATO!” (“Fight the warmongers’ government! Germany OUT of NATO!”).

Dresden and Saxony, like much of the rest of the former East Germany, remain influenced by Russia. Bershidsky referred to economic links, but political channels may be more significant. Vladimir Putin, serving as an officer of the former KGB, was headquartered in Dresden. It is certainly not beyond imagining that the Russians left networks behind them in Germany as “sleepers” after the Berlin Wall came down in 1989.

For her part, Angela Merkel was born in Hamburg (West Germany) but lived most of her life, before 1989, in East Germany. Her father, a Lutheran pastor, had gone to the Communist zone to administer a church there.

Putin may view support for the anti-Islam uproar in Dresden as a way to mobilize his former agents and an additional option in challenging Merkel over the destiny of the former Soviet empire. Raising a furor over Syrian refugees could also be a ploy to reinforce Moscow’s alliance with Damascus dictator Bashar Al-Assad. Mingling of anti-Islam and pro-Russian rhetoric in Germany could reflect mere opportunistic exploitation of the former movement by adherents of Moscow, but that seems unlikely.

PEGIDA and its founder, Lutz Bachmann, have sought to distance themselves from neo-Nazi agitation against immigrants, especially Muslims. Rather, it claims, “We want to preserve our free-thinking, our free and open lifestyle for ALL people living in Europe!” Regarding participants in PEGIDA, Deutsche Welle has cited the academic expert Patzelt affirming that “the majority are completely normal people. Of course, they’re not people who usually vote Green, or the Left party, or the SPD [Social Democrats], but they’re not extremists.”

Reviewing the pro-Russian verbiage visible at the PEGIDA manifestations, one may conclude confidently that Germany will not leave NATO, and that even in his most unrestrained moments, Putin would not interfere directly in the former East Germany as he has in Ukraine.

Many observers may see in PEGIDA no more than another example of the “new populism” in Europe. But an anti-Islam, pro-Russian alliance is dangerous for its advocates. Alignment of Russian ambitions and German discontent has been seen before: in the Stalin-Hitler pact of 1939, which allowed Germany to conquer most of Europe before turning on Russia. Germans should be wary about these issues.

First published by The Huffington Post
  December 19, 2014. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephen-schwartz/germany-antiislam-and-vla_b_6346978.html

Stephen Suleyman Schwartz, a fellow at the Middle East Forum, is executive director of the Center for Islamic Pluralism in Washington, D.C. and author of The Other Islam: Sufism and the Road to Global Harmony (2008), Sarajevo Rose: A Balkan Jewish Notebook (2005), and The Two Faces of Islam: Saudi Fundamentalism and Its Role In Terrorism (2002).

The post MIDDLE EAST FORUM: Germany, Anti-Islam, and Vladimir Putin By STEPHEN SULEYMAN SCHWARTZ
 appeared first on Yonkers Tribune.

“We face threats, attacks and harassment every day,” writes Turkish Jewish columnist Mois Gabay.

“The imam in the neighbourhood has the habit of preaching to his congregation ‘not to make friends with Jews or Christians.‘” — Two shop-owners, Istanbul.

*     *     *

“The circle is closing in.” — Moris Gabay, writer for Salom.

*     *     *

So, did your good friend Dink deserve to be murdered because he humiliated Muslims?

*     *     *

“There are laws against hate speech, but not a single person has ever been prosecuted [let alone sentenced] for insulting [Jews].” — Moris Gabay, writer for Salom.

*     *     *

Burak Bekdīl, based in Ankara, is a columnist for the Turkish daily Hürriyet and a fellow at the Middle East Forum.

At the beginning of the 20^th century, there were about 200,000 Jews in Turkish lands – when the entire population was barely 10 million. Today, the Turkish population has reached 77 million – and there are fewer than 17,000 Jews.

Moris Gabay, a Turkish Jewish writer for Salom, the Istanbul Jewish newspaper, recently wrote in his column, “Are Turkish Jews Leaving?:” “We face threats, attacks and harassment every day. Hope is fading. Is it necessary for a ‘Hrant among us’ to be shot in order for the government, the opposition, civil society, our neighbors and jurists to see this?” ‘Hrant’ whom he referred to is Hrant Dink, a Turkish Armenian journalist who was shot dead in 2007 by a gang of nationalist Turks.

On Dec. 15, the Turkish liberal daily Radikal interviewed Gabay, who started by showing Radikal‘s reporter dozens of threats and hate messages he has received through Twitter, Facebook and mail messages. “This is almost daily,” he said.

According to Gabay, only this year 37% of high-school graduates in Istanbul’s Jewish community left Turkey to study abroad, twice as many as in previous years. “We don’t know how many of them will return,” he says. “But the idea to leave Turkey (for good) is also in the minds of my generation.”

The reason is simple: “The circle is closing in,” according to Gabay. “In an atmosphere like this, especially if you are a trader, you tend to change your name. Mois’s tends to become “Musa’s,” “Cefi’s,” become “Cem’s” and “Meri’s” become “Peri’s” (all the latter are Turkish names.) His Jewish friends tell Gabay that they are elaborating on the idea of leaving Turkey and settling in far-away countries such as Canada, Panama and Australia. Two Jewish friends of his who have shops in Istanbul’s busy Unkapani district recently complained to him that “The imam in the neighbourhood has the habit of preaching to his congregation ‘not to make friends with Jews and Christians.'”

According to Gabay, “the Turkish government‘s [anti-Israeli/anti-Jewish] rhetoric paves the way for this, provokes Turks and spreads [hatred] to even larger masses. But there is more. “Thanks to the spread of social media, the previously ‘invisible Jew‘ is reachable now. There are laws against hate speech. But not a single person has ever been prosecuted [let alone sentenced] for threatening and insulting [Jews].”

According to a prominent Turkish Armenian, part of the blame is on Turkey’s tiny non-Muslim minorities.

Etyen Mahcupyan is a leading Turkish Armenian intellectual, writer and columnist. He has published more than 15 books and has written regular columns in Turkey’s leading liberal newspapers. Last October, Mahcupyan, one of a dwindling number of liberals keenly supporting Turkey’s Islamist government, was appointed as “chief advisor” to Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. In a recent interview with Turkey’s leading daily, Hurriyet, Mahcupyan said, “Whatever has been a [political] asset for Turkey’s Armenian community (they number around 60,000) is an asset for the Jewish community too. But… there is Israel… As long as the psychology of the Israel issue continues to influence politics in Turkey and relations between the two countries do not normalize…”

The line Mahcupyan shyly did not finish probably would have gone on like this: “Turkey’s Jews will keep on paying the price.”

Turkish Armenian intellectual Etyen Mahcupyan thinks that daily attacks on Turkey’s Jews and other non-Muslims happen because they are better-educated then Muslims and have a “superiority complex.”

In a recent article, Mahcupyan, a former editor of Agos, where the slain Turkish Armenian journalist Hrant Dink wrote, argued that Turkey’s [secularist] Jews harboured an allergy against Muslims. Mahcupyan apparently deserves his new position as “his master’s voice.”

He admits that it is the government’s responsibility to do something if Turkey’s Jews felt awfully alienated. But he thinks “there is the other side of the story.”

Mahcupyan said: “All of this [anti-Semitism in Turkey] is related to the Jewish community’s perception of Islam and the region. This is a perception that powerfully produced politics and positions. If the Armenians do not behave like them [the Jews] we can understand the historical difference between the two [Jewish and Armenian] communities.”

Apparently, Mahcupyan, the prime minister’s chief advisor, tends to blame the victim, not the criminal. “I have lived through this personally for the past 60 years,” he explains. “Among Turkey’s non-Muslim minorities, including Jews and Armenians, there is an [established] opinion about humiliating Muslims.” So, did your poor friend Dink deserve to be murdered because he humiliated Muslims?

Secondly, Mahcupyan continues, “Both Jews and Armenians are better-educated [than Muslim Turks] and more open to the West. And this brings in a feeling of superiority complex.”

To sum up, the Turkish Armenian liberal intellectual, who also happens to be advising the Turkish prime minister, thinks that daily attacks on Turkey’s Jews and other non-Muslims, including the murder of his “friend” Dink, happen because: Jews and Armenians humiliate Muslims; they are better-educated then Muslims and hence their superiority complex. Lovely!

Turkish Armenian intellectual Etyen Mahcupyan (left), an advisor to the prime minister, thinks that daily attacks on Turkey’s Jews and other non-Muslims, including the murder of his “friend” Hrant Dink (right), happen because: Jews and Armenians humiliate Muslims; they are better-educated then Muslims and hence their superiority complex.

In the 18^th and 19^th centuries, the Ottoman state machinery produced several non-Muslim converts (the devshirme) who enjoyed higher echelons of the palace bureaucracy and finer things of life because their pragmatism earned them excellent relations with the ruling Muslim elite. It looks like the devshirme system is still alive in post-Ottoman Turkey. 

First published by 
The Gatestone Institute
 December 23, 2014. http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4970/jew-free-turkey

Burak Bekdil, based in Ankara, is a Turkish columnist for the Hürriyet Daily News and a Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

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Dr. Gal Luft is co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS), a Washington-based think tank focusing on energy security.

In the five years since the discovery of the Tamar and Leviathan natural gas fields off the coast of Israel, the Israeli energy discourse has focused on questions like what to do with the gas, how much of it to export and to whom, and what the fairest distribution of profits would be among the gas partners, headed by Noble Energy and Delek Energy, and the Israeli public. But after years of delays and billions of dollars spent, a new and increasingly likely scenario should be considered – the premature – and tragic – death of the Israeli gas dream. I alluded to this option in an August 2013 article titled “Israel’s Zero Gas Game” in which I warned that Israel has become so busy dividing the pie that its leaders forgot it must first be baked and that due to the failure of the government to present a clear vision for the country’s energy sector, articulate the rights and responsibilities of foreign investors and most importantly set rules and stick to them, “the gas will be left in the ground and the startup nation will be more worthy of the title ‘shutdown nation’.” Perhaps that sounded crazy at the time. Today, with the decision of the Israeli Anti-Trust Authority to revoke an arrangement permitting Noble-Delek partners to develop Leviathan, declaring them a cartel – a move that will require the separation of Leviathan from Tamar and the sale of Leviathan to a new partnership, effectively postponing the development of Leviathan indefinitely – the scenario of “zero gas” – and perhaps even the withdrawal of Noble from Israel altogether – should be considered seriously.

The-development-of-the-Leviathan-natural-gas-field-has-been-postponed-indefinitely.

In deciding to enter Israel Noble has taken a huge financial, regulatory and geopolitical risk. However, the size of the discoveries, the potential of finding oil under the gas layers and the doubling of the company’s market capitalization made the move easy to justify to its shareholders. But the Texas company, the only international energy company that was willing to set foot in Israel, was welcomed with no red carpet. Instead it was ushered through a Via Dolorosa of bureaucratic torture which eliminated any chance for gas production before the end of 2018 – ten years from the beginning of exploration. A ten year lead time from discovery to production is a lot to ask of a publicly traded company which has to satisfy quarterly thinking and profit hungry shareholders. But in light of Noble’s recent stock performance, dropping from $80 in the summer to $50 today, the decision of the Israeli government provides an impetus to the company’s leadership, not to mention the new CEO David Stover, to reconsider the commitment to Israel and begin to seek greener pastures.

The Israeli government’s ruling has huge implications for the future of the region as it means that at best the supply of gas from Leviathan will be delayed into the 2020s. At worst it will not happen at all. The government’s concern about a gas monopoly is a legitimate one, especially during an election campaign when issues of cost of living dominate the local political discourse. But its hopes that the hot potato called Leviathan can somehow be sold to new partners require a lot of faith. There are many people with money who may be tempted to buy into a partnership in a 22 trillion cubic feet (tcf) field, but owning a stake in a gas field without an operator at hand is like owning a gold mine on the moon. There are very few oil and gas companies who have both the experience of drilling in deep waters and the willingness to associate themselves with Israel, especially in light of Noble’s experience. With falling energy prices worldwide, the chance of a Noble-like operator popping out of nowhere is slim. This means that in its desire to avoid the creation of a monopoly, Israel is taking the risk that Leviathan, the world’s largest offshore gas discovery of the past decade, will not be developed for many years to come – if ever. The losers will first and foremost be the Israeli people who will lose not only billions of dollars in tax revenue and the main engine of growth of their economy but also the prospects of securing their energy supply for generations. The scenario is equally bad for Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority who are counting on Leviathan gas for their economic well-being and which have all signed letters of intent to buy Israeli gas despite local opposition from their respective Israel-hating Islamists. Europe will also be a casualty since a portion of Leviathan was aimed for two LNG terminals in Egypt from where it would have been shipped to European countries aspiring to become less dependent on Russia’s gas.

Other than the handful of lawyers who will earn millions litigating the dispute between Noble and the Israeli government in international courts, the biggest winner will be Cyprus. In December 2011 Noble announced the discovery of 7 tcf in a field northwest of Leviathan called Aphrodite (block 12). Other blocks have been opened for bids since attracting interest from a handful of large oil and gas companies including Total of France, Kogas of South Korea, ENI of Italy and Petronas of Malaysia. But with all eyes on Leviathan, Cyprus became an uninteresting side show. This may soon change. Cyprus may not be a paragon of regulatory stability and certainly not an investors’ haven and its tense relations with Turkey pose some geopolitical risk, but the fatigue from Israel’s energy shenanigans could bring about a shift from Israel to Cyprus as the new center of gravity in the East Mediterranean energy play.

There is no polite way of saying this. Israel’s latest decision is tantamount to nationalization of the kind seen in Argentina, Venezuela, Mexico and Russia. All of those governments sugarcoated their decision invoking the need to protect the public interest. The investment community and global oil industry got the message and wrote off those countries. With this miserable decision, Israel has just lodged itself into this notorious club. The price will be paid in spades – and sooner than most Israelis realize.

First published in 
Journal of Energy Security
 December 11, 2014.

Dr. Gal Luft is co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS) a Washington based think tank focused on energy security. He is a senior adviser to the United States Energy Security Council America’s highest level extra governmental energy advisory committee and co-chairman of the Global Forum on Energy Security. He specializes in strategy, geopolitics, energy security, natural resources and technology innovation. Newsweek Magazine called him a “tireless and independent advocate of energy security,” the business magazine Poder called him “one of the most recognizable figures in modern energy and security issues,” and Esquire Magazine included him in its list of America’s Best and Brightest. Dr. Luft has published numerous studies and articles on security and energy issues in various newspapers and publications such as Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The American Interest, Commentary Magazine, Middle East Quarterly, LA Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. He is co-author of Energy Security Challenges for the 21st Century (2009), Turning Oil into Salt: Energy Independence Through Fuel Choice (2009) and Petropoly: The Collapse of America’s Energy Security Paradigm (2012). He is also author of Beer, Bacon and Bullets: Culture in Coalition Warfare from Gallipoli to Iraq. He appears frequently in the media and consults to various think tanks and news organizations worldwide. Dr. Luft testified before committees of the U.S. Congress, including Senate Foreign Relations, House International Relations, House Science and the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. He holds degrees in international relations, international economics and strategic studies and a doctorate in strategic studies from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS,) Johns Hopkins University. He is also a fellow at the Middle East Forum.

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Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, a Judith Friedman Rosen Writing Fellow at the Middle East Forum and a CBN News contributor. He is the author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians (2013) and The Al Qaeda Reader (2007).

The Muslim persecution of Christians in September made prominent appearances not just in the Islamic world, but also in the West—in America, Australia and Europe.

In the United States, in Columbus, Indiana, three churches were vandalized on the same night. The words most frequently sprayed were “Infidels!” and “Koran 3:151.” The verse from the Koran states, “We will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve [or “infidels”] for what they have associated with Allah [reference to Christian Trinity] of which He had not sent down [any] authority. And their refuge will be the Fire, and wretched is the residence of the wrongdoers.”

Father Doug Marcotte of Saint Bartholomew’s Catholic Church, one of those vandalized, said, “There’s a lot of bad stuff being done in the name of Allah and so when people see this happening in Columbus, whether that was truly the person’s intent or there’s something else going on, it makes people nervous. It makes people upset. It makes them scared.”

Meanwhile, in Australia, AAP reported that “Church-goers in Sydney’s west have been left shaken after a stranger shouted death threats from a car bearing the Islamic State flag. The car drove past Our Lady of Lebanon Church at Harris Park on Tuesday and witnesses claim it had a flag similar to those brandished by Islamic State jihadists hanging out the window.” A church official said the people in the car threatened to “kill the Christians” and slaughter their children: “They were strong words and people were scared of what they saw.” Witnesses saw a flag outside the window with the words, “There is only one god and Muhammad is the prophet.” And as happens frequently in Muslim-majority nations, police security was later dispatched to patrol the Harris Park church while hundreds partook of mass inside.

In Denmark—2013′s “happiest country in the world“—Christians of Middle Eastern backgrounds continued to experience “harassment, verbal attacks and in some cases direct violence from Muslims,” reports TV2, especially in Muslim-majority areas, such as Nørrebro. One Christian, “Jojo,” born in Denmark of Lebanese parents, shared her experiences. Once when sitting in her parked car, several Muslims surrounded it, harassing her about her Western attire. When one of them noticed she was wearing a cross, he said “Well, you have a cross on—then you are also a Christian f***ing whore. Do you know what we do to people like you? Do you know what we do to people like you? You get stoned [to death].”

Another Christian woman of Iranian background recounted how she and her son are harassed on the Muslim-majority block where they live—and where she stands out for not wearing a hijab, the Islamic veil: “My son is being called everything. I get called all sorts of things. Infidel. Filthy Christians. They tell me I ought to be stoned to death. My son was beaten at the bus stop. He was called pig, dirty potato (Muslim slang for Danes), and that ‘you and your mother should die.”‘

Islamic dreams of conquering Europe were prevalent. A senior analyst in Spain warned that, because Islamists see the Iberian peninsula as being “under Spanish and Portuguese occupation,” greater risk of terrorism exists there than in other Western areas. Because Iberia—or, in Arabic, Al-Andalus—was under Islamic domination for centuries, many Muslims consider it part of the Islamic world, or Dar al-Islam, which needs to be reconquered, no less than Israel, also seen as occupied Islamic territory.

More pointedly, in the Islamic State [IS], in a lengthy message partially addressed to the “crusaders”—a reference to the West—some members declared, “We will conquer your Rome, break your crosses, and enslave your women, by the permission of Allah.” Members of the IS also invoked a statement attributed to Muhammad, that Constantinople would be conquered before Rome—and it was, in 1453. The implication is that the Eternal City of Rome is next.

Around the same time, Rome responded by rejecting a motion to name a street after the late Oriana Fallaci, a veteran journalist who had once written that, “the Muslim world is attempting to conquer the West in the name of Islam.” In explaining their decision, local politicians described Fallaci’s writings as containing “religious hatred,” or “Islamophobia.”

In Canada, while 80 special Muslims went to the trouble of attending a Muslim rally on behalf of persecuted Christians, another rally, an extremist Al Quds Day Anti-Israel Hate Fest, drew approximately 6,000 participants.

The rest of September’s roundup of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes (but is not limited to) the following accounts, listed by theme and country alphabetical order, not necessarily according to severity.

Muslim Attacks on Churches

East Jerusalem: A Christian church was attacked numerous times: On September 29, young Muslim men, with ties to a Palestinian militant group, wired shut the door of the Living Bread Church and sprayed a gaseous substance at those inside. An earlier gas attack had already occurred on September 17. Hours before the second attack, someone threw a rock through one of the windows of the church, and the day before that, Sunday, September 28, a Palestinian and others assaulted a church member as he was emptying trash into a dumpster outside the church.  On Sept. 21, a Palestinian militant, without warning, ran up behind a church leader, Karen Dunham, and knocked her to the pavement: “This guy charged me as fast as he could,” she said. “He came up behind me and just slammed into my back, and I fell and I hit the ground. My face is bruised. There’s bruises on the side of my cheek, on my face, on my head, on my knee, cuts on my head, and my wrist was fractured.”

Egypt: A Christian priest in Egypt appealed to President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to intervene on behalf of yet another church being threatened by “religious extremists.” So far, local authorities have done nothing. Four years ago, the Coptic Church of St. Abram in Shubra al-Khaima received a permit to build an additional building. During those same four years, seven “thugs”—in the words of the report—have prevented it from being built. The “thugs” had mobilized local Muslims to threaten and demonstrate against the church. “The priest lamented that ‘after suffering many long years’ they finally managed to acquire the permit to build, but then the next obstacle presented itself in the person of the aforementioned seven ‘thugs’ who constantly harass, and incite Muslim mobs, against the church, whenever it tries to exercise its right to build the services building. Islamic law forbids the building of new churches or the renovation of existing churches.”

Iraq: Islamic State militants “completely destroyed” the ancient Green Church in Tikrit. They packed the church with explosives and detonated them – completely destroying the ancient church, which belonged to the Assyrian Church of the East. Almost from the time it was built in the seventh century, when Islam overran Iraq, the church had been attacked, ransacked, and destroyed by Muslim rulers and others, but was restored on the orders of Iraq’s late President Saddam Hussein in the 1990s.

Nigeria: Many more churches and a Christian university, Kulp Bible College, were forced to shut down as a result of the advances of the Islamic jihadi group, Boko Haram. In one instance, a pastor reported that “Boko Haram violence has been getting worse every day, and our members are fleeing the area by the thousands. Recent attacks in Borno and Adamawa states where our churches are located have seen Boko Haram take over the Army base. As a result, about 350 Christians have been killed.”  Separately, in Kaduna state, where “Muslim Fulani assailants seem driven to rid the area of Christianity and use the land to graze their cattle,” according to church leaders, 46 Christians, including two pastors, were slaughtered in raids. According to an eyewitness,

Suddenly we heard sounds of gunshots around our village. The pastor was still in the pastorate when the Muslim Fulani gunmen forced their way onto the church premises. They cut him, his wife and a daughter with a machete, and then tied the hands and feet of the three of them before setting the house on fire. The three of them were burned to ashes in the living room of the pastorate. We only found the charred remains of the three of them the following morning…. The gunmen then came onto the church premises and began shooting. I heard them shouting at the top of their voices, saying they must obliterate any trace of Christianity in the town.

Although Muslim Fulani have historically had property disputes with Christian farmers, Christian leaders say attacks by the herdsmen constitute a war “by Islam to eliminate Christianity” in Nigeria.

Sudan: In the latest incident of a nearly two-year wave of church demolitions, closures and confiscations, security agents padlocked a 500-member church building, the Sudan Pentecostal Church in Khartoum. The church also houses the Khartoum Christian Center. “The church is concerned that the building might be sold by the government, which renders more than 500 worshippers to have no place for worship,” a source told the Morning Star News. The Islamist government appears to be seeking any pretext for closing churches, sources said. In this instance, the space for the church was originally designated as “office space.” But, as one source asked, “How do you close a church building that has been in operation for 20 years in the name of the church being meant for offices?” The church has a deed showing that it owns the building and property — a situation that raises the question of the government’s right to sell it.  Earlier, on June 30 bulldozers demolished the Sudanese Church of Christ in the Thiba Al Hamyida area of North Khartoum as church members watched, while security personnel threatened to arrest them if they tried to block the bulldozers, church members said.

Syria: The Islamic State destroyed the Armenian Genocide Memorial Church in Der Zor, seen as the “Auschwitz” of the Armenian Genocide. Hundreds of thousands of Armenians perished in Der Zor and the surrounding desert during the genocide. In the summer of 1916 alone, more than 200,000 Armenians, mostly women and children, were massacred by Ottoman Turks. Armenia’s foreign minister issued a statement calling the church’s destruction a “horrible barbarity,” and referred to the Islamic State as a “disease” that “threatened civilized mankind.” The church was built in 1989-90 and consecrated a year later. A genocide memorial and a museum housing the remains of the victims of the genocide were also located in the church compound. Thousands of Armenians from Syria and neighboring countries gathered at the memorial every year on April 24 to commemorate the genocide.

Pakistani Rape and Dhimmitude

• Four young Muslims gang raped a 15-year-old Christian girland filmed it. The girl’s father, although he was threatened against filing a complaint, went to police, who confirmed the existence of a video that corroborates the violence. The video will apparently be introduced as evidence against the youths. A lawyer, Mushtaq Gill, issued a statement that, “Many Christian girls continue to be victims of sexual assault by young Muslims, who go unpunished” and that, “in this case there is also a video, flaunted as a trophy.”
• Two Christian women were abducted, forced to convert to Islam and marry Muslim men. Lawyer Mushtaq Gill said, “A Christian girl, Sairish, forced to marry a Muslim in 2009, in her heart never abandoned the faith and continued to pray to Jesus Christ even after her marriage. After a few years she found the courage to rebel against the situation and run away…. Her life is now in danger because if she declares herself Christian, Muslims may accuse her of apostasy and the punishment would be death.” Each year, approximately 1,000 women in Pakistan are forced to convert to Islam and marry Muslim men. Whenever a case of this nature reaches the law courts, those women, under threat and blackmail, often declare that their conversion and marriage were decisions freely made, and the case is closed.
• Another Christian family fled their hometown, Lahore, to save their daughters from forced conversion to Islam. According to the Justice and Peace Commission, the two sisters, aged 12 and 8, were studying in public schools, where learning to recite the Koran is mandatory. Apparently, because the girls recited the shehada, the Islamic declaration of faith, “an Islamic cleric, the father of a student stated that these girls had become Muslims and thus needed to be taken from their Christian parents and entrusted to adult Muslims.” The parents pulled their daughters out of school, but then the headmaster and other Muslim teachers “warned the parents to send them back to school, offering the family financial aid regarding the school fees.” The parents quit their jobs and fled the region.
• Police arrested 15 Christians and booked 45 other members of the minority community under the blasphemy law for allegedly desecrating Muslim gravesin a village in Punjab province. According to the AP, “The case was registered after a local cleric filed a complaint alleging that the Christians had desecrated over 400 Muslim graves to occupy the land in Chak village in Faisalabad, about 150 kilometres from Lahore.” Rights groups said it was a spurious charge meant to prevent the Christians from acquiring the land. In fact, the accusations were later proven false.

Dhimmitude: Islamic Discrimination Against Christianity

Egypt: Iman Sarofim, a 39-year-old Christian mother of five, returned home to her family after being kidnapped. Initially it was believed that she had voluntarily converted to Islam and fled her family to be with a Muslim man. The woman contacted the family from Suez, where she had been brought by the kidnapper. The return of the woman was celebrated by neighbors and relatives in the city of Gabal al-Tir. Her disappearance had been the cause of clashes between Copts and police, who believed the narrative that she had voluntarily left. In retaliation, police officers entered the homes of dozens of Coptic families and violently arrested dozens of Christians. Separately, Ehab Karam, a Coptic dentist, was killed after he was abducted by unknown persons, most likely for ransom. The kidnapping of Copts for ransom has evidently become a regular part of life in Egypt for Christians, particularly in Upper Egypt. Last February, for instance, police dismantled a crime network that for months had been organizing kidnappings, robberies and extortion against the local Coptic community. “Unfortunately,” said the Coptic Catholic Bishop of Assist, Kyrillos William, “the phenomenon continues and there are no signs of improvement. Police operations are episodic and ineffective, they are unable to solve the problem.”

Iraq: The Islamic State decreed that all schools in Mosul and the Nineveh Plain which bore Christian names, some since the 1700s, must be changed. Also, the teaching of the Syriac language and culture and Christian religious education has been abolished. Reports indicate that the Islamic State took these moves “in order to erase all traces of cultural and religious pluralism in the conquered areas and turn schools into propaganda tools of jihadist ideology among the new generations.”

Saudi Arabia: In the Eastern Province city of Khafji, “religious police,” or agents from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, raided a house where at least 27 Christians, mostly expatriates from various Asian nationalities, were gathered. The Christians, including children, were accused of practicing Christianity in a house church, and were arrested and detained overnight. Authorities also confiscated musical instruments and copies of the Bible. The house had been placed under surveillance after a citizen reported that his Indian neighbor had converted his home into a Christian church. After witnessing a large number of individuals enter the home, officers raided the house. The only religion allowed to be practiced in public in Saudi Arabia is Islam. In the land of the prophet, no public places of worship for non-Muslims are permitted to exist.

Turkey: According to the Armenian magazine, Agos, many of the primary and secondary education books being used for the current school year still describe the Armenians and other Christian communities as enemy forces at the service of foreign powers, including Russia and England, after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. One eighth-grade history book tries to whitewash the Armenian genocide, which is portrayed as a “necessary deportation,” never as a massacre.

Uzbekistan: Security forces reportedly raided the home of Pastor Stanislav Kim in Chirchik, 20 miles northeast of Tashkent, the capital. They detained 11 teenagers and three adults, who had gathered there for a volleyball game, and questioned them for more than four hours before releasing them. Officials also searched the pastor’s home and confiscated a New Testament, a Bible, several other Christian books, more than 100 slides of hymns, as well as some computer equipment. Voice of the Martyrs, which says there are at least 65 unregistered congregations scattered throughout Uzbekistan, said in a statement, “Please pray that this pastor and his son will not face fines, but will soon be acquitted of any perceived wrongdoing. Ask God to strengthen each believer who was present during this unwarranted raid so that they will not give in to governmental intimidation and pressure, but instead be emboldened to serve our Lord faithfully.”

About this Series

The persecution of Christians in the Islamic world has become endemic.  Accordingly, “Muslim Persecution of Christians” was developed to collate some—by no means all—of the instances of persecution that surface each month. It serves two purposes:

1)          To document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, if not chronic, persecution of Christians.

2)          To show that such persecution is not “random,” but systematic and interrelated—that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Islamic Sharia.

Accordingly, whatever the anecdote of persecution, it typically fits under a specific theme, including hatred for churches and other Christian symbols; apostasy, blasphemy, and proselytism laws that criminalize and sometimes punish with death those who “offend” Islam; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced conversions to Islam;  theft and plunder in lieu of jizya (financial tribute expected from non-Muslims); overall expectations for Christians to behave like cowed dhimmis, or third-class, “tolerated” citizens; and simple violence and murder. Sometimes it is a combination thereof.

Because these accounts of persecution span different ethnicities, languages, and locales—from Morocco in the West, to Indonesia in the East—it should be clear that one thing alone binds them: Islam—whether the strict application of Islamic Sharia law, or the supremacist culture born of it.

Previous Reports:

• August, 2014
• July, 2014
• June, 2014
• May, 2014
• April, 2014
• March, 2014
• February, 2014
• January, 2014
• December, 2013
• November, 2013
• October, 2013
• September, 2013
• August, 2013
• July, 2013
• June, 2013
• May, 2013
• April, 2013
• March, 2013
• February, 2013
• January, 2013
• December, 2012
• November, 2012
• October, 2012
• September, 2012 
• August, 2012
• July, 2012
• June, 2012
• May, 2012
• April, 2012
• March, 2012
• February, 2012
• January, 2012
• December, 2011
• November, 2011
• October, 2011
• September, 2011
• August, 2011
• July, 2011

First published by RAYMOND IBRAHIM: Islam Translated in Muslim Persecution of Christians on December 24, 2014. http://www.raymondibrahim.com/muslim-persecution-of-christians/christians-and-churches-attacked-in-the-west-muslim-persecution-of-christians-september-2014/

Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz

Freedom Center, a Judith Friedman Rosen Writing Fellow at the Middle East Forum and a CBN News contributor. He is the author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians (2013) and The Al Qaeda Reader (2007).

Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, a Judith Friedman Rosen Writing Fellow at the Middle East Forum and a CBN News contributor. He is the author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians (2013) and The Al Qaeda Reader (2007).

Raymond Ibrahim

Raymond Ibrahim is a Middle East and Islam specialist and author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians (2013) and The Al Qaeda Reader (2007). His writings have appeared in a variety of media, including the Los Angeles Times, Washington Times, Jane’s Islamic Affairs Analyst, Middle East Quarterly, World Almanac of Islamism, and Chronicle of Higher Education; he has appeared on MSNBC, Fox News, C-SPAN, PBS, Reuters, Al-Jazeera, NPR, Blaze TV, and CBN. Ibrahim regularly speaks publicly, briefs governmental agencies, provides expert testimony for Islam-related lawsuits, and testifies before Congress. He is a Shillman Fellow, David Horowitz Freedom Center; a CBN News contributor; a Media Fellow, Hoover Institution (2013); and a Judith Friedman Rosen Writing Fellow, Middle East Forum. Ibrahim’s dual-background — born and raised in the U.S. by Coptic Egyptian parents born and raised in the Middle East — has provided him with unique advantages, from equal fluency in English and Arabic, to an equal understanding of the Western and Middle Eastern mindsets, positioning him to explain the latter to the former.

The post TRANSLATING ISLAM: Christians and Churches Attacked in the West: Muslim Persecution of Christians, September 2014 By RAYMOND IBRAHIM appeared first on Yonkers Tribune.

Archival photo of Bill de Blasio (right) with wife Chirlane McCray (left) taken on August 16, 2011. Photo courtesy of Bill de Blasio on Flickr

Current Commentary By Larry M. Elkin, CPA, CFP®,

Larry M. Elkin, CPA, CFP®, has provided personal financial and tax counseling to a sophisticated client base since 1986. He is President, Palisades Hudson Financial Group LLC, and
President, Palisades Hudson Asset Management, L.P.

When a king is married, his spouse usually bears the title of queen. In this country, when a top elected official is married, the spouse traditionally gets the appellation first lady, though that position is just as likely these days to fall to a man.

Our founders wanted to draw a clear distinction between foreign royalty’s pomp and privilege on the one hand, and the Everyman potential of elected office in the newly United States. To be sure, in those days Everyman actually had to be a man, and a white one at that. In most respects, we have come a vast distance toward achieving the sort of equality – of opportunity, not of outcomes – that 18th century liberals might have idealized. In a few minor ways, we may be moving in the other direction.

Consider the position of first lady. The office carries no legal responsibility and no remuneration, though certainly its holder has played an important behind-the-scenes role on many occasions. Dolley Madison was a significant figure in the White House long before she became an ice cream icon, or even before she became first lady, since she served as Thomas Jefferson’s hostess before her own husband’s election. When Woodrow Wilson was laid low by a stroke, his wife, Edith Bolling Wilson, essentially took control of the executive branch, strictly limiting the matters brought before him and even reputedly helping a journalist prepare a fictional interview with the president to conceal Wilson’s true condition. Eleanor Roosevelt took a high-profile role as her husband’s emissary; Jacqueline Kennedy established a White House social scene that played a part in Cold War geopolitics; and Hillary Clinton used her time in the executive mansion to launch a political career that is still playing out.

Yet though a first ladyship can be an important position, most of the time it isn’t. With power comes responsibility. A first lady usually has neither, at least with respect to the official position held by her (or his) spouse. Greet the dignitaries, look after the household and let the chief executive vent in private – if a first lady does that and nothing else, he or she is doing a good job. Let’s not forget that first ladies are entitled to have their own jobs too, though we have not yet seen an instance of one who occupies the White House while concurrently holding a position on, say, a corporate payroll.

First lady is not a bad gig, and there is no shortage of applicants for the position. The title has expanded over the years to include the spouses of governors in many states, and even a few big-city mayors – notably the mayor of New York City.

In the Big Apple, the first lady position offers just a fraction of its White House stature. Two recent mayors, Michael Bloomberg and Edward Koch, were not even married when they served at City Hall. Rudy Giuliani quite publicly split with his first lady, Donna Hanover, while he held the position. Mary Ingerman Beame, who was married to the city’s first Jewish mayor, Abraham Beame, and Joyce Dinkins, wife of the first African-American mayor, David Dinkins, were noncontroversial and seldom in the news.

Things are different nowadays in the city that likes to refer to itself simply as “the city.” Mayor Bill de Blasio’s wife, Chirlane McCray, played a major role in his campaign, especially in helping to galvanize support from the city’s African-American community during the hotly contested Democratic primary. Those community ties did not prevent parts of Manhattan from being tied into traffic knots this month by demonstrators protesting the police chokehold death of Eric Garner, but things might have gotten more out of control had a large segment of New Yorkers not been willing to give their 1-year-old mayoral administration the benefit of the doubt. Most of the doubts directed at the administration have been expressed on the other side, by police, who feel de Blasio has been insufficiently supportive, a feeling that was amplified by last weekend’s murder of two officers in Brooklyn. Caught between police and protesters, de Blasio has had a deer-in-the-headlights look ever since a grand jury refused to issue any indictments in Garner’s death. At least his wife’s sentiments are presumed to be on the side of the demonstrators, and therefore so are his.

Yet McCray has been a source of trouble for de Blasio as well, notably via the position of her “chief of staff.” The first holder of that position, Rachel Noerdlinger, has been on unpaid leave since it was revealed that she failed to disclose her boyfriend’s criminal history to the city. Her son was later arrested for criminal trespass. Noerdlinger is a former spokeswoman for the Rev. Al Sharpton, who has made a career of attacking police treatment of minorities, and her $170,000 position in de Blasio’s administration convinced many cops that the mayor is against them. Many wondered why a city first lady even needs a chief of staff – not to mention a staff of any sort.

Noerdlinger’s salary was almost the same as that of Michelle Obama’s chief of staff, Tina Tchen, who makes $172,200. But Tchen, an attorney, also holds the position of assistant to President Obama, which makes her role less of a lightning rod.

De Blasio may have learned from Obama’s example. Noerdlinger’s replacement is Roxanne John, who was already on the mayor’s payroll and will receive just an additional $25,000 annually to serve as McCray’s chief. But John will also have a newly hired deputy chief, Jackie Bray, who will be paid $125,000. So the total for McCray’s top staff will be $150,000, a bit less than Noerdlinger made.

New York City taxpayers will never notice that $150,000 on top of all the other stuff they pay for in order to run “the city.” But it shows how far we’ve come from those early days of the Republic, when the spouse of a chief executive was just a spouse, not the holder of a title that came at the expense of the citizenry.

Larry M. Elkin, CPA, CFP®, has provided personal financial and tax counseling to a sophisticated client base since 1986. After six years with Arthur Andersen, where he was a senior manager for personal financial planning and family wealth planning, he founded his own firm in Hastings on Hudson, N.Y., in 1992. That firm grew steadily and became the Palisades Hudson organization, which moved to Scarsdale, N.Y., in 2002. The firm expanded to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in 2005 and to Atlanta in 2008.

Palisades Hudson’s book, “Looking Ahead: Life, Family, Wealth and Business After 55“ http://tinyurl.com/ocro2dx.

Palisades Hudson (www.palisadeshudson.com) is a fee-only financial planning firm and investment adviser based in Scarsdale, N.Y., with $1.3 billion under management. It offers investment management, estate planning, insurance consulting, retirement planning, cross-border planning, business valuation and appraisal, family-office and business management, tax preparation, and executive financial planning. Branch offices are in Atlanta, GA; Fort Lauderdale, FL; and Portland, OR. Read the firm’s daily column on personal finance, economics and other topics at http://palisadeshudson.com/current-commentary. Twitter: @palisadeshudson.

The post CURRENT COMMENTARY: A Populist Mayor’s Royal First Lady By LARRY M. ELKIN appeared first on Yonkers Tribune.

Happy Kwanza

YONKERS, NY — December 26, 2014 — Kwanzaa is a week-long celebration held in the United States and also celebrated in the Western African diaspora in other nations of the Americas. The celebration honors African heritage in African-American culture, and is observed from December 26 to January 1, culminating in a feast and gift-giving.

The post Happy Kwanza appeared first on Yonkers Tribune.

Pam Young is wiz at getting organized; from a reformed slob’s point of view. Her latest book. The Joy of Being Disorganized”, is a must read.

I wrote this poem to help you remember what the holidays are really all about. I think if you read the whole thing and then take the three minutes and twenty-five seconds to watch the YouTube video; it’ll help lift your spirits. Oh, and you just might need a tissue.

‘Twas the Aftermath of Christmas

‘Twas post Christmas morning when all through the place

The family was reeling from the Christmas rat race

The stockings were gutted, the gifts all unwrapped

There was chaos, confusion and energy sapped

Mom was in her jammies with unruly hair

The kids full of candy, there was smoke in the air

From the thunderous fire, Dad’s cramming, The Cause

Of paper and boxes from his arsonist claws

And out of the chimney and up on the roof

Hot chunks of packaging fiery proof

That Christmas was over and so was the fun

The only thing left was to dial 911

Outside were the sirens the fire truck arrived

They hosed off the roof and the house did survive

But inside the home as dry as a thistle

The Christmas tree threatened to launch like a missile

While mom made a pile of stuff to return

Dad kept on adding to the fireplace burn

The kids with their soon-to-be discarded stuff

Hadn’t a clue when enough was enough

“Get’em to want it so much that they buy

Stuff they don’t need and never ask why,”

The result of this brainwashing marketing trap?

Shelf-sagging, drawer-bulging, closet-jamming crap

Toys in containers no one can get into

Not with scissors, a crowbar, a blow torch or Ginsu

So how in the world can this chaos be nipped?

No one wants his Christmas wings clipped.

Here’s the solution all tied up in a bow

The secret of Christmas in a song you may know

I chose Julie Andrews rendition so fair

Three minutes, twenty-five seconds she’ll share

And when you get stuck in the world of stuff

This song will remind you, enough IS enough

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjXXNuXVJwQ

For more from Pam Young go to www.cluborganized.com. You’ll find many musings, videos of Pam in the kitchen preparing delicious meals, videos on how to get organized, ways to lose weight and get your finances in order, all from a reformed SLOB’s point of view.

Pam is a reformed slob, and co-author of the best-selling book, Sidetracked Home Executives: from Pigpen to Paradise, which has sold more than a million and a half copies. But don’t be too impressed by the number as Pam is positive 750,000 disorganized moms, bought it, lost it and had to buy it again. With that book, she and her sister became known as the “Slob Sisters” and appeared on Oprah, Live with Regis, The Today Show, CBS Morning Show, Donahue, Geraldo and many other popular television shows throughout the country.

Pam has spoken to thousands of groups from a small klatch of women in a church basement to Fortune Five Hundred companies like Standard Oil and General Mills. She toured the country on media tours for Proctor and Gamble and American Express teaching with humor and insight. Her practical steps to becoming more organized and having clean, cozy, peaceful and happy homes have helped millions of women.

Pam and her husband Terry live in Woodland, Washington, high in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. Together, they have created a new venture. With a major in drama (not in college, but in life) Pam has always been able to see with the eyes of a child. Writing a shelf of “self-help” books to inspire disorganized moms, Pam’s focus has always been on solutions to the challenges mothers have in life.

The video-based House Fairy Program on the Internet was designed to inspire and motivate children to keep their rooms clean and neat, have good manners, and help with the family chores. Pam’s hope is, “that we can help this next generation before they get homes of their own to trash, by letting the House Fairy inspire and motivate children and reinforce the desire of our magnificent moms to have happy, healthy, well-behaved children.” www.housefairy.org

The post MAKE IT FUN! ‘Twas the Aftermath of Christmas By PAM YOUNG appeared first on Yonkers Tribune.

YONKERS, NY

At about 10:30 a.m., Host Hezi Aris pivots the discussion toward issues of concern to Mount Vernon. Our guest is Mount Vernon Vice-President Pro Tem Richard Thomason..

At the top of the second hour, we pivot again, this time toward the latest County, State, national and / or international news arena to learn the gravitas of the issues we will speak to and how they affect us.

Your participation is shamelessly solicited; share your perspective; ask a question, or simply be heard! Place your call to (347) 205-9201. You are only asked to please stay on topic. Listen live or on demand: http://www.BlogTalkRadio.com/WestchesterOnTheLevel/

The post NYS Senator George Latimer and Mount Vernon City Councilman Richard Thomas on Westchester On the Level with Narog and Aris – Friday, December 26, 2014 @ 10 a.m. EST appeared first on Yonkers Tribune.

Off My Meds By Les Taha.

The post Off My Meds: Root Canal… Rubber Dam… and a Bridge By LES TAHA appeared first on Yonkers Tribune.