I had my eye on the Cordoba Initiative for nearly as long as I’ve been observing the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations initiative. It was in 2006 that the Alliance appeared on the world stage to calm Mideast tensions which resulted from the Danish cartoon crisis. For one to understand the Cordoba Initiative one must gain insight into the Alliance of Civilizations. The two are mutually-reinforcing, partnered initiatives. Cordoba’s web site, which has changed extensively over the past few weeks, still displays the Alliance of Civilizations as a partner organization. Noticeable omissions include organizations such as the United Religions Initiative, Karen Armstrong’s Charter for Compassion, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), and others. I suspect Cordoba scoured affiliations from its web site not only to lessen the severity of its own scrutinization but also prevent shifting it to others. For scrutinization of CAIR would lead one to find the FBI severed ties with the organization due to its affiliations with terror group Hamas. Alliance of Civilizations’ High Level Group member Karen Armstrong no longer is listed as the Cordoba Board’s most significant contributor. She is now only a board member.
As a bridge builder having the mission to facilitate intercultural and interfaith dialogue, tolerance and understanding, the Cordoba Initiative surely must have known that placement of the mosque so close to the Ground Zero Twin Towers would be received as insensitive and as anything but understanding. Moderate Moslem critics say this defies logic and call the mosque confrontational and in bad faith. They are questioning what is going on here?
I have found Cordoba’s partner, the Alliance of Civilizations, to be confrontational from its very inception. While they use nice words such as social inclusion, social cohesion, human family, ad nauseum, they speak with forked tongues. For this initiative has mobilized to facilitate a cultural divide—to build a new civilization. This crisis reminds me of a passage from new age writer Peter Lemesurier’s Armageddon Script, Prophecy in Action where he describes a time when the old religions would be manipulated and set against one another: “the wisdoms of all ages and cultures will be called upon to surrender their most precious secrets…The masses of the Old Age, however, will be unable to check their headlong onrush. In large measure they will go on to destroy each other in a massive, mutual venting of long pent-up aggression”.
This Cordoba mosque crisis is somewhat reminiscent of the 2006 “spontaneous” Danish cartoon crisis which firmly rooted the newly formed Alliance in a global political role. The cartoon crisis was the result of a Danish newspaper’s publication of caricatures which depicted the prophet Mohammed as a terrorist. Violence erupted four months later when these images were published in newspapers throughout the Mideast. The three most inflammatory caricatures seen in the Mideast’s had never been part of the Danish newspaper’s collection. The Alliance was soon to become the United Nations’ response to Samuel Huntington’s “clash of civilizations” theory which subsequently accused the West of insensitivity and placed blame for the clash squarely upon the West. The High Level GroupFinal Report attributes no positive values to the West. So why would the Islamic world seek to join an Alliance with the West?
This Cordoba crisis further exhibits the Alliance’s anti-western bias. Rather than accepting responsibility for their own insensitivity, High Level Group (HLG) members are actively guiding Moslems to feel victimized by an intolerant, Islamophobic West. John Esposito is using this controversy to bolster the Alliance’s position that Christianity and the political right are anti-democratic. It is ironic the Alliance would even argue this with a straight face.
The Alliance’s response to the cartoon crisis was a collaborative effort with the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) which, at that time and ever since, called for the West to place restrictions on free speech. Defamation of Religions resolutions intended to restrict religious criticism and free speech were introduced to UN governing bodies. The resolutions are pillars of the Alliance’s framework. Hillary Clinton addressed this at the Roosevelt Institute last year stating that the United States would never agree to such resolutions. Within weeks President Obama and the OIC co-authored an anti-defamation resolution which contains the same language as what Clinton opposed. This proved a bit much for even the Huffington Post which cried foul.
The Alliance of Civilizations calls for the establishment of a review board and accreditation for journalists who wish to report on areas involving cross cultural and political-religious tensions.
High Level Group member Karen Armstrong has long portrayed Christianity and the political right as anti-democratic. As a “religious historian” she has no regard for historical accuracy and is known to fabricate quotes. As most significant contributor to the Cordoba Board, I suspect she was aware opportunity would be found in this emotionally-charged crisis they have created. While people are re-living the traumatizing events of the 9-11 attacks, the Cordoba controversy is being used to aggressively attack them as anti-democratic and opposed to religious freedom.
The Alliance says that global governance will require nations to accept a redefinition of national sovereignty. They define democracy as an evolutionary process where national parliaments no longer serve as the monopolist voice of the people. That voice is to be shifted to non-governmental organizations which are better positioned to represent the people. Terms often used to describe this new style are “safe”, “participatory”, and sometimes “anticipatory” democracy.
Religious freedom is also redefined. Both Cordoba and the Alliance interlock with Karen Armstrong’s Charter for Compassion. The Charter’s intent is to provide global “guidelines” for the interpretation of religious texts. An indication of where this is headed can be found in Armstrong’s thesis on Genesis where she argues that the serpent was more truthful than God in the garden. Armstrong is an apologist for Islam. According to Armstrong:
“Christianity, which has as its main image, in the west at least, a man dying in a devastating, disgraceful, helpless death…Mohammed was not an apparent failure. He was a dazzling success, politically as well as spiritually, and Islam went from strength to strength to strength. But against the West, it’s been able to make no headway...whatever they do, they cannot seem to get Muslim history back on track, and this has led some, and only a minority, it must be said, to desperate conclusions.”The United Nations spiritual foundation’s writings indicate that their political-spiritual leader will lead all “true Moslems” to spiritual victory. Iran has significantly shaped Alliance of Civilizations initiative.
The Alliance of Civilizations uses Cordoba as a model for the global governance of the culture. It portrays Cordoba as a utopian society and ignores the suffering of non-Moslems under the system of dhimmitude. The Alliance of Civilizations supports integration of Sharia law into Western democracies.
There is no Christian or orthodox Jewish representation on the Alliance of Civilizations.
Outwardly the Alliance and Cordoba Initiatives argue they favor bridge building and religious pluralism through interfaith dialogue. In practice they advance Universalism. The two are distinctly different. While pluralism requires tolerance, the Alliance’s Universalist value system rejects belief systems which make exclusive truth claims and refuse to adopt the mindset that we all worship the same God but follow different paths to the Almighty. Christian adaptation of Universalism constitutes apostasy. John Esposito has said that if one believes their religion to be right and another to be wrong, that person has adopted the “theology of hate” which is a root cause of terrorism. The HLG refers to this as religious fundamentalism. Georgetown University, an Alliance think tank which houses Esposito’s Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, defines fundamentalism as “those with an absolute conviction in the fundamental principles of their faith to the exclusion of other beliefs.”
Combating religious fundamentalism is the basis of the Alliance of Civilizations’ framework. The Alliance is the United Nation’s “mother tongue” and the core component of the UN global counter-terrorism strategy.
NATO’s Grand Strategy for an Uncertain World includes combating of religious fundamentalism as well. The Alliance of Civilizations is now part of the NATO framework. Secretary General Rasmussen represented NATO at the AoC Istanbul Conference.
The Albright Group (as in Madeline, former Secretary of State) is a supporter of the Cordoba Initiative. Albright participates on NATO’s Group of Experts which is implementing a “New Strategic Concept”.
The White House announced United States’ partnership with the Alliance of Civilizations on May 20, 2010.
Carnegie Corporation President Vartan Gregorian serves on the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships. Vartan is active with the Alliance of Civilizations and a bridge between the White House and the Alliance.
During the initial planning process the Alliance of Civilizations envisioned placement of Alliance temples in every major city throughout the world. The Cordoba mosque may well be a starting point. This “clash of civilizations” appears deliberate having a political objective. Again, as Jean Monet chair for European Integration once said, the United Nations has proven itself to be actually dangerous. This time, it appears, they have provoked a national controversy within one of its member states.
13 comments:
You have a thought provoking close by saying, "This clash of civilizations appears deliberate, having a political objective." You very well could be right!
I must say, you were very kind in posting photos of Karen Armstrong from her younger days. It aids in not viewing her as being a bitter woman, though it is still evident
by the garbage she spews from her mouth.
N.K.
Hi Rich, its me, tony in vt. Don't these people see themselves in Orwells 1984 - the strange/semantic/ games they are playing...inside out, downside up,reverse polarity, good is evil, evil is good. Oh hey, not only in Orwell but its even Biblical! My my, what a day and age we live in! GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST!!! Come quickly Lord Jesus. This is very exciting and it helps me in my walk in the light, as does all of Constant Cumbeys research. I love you brillant devoted deep searching reseachers...Dorthy included gigantically! Thanks Rich, so much. This is incredibily interesting!!! Blessings to you in all of your endeavors.
Very useful, as always. The language is even infiltrating the new Westminster government.
By William Hague, Foreign Secretary of the EU puppet government in England "The case for Turkey’s accession to the EU is as strong as ever. As well as offering considerable mutual economic benefits and profoundly strengthening the EU’s security of energy supply, Turkey’s membership would refute those who claim that there is a clash of civilisations between the West and Islam, and would make Turkey an ideal interlocutor between Europe and the Middle East." Europe's World 5/25/2010
http://www.europesworld.org/NewEnglish/Home_old/Article/tabid/191/ArticleType/articleview/ArticleID/21633/Default.aspx
Rich,
Good to see a new post from you. The quality of which I feel is top notch. Thanks for your informative analysis.
This post is so heavy. We need to stay in prayer, all of us. Darkness is about to descend upon us in a direct, full-contact manner. To be forwarned is to be forarmed. Sharia law isn't gonna be any fun at all. Lord help us. bye for now, tony in vt, asking the Father to strenghten the things that remain in the body of Christ. Jesus said, " I leave you peace" and "Fear not" and "Let not your hearts be troubled." and i give thanks as i trust in Him. amen
Hi Rich,
Did you happen to see this?
Karen Armstrong on the “Ground Zero Mosque” and Sufism
Posted by Wes Alwan in Web Detritus on August 25th, 2010
Via Open Culture, religion scholar Karen Armstrong (whom Mark has discussed several times — and who’s book The Case for God may be the text for a future episode) comes out in favor of the “Ground Zero Mosque,” noting that it would be a Sufi Mosque. “We all need a good dose of Sufi-ism,” she says, and quotes Ibn Arabi, a twelfth-thirteenth century Sufi mystic, as saying:
Do not praise your own faith exclusively so that you disbelieve all the rest. If you do this you will miss much good. Nay, you will miss the whole truth of the matter. God, the omniscient and the omnipresent, cannot be confined to any one creed, for he says in the Koran, wheresoever ye turn, there is the face of Allah. Everybody praises what he knows. His God is his own creature, and in praising it, he praises himself. Which he would not do if he were just, for his dislike is based on ignorance.
http://www.partiallyexaminedlife.
com/2010/08/25/karen-armstrong-on
-the-ground-zero-mosque-and-sufism/
______________________________
Sufism is the esoteric form of Islam - some of which involves magic and the occult!
SUFISM
...According to Idries Shah, the Sufi philosophy is universal in nature, its roots predating the arising of Islam and the other modern-day religions; likewise, some Muslims consider Sufism outside the sphere of Islam. Mainstream scholars of Islam, however, contend that it is simply the name for the inner or esoteric dimension of Islam....
...A number of Westerners have embarked with varying degrees of success on the path of Sufism. One of the first to return to Europe as an official representative of a Sufi order, and with the specific purpose to spread Sufism in Western Europe, was the Swedish-born wandering Sufi Abd al-Hadi Aqhili (also known as Ivan Aguéli). The ideas propagated by such spiritualists may or may not conform to the tenets of Sufism as understood by orthodox Muslims, as for instance with G. I. Gurdjieff...read entire article...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sufism
_________________________________
The Sufi whirling of certain Dervish groups is done with a view to achieving altered states of consciousness("Ecstasy")
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sufi_
whirling
________________________________
Feisal Abdul Rauf is an Arab American Sufi Imam!
Susanna,
Thank you very much for the important piece by Karen Armstrong. The Sufi's are considered the most ferocious soldiers of Islam and are being looked to as combatants of extremism.
http://tinyurl.com/afjx57
We have allowed extremists to define extremism.
Rich
Tony,
Thanks for your posts. The air is getting rather thick. And I smell a rat with the Florida church Koran burning controversy. A crisis turned into opportunity. I'm looking a bit more and will share what I'm finding. It also has AoC markings on it.
Rich
Excellent article Rich!
Rich,
You might want to see this article.
"If to be a Jew means to say with all one’s heart, mind and soul Shma` Yisrael, Adonai Elohenu Adonai Ahad; hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One, not only today I am a Jew, I have always been one, Mr. Pearl.
If to be a Christian is to love the Lord our God with all of my heart, mind and soul, and to love for my fellow human being what I love for myself, then not only am I a Christian, but I have always been one, Mr. Pearl.
And I am here to inform you, with the full authority of the Quranic texts and the practice of the Prophet Muhammad, that to say La ilaha illallah Muhammadun rasulullah is no different."
-Imam Rauf
http://hurryupharry.org/2010/08/20/on-imam-rauf-and-being-a-jew/
Savvy
Hi Savvy,
Thanks much for the link. This one was timely and I'm going to use it in my next post.
Rich
I have a new (DUTCH) site up, called www.eindtijdprofetiespeurder.blogspot.com, witch allso covers the endtimes, JS, 666, WEU and the AoC.
can you explain to me how JS is connected with the Aoc?
mathieu
e-mail: matkleer@telfort.nl
the site has changed in
www.eindtijdprofetiespeurder.nl
mathieu.
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