March 14 2012
Islamist Watch is devoted to unveiling and combating "Lawful Islamists" who exploit our Constitutional freedoms to incrementally and non-violently undermine American and Western values while imposing aspects of Sharia law, creating special rights for Muslims, preventing criticism of Islamists, intimidating moderate Muslims, depriving women and non-Muslims of their civil and Constitutional rights, and creating "no-go" autonomous zones within the United States and other Western countries.

Lawful Islamism is a radical and supremacist interpretation of Islam that seeks to destroy Western society from within -- culturally and politically rather than violently. Methodically and patiently. With words not bullets. Activism not bombs.

The goals of Lawful Islamists and Islamic terrorists are the same. Only their methods differ.

Islamism in the News: 02/16/12 – 03/14/12:
Government

"Al-Qaeda Bar Advancing Inside Department of Justice," by J. Christian Adams. PJ Media, March 5, 2012. (Remember the infamous "American Taliban," John Walker Lindh? President Obama has appointed his attorney to the number three position at the Department of Justice. Before coming to the Justice Department, Tony West and his San Francisco law firm represented some of the most radical Islamic terrorist causes. What could go wrong?)
Law Enforcement

"FBI, Muslims Report Progress Over Training Materials," By Omar Sacirbey. Washington Post, February 16, 2012. (FBI officials say they are willing to consider a proposal from a coalition of Muslim and interfaith groups to establish a committee of experts to review materials used in FBI anti-terrorism training. Among the group is the Islamic Society of North America, named and described in seized Muslim Brotherhood documents as one of their front groups engaged in a "grand jihad to eliminate and destroy Western civilization from within.")
Last October, the Obama administration confirmed it was eliminating all references to Islam in law enforcement and national security training materials, which some Islamist groups claimed were offensive to them. "I want to be perfectly clear about this: training materials that portray Islam as a religion of violence or with a tendency towards violence are wrong, they are offensive, and they are contrary to everything that this President, this Attorney General and Department of Justice stand for," said U.S. Attorney Dwight Holton. "They will not be tolerated."
"Chicago Police Head Raises Money for CAIR," Ryan Mauro. FrontPage Magazine, March 9. 2012. (Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy has agreed to speak at a fundraiser for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a group that the FBI has officially cut ties with over its links to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. McCarthy promised that the Chicago Police Department would not use the surveillance tactics that CAIR has criticized the NYPD for using.)
Co-opting Politicians – Chris Christie's Continuing Islamist Problem

"The Roots of the Christie-King Border War," Jonathan S. Tobin. Commentary Magazine, March 6, 2012. (Christie and King found themselves lining up with two competing Muslim factions: Christie with extremist groups like the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), who oppose all efforts to investigate homegrown Islamist terror, and King with those Muslims like Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, who have taken the position that American Muslims have a responsibility to root out radicals.)
"Chris Christie is Clueless in Claiming He Didn't Know About NYPD Anti-Terror Intel," New York Daily News Editorial, March 7, 2012. (Meanwhile, everyone else in New Jersey state government did.)
For background on Chris Christie's disturbing ties to New Jersey's Islamists, including appointing a terrorist-defending Islamist attorney to a Superior Court judgeship, preventing the deportation of an imam who was a member of both Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, refusing to take a stand against the ground zero mosque, and endorsement by CAIR, see:
"Governor Christie's Dirty Islamist Ties," Daniel Greenfield. Sultan Knish, January 16, 2011.
"Chris Christie Has a Muslim Problem," Terry A. Hurlbut. Conservative News and Views, June 28, 2011.
Courts: Sharia vs. the First Amendment in Pennsylvania

"The Sharia Court of Pennsylvania," by Andrew C. McCarthy. National Review, February 24, 2012. (A state judge in Pennsylvania has dismissed an assault and harrassment case against a Muslim defendant who admitted attacking the victim. Magistrate Judge Mark Martin ruled that Talag Elbayomy's Sharia defense — what he claimed was his obligation to strike out against any insult against the prophet Mohammed — trumped the First Amendment free speech rights of the victim. Includes an extensive court transcript. Martin has threatened to hold the victim in contempt for recording the proceeding.)
"Pennsylvania Judge Throws Out Charge For Harassing Atheist While Calling The Victim A Doofus," by Jonathan Turley. Res Ipsa Loquitur, February 24, 2012. (Includes video of the assault. The First Amendment protects the freedom of speech of all American, even "doofuses."
American Laws for American Courts

"Bizarre Verdicts Could Fuel Rep. Larry Metz's Anti-Sharia Bill," Kenric Ward. Sunshine State News, February 28, 2012. (Florida's "anti-Sharia" legislation received some added impetus last week when a Pennsylvania court bowed to Islamic sensibilities and acquitted a Muslim defendant of assault.)
"The Necessity of Anti-Sharia Laws," Robert Spencer. American Thinker, March 13, 2012. ("As Thomas Jefferson said, it doesn't matter whether my neighbor believes in one god or seventeen; it neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. It is only when my neighbor believes that his god commands him to pick my pocket or break my leg that his beliefs become a matter of concern for those who do not share them.")
Women's Rights

"My Mother Wants Me Dead: Catholic Convert Speaks Out After Fleeing Her Muslim Family Following 'Honor Killing' Threat," Rob King. The Daily Mail (UK), March 9, 2012. (A women's rights campaigner has revealed how she fears for her life after her strict Muslim parents threatened to kill her when she dared to refuse an arranged marriage. Her parents sued her for defamation – and lost.)
Media Bias and Free Speech

"Will There Always Be an England?" Bruce Bawer. FrontPage Magazine, March 7, 2012. (The Director-General of the BBC admits to double standards and fears when it comes to covering religion. In 2010, the BBC claimed a weekly global audience of 241 million people for its international news services.)
Free Speech