Some Odds And Ends Linked Together For Thought

The original links were found at Front Page Magazine.

This is from the Harvard Crimson on April 8, 1980:

President Carter announced yesterday that the United States is breaking diplomatic relations with Iran and that all Iranian diplomats and officials will be ordered to leave the country by midnight tonight.

Carter acted hours after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ruled that the 50 American hostages must remain in the hands of the militants occupying the U.S. Embassy in Tehran until the new Iranian Parliament decides their fate.

The hostages have been held 157 days.

Carter also cut off virtually all remaining trade between the two countries, prohibiting further exports to Iran, with the exception of food and drugs.

The U.S. will also invalidate all visas issued for future arrival to Iranians, issuing new ones or renewing old ones only in unusual circumstances.

Carter has instructed Treasury Secretary G. William Miller to prepare an inventory of outstanding claims of American citizens and corporations against the government of Iran, with the aim of seizing assets of the Iranian government in the United States to finance settlements of claims by the hostages and their families.

Front Page Magazine emphasizes:

Fourth, the Secretary of Treasury [State] and the Attorney General will invalidate all visas issued to Iranian citizens for future entry into the United States, effective today. We will not reissue visas, nor will we issue new visas, except for compelling and proven humanitarian reasons or where the national interest of our own country requires. This directive will be interpreted very strictly.

…Carter orders 50,000 Iranian students in US to report to immigration office with view to deporting those in violation of their visas. On 27 December 1979, US appeals court allows deportation of Iranian students found in violation.

The McCarran-Walter Act of 1952 gave the President the power to do this. I am not a big fan of President Carter, but he was right on this one.

The article at Front Page Magazine concludes:

Now unlike Muslims, Iranians were not necessarily supportive of Islamic terrorism. Many were and are opponents of it. Khomeini didn’t represent Iran as a country, but his Islamist allies. So Trump’s proposal is far more legitimate than Carter’s action. Carter targeted people by nationality. Trump’s proposal does so by ideology.

Classifying Iranians as a group is closer to racism than classifying people by a racist supremacist ideology that calls for the mass murder and enslavement of non-Muslims, as ISIS is doing today.

One of the neater subsets of the 1952 Act barred the entry of, “(11) Aliens who are polygamists or who practice polygamy or advocate the practice of polygamy.”

I wonder which creed this might apply to.

Maybe we can all calm down now long enough to have a rational conversation on the subject.

Smile, You Are Being Manipulated (Again)

I repeat. I am not a supporter of Donald Trump. I am, however, a supporter of an honest press and honest reporting. In the coverage of Donald Trump, there is no danger of either. Donald Trump is currently being drawn and quartered in the press for recent remarks about suspending Muslim immigration to America.

This is the direct quote taken from First Coast News:

“Without looking at the various polling data, it is obvious to anybody the hatred is beyond comprehension. Where this hatred comes from and why we will have to determine. Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in Jihad, and have no sense of reason or respect for human life. If I win the election for President, we are going to Make America Great Again.”

He was referring to a poll taken by The Polling Company for the Center for Security Policy (CSP).

The Center for Security Policy has replied to criticism of this poll:

In June 2015, the Center for Security Policy commissioned a nationwide online survey among 600 Muslim adults (age 18+) living in the United States.  The methodology used for this online survey instrument is consistent with international industry standards outlined in the ESOMAR Guideline for Online Research. The Center for Security Policy stands by the findings in our nationwide poll and we invite anyone to view its findings.

This is what the poll found:

According to the just-released survey of Muslims, a majority (51%) agreed that “Muslims in America should have the choice of being governed according to shariah.”  When that question was put to the broader U.S. population, the overwhelming majority held that shariah should not displace the U.S. Constitution (86% to 2%).

More than half (51%) of U.S. Muslims polled also believe either that they should have the choice of American or shariah courts, or that they should have their own tribunals to apply shariah. Only 39% of those polled said that Muslims in the U.S. should be subject to American courts.

These notions were powerfully rejected by the broader population according to the Center’s earlier national survey.  It found by a margin of 92%-2% that Muslims should be subject to the same courts as other citizens, rather than have their own courts and tribunals here in the U.S.

Even more troubling, is the fact that nearly a quarter of the Muslims polled believed that, “It is legitimate to use violence to punish those who give offense to Islam by, for example, portraying the prophet Mohammed.”

By contrast, the broader survey found that a 63% majority of those sampled said that “the freedom to engage in expression that offends Muslims or anybody else is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and cannot be restricted.”

Nearly one-fifth of Muslim respondents said that the use of violence in the United States is justified in order to make shariah the law of the land in this country.

The results of this poll are much more of a problem than any statement made by a political candidate.

I would also like to mention that Jimmy Carter banned Iranians from entering the United States unless they opposed the Shiite Islamist regime or had a medical emergency. This is noted in a Front Page Magazine article from yesterday. The press is attempting to manipulate the American public into calling Donald Trump a racist, bigot, whatever. They have misquoted him and ignored his evidence. Again, I am not supporting him for President, but I don’t like the media thinking they can choose the Republican candidate. If the Republicans allow that, they are the stupid party and deserve to lose.