Tuesday, January 21, 2020

The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism By Andrew G. Bostom



The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism

By Andrew G. Bostom, M.D.

Islamic antisemitism is as old as Islam itself, and is not a mere borrowing from non-Muslim sources, as has been claimed. Antisemitism scholar, Andrew Bostom's newly updated book, The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism From Sacred Texts to Solemn History provides comprehensive, meticulously documented evidence that a readily discernible, uniquely Islamic antisemitism - specific Muslim hatred of Jews - has been expressed continuously since the advent of Islam. 

In The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism, you'll learn that:

·    A readily discernible, uniquely Islamic antisemitism - specific Muslim hatred of Jews - is hardwired into Islam's core texts, including the Koran, and has been expressed continuously since the advent of Islam;

·    Over 13 centuries, Islamic antisemitism, and the imposition of Islamic law's discriminatory mandates for Jews, led to violence and/or chronic grinding oppression of Jews under Islamic rule;

·    An updated preface for this new edition elucidates hard data documenting both the current disproportionate rate of Muslim Antisemitism - a global pandemic - and its resulting disproportionate violent anti-Jewish manifestations in Israel, Western Europe, and the United States; and

·    Doctrinal drivers of this contemporary hatred, as espoused by iconic Muslim religious leaders representing the pinnacles of mainstream, institutional Islamic religious education - both Sunni and Shiite - are introduced.

Writing in 1971, S.D. Goitein, the pre-eminent scholar of Muslim-Jewish relations employed the term antisemitism, "...in order to differentiate animosity against Jews from the discrimination practiced by Islam against non-Muslims in general." Goitein cited as concrete proof of his assertion that a unique strain of Islamic Jew hatred was extant at that time (i.e., up to a millennium ago) - exploding the common assumption of its absence - the fact that letters from the Geniza material, "...have a special word for it and, most significantly, one not found in the Bible or in Talmudic literature ...but one much used and obviously coined in the Geniza period."

Important examples of antisemitic motifs in the foundational Muslim texts are presented: from the Koran, the hadith (words and deeds of the Muslim prophet Muhammad), the sira (earliest Muslim biographies of Muhammad), as well as the writings of influential Muslim jurists, theologians, and scholars, from the Middle Ages through the contemporary era. These primary sources, and seminal secondary analyses translated here for the first time into English detail the sacralized rationale for Islam's anti-Jewish bigotry. Numerous complementary historical accounts illustrate the resulting plight of Jewish communities in the Muslim world across space and time, culminating in the genocidal threat posed to the Jews of Israel today.

The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism debunks the conventional wisdom which continues to assert that Muslim Jew hatred is entirely a 20th century phenomenon, and standard Nazi propaganda, that only arose after the advent of the Zionist movement and the protracted Arab-Jewish conflict over all of the lands comprising the original 1922 Mandate for historical Palestine. Readers will find this collection an invaluable resource for understanding the phenomenon of Muslim antisemitism, past and present.

An updated Author's Preface for this new edition - which includes materials through January 3, 2020 - elucidates the current global pandemic of Muslim Antisemitism, and its resulting violent manifestations, in Israel, Western Europe, and the United States. Doctrinal drivers of this hatred, as espoused by iconic Muslim religious leaders representing the pinnacles of institutional Islamic religious education - both Sunni and Shiite - are introduced. This compendious, timely exposé rivets upon freshly translated samples of modern, seminal Koranic glosses - rife with Jew-hatred - which shape current understandings of Islam's holy book, and Islam itself, by the Muslim masses. The new Preface concludes with a focused discussion about why non-Muslim religious leaders, especially Jews, must admonish institutional Islam to begin its own process, akin to Vatican II/Nostre Aetate, of expunging at least the most virulent Jew-hating motifs from Islam's core theology. [more...]

"There is no one who is writing more scholarly, but accessible material about Islam in the world today, than Andrew Bostom" --Dennis Prager

"Andrew Bostom produces a vast literature of Middle Eastern Islamic antisemitism, and critics may be as surprised at his conclusions as they are unable to refute his carefully compiled corpus of evidence." --Victor Davis Hanson, senior fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University

About the Author: Andrew G. Bostom, M.D. is the author of the highly acclaimed The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims, The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism: From Sacred Texts to Solemn History, and, Sharia Versus Freedom -The Legacy of Islamic Totalitarianism. Dr. Bostom has published numerous articles and commentaries on Islam in the New York Post, Washington Times, The New York Daily News, National Review Online, The American Thinker, Pajamas Media, FrontPage Magazine.com, and other print and online publications.

Monday, January 13, 2020

False Premise False Promise By Sally Pipes


FALSE PREMISE, FALSE PROMISE
The Disastrous Reality of Medicare For All
By Sally Pipes

In her brilliant new book, False Premise, False Promise: The Disastrous Reality of Medicare for All national health care expert Sally Pipes exposes the lies that supporters of Medicare for All love to tell. Their plans won't make Americans healthier, nor is it "free." Medicare for All won't reduce government spending, nor will it make our health care system more efficient. Sally makes a strong case against Medicare for All. Using evidence from government-run systems in Canada and the U.K., she explains how single-payer health care makes a litany of promises it can't possibly keep. 

American health care is at a crossroads. Health spending reached $3.5 trillion in 2017. Yet more than 27 million people remain uninsured. And it's unclear if all that spending is buying higher-quality care. Patients, doctors, insurers, and the government acknowledge that the status quo is unsustainable. The government's failed attempt at health care reform - Obamacare - did not deliver on its promises. Consequently, many low- and middle-income people have been forced into plans with deductibles as high as $12,000. Nearly a decade after its passage, Democrats and especially the Democrat presidential candidates are now calling for a complete government takeover of the health care system (first introduced by Bernie Sanders in 2016) better known as Medicare for All or a stepping-stone approach such as the public option.

In False Premise, False Promise, you'll learn:

·    How the political Left have latched on to Medicare for All mania without being able to spell out exactly how the government would pay for it;

·    That health care is not a RIGHT;

·    About single-payer proposals that are under consideration;

·    About the horrors of socialized medicine around the world - the long waits, shoddy care, and poor outcomes that patients living under government-run health systems must endure; and

·    About an alternative vision for health care reform.

Not one of the supporters of Medicare for All can tell you how they plan to cover the multi-trillion-dollar cost of giving everyone in America "free" government-run health insurance. The increase in federal spending under Medicare for All is $30-40 trillion over ten years according to the Mercatus Center and the Urban Institute. Yet they assert that health care is a RIGHT, promising universal, high-quality care to all Americans at no cost. With a sales pitch like that, it's no wonder the idea has broad support; and Democrats, particularly progressives, hope to capitalize on the public's misguided enthusiasm.

Dissecting the plans under consideration in Congress - including the real costs behind the claims - and detailing the horrors of single-payer care in other countries, Pipes highlights how Americans actually fare better than their peers in Canada and the U.K. on health outcomes. Included are heart-wrenching stories of the human costs of free, universal, government-run health care systems. Pipes concludes with her vision for delivering affordable, accessible, quality care the American people are looking for. The key is less government intervention - not more. [more...]

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: SALLY PIPES is President, CEO, and Thomas W. Smith Fellow in Health Care Policy at the Pacific Research Institute, a San Francisco-based think tank founded in 1979.

Thursday, January 9, 2020

The Case for Killer Robots By Robert J. Marks


A Moral Argument for Killer Robots: Why America's Military Needs to Continue Development of Lethal AI

Doomsday headlines warn that the age of "killer robots" is upon us and that new military technologies based on artificial intelligence (AI) will lead to the annihilation of the human race. In his new book, The Case for Killer Robots: Why America's Military Needs to Continue Development of Lethal AI, artificial intelligence expert Robert J. Marks investigates the potential military use of lethal AI and examines the practical and ethical challenges. 

This short monograph is published in conjunction with the Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence and the Center is making if freely available as a digital book at the Mind Matters website. Physical copies are available through Amazon.com.

In The Case for Killer Robots, these questions are answered:

·    Were AI weapons used in the U.S. conflict with Iran? 

·    Is the use of autonomous AI weapons new?  

·    How could AI have been used by Iran to disrupt the U.S. operations against Iran?

·    The UN Secretary General proposed a ban on autonomous AI weapons. Will this help?

·    Is it easy to make killer robots? 

·    Will computers ever take over? Is Skynet from the "Terminator" movies possible with future AI?

·    How do high tech weapons win, shorten and prevent war?

·    What do we learn from history about the role of high technology like AI in warfare?

·    What is the history of opposition to high tech weapons? What is the reasoning here and why is it wrong?

·    What's the biggest danger from AI weapons?

·    What is the difference between autonomous and semi-autonomous weapons? Can we get by without using totally autonomous weapons?

"Marks makes a lucid and compelling case that we have a moral obligation to develop lethal AI," said Jay Richards, philosopher and author, The Human Ad-vantage: The Future of American Work in an Age of Smart Machines. "He also reminds us that moral questions apply, not to the tools that we use to protect ourselves, but to how we use them when war becomes a necessity."

Marks provocatively argues that the development of lethal AI is not only appropriate in today's society; it is unavoidable if America wants to survive and thrive into the future.

"I am an outlier in the sense I believe that AI will never be creative nor have understanding," said Marks. "Like fire and electricity, AI is neither good nor bad. Those writing AI code and using AI systems are solely responsible for the morality and the ethics of use."

About the Author: Dr. Marks directs the Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence at Discovery Institute, and he is a Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Baylor University. Marks also heads up the Center's daily news website, Mind Matters News and hosts the Mind Matters Podcast.