To paraphrase Karl Marx — the alleged guiding light of at least one former Obama czar — there is a specter haunting the Obama administration — the specter of Islam.

Let’s hit a few highlights.

First, there was the manufactured outrage over use of Mr. Obama’s middle name: the allegation was that using the man’s name was a veiled accusation that he was secretly a Moslem — only to have him turn around and use his full name at his inauguration. Then, there was the bizarrely counter-factual claim by the President in June that America was one of the “largest Moslem countries in the world,”  a speech in which the ‘motivational-speaker in chief’ could not even get a greeting out without screwing up; as Andrew McCarthy noted:

In fact, even President Obama’s cordial greeting of “assalaamu alaykum” to his Egyptian audience conveys (no doubt unintentionally) something of basic Islamic intolerance. Under sharia (Islamic law), as Spencer explains, “a Muslim may only extend this greeting — Peace be upon you — to a fellow Muslim. To a non-Muslim he is to say, ‘Peace be upon those who are rightly guided,’ i.e., Peace be upon the Muslims.”

And, of course, there was the bizarre claim by Mr. Obama during Ramadan that the contribution of Moslems to the United States are “too long to catalog because Muslims are so interwoven into the fabric of our communities and our country.”

The latest ‘Moslem moment’ is brought to us by Dalia Mogahed, a member of the President's . Interviewed by phone on the Islam Channel in the UK for the program, “Muslimah Dilemma,” the President’s advisor explained that the Americans really don’t understand sharia law. According to the report at Telegraph.co.uk:

The White House adviser made the remarks on a London-based TV discussion programme hosted by Ibtihal Bsis, a member of the extremist Hizb ut Tahrir party.
The group believes in the non-violent destruction of Western democracy and the creation of an Islamic state under Sharia Law across the world.
Miss Mogahed appeared alongside Hizb ut Tahrir's national women's officer, Nazreen Nawaz.
During the 45-minute discussion, on the Islam Channel programme Muslimah Dilemma earlier this week, the two members of the group made repeated attacks on secular "man-made law" and the West's "lethal cocktail of liberty and capitalism."
They called for Sharia Law to be "the source of legislation" and said that women should not be "permitted to hold a position of leadership in government."
Miss Mogahed made no challenge to these demands and said that "promiscuity" and the "breakdown of traditional values" were what Muslims admired least about the West.

No matter how jaded to scandal we have all become under the last few administrations, the people Mr. Obama has gathered around himself continue to push the envelope. Although the Mogahed interview is almost too much to believe, a transcript of the entire program is available.

To site just a few portions, in context:

Ibtihal Bsis Ismail: I just wanted to ask you first actually. We often hear that the shari`ah, as discussed by the media, it raises issues especially in relation to women that are, that seem to symbolise oppression, injustice, gives them sort of second class citizenship, these are the things that come to mind. Why do you then feel that so many women in your survey, specifically, support shari`ah as the source of legislation for their countries in the Muslim world?
Dalia Mogahed (phone): I think that the reason that so many women support shari`ah is because they have a very different understanding of shari`ah than that of the common perception in western media that you just described. We asked Muslim women and men what they associate with shari`ah compliance. And we found that the majority of women around the world associate gender justice, or justice for women, with shari`ah compliance. Whereas only a small fraction associated oppression of women with with compliance with the shari`ah.

“Gender justice”? Tell that to the wife of Muzzammil Hassan, “moderate” Moslem, a prominent businessman from Buffalo, and founder of the Bridges TV channel, who was charged with beheading his wife in a honor killing after she filed divorce. Or, perhaps the millions of wives beaten by their husbands for their disobedience, in keeping with Sura 4, verse 34, can console themselves with the knowledge of the “gender justice” afforded to them by the pedophile Mohamed, who consummated his marriage to Aisha when she was nine years old. If this is their model of gender justice — the same Mohamed who had a poetest, Asma bint Marwan murdered for writing against him — then what would be gender “injustice”?

But the jaw-dropping wackiness on "Muslimah Dilemma" was just getting started:

Ibtihal Bsis Ismail: Ok, JazakAllah Kheir. Nazreen I mean it’s interesting what Dalia says because they do admire certain things although they look, they say we want shari`ah to be the source of legislation. But if shari`ah is the source of legislation, where does democracy come in?  Because democracy gives power to the people, whereas shari`ah gives power to Allah subhana wa ta’Allah. So where do we go from here?

Nazreen Nawaz replied, in part:

... But like you say, this issue of wholesale adoption of the democratic way of life, where parliament legislates, we can see this is at odds with the idea of wanting the shari`ah to legislate. We can see this idea contradicts itself. As to, in terms of what kind of values Muslim women do respect, other values, this idea of being able to vote, this idea of being able to be employed in society, have a certain amount of political rights. I think these are the things. What they see as being detrimental of adoption is I would say certain liberal values. Like the survey said that the thing that they least admired was the moral decay of society. Promiscuity, pornography and so on. I think living in the West we see some of the fruits of this idea of liberty and this idea of freedom, where people are free to have any relationship they want to. I believe that it's caused a lot of problems in the social structure, you have adultery, you have problems of teenage pregnancies. Big problem. Forty per cent of children in the UK are born out of marriage today. You have problems in terms of STI’s in the youth, all of these things.  And also in terms of the cocktail between capitalism and freedom, I think is a lethal one, where even women’s bodies have become, have been given a price tag today. I mean utilised in order to make money. And this is degrading to women. And it has had a knock on effect I think in terms of the way they are treated in society.

Here is a very clear window into the Islamic mind: promiscuity, pornography, prostitution are viewed as the fruit of the ‘lethal cocktail’ of  “capitalism and freedom,” rather than viewing them for what they are: part of the tragic consequence of man’s fall into sin, which can be found in every society throughout human history.

The specter of Islam is haunting the Obama administration, a specter summoned by the President himself. How have we come to the point when a presidential advisor can sit by, with apparent tacit agreement with unabashedly ‘anti-freedom’ Islamic ideology, and remain within the administration?

Every day that the President tolerates such an advocate of the system of sharia law to remain among his advisors further undermines whatever credibility he still retains. Mr. Obama took an oath: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Islamic radicals are making it pretty clear that they are opposed to such “man-made laws.”

Rt. Rev. James Heiser has served as Pastor of Salem Lutheran Church in Malone, Texas, while maintaining his responsibilities as publisher of Repristination Press, which he established in 1993 to publish academic and popular theological books to serve the Lutheran Church.  Heiser has also served since 2005 as the Dean of Missions for The Augustana Ministerium and in 2006 was called to serve as Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of North America (ELDoNA). An advocate of manned space exploration, Heiser serves on the Steering Committee of the Mars Society. His publications include two books; The Office of the Ministry in N. Hunnius' Epitome Credendorum (1996) and A Shining City on a Higher Hill: Christianity and the Next New World (2006), as well as dozens of journal articles and book reviews.

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DDW said:

The Arab nations Are the descendants of Ishmael, who was the bastard son of Abram (later renamed Abraham by God Himself) and the Egytpian woman Hagar, the handmaid of his wife Sarai (later renamed Sarah by God Himself). Genesis 16:12 (NASB) says: "And he will be a wild donkey of a man, his hand will be against everyone, and everyone's hand will be against him; and he will live to the east of all his brothers". Sounds pretty accurate to me.

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October 19, 2009
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RP said:

What if... What if there were a nation, somewhere in the world, which had no king or president or premier, no triumvirate or ruling counsel. This nation was ruled solely by laws contained in scriptures given the people by God. There was a series of judges, anointed by God, to judge the people and administer the laws contained in those scriptures. Now, let us imagine that the president of the United States appointed an advisor who voiced glowing approval for that nation and it's methods of governance. Imagine that the president himself praised that nation, commenting on how great and beneficial their influence was upon America, perhaps even emulating them in some ways. Would there be outrage expressed against that advisor, and even the president himself?

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October 19, 2009
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AmericanFreeman said:

	Let Islam be Islam It's none of our business, what they do or how they do it. America has enough problems of her own. If people want to get all up-in-arms about injustice, they should tackle the injustices of our government upon us. Let the rest of the world fight for their own causes and leave America out of it.
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October 19, 2009
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