Image released by al Qaeda-linked group on January 6, 2008 purportedly shows Adam Gadahn.

Arsalan Iftikhar
AC360° Contributor
Founder, TheMuslimGuy.com

Holy jihad, Batman!

Did Al-Qaeda just officially offer condolences to innocent civilians murdered by their stupid acts of terrorism?

Well, sort of…

According to CNN, Adam Gadahn- also known as ‘Azzam the American’- appeared in a 17-minute video released on Islamist online forums late Friday, offering condolences to the families of innocent people killed in Al-Qaeda attacks.

“We express our condolences to the families of the Muslim men, women and children killed in these criminal acts…” he says in the video.

Wait a minute. Did a member of Al-Qaeda just admit that their acts of terrorism are ‘criminal acts’?

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Arsalan Iftikhar
AC360° Contributor
Founder, TheMuslimGuy.com

Dude…You have got to be kidding me…

With the recent arrest of five young American Muslims in Sargodha, Pakistan on alleged charges of terrorism by Pakistani authorities, many of the over 7 million American Muslims were collectively groaning and rolling our eyes whilst saying:

“Are you kidding me? Thanks a lot, you idiots…”

A recent CNN article noted that the potential radicalization of American Muslim teenagers has now become known as “jihadi cool,” a term coined by author/psychiatrist (and former CIA official) Dr. Marc Sageman.

“The path for a lot of these kids is essentially like at-risk gangbangers, who want to ’stand up’ for their community, to address grievances of the global Muslim community more effectively than they’ve seen the elder generation address them since 9/11.”

Many professional ‘de-radicalizers’ have said that the great majority of these young men have little sense of what they are doing. They are “extremely shallow theologically and even ideologically.”

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Arsalan Iftikhar
AC360° Contributor
Founder, TheMuslimGuy.com

Arsalan Iftikhar
AC360° Contributor
Founder, TheMuslimGuy.com

Most of the world's 1.57 billion Muslims know that the Holy Quran states quite clearly that, "Anyone who kills a human being ... it shall be as though he has killed all of mankind. ... If anyone saves a life, it shall be as though he has saved the lives of all of mankind."

Accordingly, it should come as little surprise to any reasonable observer that when Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan recently committed his shocking acts of mass murder at Fort Hood, Texas, America's Muslim community of over 7 million felt an added sense of horror and sadness at this senseless attack against the brave men and women of the U.S. armed forces.

True to form, many conservative media pundits wasted little time in pointing to reports that Hasan had said "Allahu Akbar" (Arabic for "God is great") at the start of his murderous rampage. News coverage continuously showed the looping convenience store black-and-white videotape footage of Hasan wearing traditional white Islamic garb.

First of all, someone simply saying "Allahu Akbar" while committing an act of mass murder no more makes their criminal act "Islamic" than a Christian uttering the "Hail Mary" while murdering an abortion medical provider, or someone chanting "Onward, Christian Soldiers" while bombing a gay nightclub, would make their act "Christian" in nature.

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Soldiers gather outside of Fort Hood.

Arsalan Iftikhar
AC360° Contributor
Founder, TheMuslimGuy.com

First of all, as an American, my heart broke into two pieces tonight when I heard of the tragic mass murder at Fort Hood, Texas earlier this evening when a U.S. Army soldier opened fire on a military processing center at Fort Hood in Texas on Thursday; killing at least 12 people and wounding at least 31 others, according to Army officials in a report to CNN.

Secondly, as a Muslim, my heart further broke into another two pieces when it was learned that the Fort Hood shooter was a Muslim mental health care professional medical doctor who (similar to the April 16, 2007 Virginia Tech massacre) used two handguns during his mass murder rampage.

Thus, with my heart currently broken into four distinct pieces right now, needless to say, I am completely speechless (and bumfuzzled) by this latest tragedy at Fort Hood.

According to CNN, the gunman (who was apparently captured alive by emergency personnel) was later identified as U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39.

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Doha, Qatar: A city skyline awash with cranes and towers powered by abundant oil and gas supplies.

Arsalan Iftikhar, creator of themuslimguy.com
CNN

From The Matrix to the Lord of the Rings to….a $150 million Hollywood biopic film about the Prophet Muhammad?

Yup, you read it correctly…

As reported recently by The Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom, “[Academy Award-winning] producer Barrie Osborne cast Keanu Reeves as the messiah in The Matrix and helped defeat the dark lord Sauron in his record-breaking Lord of the Rings trilogy. Now the Oscar-winning American film-maker is set to embark on his most perilous quest to date: making a big-screen biopic of the prophet Muhammad.”

With a whopping estimated budget of around $150 million, the blockbuster film will chart Muhammad’s life and examine his teachings.

Mr. Osborne recently told Reuters that he envisions the movie as “an international epic production aimed at bridging cultures. The film will educate people about the true meaning of Islam.”

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General Stanley McChrystal will reportedly be getting an additional 18,000 troops for the war in Afghanistan.

Arsalan Iftikhar
AC360° Contributor
Founder, TheMuslimGuy.com

Afghan Strategy to focus on major population centers: report.

According to The New York Times, the White House is settling on an Afghan strategy that would send more US troops to protect top population centers, recognizing that the insurgency cannot be completely eradicated from the country, the newspaper said late Tuesday evening.

It described the strategy as a blend of rival proposals put forward by Vice President Joe Biden and by the top military commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal.

“We are no longer thinking about just destroying the enemy in a conventional way,” an unidentified senior military officer told the newspaper, saying that the central tenet of McChrystal’s proposal would be adopted.

Well, it looks as though General Stanley McChrystal will be getting approximately 18,000 (of the 40,000 requested) additional troops that he seeks for the Afghanistan theater of war, according to a recent story in The New York Times.

It should come as little surprise to foreign policy observers that the Obama White House would take a middle ground approach between General McChrystal’s ‘full-court-press’ and Vice President Joe Biden’s ’spread defense’ strategies within Afghanistan.

The bottom line: It seems as though it will be ‘McChrystal in the city’ and ‘Biden in the country’…

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Ruhal Ahmed, left, shown at a 2007 news conference, says he had to listen to hours of music at Guantanamo.

Arsalan Iftikhar, creator of themuslimguy.com
CNN

In addition to the mighty Pearl Jam (led by legendary front-man Eddie Vedder) and the uber-hipster timeless classics known as REM (led by equally-legendary Michael Stipe), several prominent musicians from around are rallying together to ensure that their music is not being used to torture at Gitmo’s Camp X-Ray and that our American government lives up to its promise of closing the infamous lawless prison known around the world simply as ‘Guantanamo Bay’.

Additionally, Trent Reznor (of Nine Inch Nails) and Tom Morello (Grammy-winning musiciain formerly of Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave) whose music with the bands Nine Inch Nails and Rage Against The Machine have “already been linked to interrogations at the prison”, according to previously released government records.

“Guantanamo is known around the world as one of the places where human beings have been tortured — from waterboarding to stripping, hooding and forcing detainees into humiliating sexual acts — playing music for 72 hours in a row at volumes just below that to shatter the eardrums,” said Tom Morello, formerly of Audioslave and Rage Against The Machine.

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RZA, left, and Method Man, right, of the Wu-Tang Clan.

Arsalan Iftikhar
AC360° Contributor
Founder, TheMuslimGuy.com

“Cash Rules Everything Around Me/C.R.E.A.M./Get the money/Dollar, Dollar bill, y’all…”

Thus begins the legendary lyrics of C.R.E.A.M. by the Wu-Tang Clan, one of the greatest collective lyrical syndicates in the entire history of hip-hop.

Led by Robert ‘RZA’ Diggs (pronounced ‘Riz-za’), Clifford Smith (known better by his nom de guerre Method Man), Raekwon, GZA (pronounced ‘Jiz-za’…Yes, Jizza), Ghostface Killah, U-God, Inspectah Deck, Masta Killa and (the late) Ol’ Dirty Bastard (better known as ODB), the Wu-Tang Clan has successfully launched into the hip-hop stratosphere by taking their respective lyrical games from the projects of Staten Island to the hallowed corridors of Hollywood over the years.

From their 1993 debut album Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) to Robert ‘RZA’ Diggs most recent Hollywood foray in Adam Sandler’s 2009 movie Funny People, the syndicate MCs of Wu-Tang have successfully expanded their influence from the hip-hop world to Hollywood movies and now even literature.

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Shirin Ebadi, a civil rights leader in Iran, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003.

Arsalan Iftikhar
AC360° Contributor
Founder, TheMuslimGuy.com

When TIME Magazine named 2003 Nobel Peace Prize Winner Dr. Shirin Ebadi as one of their 2004 ‘TIME 100 Most Influential People in the World’, they rightfully noted that Dr. Ebadi was indeed “a woman of steel” and a human rights champion with “a heart of gold”.

On October 10, 2003, Dr. Shrin Ebadi became the first Muslim woman (and first Iranian citizen) to be awarded the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway. In giving her the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize, the committee members in Oslo noted her special dedication for “the rights of women and children” around the world.

Furthermore, the Nobel committee noted that Dr. Ebadi “has consistently supported non-violence” and as opposed to military armed conflict, she also “favors enlightenment and dialogue as the best path to changing attitudes and resolving conflict” around the world.

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Arsalan Iftikhar

True/Slant

It is now official…President Barack Obama has won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

On behalf of our shared hometown of Chicago, this is even better than being awarded the 2016 Summer Olympics game.

Hey, Rio de Janeiro….You can have the Olympic games, because America has just won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize after getting the final official nod from the boys and girls in Oslo.

In a surprising moment that will certainly increase his political capital domestically and abroad, the choice of President Obama was quite surprising because President Obama “took office less than two (2) weeks before the February 1, 2009 nomination deadline.”

Many global observers said that Obama’s name had been mentioned in speculation before the award, but many Nobel watchers believed it was too early to award the president.

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Saudi Arabia's Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, head of counterterrorism, was slightly injured in August.

Arsalan Iftikhar
AC360° Contributor
Founder, TheMuslimGuy.com

In the most recently ‘absurd’ story on terrorism that I have heard in quite a long time, the would-be assassin of Saudi Arabia’s Prince Mohammed bin Nayef (head of Saudi Arabia’s counterterrorism efforts) apparently decided to hide his bomb in his underwear, apparently believing that cultural taboos would prevent a search in that part of his body, according to a Saudi government official close to the investigation.

According to CNN, the prince was slightly injured when the bomb exploded in the August 2009 attack a few months ago. Several news reports this week have said that the assailant had hidden the bomb inside of his own RECTUM, but according to the Saudi official, the government assessment discounted those reports, based on various factors.

Even so…Are you serious?

Terrorists are now literally sticking bombs up their own asses to blow people up?

Wow…

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Arsalan Iftikhar | BIO
AC360° Contributor
Founder, TheMuslimGuy.com

The United Nations this week hosted two of the world's most notorious dictatorial clowns.

The world body gave a prominent forum to Col. Moammar Gadhafi of Libya and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, who preside over repressive regimes dominating the nearly 73 million helpless people of Libya and Iran.

In his rambling and nonsensical 96-minute tirade at the podium of the General Assembly, Gadhafi deemed it wise to use this opportunity to call the H1N1 flu virus a "military tool," refer to the U.N. Security Council as the "terrorist council" and spew other absurdly ridiculous conspiracy theories.

Not to be outdone, Ahmadinejad stuck to his usual ridiculous script of railing against the United States and Israel for all of the world's woes during his U.N. speech that shed no new light on the Iranian state's nuclear strategy.

Several delegations, including that of the United States, walked out of the hall in protest during Ahmadinejad's speech. The speech drew little reaction from U.N. delegates.

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Arsalan Iftikhar | BIO
AC360° Contributor
Founder, TheMuslimGuy.com

According to a recent September 2009 study completed by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, nearly six-in-ten American adults (58 percent) say “that Muslims are subject to a lot of discrimination in the United States; far more than say the same about Jews, evangelical Christians, atheists or Mormons…”

In fact, of all the minority demographic groups discussed in the September 2009 Pew Forum study, only “gays and lesbians are seen as facing more discrimination in America than Muslims”, with nearly two-thirds (64%) of the American public saying there is a lot of discrimination against homosexuals in the United States today.

Some of the other key results below from the September 2009 Pew Forum Study revolve around average Americans asked to finish this statement “There is a lot of discrimination against…”

According to the Pew Forum study, the top 5 responses were (in descending order):

- Gays and lesbians (64%)
- Muslims (58%)
- Hispanics (52%)
- Blacks (49%) and
- Women (37%)

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