Ryan Shares Vision for Tax Reform, Pledges Action in 2017

/0 Comments/in , /by

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., promised that “transformational” tax reform will be accomplished in 2017 during an address Tuesday.

“Once in a generation or so, there is an opportunity to do something transformational—something that will have a truly lasting impact long after we are gone,” Ryan said at the 2017 Manufacturing Summit in Washington, D.C. “Ladies and gentlemen, we are going to fix this nation’s tax code once and for all.”

The tax code, Ryan said, has evolved over the years and become needlessly complicated.

“As the world changed, our tax code has remained stuck in neutral,” Ryan said. “It has ballooned to 70,000 pages of rules and regulations that few people today actually understand. There is an old line about this: Our tax code is about five times as long as the Bible, but with none of the good news.”

Ryan said tax reform, an effort led by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, will include elimination of the death tax and alternative minimum tax, which will “ensure that profitable corporations pay at least some federal income tax,” Ryan said.

The alternative minimum tax is a “complicated parallel tax system that was designed to ensure some tax is paid but instead just adds additional complexity to an already burdensome system,” Heritage Foundation policy analyst Adam Michel told The Daily Signal in an email.

The House Republicans’ blueprint for tax reform gets rid of both the individual and corporate alternative minimum tax, Michel said.

Tax reform will also include changes for tax deductions, Ryan said.

“We will clear out special interest carve-outs and excessive deductions, and focus on keeping those that make the most sense: home ownership, charitable giving, and retirement savings,” Ryan said.

Tax reform will also entail reducing the number of tax brackets, Ryan said.

“We will consolidate the existing seven brackets into three, double the standard deduction, and simplify things to the point that you can do your taxes on a form the size of a postcard,” Ryan said. “Wouldn’t that be nice?”

Ryan also called for “slashing our corporate tax rate [to a rate] as low as possible.”

This will include, Ryan said, doing away with special-interest “carve-outs,” and exchanging them with lower tax rates for businesses.

These changes must be lasting, Ryan said.

“There is one last piece to this puzzle, and it goes back to the idea that all of this is about looking down the road, and planning for the future,” Ryan said. “These reforms—these tax cuts—they need to be permanent.”

Vice President Mike Pence also addressed the attendees at the Manufacturing Summit, where he highlighted President Donald Trump’s dedication to regulatory reform.

“In the first 100 days of this administration, I am proud to say that President Trump signed 14 bills under the Congressional Review Act to cut burdensome regulations, saving businesses like yours up to $18 billion dollars in compliance costs per year,” Pence said.

Passed in 1996 in concert with the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act and then-Speaker Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America reform agenda, the Congressional Review Act is what the Congressional Research Service calls “an oversight tool that Congress may use to overturn a rule issued by a federal agency.”

Trump will also be unrelenting in support of the American worker, Pence said.

“American manufacturers have not been this optimistic in 20 years,” Pence said, adding:

Confidence is back, manufacturing is back because since Day One of this administration, President Donald Trump has been fighting for manufacturers and the men and women who work on your factory floors and he’ll keep fighting every day to lead an American manufacturing renaissance. I promise you that.

Michel, Heritage’s tax policy expert, was heartened by Ryan’s resolve to deliver on tax reform.

“It was a great outline for tax reform,” Michel said. “He articulated the dire need for reform and how updating the tax code can help all Americans. I was encouraged that the speaker is still committed to getting tax reform done this year.” (For more from the author of “Ryan Shares Vision for Tax Reform, Pledges Action in 2017” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Heavily Funded Democrat Falls Short as Georgia House Seat Stays Republican

/0 Comments/in , /by

Republican Karen Handel soundly defeated Democrat Jon Ossoff in Tuesday’s closely watched, historically expensive race for the congressional seat once held by GOP superstar Newt Gingrich.

Handel, 55, a businesswoman who was Georgia’s secretary of state, had 127,021 votes or 53 percent with 99 percent of precincts reporting.

Ossoff, 30, a documentary filmmaker and former congressional aide who does not live in the House district, had 114,390 votes or 47 percent.

Polls had the race going down to the wire.

“It was going to require all hands on deck, which is exactly what we had,” Handel told a jubilant victory party at 10:39 p.m., thanking President Donald Trump for his support.

Five months into Trump’s presidency, pundits cast the race in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District as a referendum on his administration and a bellwether for the balance of power in Congress nearly a year and a half before the midterm elections.

Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton in the district by under 2 percentage points in November even though the previous incumbent, Republican Tom Price, won re-election to the seat with about 60 percent of the vote.

The race between Ossoff and Handel is the most expensive House race ever, CBS News reported, with fundraising exceeding $50 million.

By the end of May, Handel and Ossoff had spent $3.2 million and $22.5 million, respectively, according to campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission, ABC News reported.

“This is a huge win for conservatives,” Cole Muzio, president of the Family Policy Alliance of Georgia, told The Daily Signal in an email. “A record-setting fundraising haul, busloads of out-of-state volunteers, and national unity around Jon Ossoff could not convince Georgians to vote against their own interests.”

The seat opened in February when the Senate confirmed Price as Trump’s secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Handel beat 10 other Republican candidates in the April 18 “jungle primary” with 20 percent of the vote, setting up the Tuesday runoff with top vote-getter Ossoff, who rolled up 48 percent as one of five Democrats in the race.

Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, and House Speaker Paul Ryan all backed Handel in the runoff.

She thanked all of them, as well as House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., hospitalized in serious condition six days after being shot by a man with a rifle and handgun who targeted Republican lawmakers at a baseball practice just outside Washington.

The president tweeted at 10:41 p.m.:

Republicans have held the seat for nearly 40 years, since Gingrich, later speaker of the House, first won it in 1978.

Ossoff’s platform included Democrat touchstones such as defending health care reform, civil rights, environmental protection, and Planned Parenthood.

Handel campaigned on repealing and replacing Obamacare, supporting the pro-life cause, and achieving “a simpler, fairer, tax code that promotes economic growth” as well as “securing our borders.”

Another special election Tuesday actually turned out to be closer as South Carolina voters filled the House seat previously held by Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, who Trump nominated to the post in December.

With 97 percent of precincts reporting, Republican Ralph Norman defeated Democrat Archie Parnell, 51 percent to 48 percent, in the 5th Congressional District. Norman’s margin was about 2,700 votes out of more than 83,000 ballots cast, Fox News reported.

Trump tweeted:

Norman, 64, previously was president of the York County Board of Realtors and served in South Carolina’s House of Representatives for 11 years. Parnell, 66, was a tax attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice and for the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee under Democrats’ leadership.

“It’s time to govern, it’s time to get things done, it’s time to go to work,” Norman said in his victory speech.

In Georgia, Handel was deputy chief of staff to Gov. Sonny Perdue and chairman of the Fulton County Board of Supervisors before running successfully for secretary of state and serving from 2007 to 2010.

She came to the attention of conservatives across the country in 2012, when she quit as senior vice president of public policy at Susan G. Komen for the Cure. She did so after the breast cancer charity reversed its decision to stop funding Planned Parenthood, a reversal she opposed.

“In a district that Donald Trump won by 1 [percentage] point, Karen Handel managed a strong victory and pushed back against the onslaught of Pelosi-Planned Parenthood money that poured into the district,” Muzio of the Family Police Alliance told The Daily Signal, adding:

After a disciplined campaign in the first round, Ossoff showed his true colors in the runoff when he attacked Karen Handel for opposing Planned Parenthood funding. There will be a number of narratives that come from this result, and the significance of this runoff will almost certainly be overstated. But, make no mistake about it, this was a win for conservatives.

Republicans previously won special congressional elections in Kansas and Montana.

Republicans previously won special congressional elections in Kansas and Montana.

“Democrats literally bet the House on a win here, and this defeat will certainly leave their base utterly demoralized ahead of 2018,” Muzio said.

Georgia’s 6th District includes northern suburbs of Atlanta and parts of Cobb, Fulton, and Dekalb counties.

Ossoff was a national security staffer and aide to Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., for five years. He grew up in the area, but does not currently reside in the 6th District, as The Washington Post reported.

During an interview Tuesday on MSNBC, Ossoff told Stephanie Ruhle that his living outside the district did not matter to voters, and that he had not considered moving.

“Well, if voters were raising that as a serious concern, Steph, maybe I would,” Ossoff said, adding:

But voters care about how policy and how representation is going to impact their daily lives. They know I grew up in this community, they know I grew up in the 6th District, they know why I’m a couple of miles south of the line. It’s not a major issue in the race.

Handel was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in the Maryland suburb of Upper Marlboro.

Trump raised some eyebrows with this effusive tweet this morning, which some pundits predicted could hurt Handel:

Four hours later, the hospitalized Scalise tweeted:

Dan Holler, spokesman for Heritage Action for America, the lobbying affiliate of The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Signal in an email that Handel’s win is good news for the Republican Party.

“Despite tens of millions of dollars flowing into the race—a level of funding that cannot be replicated in every midterm race—Republicans managed to hold on,” Holler said, adding:

It would be a mistake to view this as a sign of confidence in the national party, though. The slow legislative pace and the absence of a bold governing agenda is dampening Republican enthusiasm, and absent conservative policy victories, that may continue heading into 2018.

Benita Dodd, vice president of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, a nonpartisan research organization, told The Daily Signal in an email that the state’s 6th District race was largely civil despite what many partisans saw as high stakes.

“The most encouraging part of the 6th District runoff, the most expensive congressional election in U.S. history, is that it managed to stay mostly civil in an increasingly hostile political arena,” Dodd said, adding:

That said, Jon Ossoff’s campaign waged a sophisticated, successful ‘Wag the Dog’ operation: It began with a 30-year-old unknown, a Democrat who had never held office and doesn’t even live in the 6th District. With funding largely from campaign donations outside the state, he was portrayed as a palatable and viable challenger to Karen Handel, a well-known, respected, and successful GOP veteran and resident of the reliably Republican district.

The spending points to what’s to come in the midterms and beyond, she said:

This costly effort is portentous of the direction of future campaigns. It’s ominous, given the attention span of many voters in a 140-characters-or-less era, that campaign rhetoric can be so easily manipulated. As for the overwhelming cost, it’s an unpleasant downside that early voting ratchets up the cost of political campaigns.

(For more from the author of “Heavily Funded Democrat Falls Short as Georgia House Seat Stays Republican” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Ukrainian President Credits US Help in Defense Against Russia

/0 Comments/in , /by

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said the United States has been a “co-sponsor of this story of success” in helping his country fight for freedom against Russian aggression, as he sat with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office Tuesday.

Trump and national security adviser H.R. McMaster had a “drop-in” of a White House late morning meeting between Poroshenko and Vice President Mike Pence.

Ahead of the meeting, the Treasury Department announced sanctions against 38 individuals and organizations that U.S. authorities determined had helped Russia in its annexation of the Crimean Peninsula.

“We’re really fighting for freedom and democracy,” Poroshenko said in front of reporters in the Oval Office after the private meeting, according to the press pool report.

The Ukrainian leader talked about U.S. support for security and defense of his country of 45 million people.

“I’m absolutely confident that today is a story of success and I’m proud to have you, Mr. President, and the United States as the co-sponsor of this story of success,” he said.

Critics have accused Trump of being overly sympathetic with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime and slow to denounce the invasion. Trump has said he wants Russia’s help in combatting the Islamic State, a Sunni terrorist group.

Trump spoke broadly during his comments with Poroshenko.

“It’s a great honor to be with President Poroshenko of the Ukraine, a place that we’ve all been very much involved in and we’ve been seeing it and everybody’s been reading about it,” Trump said. “And we’ve had some very, very good discussions. It’s going to continue throughout the day and I think a lot of progress has been made.”

The official White House readout of the meeting said Trump and Poroshenko “discussed support for the peaceful resolution to the conflict in eastern Ukraine and President Poroshenko’s reform agenda and anti-corruption efforts.”

Regarding the new sanctions, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was more direct.

“These designations will maintain pressure on Russia to work toward a diplomatic solution,” Mnuchin said in a statement. “This administration is committed to a diplomatic process that guarantees Ukrainian sovereignty, and there should be no sanctions relief until Russia meets its obligations under the Minsk agreements.”

In 2014, Russia invaded the Crimean Peninsula, and working with pro-Russian separatist militias in Ukraine, annexed the region. The conflict began after Kremlin-backed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was rejected by the public. The conflict has led to more than 10,000 deaths, 23,000 wounded, and 1.8 million displaced.

During the public appearance, Trump also addressed the death of American Otto Warmbier, who was imprisoned in North Korea. Warmbier died Monday shortly after returning home in a coma. Trump seemed to lay some blame on the Obama administration for not resolving the matter sooner.

“It’s a disgrace what happened to Otto. It’s a total disgrace what happened to Otto. It should never, ever be allowed to happen,” Trump said. “And frankly, if he were brought home sooner, I think the results would have been a lot different. He should have brought home that same day. The results would have been a lot different. What happened to Otto is a disgrace.” (For more from the author of “Ukrainian President Credits US Help in Defense Against Russia” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Japan Investigates Delay in Reporting US Navy Ship Collision; Other Mysterious Circumstances Abound

/0 Comments/in , , /by

By Mari Yamaguchi. Japan’s coast guard is investigating why it took nearly an hour for a deadly collision between a U.S. Navy destroyer and a container ship to be reported.

A coast guard official said Monday they are trying to find out what the crew of the Philippine-flagged ACX Crystal was doing before reporting the collision off Japan’s coast to authorities 50 minutes later.

The ACX Crystal collided with the USS Fitzgerald off Japan’s coast, killing seven of the destroyer’s crew of nearly 300. The ships collided early Saturday morning, when the Navy said most of the 300 sailors on board would have been sleeping. Authorities have declined to speculate on a cause while the crash remains under investigation. (Read more from “Japan Investigates Delay in Reporting US Navy Ship Collision” HERE)
_______________________

As Japan Investigates, Other Contradictions Emerge

By Zachary Cohen.

[A]fter interviewing the ACX Crystal’s crew, the Japanese coast guard revised its crash time estimate to 1:30 a.m. [But t]he US 7th Fleet is maintaining that the collision occurred at 2:20 a.m. — and both US and Japanese officials have declined to explain why there is a discrepancy regarding timing.

Timing will play a critical role in determining exactly how the collision happened, particularly as the shipping data from Marinetraffic.com appears to indicate that the ACX Crystal made a sharp right turn at close to 1:30 am — the time that the Japanese coast guard said the crash occurred.

On Sunday, Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin, commander of the US 7th Fleet, would not speculate on how the accident occurred, but said there would be multiple investigations into the collision, including one by the Navy’s Judge Advocate General and one by the US Coast Guard.

Other investigations could come from the Japanese and Philippine authorities, because of where the accident took place and the Philippine registration of the container ship. (Read more from Japan Investigates Delay, Other Contradictions Abound, HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Hundreds of Pedophiles Arrested in Nationwide Sting Operation Involving Dozens of Law Enforcement Agencies

/0 Comments/in , , /by

By Patch. Nearly 200 suspected child predators across the Southland have been arrested as part of a massive two-month, multi-agency investigation of internet crimes against children, authorities announced Friday.

Police conducted thousands of investigations and raided hundreds of homes across Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange County and the Inland Empire, culminating in some high-profile arrests. As of Friday, 186 suspected child predators were arrested as part of “Operation Broken Heart IV,” a nationwide law enforcement effort, according to the Los Angeles Police Department . . .

Members of the task force conducted almost 1,400 investigations and served nearly 400 search warrants. (Read more from “Hundreds of Pedophiles Arrested in Nationwide Sting Operation Involving Dozens of Law Enforcement Agencies” HERE)

_________________________________________________

51 Louisianans Arrested on Child Exploitation Charges

By Associated Press. Louisiana law enforcement officials say they arrested 51 people on child exploitation charges this spring as part of an annual nationwide crackdown . . .

Officials say there were more than 1,000 arrests made across the country as part of the operation, which was conducted in April and May. More than 150 Louisiana law enforcement agencies participated in the initiative. (Read more from “51 Louisianans Arrested on Child Exploitation Charges” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Senate Bill: Travelers Must Register Cash and Digital Amounts Over $10K or Face 10 Years in Prison and Full Asset Seizure

/0 Comments/in , , /by

A new bill seeks to track your money and assets incessantly, will enjoin any business with government ties to act as a de facto arm of DHS, and would steal all of your assets — including Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies — should you fail to report funds when traveling with over $10,000.

Under the guise of combating money laundering, Senate Bill 1241, “Combating Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, and Counterfeiting Act of 2017,” ramps up regulation of digital currency and imposes other autocratic financial controls in an attempt to ensure none of your assets can escape one of the State’s most nefarious, despised powers: civil asset forfeiture.

All of this under the farcically broad umbrella of fighting terrorism.

Civil forfeiture grants the government robbery writ large: your cash, property, and assets can be stolen completely sans due process, your guilt — frequently pertaining to drug ‘crimes’ — matters not.

A court verdict of not guilty doesn’t even guarantee the return of State-thefted property.

In fact, the government can seize virtually whatever it wants if it so much as suspects some of your assets might have been acquired through or used in the commission of even lesser crimes.

For some time, a war on cash has been brewing behind the closed doors of government, and — although officials prefer to claim counterfeiting, terrorism, and money laundering as the impetus for asset tracking — in actuality, physical currency facilitates black market and untaxed transactions, and, most imperatively to the U.S., cannot be thefted under civil asset forfeiture laws as easily as money exchanged digitally.

Characterized as an effort to “to improve the prohibitions on money laundering, and for other purposes,” the bill severely curtails the right to travel freely, without undue hindrance, as travelers with more than $10,000 in assets — including those held digitally, like Bitcoin — must file a report with the U.S. government.

Noncompliance with the tyrannical law — including failing to fill out the aforementioned form — would incur penalties befitting a fascist dictatorship: an individual could find the entirety of their assets seized, not just those unreported, and could be locked in a prison cage for up to ten years.

To be clear, the State wants to write a permission slip to seize all of your assets — bank accounts, including, specifically, “safety deposit boxes,” prepaid cards, gift cards, prepaid phones, prepaid coupons, cryptocurrencies, all of it — even for being remiss in reporting what you’re traveling with.

Considering one’s digital assets veritably follow wherever that travel takes them, a cryptocurrency portfolio would theoretically have to be reported each time that person travels outside the confines of the U.S.

Of course, the legislation in actuality just amends laws pertaining to assets and travel already considered dictatorial — right now, failure to fill out the form carries not just the penalty of seizure, but a sentence of up to five years behind bars.

“And if that weren’t enough, this bill also gives them with new authority to engage in surveillance and wiretapping (including phone, email, etc.) if they have even a hint of suspicion that you might be transporting excess ‘monetary instruments,’” Simon Black of SovereignMan.com reports.

“Usually wiretapping authority is reserved for major crimes like kidnapping, human trafficking, felony fraud, etc.

“Now we can add cash to that list.”

But it wouldn’t just be the government hawkishly surveilling your every transaction, as, essentially, all retailers would be roped into becoming State spies — any business selling gift or prepaid cards would be required to report those, too.

Worse — and in defiance of current structures pertaining to digital currency — the government wishes to somehow require issuers of cryptocurrencies into its abhorrent, ostensible money-laundering police spy ring.

According to the legislation, reports Smaulgold.com, the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection must, within 18 months of the legislation’s passage, devise a “border protection strategy to interdict and detect prepaid access devices, digital currencies, or other similar instruments, at border crossings and other ports of entry for the United States, including an assessment of infrastructure needed [emphasis added] to carry out the strategy […]

“The obligation to declare amounts in any form over $10,000 exists, irrespective of whether custom officials have a way of detecting such holdings. Since digital currencies technically travel with the holder [wherever] the holder goes, one would have to declare one’s entire crypto portfolio each time the holder entered the U.S.”

Travelers possessing assets, precious metals, and accounts in excess of $10,000 held outside the United States, however, would not be required to declare those to the government — perhaps leaving an albeit sketchy option for those wary of unscrupulous authorities.

While the government insists ‘If you’ve got nothing to hide, you’ve got nothing to fear,’ the Combating Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, and Counterfeiting Act of 2017 proves you might not be able to hide anything from its greedy clutches — and if you try, you could wind up thrown in a cage for a decade, penniless upon release.

Welcome to America, where your assets are literally the government’s business, and freedom is anything but free. (For more from the author of “Senate Bill: Travelers Must Register Cash and Digital Amounts Over $10K or Face 10 Years in Prison and Full Asset Seizure” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

HGTV Benham Bros. Agree, Bloodshed Is Coming to America

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Bloodshed is coming to America, and it won’t be a response to oppression but the result of aggression – against God and our constitutional form of government.

The increasingly violent acts in our streets, town-hall meetings and university campuses are simply birth pangs for a greater upheaval that’s brewing hot – and it’s not by accident.

Although the narrative is that street protests and student uprisings are simply a response to Trump as president or guest speakers with conservative values, the truth is they are coordinated attacks resulting from a subversive anti-God, anti-American ideology that has indoctrinated our universities for more than 50 years . . .

Today, we are beginning to languish as a nation – and it’s high time we turn back to God . . .

Just as bloodshed is the result of turning away from God, liberty and freedom are His response when we turn back to Him. Let’s pray for this today. (Read more from “Bloodshed Is Coming to America” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Otto Warmbier Dead: Trump Condemns ‘Brutal’ North Korea Regime

/0 Comments/in , /by

President Trump slammed North Korea’s “brutal regime” Monday after the death of college student Otto Warmbier, who was released by the communist nation in a coma last week.

“Lot of bad things happened,” Trump said during a White House meeting with technology CEOs, “but at least we got him home to be with his parents.”

“It’s a brutal regime,” Trump went on, “and we’ll be able to handle it.”

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the United States held North Korea accountable for Warmbier’s “unjust imprisonment” and demanded that the country release three other Americans it is holding prisoner for alleged crimes against the state. The U.S. government has previously accused North Korea of using such detainees as political pawns. (Read more from “Otto Warmbier Dead: Trump Condemns ‘Brutal’ North Korea Regime” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Bill De Blasio’s Astonishing Hypocrisy in One Cringe-Worthy Photo

/0 Comments/in , , /by

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio was responsible for an astonishing display of transparent hypocrisy, during a rally Monday against state Republican plans to increase the number of charter schools in New York City.

On June 30, mayoral control over city schools expires, reverting control of city schools back to 32 community school boards. De Blasio claims that if he loses control of the school system, there will be chaos and widespread corruption.

State senate Republicans want to increase the number of charter schools in New York City and are refusing to extend the mayor’s control without legislation raising the cap on charter schools and approving tax breaks for individuals who make donations to public, private, and parochial schools. The Democratic majority in the state assembly opposes the measure, creating a stalemate.

Mayor de Blasio held a rally Monday accusing state Republicans of using children as “political pawns” and demanding that they back off the charter school initiative. Mayor de Blasio made his political point by bringing children on stage with him.

Yes, this actually happened.

This is shameful. Dishonorable. Cowardly. Dishonest. Ignoble. Repugnant, and a thousand other adjectives that invoke some sense of what a small-souled, pathetic cretin the current mayor of New York City is. (For more from the author of “Bill De Blasio’s Astonishing Hypocrisy in One Cringe-Worthy Photo” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

The ‘Imam of Peace’ Calls for a Police State. Is Tawhidi a Fraud?

/0 Comments/in , /by

A self-declared “Imam of Peace,” Imam Mohammad Tawhidi appears to have tricked many across the political spectrum into believing he is indeed seeking critical reform from within his religion.

The outspoken Imam has become a rising media darling, noted for his sensationalist claims, his willingness to condemn radical Islam, his calls for increased scrutiny of Salafi mosques, and his declaration that these acts are sanctioned by fundamentalist interpretations of the Koran.

He’s apparently received death threats, but has nonetheless persisted in speaking out about extremist strains within his religion.

Sounds good so far, right?

But as Tawhidi continues his meteoric rise, leaders within the Muslim Reform Movement have begun to notice that Tawhidi doesn’t seem to have any credentials, nor does he have much of a public record beyond last year.

Even more disturbing allegations have surfaced, alleging that he’s actually a Shiite Islamist who is making a concerted effort to persecute Sunni Muslims through extrajudicial means.

Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, a U.S. Navy veteran who has dedicated his life to reforming Islam, has declared Tawhidi a “radical of a different flavor.” In a piece for the Asia Times, Jasser notes that for all his tough talk on Sunni strains of Islam, Tawhidi does not say much about the radical Shiite movements inspired by Iran.

“His religious and educational programming originates in Bashar al-Assad’s Syria and radical Shia strains in Iraq and Iran,” Jasser writes.

Shireen Qudosi, another Muslim reformist, also shared her suspicions about the imam’s true intentions and ideology. Like Jasser, she suspects he could be a Shiite Islamist who is conning Westerners into promoting his ideology.

Chloe Patton, an expert on Australia’s Shiite community, warns Tawhidi subscribes to the radical ideology promulgated by the regime in Iran. “In Tawhidi’s black-and-white worldview, anything other than the Shia Twelver Islam that he follows is the terrorist ideology,” she writes.

And on Sunday, the mask finally came off — Tawhidi exposed his anti-Western ideals for the world to see.

The Iranian-Australian “Imam of Peace” openly advocated for a police state in his country of residency, writing the following tweets:

In one tweetstorm, the imam called for laws that would violate almost the entirety of the U.S. Bill of Rights.

It turns out, Mohammad Tawhidi is not the imam many have been waiting for. Instead, he appears to be a “one-trick contrarian” who may actually be an Islamist himself.

His response and calls to action may sound noble in highlighting the atrocities committed by fundamentalist Islamic radicals, as so few within the Muslim community are willing to speak openly and honestly about its problems and the need for reform.

Instead of seeking true reform, however, it appears Tawhidi is attempting to delegitimize opposition Islamist movements so that only his can thrive. (For more from the author of “The ‘Imam of Peace’ Calls for a Police State. Is Tawhidi a Fraud?” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.