Note:(This is for the person that told me Biden was not a friend of Iran)
When I first made that statement, "Biden, The-Iranian-Medal-Of Honor-Winner" it was not
an idle statement...I made the statement back in 2002 when I came across the article below. Don't accuse me of being disrespectful to a U.S. Senator when the headlines of the day point to the truth.
Further, Biden doesn't care about you because you don't have any money...the Iranians have lots of money and Biden follows the money.
Read the article and don't kill the messenger.
Biden buddies up to pro-Iran lobby: Lobbying groups supportive of the Tehran regime seem to have found a high-level friend in Washington: Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Joseph Biden
March 25, 2002 by K. Timmeran
Some might call it reaching out to American Muslims. But to many Iranians living in California, a fund-raiser for Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) at the home of a prominent pro-Iran lobbyist on Feb. 19 sent a wrongheaded message to the ruling clerics in Tehran.
"When we learned that Sen. Biden was planning to hold a fund-raiser at the California home of Dr. Sadegh Namazi-khah, we immediately contacted his office to express our dismay," a prominent Iranian-American activist tells INSIGHT. Why dismay? "Dr Namazi-khah is well-known in the Los Angeles area for his support of the ruling clerical regime in Tehran and is one of the regime's leading unofficial lobbyists in America. We thought that Sen. Biden might not know his background. Getting the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to appear at this event will certainly be seen by the regime in Tehran as a show of support."
On the eve of the fund-raiser, which brought an estimated $30,000 into Biden's re-election coffers, a Biden staffer told the activist that the senator's staff "had all the facts necessary to make a decision," and he was planning to attend the fund-raiser despite the protests.
Several participants who paid to attend the event tell INSIGHT that Biden arrived at 8 p.m., stayed until 11 and delivered a sweeping condemnation of President George W. Bush's "Axis of Evil" formula.
"He really impressed us by his grasp of world affairs," Namazi-khah tells INSIGHT in an interview. "He encouraged us to make our views known and to get more involved in American politics."
Biden also impressed many of those present with his friendly attitude toward the Islamic Republic of Iran. The senator said that "Iran always wanted to be an ally of the United States and to have good relations with the U.S.," according to Housang Dadgostar, a prominent lawyer. "As Iranian-Americans, we don't want anything to happen to the Iranian government or to the Iranian people as a result of this war on terrorism," says Mohsen Movaghar, a Los Angeles businessman. Both men belong to the 70-member board of directors of Namazi-khah's Iranian Muslim Association of North America (IMAN).
Namazi-khah denied any official contact with the Iranian government. But he tells INSIGHT that he regularly travels to Iran -- something many expatriates do -- and that he actively supports "moderates" within the ruling clergy, such as Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, in their efforts to bring reform to the Islamic system.
Namazi-khah and other IMAN board members say Biden's office contacted them to inquire if they would hold a private fund-raiser for the senator, who is up for re-election this year, after meeting with them at a pro-Tehran gala in New York last December. That event was sponsored by the American-Iranian Council (AIC), a pro-regime lobbying group trying to get Congress and the Bush administration to lift the trade embargo on Iran.
The AIC is funded by hefty contributions from Conoco and other U.S. oil companies seeking to get a piece of the potentially lucrative Iranian petrochemicals sector The oil companies are prevented from working in Iran by the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act (ILSA), which President Bill Clinton signed into law in 1996.
Namazi-khah acknowledges that he and other IMAN board members would like to see the U.S. sanctions lifted and that they worked actively with AIC and another antisanctions lobbying group known as the World Political Action Committee. However, he insists that IMAN is a "cultural and religious group, not a political group." Indeed, the group is registered in the state of California as a "church" and is exempt from financial disclosure. One IMAN board member says the group raises $300,000 to $400,000 per year from members. He insists that they take "no money from the government in Tehran." (Note from Norm: If you believe that last sentence, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell ya!)
California real-estate records show that the group purchased a building at 3376 Motor Ave. in Los Angeles in August 1995 for $925,000 and has spent hundreds of thousands more to build auditoriums and meeting rooms for religious services. It was unclear where the money for these projects originated.
One clue can be found in an official calendar circulated by the Iranian government for the Persian year 1379 (March 2000-March 2001), obtained by INSIGHT. The mission statement of the "General Office of Cultural Affairs of Iranians Outside the Country" which circulated the calendar, is to "promote policies of the government of the Islamic Republic [and] strive to be a bridge between the Iranian community abroad and inside the country." In addition to listing Iranian government Websites, the calendar cites IMAN as a pro-regime group.
"If they are lobbying on behalf of the Tehran government they are probably in violation of U.S. law," an FBI source who has prosecuted several related cases tells INSIGHT. But with high-level friends in Washington, IMAN may believe it has purchased immunity.
Norm Kurz, a spokesman for Biden, tells INSIGHT the Delaware Democrat never would meet knowingly with a group known to back a terrorist organization (Note from Norm: If you believe that, I've got some beach front property in Arizona that I'dlike to sell ya!) and that he makes the distinction between the Iranian people and the regime. Nevertheless, Kurz adds, Biden hopes a dialogue with Iran could be constructive
Former CBS News president Richard Salant (1961 - 64 and 1966 - 79) explained the major media's role: "Our job is to give people not what they want, but what we decide they ought to have." ...and to this very day most Americans haven't noticed they're being brained washed! ~ N. Hooben
Friday, December 7, 2007
Monday, December 3, 2007
Hello America. Are you listening?
17 October 2016 ~This video update tops all previous updates... This is a MUST SEE video and if you don't want to see it then you don't want to know the truth which puts you in the category of liars and deceivers...harsh words you say, NOT HARSH ENOUGH ! If after watching this video and you still want to vote for Hillary Clinton then you can kiss your country goodbye. I've been telling people about this (the goings on in the video) for years but I never had as clear a bit of evidence as shown here... After you're finished watching answer my question, "Do you believe me now?" ~ Norman E. Hooben
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↓And if you don 't believe me, how about if you heard it from a European? ↓
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Please note the date on the photo...I never published this before but I decided that the time has come...people
are either going to wake up or live and die in misery if this regime does not get out of the White House...soon !
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The latest video update was posted April 17, 2016
You will learn more in these 23 minutes about what is going on in the world than all the news you've ever read or listened to in the last 23 years combined! See the video at the bottom of this page!
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Updates: May 2015
This ↓ is powerful!
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Decision Time
By Susan MacAllenIn 1978-9 I was living and studying in Denmark . But in 1978 - even in Copenhagen, one didn't see Muslim immigrants. The Danish population embraced visitors, celebrated the exotic, went out of its way to protect each of its citizens. It was proud of its new brand of socialist liberalism - one in development since the conservatives had lost power in 1929 - a system where no worker had to struggle to survive, where one ultimately could count upon the state as in, perhaps, no other western nation at the time.
The rest of Europe saw the Scandinavians as free-thinking, progressive and infinitely generous in their welfare policies. Denmark boasted low crime rates, devotion to the environment, a superior educational system and a history of humanitarianism. Denmark was also most generous in its immigration policies - it offered the best welcome in Europe to the new immigrant: generous welfare payments from first arrival plus additional perks in transportation, housing and education. It was determined to set a world example for inclusiveness and multiculturalism.
How could it have predicted that one day in 2005 a series of political cartoons in a newspaper would spark violence that would leave dozens dead in the streets - all because its commitment to multiculturalism would come back to bite? By the 1990's the growing urban Muslim population was obvious - and its unwillingness to integrate into Danish society was obvious. Years of immigrants had settled into Muslim-exclusive enclaves.
As the Muslim leadership became more vocal about what they considered the decadence of Denmark 's liberal way of life, the Danes - once so welcoming - began to feel slighted. Many Danes had begun to see Islam as incompatible with their long-standing values: belief in personal liberty and free speech, in equality for women, in tolerance for other ethnic groups, and a deep pride in Danish heritage and history. The New York Post in 2002 ran an article by Daniel Pipes and Lars Hedegaard, in which they forecasted accurately that the growing immigrant problem in Denmark would explode. In the article they reported: "Muslim immigrants constitute 5 percent of the population but consume upwards of 40 percent of the welfare spending." "Muslims are only 4 percent of Denmark 's 5.4 million people but make up a majority of the country's convicted rapists, an especially combustible issue given that practically all the female victims are non-Muslim. Similar, if lesser, disproportions are found in other crimes." "Over time, as Muslim immigrants increase in numbers, they wish less to mix with the indigenous population. A recent survey finds that only 5 percent of young Muslim immigrants would readily marry a Dane." "Forced marriages - promising a newborn daughter in Denmark to a male cousin in the home country, then compelling her to marry him, sometimes on pain of death - are one problem" "Muslim leaders openly declare their goal of introducing Islamic law once Denmark 's Muslim population grows large enough - a not-that-remote prospect. If present trends persist, one sociologist estimates, every third inhabitant of Denmark in 40 years will be Muslim." It is easy to understand why a growing number of Danes would feel that Muslim immigrants show little respect for Danish values and laws. An example is the phenomenon common to other European countries and the U.S. : some Muslims in Denmark who opted to leave the Muslim faith have been murdered in the name of Islam, while others hide in fear for their lives. Jews are also threatened and harassed openly by Muslim leaders in Denmark , a country where once Christian citizens worked to smuggle out nearly all of their 7,000 Jews by night to Sweden - before the Nazis could invade. I think of my Danish friend Elsa - who as a teenager had dreaded crossing the street to the bakery every morning under the eyes of occupying Nazi soldiers - and I wonder what she would say today. In 2001, Denmark elected the most conservative government in some 70 years - one that had some decidedly non-generous ideas about liberal unfettered immigration. Today Denmark has the strictest immigration policies in Europe . (Its effort to protect itself has been met with accusations of "racism" by liberal media across Europe - even as other governments struggle to right the social problems wrought by years of too-lax immigration.) If you wish to become Danish, you must attend three years of language classes. You must pass a test on Denmark's history, culture, and a Danish language test. You must live in Denmark for 7 years before applying for citizenship. You must demonstrate an intent to work, and have a job waiting. If you wish to bring a spouse into Denmark, you must both be over 24 years of age, and you won't find it so easy anymore to move your friends and family to Denmark with you You will not be allowed to build a mosque in Copenhagen . Although your children have a choice of some 30 Arabic culture and language schools in Denmark , they will be strongly encouraged to assimilate to Danish society in ways that past immigrants weren't. In 2006, the Danish minister for employment, Claus Hjort Frederiksen, spoke publicly of the burden of Muslim immigrants on the Danish welfare system, and it was horrifying: the government's welfare committee had calculated that if immigration from Third World countries were blocked, 75 percent of the cuts needed to sustain the huge welfare system in coming decades would be unnecessary. In other words, the welfare system as it existed was being exploited by immigrants to the point of eventually bankrupting the government. "We are simply forced to adopt a new policy on immigration. The calculations of the welfare committee are terrifying and show how unsuccessful the integration of immigrants has been up to now," he said. A large thorn in the side of Denmark's imams is the Minister of Immigration and Integration, Rikke Hvilshoj. She makes no bones about the new policy toward immigration, "The number of foreigners coming to the country makes a difference," Hvilshøj says, "There is an inverse correlation between how many come here and how well we can receive the foreigners that come." And on Muslim immigrants needing to demonstrate a willingness to blend in, "In my view, Denmark should be a country with room for different cultures and religions. Some values, however, are more important than others. We refuse to question democracy, equal rights, and freedom of speech." Hvilshoj has paid a price for her show of backbone. Perhaps to test her resolve, the leading radical imam in Denmark , Ahmed Abdel Rahman Abu Laban, demanded that the government pay blood money to the family of a Muslim who was murdered in a suburb of Copenhagen , stating that the family's thirst for revenge could be thwarted for money. When Hvilshoj dismissed his demand, he argued that in Muslim culture the payment of retribution money was common, to which Hvilshoj replied that what is done in a Muslim country is not necessarily what is done in Denmark. The Muslim reply came soon after: her house was torched while she, her husband and children slept. All managed to escape unharmed, but she and her family were moved to a secret location and she and other ministers were assigned bodyguards for the first time - in a country where such murderous violence was once so scarce. Her government has slid to the right, and her borders have tightened. Many believe that what happens in the next decade will determine whether Denmark survives as a bastion of good living, humane thinking and social responsibility, or whether it becomes a nation at civil war with supporters of Sharia law. And meanwhile, Americans clamor for stricter immigration policies, and demand an end to state welfare programs that allow many immigrants to live on the public dole. As we in America look at the enclaves of Muslims amongst us, and see those who enter our shores too easily , dare live on our taxes, yet refuse to embrace our culture, respect our traditions, participate in our legal system, obey our laws, speak our language, appreciate our history . . . we would do well to look to Denmark, and say a prayer for her future and for our own.
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And then there's this ↓
If your one of those people that think we don't have a serious problem confronting America, think again! While your watching this figure out who is responsible for this. If you say Barack Obama you are only partially right.
PERMISSION IS GRANTED TO EMBED THIS VIDEO CONDITIONED UPON INCLUSION OF THE FOLLOWING WRITTEN ATTRIBUTION:
Video courtesy of Little Bonanza Productions. For more information, please contact: lisa@littlebonanzaproductions.com.
NAFBPO's mission is "to contribute to the security and stability of the United States." Please also watch their video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd8S6h...
Video courtesy of Little Bonanza Productions. For more information, please contact: lisa@littlebonanzaproductions.com.
NAFBPO's mission is "to contribute to the security and stability of the United States." Please also watch their video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd8S6h...
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VIDEO: Muslim extremists on the streets of the UK
Posted by Britain First on Wednesday, December 31, 2014
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Update: Recently posted on YouTube ~ Reveals Obama's Communist roots!
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And this is for the 'I-voted-for-Obama-because-I-needed-a-job" crowd ↓
BEWARE: This summer, the U.S. military is planning an unprecedented training exercise in your backyard. It's called the...
Posted by CBN News on Friday, May 22, 2015
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The title if this post is, "Hello America. Are you listening?"
Let me ask you that one more time while you listen to the following?
Are you listening?
Did you listen?
Then wake the hell up!
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While Republicans have been distracted by phony scandals surrounding Hillary Clinton (like Benghazi), they missed one of...
Posted by Ring of Fire on Tuesday, June 2, 2015
The following was posted in September of 2014 but you have to know that this sort of stuff is going on (watch the video here): GOVERNMENT ARRESTING PEOPLE FOR ANTI-OBAMA FACEBOOK POSTS!
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There's some pretty smart professors out there...all you got to do is find them.
OBAMA SIGNS ANTI-FREE SPEECH BILLProtests and other free speech can now be considered a felony if you say something...
Posted by Don't Tread On Me on Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Moderate Muslims?
VIDEO: Moderate Muslims?
Posted by Britain First on Monday, August 31, 2015
Posted March 3, 2016
↓Coming to America... Many of them are already here!
↓Coming to America... Many of them are already here!
Posted April 6, 2016
What !!! Am I the only one in the world that caught that?
↓ "My plans are fulfilled." ↓
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| Posted here on May 13, 2016 |
Added note: It has been said that NCO's (Non-Commissioned Officers) of the Uniformed Military Services are the backbone of the United States Military... I am a former NCO...and I have the backbone necessary to bring this country back to the visions of our Founding Fathers.
There is one sure way to make this happen but it would take the backbone of all American voters to take advantage of the write-in vote. This method would assure that you have made the decision and not the establishment. The current selection process for the Office of President of the United States is not decided by 'We The People'...it is decided by the Democrat and Republican parties; they want to make it look like you are making the choice of who to vote for, but it is they who selected the candidates, not you or 'We The People'. With that said, I am throwing my hat in the ring...vote/write my name in; Norman Hooben for President.
Who been in the kitchen?
Who been in the hall?
Hooben in the White House,
Fighting for us all!
I will destroy the so-called ESTABLISHMENT !!!
If you don't know who the ESTABLISHMENT is, watch this video.
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Hillary's Record
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY Posted Tuesday, November 20, 2007 4:20 PM PT
Campaign Trail: Lamenting the healthy U.S. economy, a certain senator from New York says "it takes a Clinton to clean up after a Bush." But the Clintons' brand of soap always seems to be a mix of sleaze and socialism.
Campaigning in Iowa on Monday, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., spread doom and gloom about an economy that has produced more than 8 million new jobs over the past 50 months amid a powerful economic expansion.
Hillary has been pushing the theme that being first lady for eight years gave her the experience that will make her a good president.
"Every day spent learning the ropes is another day of rising costs, mounting deficits and growing anxiety for our families," she said in an obvious negative reference to her opponent, Sen. Barrack Obama, D-Ill. "And they cannot afford to keep waiting."
But what exactly is it they are waiting for? Certain expiration of the Bush across-the-board income tax cuts, and his reduction in taxes on investment, policies that caused the economy's current sustained boom?
Is the "experience" our families are waiting to reap the benefits of actually a new version of Hillary's 1993-94 attempt to impose socialized health care on America?
The cleaning up that Hillary claims her husband undertook is a myth. The record shows Bill Clinton inherited from President George H.W. Bush an economy already in recovery.
It also shows that two terms of Clinton Masculinus left George W. Bush in 2001 with an economy already in a downturn.
It wasn't his income tax rate increases or sage words from Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin that produced Intel's Pentium chip and the Internet or the rest of the technological revolution behind the 1990s boom. The seed capital for it all came largely from the low-tax policies of Ronald Reagan years earlier. (Note from Norm: Why does it take the media so long to catch up with me? I’ve been saying this all along. And if you care to go back and check the Wall Street Journal’s economic writers, they all proclaimed that the recession that began in March right after president Bush took office, was a direct result of President Clinton’s tax increase just prior to him (Clinton) leaving office (that was in November after the elections). Further, if you want to check the record, that was the largest tax increase in the nation’s history (at that time). Pelosi and Company have plans for yet a larger increase. Don’t kill the messenger for delivering you the facts.)
Bill Clinton, in fact, never succeeded in getting passed into law what he touted as his vital "jobs bill," a pork-laden $30 billion fiscal stimulus package; only a fraction of it, $220 million, was ever enacted.
Yet government spending is clearly what Hillary's White House job experience would translate into. Her energy policy, for instance, consists of a $50 billion alternative fuels fund and $20 billion worth of new "green vehicle bonds" funding intensified gas mileage regulations. (Note from Norm: Even the un-informed know that you cannot legislate technology…this is just a money scheme to generate fines for not complying with the law. Don’t believe me? Just ask BMW, et al and ask them why they had to pay $26 million dollars in fines for not producing better gas mileage. BMW, et al could care less about the insane laws, they just pass the cost onto you the consumer. Again, don’t kill the messenger for delivering the facts.)
But businesses won't have to worry — if they can grease the lady's palm. Corning, Inc., Western New York state's stalwart Republican Party corporate donor, found that out in 2004 when China threatened a 16% tariff on Corning's fiber optics products.
By having the Red Chinese ambassador to her Capitol Hill office, Hillary apparently got the Communist government to drop the duty. But it seems to have cost Corning executives $46,000 in campaign contributions.
Sleazy deals and big spending are well-remembered from the days of Hillary Clinton's other half. That kind of experience is no recipe for continued economic health.
© Copyright 2007 Investor's Business Daily. All Rights Reserved.
Campaign Trail: Lamenting the healthy U.S. economy, a certain senator from New York says "it takes a Clinton to clean up after a Bush." But the Clintons' brand of soap always seems to be a mix of sleaze and socialism.
Campaigning in Iowa on Monday, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., spread doom and gloom about an economy that has produced more than 8 million new jobs over the past 50 months amid a powerful economic expansion.
Hillary has been pushing the theme that being first lady for eight years gave her the experience that will make her a good president.
"Every day spent learning the ropes is another day of rising costs, mounting deficits and growing anxiety for our families," she said in an obvious negative reference to her opponent, Sen. Barrack Obama, D-Ill. "And they cannot afford to keep waiting."
But what exactly is it they are waiting for? Certain expiration of the Bush across-the-board income tax cuts, and his reduction in taxes on investment, policies that caused the economy's current sustained boom?
Is the "experience" our families are waiting to reap the benefits of actually a new version of Hillary's 1993-94 attempt to impose socialized health care on America?
The cleaning up that Hillary claims her husband undertook is a myth. The record shows Bill Clinton inherited from President George H.W. Bush an economy already in recovery.
It also shows that two terms of Clinton Masculinus left George W. Bush in 2001 with an economy already in a downturn.
It wasn't his income tax rate increases or sage words from Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin that produced Intel's Pentium chip and the Internet or the rest of the technological revolution behind the 1990s boom. The seed capital for it all came largely from the low-tax policies of Ronald Reagan years earlier. (Note from Norm: Why does it take the media so long to catch up with me? I’ve been saying this all along. And if you care to go back and check the Wall Street Journal’s economic writers, they all proclaimed that the recession that began in March right after president Bush took office, was a direct result of President Clinton’s tax increase just prior to him (Clinton) leaving office (that was in November after the elections). Further, if you want to check the record, that was the largest tax increase in the nation’s history (at that time). Pelosi and Company have plans for yet a larger increase. Don’t kill the messenger for delivering you the facts.)
Bill Clinton, in fact, never succeeded in getting passed into law what he touted as his vital "jobs bill," a pork-laden $30 billion fiscal stimulus package; only a fraction of it, $220 million, was ever enacted.
Yet government spending is clearly what Hillary's White House job experience would translate into. Her energy policy, for instance, consists of a $50 billion alternative fuels fund and $20 billion worth of new "green vehicle bonds" funding intensified gas mileage regulations. (Note from Norm: Even the un-informed know that you cannot legislate technology…this is just a money scheme to generate fines for not complying with the law. Don’t believe me? Just ask BMW, et al and ask them why they had to pay $26 million dollars in fines for not producing better gas mileage. BMW, et al could care less about the insane laws, they just pass the cost onto you the consumer. Again, don’t kill the messenger for delivering the facts.)
But businesses won't have to worry — if they can grease the lady's palm. Corning, Inc., Western New York state's stalwart Republican Party corporate donor, found that out in 2004 when China threatened a 16% tariff on Corning's fiber optics products.
By having the Red Chinese ambassador to her Capitol Hill office, Hillary apparently got the Communist government to drop the duty. But it seems to have cost Corning executives $46,000 in campaign contributions.
Sleazy deals and big spending are well-remembered from the days of Hillary Clinton's other half. That kind of experience is no recipe for continued economic health.
© Copyright 2007 Investor's Business Daily. All Rights Reserved.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Are we are at war with all Islam?
‘We are at war with all Islam’
Mary Wakefield
Wednesday, 28th November 2007
An interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Last Tuesday at nightfall, as the servants of democracy fled SW1, a young Somali woman stood spotlit on a stage in Westminster. Behind her was the illuminated logo for the Centre for Social Cohesion: a white hand reaching down across England to help a brown one up; in front, an audience of some of Britain’s biggest brains — politicians, editors, academics. She drew her shawl a little closer round her shoulders, looked up and said: ‘We are not at war with “terror”, that would make no sense.’
‘Hear, hear,’ said a voice at the back. ‘Terror is just a tactic used by Islam,’ she continued. ‘We are actually at war, not just with Islamism, but with Islam itself.’
Out in the dark began a great wobbling of heads. Neocons nodded, Muslims shook their heads; others, uncertain, waggled theirs anxiously from side to side: at war with all Islam, even here in the UK? What does that mean?
It would be easier in some ways to ignore Ayaan Hirsi Ali, to label her as bonkers — but it would also be irresponsible. She’s not just another hawkish hack, anxious to occupy the top tough-guy media slot — she has the authority of experience, the authenticity of suffering. In the spring of 2004 she wrote a film called Submission (an artsy 11-minute protest against Islamic cruelty to women) which was shown on Dutch TV. In November 2004 the film’s director, Theo van Gogh, was assassinated and the killer left a long letter to Hirsi Ali knifed into his corpse which said, in short: you’re next. But Hirsi Ali couldn’t be silenced. She has since written an autobiography (Infidel) about growing up a Muslim (in Somalia, then Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia), describing her circumcision, the beatings she received, her arranged marriage, her flight to Holland. She risks her life daily, speaking out against what she calls the ‘fairytale’ that Islam is in essence a religion of peace.
The other reason to take her seriously is that Hirsi Ali’s ideas about Islam (that it is unamenable to reform, and intrinsically opposed to Western values) are attracting attention worldwide. In Holland where, until 2006, she was an MP for the People’s Party for Freedom and Independence (VVD), the famous ‘pillarisation’ approach to immigration — where each new culture becomes a pillar upon which the state rests — has given way to a ‘new realism’, much more in tune with Hirsi Ali’s way of thinking, and in part because of her. In Britain and in America, Ayaan Hirsi Ali has become a sort of popstar for neocons, and she now lives in Washington, and works as a fellow of the American Enterprise Institute.
But is she right? And what does ‘war with Islam’ mean? I went to find out; to meet Ayaan Hirsi Ali in the House of Lords on a bitter and blustery afternoon last week, bustling past the police, down the corridors of partial power, to the visitors’ room where she was waiting. We haven’t got much time, so can we dive straight into Islam? I ask. ‘Yes, absolutely, go ahead,’ she smiles. Up close she is disconcertingly beautiful, and fragile-looking. OK then, right. Well, you say that Islam is a violent religion, because the Prophet advocated violence. But isn’t that open to interpretation? I ask. Karen Armstrong, (a non-Muslim biographer of Mohammed) has said the Prophet was a loving man who’d have been horrified at 9/11.
‘Karen Armstrong is ridiculous,’ says Hirsi Ali in her quick, light voice — Africa still audible in the clipped consonants. ‘The Prophet would have not have disapproved of 9/11, because it was carried out in his example. When he came to Medina, the Prophet had a revelation, of jihad. After that, it became an obligation for Muslims to convert others, and to establish an Islamic state, by the sword if necessary.’
But there is such a thing as moderate Islam, I say. Muslims aren’t all terrorists. There are some like Ed Husain (author of The Islamist) who argue that there are many peaceful traditions of Koranic scholarship to choose from. Isn’t it a mistake to dismiss this gentler, acceptable branch of Islam?
‘I find the word “moderate” very misleading.’ There’s a touch of steel in Hirsi Ali’s voice. ‘I don’t believe there is such a thing as “moderate Islam”. I think it’s better to talk about degrees of belief and degrees of practice. The Koran is quite clear that it should control every area of life. If a Muslim chooses to obey only some of the Prophet’s commandments, he is only a partial Muslim. If he is a good Muslim, he will wish to establish Sharia law.’
But I don’t call myself a ‘partial Christian’ just because I don’t take the whole Bible literally, I say. Why can’t a Muslim pick and choose his scriptures too? Before Hirsi Ali can answer, the door to the waiting room flies open and a House of Lords doorman stands theatrically on the threshold. ‘You must stop this interview immediately!’ he says. Why? Is there a breach of security? A terrorist threat? ‘I have not received authorisation for it,’ he says. But we’re here with a peer, I say. I’m sure he has cleared it. ‘Please proceed to the waiting area in silence.’ So off we trudge to the foyer to sit by a fake fire — ‘it’s much nicer here, anyway,’ says Hirsi Ali kindly — and to continue our discussion about the superiority of the free, enlightened West in urgent whispers behind my rucksack.
‘Christianity is different from Islam,’ says Hirsi Ali, ‘because it allows you to question it. It probably wasn’t different in the past, but it is now. Christians — at least Christians in a liberal democracy — have accepted, after Thomas Hobbes, that they must obey the secular rule of law; that there must be a separation of church and state. In Islamic doctrine such a separation has not occurred yet. This is what makes it dangerous! Islam — all Islam, not just Islamism — has not acknowledged that it must obey secular law. Islam is hostile to reason.’
Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s eyes are now aglow. She is a terrific believer in reason. For her, Western civilisation is built on the bedrock not of Judaeo-Christian values, but of logic. After seeking asylum in Holland, she spent five years at Leiden university studying political science, absorbing the Enlightenment philosophers — Spinoza, Hobbes, Voltaire — and she mentions them fondly, as if they’re family. But there’s a steely side to her atheism, which says with Voltaire: Ecraser l’infâme! During a recent debate with Ed Husain, as Husain was explaining his moderate Islam, she began to laugh at him, saying: ‘When you die you rot, Ed! There is no afterlife, Ed!’ And it makes me wonder whether, for Hirsi Ali, Islam’s crime is as much against reason as humanity; whether she sees the point of spirituality at all.
Are you so sure you understand what is at the heart of Islam? I ask her. Isn’t there a peaceful prayerfulness — apart from the politics — that an atheist might not understand? ‘I was a Muslim once, remember, and it was when I was most devout that I was most full of hate,’ she says.
OK then, you talk about your conscience, and how your conscience was pricked by 9/11. But if there’s no God, what do you mean by a conscience? And why should we obey it?
‘My conscience is informed by reason,’ says Hirsi Ali, surprised I should ask. ‘It’s like Kant’s categorical imperative: behave to others as you would wish they behaved to you.’
I say, so let’s assume Islam is hostile and not open to reason, that it needs to be wiped out. The next question then is how? We can’t just ban it. Isn’t it destructive to curtail freedom so much in the interests of protecting it? Don’t you risk loving freedom to death?
Hirsi Ali looks at me with pity. ‘You, here in the UK, are in danger. Of course you can’t ban Islam outright, but you need to stop the spread of ideology, stop native Westerners converting to Islam. You definitely need to ban the veil in schools, and to close down Muslim schools because that’s where kids are indoctrinated.’
But, what about freedom of belief and free speech? I ask (with a nervous look at the doorman). And if you close down Muslim schools, don’t you, by the same logic, have to close all faith schools?
‘Islam is different from other faiths because it is not just a faith, it is a political ideology. Children learn that Allah is the lawgiver, and that is a political statement. You wouldn’t allow the BNP to run a school, would you?’
But if we crack down like this, won’t it make Muslims angry? I say, thinking about terrorists and my safety. ‘Well perhaps anger is no bad thing,’ says Hirsi Ali, thinking about ordinary Muslims, and their enlightenment. ‘Perhaps it’ll make Muslims more aware, help them question their beliefs. If we keep on asking questions, maybe Muslim women will realise, as I did, that they don’t have to be second-class citizens.’
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is on her favourite topic now (the subjection of women), leaning forward, gesticulating. And as she talks I realise (belatedly) what makes her different from her neocon pals. Whereas they seem motivated by fear of Muslims, she is out to protect Muslims from submission to unreason. When she speaks of a ‘war against Islam’, she’s thinking not of armies of insurgents, but of an ideological virus, in the same way a doctor might talk of the battle against typhoid. ‘Yes, I am at war with Islam,’ she says, as she gets up to leave, ‘but I am not at war with Muslims.’ It’s a crucial difference.
It’s teatime now and the House of Lords hallway is suddenly full of peers’ wives chattering, shaking their brollies. Sorry about all these women in headscarves, I say unnecessarily, as I shake her hand goodbye. ‘Don’t worry,’ says Ayaan Hirsi Ali, ‘It’s not the hijab, the headscarves are just to protect them against the rain!’ And she walks off, laughing.
The Spectator, 22 Old Queen Street, London, SW1H 9HP. All Articles and Content Copyright ©2007 by The Spectator (1828) Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Mary Wakefield
Wednesday, 28th November 2007
An interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Last Tuesday at nightfall, as the servants of democracy fled SW1, a young Somali woman stood spotlit on a stage in Westminster. Behind her was the illuminated logo for the Centre for Social Cohesion: a white hand reaching down across England to help a brown one up; in front, an audience of some of Britain’s biggest brains — politicians, editors, academics. She drew her shawl a little closer round her shoulders, looked up and said: ‘We are not at war with “terror”, that would make no sense.’
‘Hear, hear,’ said a voice at the back. ‘Terror is just a tactic used by Islam,’ she continued. ‘We are actually at war, not just with Islamism, but with Islam itself.’
Out in the dark began a great wobbling of heads. Neocons nodded, Muslims shook their heads; others, uncertain, waggled theirs anxiously from side to side: at war with all Islam, even here in the UK? What does that mean?
It would be easier in some ways to ignore Ayaan Hirsi Ali, to label her as bonkers — but it would also be irresponsible. She’s not just another hawkish hack, anxious to occupy the top tough-guy media slot — she has the authority of experience, the authenticity of suffering. In the spring of 2004 she wrote a film called Submission (an artsy 11-minute protest against Islamic cruelty to women) which was shown on Dutch TV. In November 2004 the film’s director, Theo van Gogh, was assassinated and the killer left a long letter to Hirsi Ali knifed into his corpse which said, in short: you’re next. But Hirsi Ali couldn’t be silenced. She has since written an autobiography (Infidel) about growing up a Muslim (in Somalia, then Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia), describing her circumcision, the beatings she received, her arranged marriage, her flight to Holland. She risks her life daily, speaking out against what she calls the ‘fairytale’ that Islam is in essence a religion of peace.
The other reason to take her seriously is that Hirsi Ali’s ideas about Islam (that it is unamenable to reform, and intrinsically opposed to Western values) are attracting attention worldwide. In Holland where, until 2006, she was an MP for the People’s Party for Freedom and Independence (VVD), the famous ‘pillarisation’ approach to immigration — where each new culture becomes a pillar upon which the state rests — has given way to a ‘new realism’, much more in tune with Hirsi Ali’s way of thinking, and in part because of her. In Britain and in America, Ayaan Hirsi Ali has become a sort of popstar for neocons, and she now lives in Washington, and works as a fellow of the American Enterprise Institute.
But is she right? And what does ‘war with Islam’ mean? I went to find out; to meet Ayaan Hirsi Ali in the House of Lords on a bitter and blustery afternoon last week, bustling past the police, down the corridors of partial power, to the visitors’ room where she was waiting. We haven’t got much time, so can we dive straight into Islam? I ask. ‘Yes, absolutely, go ahead,’ she smiles. Up close she is disconcertingly beautiful, and fragile-looking. OK then, right. Well, you say that Islam is a violent religion, because the Prophet advocated violence. But isn’t that open to interpretation? I ask. Karen Armstrong, (a non-Muslim biographer of Mohammed) has said the Prophet was a loving man who’d have been horrified at 9/11.
‘Karen Armstrong is ridiculous,’ says Hirsi Ali in her quick, light voice — Africa still audible in the clipped consonants. ‘The Prophet would have not have disapproved of 9/11, because it was carried out in his example. When he came to Medina, the Prophet had a revelation, of jihad. After that, it became an obligation for Muslims to convert others, and to establish an Islamic state, by the sword if necessary.’
But there is such a thing as moderate Islam, I say. Muslims aren’t all terrorists. There are some like Ed Husain (author of The Islamist) who argue that there are many peaceful traditions of Koranic scholarship to choose from. Isn’t it a mistake to dismiss this gentler, acceptable branch of Islam?
‘I find the word “moderate” very misleading.’ There’s a touch of steel in Hirsi Ali’s voice. ‘I don’t believe there is such a thing as “moderate Islam”. I think it’s better to talk about degrees of belief and degrees of practice. The Koran is quite clear that it should control every area of life. If a Muslim chooses to obey only some of the Prophet’s commandments, he is only a partial Muslim. If he is a good Muslim, he will wish to establish Sharia law.’
But I don’t call myself a ‘partial Christian’ just because I don’t take the whole Bible literally, I say. Why can’t a Muslim pick and choose his scriptures too? Before Hirsi Ali can answer, the door to the waiting room flies open and a House of Lords doorman stands theatrically on the threshold. ‘You must stop this interview immediately!’ he says. Why? Is there a breach of security? A terrorist threat? ‘I have not received authorisation for it,’ he says. But we’re here with a peer, I say. I’m sure he has cleared it. ‘Please proceed to the waiting area in silence.’ So off we trudge to the foyer to sit by a fake fire — ‘it’s much nicer here, anyway,’ says Hirsi Ali kindly — and to continue our discussion about the superiority of the free, enlightened West in urgent whispers behind my rucksack.
‘Christianity is different from Islam,’ says Hirsi Ali, ‘because it allows you to question it. It probably wasn’t different in the past, but it is now. Christians — at least Christians in a liberal democracy — have accepted, after Thomas Hobbes, that they must obey the secular rule of law; that there must be a separation of church and state. In Islamic doctrine such a separation has not occurred yet. This is what makes it dangerous! Islam — all Islam, not just Islamism — has not acknowledged that it must obey secular law. Islam is hostile to reason.’
Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s eyes are now aglow. She is a terrific believer in reason. For her, Western civilisation is built on the bedrock not of Judaeo-Christian values, but of logic. After seeking asylum in Holland, she spent five years at Leiden university studying political science, absorbing the Enlightenment philosophers — Spinoza, Hobbes, Voltaire — and she mentions them fondly, as if they’re family. But there’s a steely side to her atheism, which says with Voltaire: Ecraser l’infâme! During a recent debate with Ed Husain, as Husain was explaining his moderate Islam, she began to laugh at him, saying: ‘When you die you rot, Ed! There is no afterlife, Ed!’ And it makes me wonder whether, for Hirsi Ali, Islam’s crime is as much against reason as humanity; whether she sees the point of spirituality at all.
Are you so sure you understand what is at the heart of Islam? I ask her. Isn’t there a peaceful prayerfulness — apart from the politics — that an atheist might not understand? ‘I was a Muslim once, remember, and it was when I was most devout that I was most full of hate,’ she says.
OK then, you talk about your conscience, and how your conscience was pricked by 9/11. But if there’s no God, what do you mean by a conscience? And why should we obey it?
‘My conscience is informed by reason,’ says Hirsi Ali, surprised I should ask. ‘It’s like Kant’s categorical imperative: behave to others as you would wish they behaved to you.’
I say, so let’s assume Islam is hostile and not open to reason, that it needs to be wiped out. The next question then is how? We can’t just ban it. Isn’t it destructive to curtail freedom so much in the interests of protecting it? Don’t you risk loving freedom to death?
Hirsi Ali looks at me with pity. ‘You, here in the UK, are in danger. Of course you can’t ban Islam outright, but you need to stop the spread of ideology, stop native Westerners converting to Islam. You definitely need to ban the veil in schools, and to close down Muslim schools because that’s where kids are indoctrinated.’
But, what about freedom of belief and free speech? I ask (with a nervous look at the doorman). And if you close down Muslim schools, don’t you, by the same logic, have to close all faith schools?
‘Islam is different from other faiths because it is not just a faith, it is a political ideology. Children learn that Allah is the lawgiver, and that is a political statement. You wouldn’t allow the BNP to run a school, would you?’
But if we crack down like this, won’t it make Muslims angry? I say, thinking about terrorists and my safety. ‘Well perhaps anger is no bad thing,’ says Hirsi Ali, thinking about ordinary Muslims, and their enlightenment. ‘Perhaps it’ll make Muslims more aware, help them question their beliefs. If we keep on asking questions, maybe Muslim women will realise, as I did, that they don’t have to be second-class citizens.’
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is on her favourite topic now (the subjection of women), leaning forward, gesticulating. And as she talks I realise (belatedly) what makes her different from her neocon pals. Whereas they seem motivated by fear of Muslims, she is out to protect Muslims from submission to unreason. When she speaks of a ‘war against Islam’, she’s thinking not of armies of insurgents, but of an ideological virus, in the same way a doctor might talk of the battle against typhoid. ‘Yes, I am at war with Islam,’ she says, as she gets up to leave, ‘but I am not at war with Muslims.’ It’s a crucial difference.
It’s teatime now and the House of Lords hallway is suddenly full of peers’ wives chattering, shaking their brollies. Sorry about all these women in headscarves, I say unnecessarily, as I shake her hand goodbye. ‘Don’t worry,’ says Ayaan Hirsi Ali, ‘It’s not the hijab, the headscarves are just to protect them against the rain!’ And she walks off, laughing.
The Spectator, 22 Old Queen Street, London, SW1H 9HP. All Articles and Content Copyright ©2007 by The Spectator (1828) Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
"When does life begin?"
Nemo's Airtight Argument Against Abortion By: NemoParticularis
One of the most frequently asked questions in the abortion debate is: "When does life begin?" It's the wrong question. Life, as any biologist will tell you, never begins. It always ends, eventually - but it never begins. All living matter comes only from other living matter.
Let us narrow the scope of the question. "When does human life begin?" The answer is the same as above: Human life comes only from pre-existing human life. Living human cells come only from other living human cells.
Very well then, "When does human life become a human being?" That is the correct question. The answer lies in the definition of "human being." Biologically, a living human being is a vertebrate animal organism, Homo sapiens.
What, then, is an organism? It is a living, corporeal entity that exists and functions of, by, and for itself. It may consist of a single cell, such as an amoeba, or of a group of cells, tissues, and organs that can achieve titanic size, such as a blue whale.
If an organism can consist of a single cell (such as an amoeba) can we say that a sperm cell from a frog is an organism? No. Nor can we make the same statement for a brain cell or a muscle cell. These are highly specialized cells and function only as part of a collective whole. Isolate a brain cell from its living matrix and it soon dies. Likewise, the sperm cell has but one function: to fertilize the ovum or die.
An organism, on the other hand, is self-sufficient. It ingests and metabolizes food; it grows; it is usually capable of locomotion; it is capable of reproduction. Most importantly, it is an independently functioning, living "machine," so to speak, existing of its own accord.
In order to establish the parameters necessary to define an organism, biologists utilize three criteria: morphology (the form of a cell, tissue, organ, or organism); physiology (the function of a cell, tissue, organ, or organism); and genomics (the DNA "blueprint" of a cell, tissue, organ, or organism). Of these three criteria, genomics establishes the identity of an individual organism with the greatest precision.
Every organism has its own unique genetic code. That code tells us precisely what the organism is. Thus, we can present the biologist with two apparently identical samples of tissue, one from the liver of a human and the other from that of a chimpanzee. After carefully examining the chromosomes in the nuclei of cells taken from each of the tissue samples, the biologist can tell us with absolute certainty which is human and which is simian. Living simian cells come only from other living simian cells. Living human cells come only from other living human cells. A simian cell can never become a human cell and vice versa.
Every organism has a definite lifecycle: There is a point in time at which the organism begins its existence as an organism, followed by a period of metabolism, growth, and reproduction, ending at the moment the organism dies.
The human organism - like every other living organism - begins its existence as a single cell. As we have seen above, a sperm cell is not an organism. Neither is an ovum. Yet, when the two unite, they form a zygote. This zygote is a complete - though not completed - living, organized, unique, individual human life form with its own particular morphological and physiological destiny. It contains the entire genetic code sequence of an individual human being (with the informational equivalent of 1,000 volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica).
The programming in this genetic code will cause the zygote to divide and differentiate, to form hormones and tissues. In the absence of disease, accident, or incident, this single cell will, in the course of 36 to 39 weeks, become a newborn human. From the time it begins its existence it is never anything but alive (living cells can come only from other living cells) and never anything but human (only human cells come from other human cells). The human zygote is therefore a living, human organism.
But is it a human being?
Most people understand that a frog never becomes an elephant. A frog is a frog. Then again, a tadpole is a tadpole. But is a tadpole a frog? Some folks would argue not: The tadpole has no lungs; it has gills. It has no legs; it has a tail. It looks and acts just like a fish. It can't be a frog, can it? Well, it depends upon how you define the frog organism.
May we identify an organism as a frog purely on the basis of its morphology (physical form)? The biologist will say no. Three criteria are necessary for biological identification, morphology being only one of them. Physiology and genomics are the other two.
The biologist will not hesitate to affirm that the tadpole is indeed a frog. The living organism we call "frog" (Rana catabiensis) undergoes profound morphological and physiological changes in the course of its lifecycle. Although these changes are radical, the genetic code - the DNA blueprint that defines this particular organism - never changes. For this reason, no biologist ever confuses form with substance when establishing the identity of an organism.
The biologist will tell you that a frog is a frog from the instant it first functions as an independent organism, regardless of the form it takes during the course of its development. It will be nothing other than a frog when it dies. An organism is never identified purely on the basis of its morphological or physiological state at any given point in its lifecycle. It would be like declaring the benchmark of life for the butterfly organism is the presence of wings and antennae and then, after examining the caterpillar, pronouncing that, because it has neither wings nor antennae, it is neither living nor a butterfly, despite the fact that it is a living organism with the genome of the butterfly and, if it is not killed before it completes its metamorphosis, will become nothing other than a butterfly.
Nevertheless, there are some people who persist in their belief that an unborn human is not a human being, particularly when discussing the earlier stages of human development in the womb: "But I just don't feel that it's human. It doesn't look or act human. Wouldn't a better criterion be heartbeat, brain waves, arms, legs, viability outside the womb, etc.?"
The list is long and could be extended indefinitely, but all such criteria are vague, arbitrary, or scientifically insupportable. While fetal viability, for example, may be a convenient benchmark for consensus politicians, it is irrelevant with regard to the biological humanity of the developing fetus. The intrauterine development of an organism is simply one phase of its living existence, and is immaterial to its biological identity.The operative word is "feel" and that approach is as old as it is dangerous. Slave owners didn't “feel” that Negroes were fully human; Nazis didn't “feel” that Jews, Slavs and Gypsies were fully human and concocted outrageous pseudo-scientific proof that they were sub-human. From time immemorial, man's inhumanity to man has been rooted in the fact that one particular family, clan, tribe, or nation did not feel that another was truly human, and on countless tragic occasions this has become the twisted rationale behind persecutions, slavery, pogroms, ethnic cleansing, and genocide.
Biological science demonstrates with geometric force that every human being begins his existence as a zygote and that every living human zygote is a human being at the first stage of development in his lifecycle. This determination has nothing to do with feeling or emotion and is no more a matter of religion or opinion than 1+1=2 or E=mc2.
Having established through logic and science that every human being begins his existence as a zygote, we now address two additional questions:
1. Are all human beings human persons?
2. Do all human persons have an inalienable right to life?
We now enter the realm of political philosophy and the theory of personhood and rights. Generally, "personhood" is a term used in the context of the rights and obligations of human beings, although the concept has been extended to embrace corporations. In this context, a human person is defined as a human being possessing certain rights and obligations.
Is Joe Doakes a human being because he is a human person or is he a human person because he is a human being? This is the pivotal question in the abortion debate and it has only two possible answers.
A. If we state that Joe Doakes is a human being because he is a human person, we must conclude that the defining source of "personhood" lies apart from his existence as a human organism. In the absence of anarchy and solipsism, the only defining source of personhood becomes the government. The existing political authority defines personhood and establishes who and what are persons, as well as who and what are not persons.
Consequently, personhood is ultimately defined by the prevailing political agenda. If government becomes the source of personhood (and therefore what is and is not human), it logically follows that political power becomes the fountainhead of human rights and a government with this degree of power is nothing less than totalitarian, with Nazi Germany as the paradigm.
In effect, Hitler's Reich said: "You are a human being only if you are a person. We will decide who is and who is not a person. You Jews and Gypsies are not persons and therefore are not humans."
The Nazis might have objected that the reverse was true, that Hitler said: "According to our best scientific minds, you Jews and Gypsies are not humans and therefore are not persons." In this case we can only reiterate the biological facts outlined earlier. The denial of their humanity had nothing whatsoever to do with biological fact; it had everything to do with "feeling" and egregious pseudo-science. If the Nazis were truly honest they would have said, "We just don't feel that you are human."
We are thus presented with the defining question: Is the human fetus a human being only because it is a human person? In effect that was the question addressed by the ruling of the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade. For that matter, we could have posed a similar question in 1857: "Is the Negro a human being only because he is a human person?" We all know the answer of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott decision. If we accept that personhood derives from the state and not from the fact that one is a human being, we have made the unalienable right to life (and any other civil right) an empty, meaningless concept.
B. If Joe Doakes is a human person precisely because he is a human being, everything changes. His personhood - and the rights that accompany it – derive exclusively from the fact that he is a human being. To paraphrase the Declaration of Independence "All human beings are created equal and endowed with certain unalienable rights, among these, life..."
An unalienable right is one that is intrinsic to humanity and cannot be ceded to any other individual or authority. From time to time, these rights may be abridged or even deprived through due process of law (e.g., imprisonment for committing a felony, or execution for capital crimes). Nevertheless, as natural endowments, they possess a moral authority that imposes upon the state the obligation to respect and uphold them. Therefore, by his very nature as a human being, Joe Doakes is a person, and no political power on earth can take his personhood away from him.
Biological science tells us that African slaves were human beings (even if ignorant bigots said they were not). The Declaration of Independence tells us that, as human beings, they were therefore human persons (even if a feckless Supreme Court said they were not). The U.S. Constitution tells us that, as human persons, they possessed the unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (even if these rights were systematically denied to them for centuries).
The conclusion is unavoidable: The human fetus is a human being; all human beings are human persons; all human persons possess an inalienable right to life which, according to the U.S. Constitution, may not be deprived without due process of law.
In order to conform itself to biological reality, the intent of the Founding Fathers and our own Constitution, both federal and state governments would have to establish as a matter of law that one's very existence as an unborn human being - if undesired by the mother - is a capital crime punishable by death. To fulfill the constitutional requirement of due process, a mother who chooses to abort her child would have to file criminal charges.
However, commission of a crime requires criminal intent - a capacity the unborn human lacks. Assuming this hurdle is vaulted, the abortion procedure would be preceded by a trial in a court of law. In the event of a guilty verdict, the subsequent appeals would take years to move through the appellate courts. By the time they are exhausted, the defendant would be at least 10 years old.
To circumvent this Kafkaesque absurdity, the Supreme Court effectively stripped personhood from prenatal human beings by denying they are human beings, thereby establishing that personhood derives from political authority instead of humanity. This is no more rational than affirming that blacks are chattel or Jews and Slavs are sub-human.
In many cases, well-meaning people oppose abortion for religious reasons or from intuitive feelings of right and wrong. As we have seen in the course of this brief discussion, the argument against abortion need not incorporate either religion or morality; it is founded squarely upon biological science and the political principles upon which our republic was founded. Abortion violates the civil rights of the unborn human person and denies that human person his or her unalienable right to life.
One of the most frequently asked questions in the abortion debate is: "When does life begin?" It's the wrong question. Life, as any biologist will tell you, never begins. It always ends, eventually - but it never begins. All living matter comes only from other living matter.
Let us narrow the scope of the question. "When does human life begin?" The answer is the same as above: Human life comes only from pre-existing human life. Living human cells come only from other living human cells.
Very well then, "When does human life become a human being?" That is the correct question. The answer lies in the definition of "human being." Biologically, a living human being is a vertebrate animal organism, Homo sapiens.
What, then, is an organism? It is a living, corporeal entity that exists and functions of, by, and for itself. It may consist of a single cell, such as an amoeba, or of a group of cells, tissues, and organs that can achieve titanic size, such as a blue whale.
If an organism can consist of a single cell (such as an amoeba) can we say that a sperm cell from a frog is an organism? No. Nor can we make the same statement for a brain cell or a muscle cell. These are highly specialized cells and function only as part of a collective whole. Isolate a brain cell from its living matrix and it soon dies. Likewise, the sperm cell has but one function: to fertilize the ovum or die.
An organism, on the other hand, is self-sufficient. It ingests and metabolizes food; it grows; it is usually capable of locomotion; it is capable of reproduction. Most importantly, it is an independently functioning, living "machine," so to speak, existing of its own accord.
In order to establish the parameters necessary to define an organism, biologists utilize three criteria: morphology (the form of a cell, tissue, organ, or organism); physiology (the function of a cell, tissue, organ, or organism); and genomics (the DNA "blueprint" of a cell, tissue, organ, or organism). Of these three criteria, genomics establishes the identity of an individual organism with the greatest precision.
Every organism has its own unique genetic code. That code tells us precisely what the organism is. Thus, we can present the biologist with two apparently identical samples of tissue, one from the liver of a human and the other from that of a chimpanzee. After carefully examining the chromosomes in the nuclei of cells taken from each of the tissue samples, the biologist can tell us with absolute certainty which is human and which is simian. Living simian cells come only from other living simian cells. Living human cells come only from other living human cells. A simian cell can never become a human cell and vice versa.
Every organism has a definite lifecycle: There is a point in time at which the organism begins its existence as an organism, followed by a period of metabolism, growth, and reproduction, ending at the moment the organism dies.
The human organism - like every other living organism - begins its existence as a single cell. As we have seen above, a sperm cell is not an organism. Neither is an ovum. Yet, when the two unite, they form a zygote. This zygote is a complete - though not completed - living, organized, unique, individual human life form with its own particular morphological and physiological destiny. It contains the entire genetic code sequence of an individual human being (with the informational equivalent of 1,000 volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica).
The programming in this genetic code will cause the zygote to divide and differentiate, to form hormones and tissues. In the absence of disease, accident, or incident, this single cell will, in the course of 36 to 39 weeks, become a newborn human. From the time it begins its existence it is never anything but alive (living cells can come only from other living cells) and never anything but human (only human cells come from other human cells). The human zygote is therefore a living, human organism.
But is it a human being?
Most people understand that a frog never becomes an elephant. A frog is a frog. Then again, a tadpole is a tadpole. But is a tadpole a frog? Some folks would argue not: The tadpole has no lungs; it has gills. It has no legs; it has a tail. It looks and acts just like a fish. It can't be a frog, can it? Well, it depends upon how you define the frog organism.
May we identify an organism as a frog purely on the basis of its morphology (physical form)? The biologist will say no. Three criteria are necessary for biological identification, morphology being only one of them. Physiology and genomics are the other two.
The biologist will not hesitate to affirm that the tadpole is indeed a frog. The living organism we call "frog" (Rana catabiensis) undergoes profound morphological and physiological changes in the course of its lifecycle. Although these changes are radical, the genetic code - the DNA blueprint that defines this particular organism - never changes. For this reason, no biologist ever confuses form with substance when establishing the identity of an organism.
The biologist will tell you that a frog is a frog from the instant it first functions as an independent organism, regardless of the form it takes during the course of its development. It will be nothing other than a frog when it dies. An organism is never identified purely on the basis of its morphological or physiological state at any given point in its lifecycle. It would be like declaring the benchmark of life for the butterfly organism is the presence of wings and antennae and then, after examining the caterpillar, pronouncing that, because it has neither wings nor antennae, it is neither living nor a butterfly, despite the fact that it is a living organism with the genome of the butterfly and, if it is not killed before it completes its metamorphosis, will become nothing other than a butterfly.
Nevertheless, there are some people who persist in their belief that an unborn human is not a human being, particularly when discussing the earlier stages of human development in the womb: "But I just don't feel that it's human. It doesn't look or act human. Wouldn't a better criterion be heartbeat, brain waves, arms, legs, viability outside the womb, etc.?"
The list is long and could be extended indefinitely, but all such criteria are vague, arbitrary, or scientifically insupportable. While fetal viability, for example, may be a convenient benchmark for consensus politicians, it is irrelevant with regard to the biological humanity of the developing fetus. The intrauterine development of an organism is simply one phase of its living existence, and is immaterial to its biological identity.The operative word is "feel" and that approach is as old as it is dangerous. Slave owners didn't “feel” that Negroes were fully human; Nazis didn't “feel” that Jews, Slavs and Gypsies were fully human and concocted outrageous pseudo-scientific proof that they were sub-human. From time immemorial, man's inhumanity to man has been rooted in the fact that one particular family, clan, tribe, or nation did not feel that another was truly human, and on countless tragic occasions this has become the twisted rationale behind persecutions, slavery, pogroms, ethnic cleansing, and genocide.
Biological science demonstrates with geometric force that every human being begins his existence as a zygote and that every living human zygote is a human being at the first stage of development in his lifecycle. This determination has nothing to do with feeling or emotion and is no more a matter of religion or opinion than 1+1=2 or E=mc2.
Having established through logic and science that every human being begins his existence as a zygote, we now address two additional questions:
1. Are all human beings human persons?
2. Do all human persons have an inalienable right to life?
We now enter the realm of political philosophy and the theory of personhood and rights. Generally, "personhood" is a term used in the context of the rights and obligations of human beings, although the concept has been extended to embrace corporations. In this context, a human person is defined as a human being possessing certain rights and obligations.
Is Joe Doakes a human being because he is a human person or is he a human person because he is a human being? This is the pivotal question in the abortion debate and it has only two possible answers.
A. If we state that Joe Doakes is a human being because he is a human person, we must conclude that the defining source of "personhood" lies apart from his existence as a human organism. In the absence of anarchy and solipsism, the only defining source of personhood becomes the government. The existing political authority defines personhood and establishes who and what are persons, as well as who and what are not persons.
Consequently, personhood is ultimately defined by the prevailing political agenda. If government becomes the source of personhood (and therefore what is and is not human), it logically follows that political power becomes the fountainhead of human rights and a government with this degree of power is nothing less than totalitarian, with Nazi Germany as the paradigm.
In effect, Hitler's Reich said: "You are a human being only if you are a person. We will decide who is and who is not a person. You Jews and Gypsies are not persons and therefore are not humans."
The Nazis might have objected that the reverse was true, that Hitler said: "According to our best scientific minds, you Jews and Gypsies are not humans and therefore are not persons." In this case we can only reiterate the biological facts outlined earlier. The denial of their humanity had nothing whatsoever to do with biological fact; it had everything to do with "feeling" and egregious pseudo-science. If the Nazis were truly honest they would have said, "We just don't feel that you are human."
We are thus presented with the defining question: Is the human fetus a human being only because it is a human person? In effect that was the question addressed by the ruling of the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade. For that matter, we could have posed a similar question in 1857: "Is the Negro a human being only because he is a human person?" We all know the answer of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott decision. If we accept that personhood derives from the state and not from the fact that one is a human being, we have made the unalienable right to life (and any other civil right) an empty, meaningless concept.
B. If Joe Doakes is a human person precisely because he is a human being, everything changes. His personhood - and the rights that accompany it – derive exclusively from the fact that he is a human being. To paraphrase the Declaration of Independence "All human beings are created equal and endowed with certain unalienable rights, among these, life..."
An unalienable right is one that is intrinsic to humanity and cannot be ceded to any other individual or authority. From time to time, these rights may be abridged or even deprived through due process of law (e.g., imprisonment for committing a felony, or execution for capital crimes). Nevertheless, as natural endowments, they possess a moral authority that imposes upon the state the obligation to respect and uphold them. Therefore, by his very nature as a human being, Joe Doakes is a person, and no political power on earth can take his personhood away from him.
Biological science tells us that African slaves were human beings (even if ignorant bigots said they were not). The Declaration of Independence tells us that, as human beings, they were therefore human persons (even if a feckless Supreme Court said they were not). The U.S. Constitution tells us that, as human persons, they possessed the unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (even if these rights were systematically denied to them for centuries).
The conclusion is unavoidable: The human fetus is a human being; all human beings are human persons; all human persons possess an inalienable right to life which, according to the U.S. Constitution, may not be deprived without due process of law.
In order to conform itself to biological reality, the intent of the Founding Fathers and our own Constitution, both federal and state governments would have to establish as a matter of law that one's very existence as an unborn human being - if undesired by the mother - is a capital crime punishable by death. To fulfill the constitutional requirement of due process, a mother who chooses to abort her child would have to file criminal charges.
However, commission of a crime requires criminal intent - a capacity the unborn human lacks. Assuming this hurdle is vaulted, the abortion procedure would be preceded by a trial in a court of law. In the event of a guilty verdict, the subsequent appeals would take years to move through the appellate courts. By the time they are exhausted, the defendant would be at least 10 years old.
To circumvent this Kafkaesque absurdity, the Supreme Court effectively stripped personhood from prenatal human beings by denying they are human beings, thereby establishing that personhood derives from political authority instead of humanity. This is no more rational than affirming that blacks are chattel or Jews and Slavs are sub-human.
In many cases, well-meaning people oppose abortion for religious reasons or from intuitive feelings of right and wrong. As we have seen in the course of this brief discussion, the argument against abortion need not incorporate either religion or morality; it is founded squarely upon biological science and the political principles upon which our republic was founded. Abortion violates the civil rights of the unborn human person and denies that human person his or her unalienable right to life.
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