The Dallas Morning News attack on Mayor Beth Van Duyne
Several times last week, the Dallas Morning News has attacked an elected official in Texas, Irving Mayor Beth Van Duyne, for publicly discussing her opposition to efforts that promote shariah law in her community via an “Islamic tribunal.” In so doing, your paper has maligned a conscientious and courageous public servant and misinformed readers about the larger problem you have wrongly and dismissively described as a “shariah flap.”
As the Morning News should know from its own, extensive coverage of the largest terrorism financing trial in U.S. history, the 2007-2008 Holy Land Foundation prosecution in Richardson, the Islamic tribunal is but one element in what the Muslim Brotherhood calls “civilization jihad” against our country – a strategic, long-term and stealthy effort to “destroy Western civilization from within.” The Morning News should be praising, not criticizing, Mayor Van Duyne for raising awareness about, and working to defeat, such a threat.
Interestingly, in another editorial back in 2005, the Morning News expressed concern about one of the tribunal’s self-described “judges,” Dr. Yusuf Kavakci, the imam of the Dallas Central Mosque:
The mosque’s imam, Dr. Yusuf Kavakci, has publicly praised two of the world’s foremost radical Islamists, Yusuf Qaradawi and Hasan al-Turabi, as exemplary leaders. Dr. Kavakci also sits on the board of the Saudi-backed Islamic Society of North America, described in congressional testimony as a major conduit of Wahhabist teaching. Yet, Dr. Kavakci tells The Dallas Morning News he rejects Wahhabist teaching. Something doesn’t add up.
In fact, what the Holy Land Foundation trial established is that Islamic supremacists will misrepresent their true intentions and purposes in order to advance this civilization jihad. The people of Irving – and those of Texas and the United States, more generally – owe their mayor a debt of gratitude for telling the truth about the dangers of sharia
Mr. Gaffney is the host of Secure Freedom Radio, a nationally-syndicated radio program heard weeknights throughout the country. He is an associate author of highly acclaimed Shariah: The Threat to America and the publisher of over a dozen other books and monographs from the Center for Security Policy Press.
In April 1987, Mr. Gaffney was nominated by President Reagan to become the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy, the senior position in the Defense Department with responsibility for policies involving U.S.-USSR relations, nuclear forces, arms control, missile defense policy and U.S.-European defense ties. He acted in that capacity for seven months during which time, he was the Chairman of the prestigious High Level Group, NATO’s senior politico-military committee. He also represented the Secretary of Defense in key U.S.-Soviet negotiations and ministerial meetings.
From August 1983 until November 1987, Mr. Gaffney was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Forces and Arms Control Policy under Assistant Secretary Richard Perle.
From February 1981 to August 1983, Mr. Gaffney was a Professional Staff Member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, chaired by the late Senator John Tower (R-Texas). And, in the latter 1970’s, Mr. Gaffney served as an aide to the late Senator Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson (D-Washington) in the areas of defense and foreign policy.
Mr. Gaffney holds a Master of Arts degree in International Studies from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.
Mr. Gaffney’s leadership has been recognized by numerous organizations including: the Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Award (1987), the U.S. Business and Industry Council’s Defender of the National Interest Award (1994), the Navy League of the United States’ Alfred Thayer Mahan Literary Achievement Award (1999), and the Zionist Organization of America’s “Louis Brandeis Award” (2003), the Western Conservative Summit’s Stephen H. Long Award (2015), the Council for National Policy’s George Washington Military Leadership Award (2016) and the IMPACT Award from Ginni Thomas and United in Purpose (2017).
Mr. Gaffney was born in 1953 and resides in the Washington, D.C. area.
- The UN transforms itself into a world government - September 22, 2024
- Hezbollah is engaged in terrorism, not Israel - September 22, 2024
- Israel must seize the day - September 20, 2024