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Here's some of his stuff from:

http://joelrosenberg.blogspot.com/

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Wednesday, September 20, 2006
MEDIA CHARMED BY AHMADINEJAD: Why did Time and NBC refuse to examine Ahmadinejad's religious beliefs?

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinjad has launched a charm offensive via the American media. First was his "exclusive" interview with Mike Wallace on CBS's "60 Minutes." Now the Iranian leader is on the cover of Time magazine this week. Yesterday, he did a lengthy interview with NBC's Brian Williams, the only network interview he agreed to on this trip. And, of course, Ahmadinejad's speech yesterday blasting the United States (while on American soil) made headlines around the world.

Yet something has been curiously absent from all this media coverage. American journalists aren't asking Ahmadinejad about his Shiite religious beliefs, his fascination with the coming of the Islamic Messiah known as the "Twelfth Imam" or the "Mahdi," his critique of President Bush's faith in Jesus Christ and encouragement of President Bush to convert to Islam, and how such beliefs are driving Iranian foreign policy. Time's cover story and exclusive print interview with Ahmadinejad never broached the subject of his eschatology (end times theology). Nor did Williams. Nor did Wallace. Nor does a just-released book, Confronting Iran, by British Iran expert Ali M. Ansari. Nor does almost any of the saturation coverage Ahmadinejad is receiving.

Journalists aren't typically shy about asking tough, probing questions about the religious views of world leaders. President Bush has been grilled at length about being an evangelical Christian and how this informs his foreign policy, particularly with regards to Israel and the Middle East. Clearly the Pope's views of Christianity and Islam are under fire at present. Why such hesitancy when it comes to the religious beliefs of a country that has called for the Jewish State to be wiped off the planet and who has questioned the historical veracity of the Holocaust?

I think Ahmadinejad is waiting to be asked. He wants to talk about what he believes and why he believes it. His religion shapes who he is and what is driving him. When he addressed the United Nations General Assembly last year, he concluded his speech by praying for Allah to hasten the coming of "the Promised One," the Islamic Messiah also known as the "Twelfth Imam" or the "Mahdi." When he got back to Tehran, the Iranian leader told colleagues that during his speech he was surrounded by a halo of light, and that for 27 or 28 minutes as he spoke, delegates were so mesmerized by the words Allah was speaking through him that no one blinked. Not once.

In the months that followed, Ahmadinejad made his Islamic eschatology even more clear. He told followers that he believed the end of the world was rapidly approaching, and that the way to hasten the coming of the Messiah was to launch a global jihad to annihilate Israel and the United States. He also told followers that the "Mahdi" is already on the planet, but has not yet chosen to reveal himself. What's more, Ahmadinejad has said that he has personally been in contact with the "Mahdi" and received instructions from him, instructions that are apparently leading Iran to prepare for an apocalyptic war to annihilate Judeo-Christian civilization as we know it.

In Epicenter, I detail these statements -- when and where they were made, and how they illuminate Ahmadinejad's world view. I also cite numerous Iranians who understand their leader better than many in the West.

posted by Joel C. Rosenberg @ 1:55 PM 0 comments

CHAVEZ CALLS BUSH THE "DEVIL"

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez this morning repeatedly called President Bush "el diablo" -- the devil -- and a "world dictator" who threatens the peace of the planet. During his speech at the U.N., Chavez said: "Yesterday the devil came here and this place still smells of sulphur....He came here talking as if he were the owner of the world." He called Bush a "liar" and a "tyrant," all of which drew laughs and cheers from many U.N. delegates. Chavez's performance might have been comical if he weren't so deadly serious about his desire to see the U.S. destroyed. Chavez called American "imperialism" a "threat to the survival of the human race," but added that he is convinced the American "Goliath" will soon be felled. What makes his anti-Americanism so troubling is that Chavez is aggressively building alliances with radical Islamic regimes in the Middle East such as Iran, and with Cuba's Fidel Casto, just 90 miles off our shores.

posted by Joel C. Rosenberg @ 1:12 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, September 19, 2006
AHMADINEJAD ATTACKS U.S. ON U.S. SOIL

President Bush’s policies in the Middle East are “moving the world toward war,” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told NBC's Brian Williams today. “Why is the U.S. government so against our people? They speak of war so easily, as if it’s on their daily agenda. We never speak of war.”

"We are against the atomic bomb,” he said. “We believe bombs are used only to kill people. And we are against killing people.”

As for Ahmadinejad's speech to the U.N., the Associated Press wrote: "His speech was sharply critical of the United States and Britain, and focused in large part on what he said was their abuse of the Security Council, on which they are both permanent members with veto power. The question needs to be asked: if the governments of the United States or the United Kingdom, who are permanent members of the Security Council, commit aggression, occupation and violation of international law, which of the U.N. organs can take them into account,' he said. 'If they have differences with a nation or state, they drag it to the Security Council and as claimants, arrogate to themselves simultaneously the roes of prosecutor, judge and executioner,' he added said. 'Is this a just order?'"

I'll be on CNN Headline News with Glenn Beck tonight with analysis, and will speak tonight at Calvery Chapel Church in Costa Mesa, California, on the Iranian nuclear threat and my new book EPICENTER. Tomorrow, I'll post a detailed analysis of Ahmadinejad's speech, and President Bush's.

posted by Joel C. Rosenberg @ 9:03 PM 6 comments

U.S. NEWS CITES EXCLUSIVE EPICENTER POLL

As I detail in Epicenter, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad believes the end of the world is rapidly approaching, and that it is his job to launch a global jihad to hasten the coming of the Islamic Messiah. But he's not the only one who believes the end may be near. A surprising number of Americans believe we are living in what the Bible calls the "last days."

In his "Washington Whispers" column in U.S. News & World Report this week, Paul Bedard writes: "Joel Rosenberg, the New York Times bestselling author whose books have eerily predicted bad things like 9/11, has a new one coming out, and in it he takes on the superbig question: Is the end near? Seems many think so. For Epicenter, a book on the Middle East crisis, Rosenberg had the polling firm McLaughlin & Associates ask 1,000 adults if they agreed that current events were evidence of what the Bible calls the last days. In the poll, provided exclusively to Whispers, a remarkable 42 percent agreed. The breakdown is even more startling: Half of women agree, 75 percent of blacks agree, and 57 percent of those ages 18 to 25 agree."

Complete poll numbers -- including crosstabs -- are included in the hardcover edition of Epicenter. Also, I recently narrated an audio version of Epicenter, available from Oasis Audio.

posted by Joel C. Rosenberg @ 2:17 PM 1 comments

Saturday, September 16, 2006
ROSIE, THE POPE AND THE EPICENTER

Rosie O'Donnell declared this week that "radical Christians" are as dangerous as "radical Muslims." The Pope, meanwhile, declared this week that radical Islam is "evil" for trying to force people to follow Mohammed or be killed by the sword. Christians were understandably disappointed by Rosie, yet no violent protests have resulted so far as I know. Radical Muslims, on the other hand, are on a rampage, rioting throughout the Islamic world and even burning the Pope in effigy.

Once again, all eyes are on the Middle East, the epicenter of the events that are shaking our world and shaping our future. I was on MSBNC this morning to discuss the raging controversy. I'll link to the transcript when it becomes available. Here's the executive summary of what I said.

* Sadly, Rosie has a deep-seated animus towards Christians. But the truth is that Jesus loves Rosie and He loves Muslims, even radical Muslims. In fact, the more devout one becomes as a follower of Christ, the more one realizes just how "radical" the love of Christ is. Jesus loved not only His neighbors but also His enemies, and he taught His followers to do the same. Jesus taught that "blessed are the peacemakers" -- not the jihadists -- and strongly rebuked Peter for attacking a Roman soldier with a sword. Christ's love compels us to preach a message of love, hope and forgiveness, not murder and mayhem.

* We're not at war with 1.2 billion Muslims. We're at war with a subset of radical Muslim jihadists who have launched a global war to annihilate Jews, Christians, and all so-called "infidels."

* The Pope's initial comments were accurate. Radical Islam that seeks to convert by force rather than by love and persuasion is evil. That said, I think the world would be best served not by papal pronouncements about Islam but by the Pope -- and all followers of Christ -- staying focused on the message of the gospel, preaching about how much Jesus loves all the people of the Middle East. Jesus lived in the Middle East. He loved the people of Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, as well as Israel. He died on the cross in the Mideast. He rose again in the Mideast. He sent His followers to preach a message of love and forgiveness in the Mideast, and so should we.

* Remarkably, more Muslims have turned to faith in Jesus Christ since 9/11/01 than at any other time during human history. Literally millions of Muslims have converted to become followers of Jesus in radical Islamic strongholds such as Iran, Sudan, Iraq and across North Africa. What's more, they are not doing so because they are being forced to by the sword or by guns. They are turning to Christ despite the very real risk of violent persecution and even death by fellow Muslims. It's an amazing, untold story, and one I document in my new non-fiction book, EPICENTER: Why The Current Rumblings In The Middle East Will Change Your Future, which officially releases on Monday, September 18th.

posted by Joel C. Rosenberg @ 11:03 AM 22 comments

IS PUTIN BECOMING RUSSIA'S NEXT CZAR?

"As American troops give their lives in Iraq to spread democracy around the world, the people of Russia are facing a stark reversal of their democratic rights," CBN reporter Melissa Charbonneau reported from St. Petersburg, Russia, this past week, in a story for which I was interviewed. "It's a retreat from democracy that comes just 15 years after Boris Yelstin's standoff with the Soviet Union from a tank turret in Moscow that marks the collapse of Communism in Russia. In a nation conditioned by centuries of czarist rule and decades of Communist control, Russians seem satisfied with the pace of democratic progress: 'It's much better than it was before. There are a lot of privileges. Now there is food in the supermarkets.'...'We have so many changes that it justifies what's going on now. Putin's priority is order, but changes are never smooth in a transition to democracy.'...But Western observers say that the tide of freedom turned in 1999 when Boris Yeltsin handed the presidency to Putin, his handpicked successor and a former agent with the Soviet Secret Police. Joel Rosenberg is a political analyst and author of the book Epicenter, from the moment Vladimir Putin rose to power, he says, he began building up the military and alliances with anti-Western, authoritarian regimes. The ex-kgb colonel, Rosenberg says, has become the 'anti-Democrat- in-chief.'...'Freedom is getting in Putin's way. Putin wants to be the new czar of Russia,' said Rosenberg. 'He is not interested in a democracy. He is rolling back freedoms. [His goal is] to be a czar and to rebuild the Russian empire.'"

To read the story on-line, please click here.
To watch the video clip on-line, please click here.

posted by Joel C. Rosenberg @ 10:19 AM 4 comments

Monday, September 11, 2006
NEVER AGAIN

To misunderstand the nature and threat of evil is to risk being blindsided by it. The hard, cold truth is that America was blindsided on 9/11, by an evil few saw coming. What’s more, those attacks were just the beginning of a long war against the forces of radical Islam. The most important question we face in the post-9/11 world is whether we have learned anything as a result of that terrible Tuesday. Do we truly understand that the forces of evil are preparing to strike us again when we least expect it? Do we truly grasp that the ultimate goal of the jihadists is not to terrorize us but to annihilate us? Are we willing to take any actions necessary to defend Western civilization from extinction? Or are we going to elevate peace over victory, retreat from the world, and simply hope for the best?

Ours is an age of kamikazes and snipers, anthrax and suicide bombers, ballistic missiles and nuclear warheads. While we no longer face Saddam Hussein, now we face a new Iranian regime threatening to wipe the U.S. and Israel off the map, a regime joining forces with three nuclear powers -- Russia, China and North Korea. All of this raises troubling new questions: What is coming next? How bad will it be? Where will I be when it happens? And am I ready to meet my Maker if, God forbid, I’m in the wrong place at the wrong time when evil strikes again?

Five years ago we were blindsided. Today we have no excuse. The threat is clear. What is not yet clear is our national resolve to defend ourselves, no matter what the cost.

Today, I thank God for President Bush, for his Cabinet and advisors, and for the incredibly brave and dedicated and tireless men and women who are working 24/7/365 to defeat the forces of radical Islam and keep us safe. We are on offense, and it's working. We have gone 1,825 days without another major attack. That is no small thing. And I am grateful. The administration has not been perfect. It has made numerous mistakes, and it will make more. But this President understands the nature and threat of the evil we face, and we must constantly pray for him to have the courage to face it down consistently and relentlessly until victory. And we must pray for the right person to succeed him in 2009, someone who also fundamentally understands what we face and will continue to keep America on offense. For let us be clear: if we cut and run and refuse to win the war against radical Islam over there -- in the Middle East, in the heart of Islamic fascism -- then the jihadists are coming here to destroy everything we hold dear.

This morning I will fly to the West coast on a jumbo jet for a series of speeches on the new threats we face. I will do so confident of the security this President has fought so hard to provide, grateful for the grace of the Almighty, and determined to help people understand what is coming over the horizon. For once was enough. Never again.

posted by Joel C. Rosenberg @ 12:03 AM 17 comments

Sunday, September 10, 2006
ARCHAEOLOGY MAGAZINE SPOTLIGHTS HUNT FOR REAL COPPER SCROLL TREASURES

A few days ago I was speaking at a church in Northern Virginia and a woman asked me to autograph her copy of The Copper Scroll. Then she showed me the new issue of Biblical Archaeology Review magazine with a story on the search for the actual treasures of the real copper scroll. Unfortunately, the woman didn't let me keep her copy, and I haven't had a chance to get my own and read the story. But I thought you might be interested....the hunt for the Second Temple Treasures is on! As the story's teaser reads: “'In the ruin of the Valley of Achor,' lies buried treasure, says the most puzzling of the Dead Sea Scrolls. British scholar John Allegro explored a tunnel under the ruins of Hyrcania in search of this treasure, but he never reached the end. A recent excavation renewed the search."

posted by Joel C. Rosenberg @ 11:55 PM 4 comments

Saturday, September 09, 2006
UPDATED SCHEDULE: DEAD SEA SCROLLS BEGIN HISTORIC U.S. TOUR

UPDATE FROM ATLANTA: We launched "From Abraham To Jesus" in Atlanta yesterday and having been through the exhibit now I can tell you first hand: it's fabulous. There's actually over 340 rare and remarkable artifacts from the Holy Land, some dating back some 4,000 years. And more are coming within days, including more Dead Sea Scrolls -- such as the famed Isaiah Scroll -- whose shipment has been held up by reams of bureaucratic red tape. The presentation of the artifacts is beautifully enhanced with a fascinating, informative and sometimes humorous narration (that you listen to at your own pace on individual headphones and digital playback systems), backed up by a gorgeous original soundtrack and original worship music. I had the privilege of cutting the ribbon and making remarks at the grand opening that included Cary Summers, an evangelical CEO whose company created the exhibit; Michael Solomon, the former CEO of Warner Brothers who is the Jewish co-chairman of the project; Thomas Kinkade, the phenomenal Christian painter; Don Moen, the renowned Christian singer and songwriter responsible for the original score; senior officials from the Israeli Ministry of Tourism; and several highly respected Israeli and American archeologists. It was fun to meet several readers of this weblog and "Flash Traffic" who attended the exhibit and the book-signing I did. I really hope many more of you can see the exhibit for yourselves. The Atlanta exhibit runs through October 8th. An updated list of future cities and dates follows.

ORIGINAL POST: A groundbreaking 28-city, 28-month U.S. tour of the Dead Sea Scrolls and other remarkable Holy Land antiquities begins on Friday in Atlanta. Lynn and I will be there to help kick it off and we'd highly recommend you attend the exhibit when it comes through your area. A list of cities can be found by clicking here.

"From Abraham To Jesus" features the largest and most breathtaking collection of Holy Land antiquities ever to hit U.S. soil, with some 240 priceless artifacts, some dating back to the time of Abraham, along with the first 3-D film made in Israel. The exhibit will feature the U.S. inaugural visit of some of the Dead Sea Scrolls (including The Isaiah Scroll), and the Ossuary (bone box) of Simon the Cyrene, the man who carried the cross for Jesus. This stunning 30,000 square foot walk-through exhibit will travel to 28 cities nationwide, beginning September 2006 and concluding December 2008.

The exhibit, which is sponsored and organized by a group of evangelical Christian business leaders in partnership with the Israeli Ministry of Tourism and archeologists at Hebrew University, is truly a can't miss event. As I've been touring the country for The Copper Scroll, it's been striking to see the enormous and growing interest in ancient treasures, relics, scrolls and prophecies. People are increasingly fascinated, and rightly so, in the archaeological and historic roots of Judaism and Christianity. They're looking for evidence for their faith. And "From Abraham To Jesus" gives people the opportunity to see some of the most amazing artifacts ever found, artifacts that suggest that the more we dig out of the ground, the more evidence we have that the Bible is true and trustworthy. I hope you have the opportunity to see the exhibit for yourself.