GLENNJanuary 24, 2017

Liberal Muslim Journalist Defends Glenn Beck, Bill Maher for Exposing Islamic Extremism

In a refreshing and somewhat surprising segment of his radio program on Monday, Glenn struck up a conversation with journalist Asra Nomani about rejecting identity politics in the wake of the recent women's "counterinauguration" march in Washington, D.C. She expressed gratitude to Glenn and others, including television host Bill Maher, for uncovering the roots of Islamic extremism, which she argued is a major issue for women, despite being covered up and dismissed by those seeking to control the narrative.

As a Muslim liberal feminist immigrant woman, Nomani told Glenn she rejected the Hillary Clinton platform and voted for Donald Trump largely because of "eight years of burying our heads in the sand on the issue of Islamic extremism."

"Many other Muslims have also voted the same way because we're fed up of the Saudis and Qatar and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, you know, shoving this extremist interpretation of Islam down our throat," Nomani said.

She went on to describe a harrowing experience that took place while she was living in Pakistan:

You know, 15 years ago, my colleague and friend Danny Pearl was kidnapped off the streets of Pakistan.

I was pregnant by a boyfriend there in Pakistan. I didn't even know it, as I waved goodbye to Danny. My boyfriend bailed on me that day. And so I was left single. I was a criminal, as a woman, according to the interpretations of Islam that are put forward by the government of Pakistan.

And then Danny was murdered because he was Jewish. And so there's a casualty for women, for others, if we don't deal with this issue of Islamic extremism. And my hope and intention, as a journalist, is to try to show the propaganda that silences this conversation.

Glenn encouraged listeners to look up Nomani's latest story for The New York Times entitled, "Billionaire George Soros has ties to more than 50 ‘partners’ of the Women’s March on Washington." In it, Nomani gives credence to Glenn's past examination of the infamous billionaire's connections, including ties to Islamic extremist groups.

"You have your flourishes, right? In how you present information," Nomani said. "I know at the heart of it is a very sincere effort to try to educate people about an extreme ideology inside of Islam. And we need to have that conversation."

Glenn explained his personal endeavor to be more concienscious about the way he presents information.

"I am trying to change my tone, not my principles, but change my tone," he said. "And to admit my mistakes and to really try to listen. But it's going to take people on the other side, to do the same thing."

Nomani agreed. Glenn asked if she saw any movement within liberal circles toward introspection and reaching out to understand the other side.

"The fact that we're even having this conversation, you know, Glenn, you and me, we both have completely different identities," Nomani said. "But I really do believe that we both stand on this middle path, where we don't want to be, you know, pulled and stretched by the extremes."

She continued.

"I really believe that we have to be the civility we want to see in the world, to use the Mahatma Gandhi quote," she said.

Glenn thanked her for her courage and example.

"Thank you, Glenn, for your courage because it takes a lot to grow in this world," Nomani replied. "And you're always doing it, as we all are."

Listen to this segment or view transcript below:

GLENN: Here is Ashley Judd from this weekend.

ASHLEY: Nasty as Confederate flags being tattooed across my city. Maybe the South actually is going to rise again. Maybe for some, it never really fell.

GLENN: Oh, my gosh.

STU: Ugh. So bad.

ASHLEY: Blacks are still in shackles and graves just for being black.

PAT: Why?

GLENN: What?

ASHLEY: Slavery has been reinterpreted as the prison system in front of people who see melanin as animal skin.

STU: What?

ASHLEY: I am not as nasty as a swastika painted on a pride flag. And I didn't know devils could be resurrected, but I feel Hitler in these streets.

PAT: And she's not as -- keep in mind, she's not -- she's comparing him to devils and Hitler, but she's not as nasty as he is. So just know that.

GLENN: She's not as nasty -- no. And when she said, "I feel Hitler in the streets," I thought, "Well, you're kind of the one in the street right now."

PAT: Right.

PAT: You're reciting awful poetry, that I think the Nazis wouldn't have even done.

(chuckling)

Jeez.

GLENN: I saw -- in the New York Times -- congratulations to the New York Times for running this story. It is by Asra Nomani. She is a former Wall Street journal reporter.

Here's the headline: Billionaire George Soros has ties to more than 50 partners of the Women's March on Washington.

What is the link between one of Hillary Clinton's largest donors and the Women's March?

Turns out, it's quite significant. That's the headline. Asra is with us now to tell us a little bit about the connections.

Asra, thank you for writing this story.

ASRA: Oh, my gosh, Glenn, you must be thinking, "See, I'm not crazy. Somebody else has figured it out." You felt lonely, right?

GLENN: I know.

Yes, I did.

ASRA: I know.

GLENN: Now it's your turn to feel lonely.

ASRA: Yeah, I got to tell you, it is a machine out there that wants to shut down this conversation. I just got done telling one of my fellow journalists, a woman who supports the march, you know, there are supposed to be no sacred cows in journalism, and that includes the Women's March, and that includes George Soros.

GLENN: And what did she is?

ASRA: They tell me that I am biased. And I say to them, "But this is what -- this is the point. The Women's March was a biased march." I mean, Ashley Judd, when I was looking back at another spreadsheet I'm doing on the speakers, was a clear Hillary Clinton supporter. You know, so she said -- she has a famous quote during the campaign: Are there any other qualified candidates? Absolutely. But I think Hillary Clinton is the most overqualified candidate we've had since Thomas Jefferson or George Washington.

GLENN: Oh, my gosh.

ASRA: So they put forward this march as a Women's March, but really it was just for women who are anti-Trump. And that's what I was noticing. Because I had come out of the closet right after the election and wrote a piece for the Washington Post that I, as a Muslim woman, an immigrant, had voted for Trump. And I did so largely influenced by eight years of -- of burying our heads in the sand on the issue of Islamic extremism.

GLENN: Uh-huh.

ASRA: Many other Muslims have also voted the same way because we're fed up of the Saudis and Qatar and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, you know, shoving this extremist interpretation of Islam down our throat.

And so then when this Women's March emerged, I thought, "You know what, I'm a feminist. I'm for women's rights." But I noticed that there wasn't any room for people who didn't agree with the platform of Hillary Clinton and the very strong identity politics of the left. And there are many of us who are liberal, who refuse that -- that politics.

And so I started doing my investigating, and that's how I got this spreadsheet that folks can view. You know, I've got it open on Google Docs, that amazing technology that we can use today.

And I saw the numbers, and I saw that, you know, there is a real bias in this march, and we should be honest about it.

GLENN: So what was the reaction first from the New York Times? Was it hard to get The Times to write this?

ASRA: Well, the wonderful thing is that Tina Brown, you know, a former publisher and editor at The Daily Beast, Vanity Fair, has created this platform at the New York Times called Women In The World. And it is a unique place where voices of, you know -- I believe the spectrum of analysis is allowed in a way that it's not even allowed on the opinion pages of the New York Times anymore.

So fortunately, we've got these outlets where we can still have the kind of straight, you know, clear reporting and analysis that I tried to present with this piece.

GLENN: So where are you going from here with this? Because one of the cochairs -- and I think you point this out in your article, is someone that most people would not look to as somebody who is looking at a favorable view of Islam, from the Western point of view.

ASRA: Yeah, the person you're speaking about, one of the co-chairs is Linda Sarsour, and she has, you know, been a really polarizing and -- and, you know, controversial figure in our Muslim community, as well as in the country.

There is a photo in which she has a young boy with a rock in his hand aimed at Israeli soldiers. And her message on this photo is -- is that this is an image of courage.

And so I have been aware of the way -- of the way that you, for example, and many other people have been targeted by individuals like Linda Sarsour -- including myself. I have also been a target. You know, from the left to the right, we've been targets when we have a serious conversation about Islamic extremism.

You know, Glenn, I know you're a very understated person, right?

GLENN: Yeah, that's me.

ASRA: You know, and so you have your flourishes, right? In how you present information. But I know that -- I've read your work, I've followed your work, and I know at the heart of it is a very sincere effort to try to educate people about an extreme ideology inside of Islam. And we need to have that conversation. But you have been targeted. Bill Maher has been targeted.

You know, from the left to the right. And I call these individuals the honor brigade. They silence anybody who -- who defames the supposed honor of Islam. And so Linda Sarsour has been a character in this network.

And my effort now is to try to really expose the workings of this network that has existed for the last 15 years, since the 9/11 attacks, and brings us to this place to where we're still debating whether there's an Islam and Islamic extremism. We're still debating whether there's an Islam in the Islamic State. And to me, all these issues come together because, you know, 15 years ago, my colleague and friend Danny Pearl was kidnapped off the streets of Pakistan.

GLENN: So, Asra, where do you go from here? Because I've -- I am trying to change my tone, not my principles, but change my tone.

ASRA: Yes. Yes.

GLENN: And to admit my mistakes and to really try to listen. But it's going to take people on the -- the other side, to do the same thing.

ASRA: Yes.

GLENN: And I saw this march this weekend, and I thought, "Donald Trump is going to go to war with the press, and the press is going to go to war with him." And the left, the activists will stir it up on the streets. And we're in trouble.

ASRA: Yeah.

GLENN: The hate is just going to grow more and more out of control. Are you seeing any movement at all from the liberal circles in the press that are starting to say, "Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Maybe we have some of this wrong?"

ASRA: Well, you know, first, I want to say, you know, thank you for your own personal journey coming to this place. Because, you know, we all do that. Like I -- you know, we have -- we're passionate about issues. We -- our voices express it. And I appreciate, you know, the soul-searching that you've done and sharing it with people. I think that takes a lot of moral courage. And I just want to thank you for that.

You know, the fact that we're even having this conversation, you know, Glenn, you and me, we both have completely different identities. But I really do believe that we both stand on this middle path, where we don't want to be, you know, pulled and stretched by the extremes.

GLENN: Yeah.

ASRA: You know, we all grow in our lives. You evolve. I evolve. We all evolve and think it's on us. You know? I don't know if we can have much hope in a lot of our media outlets, but I do know that I personally, secretly, from fellow journalists thank me for the work that I'm doing because they're sick and tired of the bias also.

You know, I couldn't even watch CNN's coverage of the Women's March. I can barely, you know, watch anything but C-SPAN nowadays. Right? Because it's just bare --

GLENN: Yeah, it's just the raw fact.

ASRA: And, Glenn, it's on us. You know, I really believe that we have to be the civility we want to see in the world, to use the Mahatma Gandhi quote. And -- but continue to have very clear analysis, like not pull our punches, you know, when it comes to clear reporting.

GLENN: Yes.

ASRA: And I want to, you know, invite everyone to also, you know, walk on that middle path with us and not engage in name-calling or vitriol, but really be the civility we want to see.

GLENN: Asra, I hope we get the chance to meet some day. I am a huge fan of your courage, and I truly believe courage is contagious. We just have to see more examples around it -- around us. And people will join in.

ASRA: Yeah.

GLENN: And I'm so grateful that the New York Times gave you the space to run this article and that you took the time to do the research on it and spoke the truth. Thank you so much.

ASRA: No, thank you, Glenn, for your courage because it takes a lot to grow in this world. And you're always doing it, as we all are.

GLENN: Thank you.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

Is Autism an Evolutionary Step in Human Intelligence? | Dr. Diane Hennacy

Autism is often described as a disorder, but what if it’s something more? Glenn Beck and Dr. Diane Hennacy explore the extraordinary cognitive abilities of autistic individuals, from pattern recognition and visual thinking to savant-level intuition. They discuss how autistic minds may represent a different kind of human intelligence which is faster, more perceptive, and less dependent on language. Could autism be an evolutionary adaptation, revealing a deeper form of awareness we’ve lost?

Watch Glenn Beck's FULL Interview with Dr. Diane Hennacy HERE

RADIO

What Americans Voting for "Socialism" are COMPLETELY Missing

America’s economy isn’t broken by capitalism... it’s broken by control. Glenn Beck and Carol Roth dive deep into how government intervention, corporate monopolies, and central bank policies have created a rigged “K-shaped” economy that rewards the rich while trapping the working class in debt and despair. From housing shortages and student loans to the rise of socialism and global governance, they reveal why Americans are losing faith in the system and what must change to reclaim the American Dream.

Dr. Oz EXPOSES the $15 Billion Medicare SCAM Behind the Gov't Shutdown

Glenn Beck sits down with Dr. Mehmet Oz to reveal the shocking truth behind the government shutdown and how billions of taxpayer dollars are being STOLEN through Medicare and Medicaid fraud. From California’s healthcare funding for illegals, to foreign governments like Russia, China, and Cuba exploiting America’s medical system, this discussion exposes the corruption draining our nation’s resources. Was this the real reason for the government shutdown?

RADIO

Democrats cave on shutdown—But Glenn warns the real fight begins NOW

Enough Democrats have finally decided to end the government shutdown. But as we await a final vote, Glenn warns that the battle is far from over. The shutdown had a MAJOR effect on our nation: it softened people up even more to socialism.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

STU: Thank God, we are out of this shutdown potentially.

That's the thing today.

GLENN: Yeah. Are we? Are we though?

Are we?

STU: Yeah. The Democrats stepped up. Or folded, depending on who you are talking to. And solved this for us.

GLENN: Yeah. Yeah.

Thank you for that. I appreciate that.

It is -- it's so clear now that all they did was they held this for the election, to try to win the election. And now they're ready to -- to fold. And we are seeing people with real, real problems all around the country.

Socialism is becoming popular because the -- quite honestly, the -- the right is not -- is not answering the question, what do we do from here?

We are in what's called a K shaped economy right now.

And that's what happens after a crisis. When the different groups, head to different opposite directions and locations.

If you think about a K, you think the upper line goes up. And the lower line, that's the -- the up are the people with assets and homes and stable jobs.

And they'll do well.

But the lower -- the lower line goes down.

And that's the people living paycheck to paycheck.

The renters. The small businesses. The wage earners. That all fall behind.

And right now, you're seeing on television, you're seeing, oh, my gosh. Look at, the stock market is up. All of these things are up. Well, that's great. Some rise. Some sink. But the gap is widening here. The K at the very beginning where the two lines meet is very, very close to each other.

But as they keep going, those lines becomes further and further apart. And there is a moment in -- you know -- there's a moment -- how can I explain this?

Remember the old country fairs? You probably never went to one. But maybe you saw it on TV. Where there's a strong man contest. And there's that thing where, you know, you hit the -- you hit the thing with the hammer, and the bell goes up. And it goes bing!

That's what's happening right now. There's a strong man contest going on right now, and everybody leans in to see, oh, will this guy be able to ring the bell? And he takes the big hammer, and he swings it, and the puck goes up, and it rings the bell. Some swing just as hard, and the puck barely budges, okay? Same hammer, same pole, different outcomes. That's a K-shaped economy.

And we live in a moment where the puck is going up for those who already own a house and have investments or run businesses that survived the storm. And, you know, they -- they swing the hammer.
And the bell goes up and rings the bell. But the family down the street, the young couple that is trying to buy their first house. The small shop owner that never reopened. They're swinging just as hard. Just, the puck is barely going up as hard. And the system says, "Try again, step right up. Try again."

And then hands a smaller hammer. A K-shaped economy is not philosophy.

It's not a political slogan. It's what happens when a government prints money like confetti. And then watches inflation climb a ladder that is missing rungs. And then tells you, don't worry. The economy is booming. I'm sorry. The economy is not booming for a lot of Americans.

And there are big changes being made right now of the global level. And I like the changes that are being made at the global level. But we are -- we are forgetting there are too many people that are really hurting right now.

You know, we are going to continue to work and continue to spin our wheels on socialism. Until there is a new idea on how we're going to get out of this problem.

And Donald Trump is working on a long-term solution. But I -- I fear that's not going to be enough.

I heard a crazy idea today about a 50-year mortgage. Oh!

Wow!

So the average person is in their house for 12 years.

And I've got a 30-year mortgage. Which means, I'm not really putting very much into it. Because the bank is taking all of the interest rates for the first, you know, ten years, at least. They're taking all the interest first. And then I don't really start paying my house off until the last 15 years of that mortgage. But now, instead of a 30-year, you want me to do it for 50 years!

Oh! Okay. Okay.

Well, what -- what is that going to do. Well, first of all, it's going to raise the price of the house.

You know, if everybody starts -- I get a 50-year mortgage, so I can afford the house. We have a shortage of houses.

So the house payments. Sorry, the house prices are going to go up because we have a lack of housing. And then on top of it, you're going to double the payment anyway.

Because you're paying all that extra interest. I mean, you're just charging more and stretching it out. It's like, solving hunger by not giving food. But just giving longer straws to people.

Okay. Wait. What?

You'll pay double to the same house. It means double the interest rates. And while your roof has to be repaired, the -- the brand-new wiring that you had when you bought the house, all needs to be redone. The appliances have to be replaced. Everything. The bathroom is completely out of date.

All has to be replaced again. You're still paying on that house.

It's like buying, not one house, but two houses. And it's not freedom.

It is trapping you. And, you know, what really bothers me is, it is home ownership. No. I'm sorry.

It's renting, disguised as home ownership.

That's what that is. You're not going to build equity into a house like that. You won't own your home until you're in your '80s. And if you bought it later in your life, your children will inherit the payments that you have. It masks the problem that we really have. Is home prices. Because we don't have enough homes.

We also have these giant corporations that are buying up homes, en masse!

And then renting them to us!

And we also have prices for the home that is broken from the wage -- a 50-year mortgage is like giving someone a longer plank on a sinking ship.

I'm going to end up in the water anyway.

I guess that's helpful in a strange sort of way.

What we don't understand is these are the conditions in which socialism thrives.

If we keep just trying to say, socialism is wrong! We're not going to help anyone.

There's two things that have to happen.

We, A, have to come up with new solutions for these very old problems.

And the new solutions cannot involve printing more money. Bailing the banks out.

Giving the banks more interest. Or anything like that.

Because socialism is coming with a vengeance. And, boy, I've got to tell you, it is going to have all kinds of answers, because it always does. In January, I will start something new, called the Torch, and it exists really, for one reason. We're running out of time to relearn what our grandparents knew by heart. Okay? The lies that we face today are not new.

They're old ghosts wearing just modern clothes. And starting January, I'm dedicating the next part of my life.

The last part of my career, to education on history and -- and usable things going deep. You know, the thing about broadcast is, you go very wide and very shallow. I need to go narrow and deep at times.

We will still be doing what I do here. Which is bringing you all the news and trying to make sense of it.

But I need to go deep on things. And socialism is one of them.

So we are working right now on new programs and new podcasts, and new -- a new daily rhythm of learning that I've never done before. And some of these shows are just going to be you and me, every single day, just walking through history with a flash light in one hand and the truth in the other, trying to figure out what's going on. But one of the lessons that I think we need in this is a series on socialism, on why it never works, how it happens.
And how the lies always begin exactly the same. This is the kind of work that the Torch is being built for. So let me give you -- let me give you a highlight of one lesson.

On how -- whenever a society gets into this situation, history will show us, a poisoned promise begins. And I'll give that to you, here in just a second.

GLENN: Okay. So let me give you -- with a K-shaped -- a K-shaped economy, the socialists always arrive making all kinds of poison promises, and there is a pattern. And it is so ancient, it can be Scripture. Also, modern enough to sit on the news crawl, as you're watching whatever news you're watching.

Every socialist experiment starts with the same smooth tongue promise: We are going to make life fair.

Unfortunately, for socialists, you know, history keeps impeccable books. The receipts are really, really damning. Fortunately for socialists, nobody ever reads history.

So let's take a quick stop at history for a second. Hugo Chavez is probably the latest. When Chavez took power in Venezuela, it was 19.95. He told the nation, which was boom. It was lake America 2000, okay?

He said -- he's building a new -- a new revolution that would create a classless society. Where oil wealth would lift the poorest into dignity.

Okay?

He had the richest country, besides I think the United States of America, in the western hemisphere.

He said, it wasn't enough!

We need no more hunger.

No more shantytowns. And the state will guarantee your rights. And we're going to distribute the wealth of the rich to the people.

And everybody cheered. And everybody was so very excited. And for a short moment, the fantasy glowed. Because it always the blows for just a fraction of the second.

He nationalized the oil industry. Then he said, poverty he would end by decree.

Well, he ended something by decree.

By 2014, the shelves were completely empty in the stores. By 2016, the average Venezuelan was losing over 20 pounds a year, due to food shortages.

Let me just remind you, that by 2016, they were eating the dogs and the cats in the streets.
Not making that up. Look it up yourself. And the zoo animals in the cages of the zoo were also being cooked up for people on the streets to eat!

Hospitals lost their power. Children died from treatable diseases.

Millions fled the country. And today, Venezuela sits on the largest proven oil reserves in the world!

And yet, people are standing in line for bread while the daughters of the socialists post photos of European vacations. What's happening to the revolution there?

It ended with a ruling class gorging on privilege and the nation digging through dumpsters for meals. That's the way it always happens. It's not an outlier. It's a rule.

Look at Cuba, 1959, Fidel Castro. I'm quoting, the revolution will bring justice, equality, education, and health care for all!

Freedom from American exploitation. Che declared that Cuba would become an example of a new humanity!

Well, what followed?

Well, first thing they did, was they shut down the independent newspapers. They were shut down by 1960. Then they imprisoned people in labor camps for being counterrevolutionary, including priests, teachers, and homosexuals.

Yeah, that Che. Then food rationing began in 1962. By the way, food rationing in Cuba has never ended!

Today, the average salary in Cuba is $15 a month!

Now, the same communist party that claimed to abolish class, created the most immovable ruling class in the Caribbean, and yet the billboard still shows smiling peasants and slogans about equality, while the sons of party officials are driving imported cars through Havana's rotting streets. And everybody else has to fix a car from the 1950s. Remember, the promise was fairness, but result was an island-sized cage.

All right. It was just those two! Now, let's look at Germany. The Nazis were -- national socialists. Hitler didn't sell Naziism as tyranny. He sold it as social justice for the German worker. The Nazi platform, 1920, promised abolition of unearned incomes. Profit-sharing in large industries. Nationalization of trust. Land reform because there just wasn't enough space for people to own their own houses. All in the interest of the common good. It was marketed as a worker's movement. A worker's -- a socialist worker's movement, and it was going to correct all the inequality, punish the greedy capitalists, and restore fairness. So what happened? Well, first the disabled had to go, and the sick children. Because we can't afford to keep them going. And the political dissenters, they were just stopping us from all this progress. Oh, and the Jews, of course and the Slavs.

And the Pols. I mean, anyone who didn't fit the utopian math, they were gone. The promise of fairness became the most industrialized murder machine the world has ever seen. But don't worry. We can also go to the Soviet Union. The grand cathedral of socialist dreams.

Here's what Lenin promised: We'll bring about the complete equality of all citizens, end quote!

The state, quoting, will whither away! Oh, yeah.

The workers will own the factories. The peasants will own the land. Okay. So they got power. And what happened?

Well, none of that. Under Stalin, over 100,000 priests were executed or sent to camps. Why?

Why do they keep going after the religious people? Because the religious people are the only ones that will stand against monsters, that's why.

Millions of Ukrainian peasants were starved under the Holodomor for refusing the collectivization. Read that story. It's horrific. The workers paradise required one of the largest secret police stories in human history. Why?

Soviet Union became a nation where you waited hours to buy bread. Party members, however, if you were in the party, and you were high up.

Oh, you could get anything you wanted. You had luxury stores that were built just for you.

By the 1980s, the system was so hollow, that the most basic consumer goods. Soap. Shoes. Toilet paper, they were rationed or unavailable. And, by the way, the state never withered away. It metastasized into every corner of life. It became everything.

This story of socialism is written in blood, in ledger books, all over the world.

And it always starts with the promise of equity or equality. And it always leads to the rise of an elite who decides what equality means. And every time it fails, they say, well, that was just put in the hands of the wrong people.

No, the key word here is not wrong. It's people. People.

The workers never get the factories. The peasants never receive the land. The poor never get any of the wealth.

And it's this story over and over and over and over again.

Socialism begins with a promise. But always ends with a ruling class, armed with absolute power!

Only the names change.

Did you know that -- did you know in Jamestown, in 1619, you know, that boat that the New York Times said arrived. Didn't arrive with slaves.

It arrived with socialism. It ended in cannibalism. Did you know that the pilgrims tried the same thing?

They decided, you know what, we should put everybody's money into a big pile. You take whatever you be need.

That's the Christian thing to do!

You know what that ended with?

Starvation and death.

By the way, the big reunion tower, the big ball you see in the sky.

That's to mark reunion.

That's the first sociologist town in 1855 in Dallas. Guess how that ended! Starvation!

Glenn's Show Prep