By Allen West (via AllenBWest.com)

As our troops in the combat zone contend with the release of Taliban killers and restrictive rules of engagement, they must contend with an Obama administration cowering to Islamic political correctness at home.

As you may be aware, the Pentagon caved to pressure from Muslim groups and relaxed uniform rules to allow Islamic beards, turbans and hijabs. It’s another giant loss for military unit cohesion.

Author Raymond Ibrahim, an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum,writes, “Where loyalty to the U.S. is most needed, the Pentagon embraces those who show that their loyalty is elsewhere (among other things, the beard and hijab are meant to separate “pure believers” from “impure infidels”).”

But why now? As Ibrahim points out,

“This new relaxation of rules for Muslims comes at a time when the FBI is tracking more than 100 suspected jihadi-infiltrators of the U.S. military. Just last month, Craig Benedict Baxam, a former Army soldier and convert to Islam, was sentenced to seven years in prison due to his al-Qaeda/jihadi activities. Also last month, Mozaffar Khazaee, an Iranian-American working for the Defense Department, was arrested for sending secret documents to America’s enemy, Iran.”

Some will say this regulation change is designed to accommodate the Sikh community but based on my research, they were less than 10 Sikhs serving in the US military.

Yet again, the influence of groups such as CAIR, ISNA, and MPAC — groups with ties to Muslim Brotherhood affiliations –wins out, while the Obama administration fails to stand up for American military culture.

Ibrahim says “Muslims who adhere to visible, non-problematic aspects of Islam—growing beards and donning hijabs—often indicate their adherence to non-visible, problematic aspects of Islam. Muhammad wanted his followers to look different from “infidels,” namely Christians and Jews, so he ordered them to “trim closely the moustache and grow the beard.” Accordingly, all Sunni schools of law maintain that it is forbidden—a “major sin”—for men to shave their beards (unless, of course, it is part of a stratagem against the infidel, in which case it is permissible).”

But there have been Muslims in the military who were clean-shaven, so why the need to change the standard? After all, former Army officer Malik Nidal Hasan was clean-shaven and it certainly didn’t stop him from carrying out his jihadist attack – because deception is certainly permissible – as Muhammad recorded in the Hadith.

Our problem is that we continuously refuse to see Islamic totalitarianism as an enemy and recognize its creeping jihad. We continue to submit, subjugate ourselves and our culture, and appease based on the doctrine of political correctness and the empty rhetorical slogan of “coexist.” As I’ve said main times, when tolerance becomes a one-way street, it leads to cultural suicide. I fear the Pentagon has put our military and our nation on that path.

During a press conference in Washington, D.C. this last Wednesday, Deputy Spokesperson for the U.S. State Department Marie Harf said that “The United Sates does not rank the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group."

This despite the fact that those who support the Brotherhood often employ terrorism, including al-Qaeda and other jihadi organizations; this despite the fact that, since the ousting of the Brotherhood and Morsi, Egypt has been engulfed in terrorism; this despite the fact that the Brotherhood and their supporters targeted Egypt's Christians, destroying around 80 churches in a few weeks.

Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. Sisi, the man who ousted the Brotherhood to massive praise in Egypt, just went to Russia to meet with President Putin, as the U.S. continues losing one of the Mideast's most strategic nations.

In Russia, the Muslim Brotherhood is a banned organization.

Even the UK's former prime minister, Tony Blair recently declared “This is what I say to my colleagues in the west. The fact is, the Muslim Brotherhood tried to take the country away from its basic values of hope and progress. The army have intervened, at the will of the people..."

The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in Egypt; and many fellow Egyptians — both Muslim and Christian — know that it is involved in terrorism. Russia and many other nations also know this.

But apparently not the United States.

The other possibility is that the U.S. government does know of the "nefarious" nature of the Brotherhood, but is allied to it anyway. During the same conference, Harf said that contact between the U.S. embassy in Cairo and the Brotherhood is ongoing.

Much of this was revealed in the context of Ahmed Eleba, an employee of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo currently arrested for, among other things, his close ties to the Brotherhood, including Khairat al-Shater.

Currently imprisoned, al-Shater is the deputy leader of the Brotherhood; along with Morsi and other top Brotherhood leaders, he is being tried for, among other things, direct ties to terrorism.

Coptic Solidarity

Ansar Bayt al-Muqadas, one of the latest Islamic terror groups to target Egypt, combating the post-Morsi government, yesterday posted on YouTube a video clip of the bombing of a military intelligence building in Anshas, east of Cairo.

This terrorist attack occurred in December; at least four were injured. The video, which shows the building for several seconds before it is bombed, further confirms that Ansar Bayt al-Muqadas was indeed responsible.

Jihadi chants are heard throughout the video clip, beginning with “Oh prophet, move the believers to fight.” Then, apparently to rouse the anger of Islamists everywhere, images and clips of the military neutralizing pro-Morsi protesters appear, as well as images of the jihadis’ greatest political enemies in Egypt, the military, beginning with Maj. Gen al-Sisi.

It is then that the military building appears being bombed—apparently to show viewers angered by the previous images how to respond.

Finally, the video ends with Abu Mus‘ab al-Zarqawi—the late al-Qaeda affiliated jihadi leader in Iraq, who was notorious for decapitating his enemies—thus demonstrating the quality of those currently fighting the Egyptian government in support of the ousted Muslim Brotherhood.

Another Valentine is here, and another Islamic fatwa condemning it has appeared.

Popular Egyptian Salafi preacher, Sheikh Abu Ishaq al-Huwaini, said yesterday that the celebration of Valentine’s Day is “forbidden according to Sharia.”

He would be one of countless Islamic clerics to condemn that day in recent times.

During his televised show, Huwaini said that “I am shocked at those [Muslims] who celebrate that day, when all of Cairo turns red,” adding that “What man whose heart is full of the love of Allah could do such a thing?”

After Huwaini quoted Muhammad, the prophet of Islam’s famous saying—“I have placed humiliation and contempt upon those who oppose me, and whoever imitates a people is of them”—the cleric asked, “So how can we Muslims celebrate the celebrations of the infidels?”

Huwaini even invoked economics to make his point, arguing that Muslims around the world waste millions of dollars making phone calls to loved ones, going out, and buying gifts—“and then we complain to Allah asking where our money went.”

Is Huwaini—the same sheikh who justified buying and selling captured “infidel” women for sex—simply being an “extremist”?

In fact, yesterday a popular Muslim website revealed that 84% do see Valentine’s Day as a forbidden “aspect of imitating the West.”

Here we come to the crux of the issue: the problem is not that many Muslims are averse to Valentine’s Day—so are many non-Muslims—but rather why they are: because Muhammad ordered Muslims not to imitate non-Muslims.

Now if Muslims meticulously follow the teachings of their prophet concerning this seemingly trivial matter, does that not indicate that they likely also follow the teachings of their prophet concerning other, problematic matters—such as deceiving, subjugating, and plundering infidels, all in the name of "jihad"?

Once again, then, we connect the dots and ask: Is it not logical to assume that those Muslims who outwardly seek to appear different from non-Muslims, simply because Muhammad told them to, must also be following his more problematic commandments, specifically, those that deal less with appearances and more with intentions?