8/28/2017: HHS readies additional medical support in Texas and Louisiana in response to Hurricane Harvey

News Release

 

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 202-690-6343
media@hhs.gov
www.hhs.gov/news
Twitter @HHSMedia

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Saturday, August 26, 2017

 

 

HHS readies additional medical support in Texas and Louisiana
in response to Hurricane Harvey

 

HHS Secretary Tom Price, M.D. today declared a public health emergency in Texas. This action buttresses the work of HHS personnel on the ground and the assets and resources that were deployed yesterday in anticipation of the storm’s devastation.

As Hurricane Harvey continues to impact the Gulf Coast and local officials look toward assessing communities’ health care infrastructure and medical needs, HHS placed additional personnel on alert. A list of the latest HHS actions is below:

·         HHS provided emPOWER data to public health officials in Texas and Louisiana on the number of Medicare beneficiaries in each impacted area who rely on 14 types of life-maintaining and assistive equipment, ranging from oxygen concentrators to electric wheelchairs, as well as data on the number of people who rely on dialysis, oxygen, and home health services. These citizens are among the most vulnerable in their communities and most likely to need life-saving assistance in prolonged power outages.

·         Pre-positioned teams of doctors, nurses, and other health care providers who are from as far away as California, North Carolina, Connecticut, New York, and Minnesota.

·         Placed additional National Disaster Medical System teams on alert who are from Tennessee, Florida, Alabama, Colorado, Utah, Arkansas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Washington.

·         Placed additional types of experts on alert for potential veterinary, trauma and critical care, and public health support. The department now has more than 500 personnel on the ground and 1,000 more on alert.

·         Moved two 250-bed Federal Medical Stations to Seguin, Texas, to prepare to provide care in that area. Two 250-bed Federal Medical Stations remain pre-positioned in Baton Rouge ready to be deployed in Louisiana and additional Federal Medical Stations are available in Dallas for patient care in Texas.

·         U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps officers have been mobilized to staff the Federal Medical Stations and meet other public health or medical needs in impacted communities.

The Disaster Distress Helpline, a toll-free call center, continues to be available at 1-800-985-5990, to aid people in coping with the behavioral health effects of the storm and help people in impacted areas connect with local behavioral health professionals.

In addition to full-scale coordination across the federal Cabinet agencies, HHS remains in regular contact with Texas and Louisiana health officials to maintain awareness of the local situation and stands ready to augment support to the states as the situation unfolds.

The Department is committed to meeting the medical and public health needs of communities across the Gulf Coast impacted by Hurricane Harvey in the immediate aftermath of the storm and as affected areas recover. Information on health safety tips during and after the hurricane will be provided by the Office of the Assistance Secretary for Preparedness and Response and will be available at www.phe.gov/harvey.

Critical updates will also be available at:

 

 

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Leading American Muslim Wants Trump to be Tougher on Islamism

PRESS RELEASE
American Islamic Forum for Democracy
Contact: Mischel Yosick
480-225-7473 mischel@zliberty.com
August 22, 2017

Leading American Muslim Wants Trump to be Tougher on Islamism

Today, a leading American Muslim physician and expert on radical Islam, expressed disappointment at President Trump’s “business as usual” approach to extremism in his speech on Afghanistan and terrorism last night. Rather than a full-throated condemnation of Islamism, the totalitarian theo-political ideology behind violent jihadi terror, the speech was merely a commitment to more military action: something that is no doubt often necessary, but that is not the solution to the root cause of Islamist violence. However, it does appear that Trump is offering a welcome change to the last 8 years that had our troops serving in Afghanistan with their hands tied behind their back. President Trump’s empowerment of our troops and trust in the plans recommended by his generals for Afghanistan should be applauded.

Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy and co-founder of the Muslim Reform Movement, said the following: “I approached last evening’s speech with some hope that President Trump would introduce a plan to fight the root cause of violent jihadi terror, Islamism. Unfortunately, he did exactly the opposite: vowing a bold military approach without the on-the-ground work to defeat radical ideology at its source. This is both troubling and dangerous. To commit to only military action without a holistic approach to Islamism is like arresting a drunk driver and dropping him off at the bar. A strong military threat against terrorists is warranted, but not enough: without the muscular liberalism required to support reformers and squash Islamism, the threat of Islamist violence will never vanish. Further, it is essential that we do more than fight against terror. We must fight for our country, for our values, and for our people.”

Dr. Jasser also published today an article in Asia Times entitled “Radical Islam: we Must Talk about More than Just ISIS.” It can be read here: http://www.atimes.com/radical-islam-must-talk-isis//.

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August 22, 2017: Radical Islam: we must talk about more than ISIS

Asia Times

 AUGUST 22, 2017 12:55 PM (UTC+8)

Over the past several years, innocent people the world over have endured blow after blow: Islamist terrorist attacks from San Bernardino to Beirut, Paris, London and now Barcelona and more. Children have seen blood pour into the aisles of concert venues, colleagues have watched their peers slaughtered, and families have lost everything at the hands of ISIS, aka the Islamic State.

There is no denying that the ISIS monster is committed to destroying innocents in its path and taking as many lives as it can – and relishes every time its savagery and carnage dominate the headlines.

It is vital that we pay close and vigilant attention to ISIS: its plans, its whereabouts, and its public statements. We must also pursue it, relentlessly and until it is decimated.

Sadly, this is the same tail we chase with the rise of each radical Islamist terror group in what has become a global whack-a-mole program. As we were on the verge of decimating al-Qaeda, the violent jihadist brand shifted to ISIS. Without treating the real root cause of theocratic Islamism, any chance of decimating ISIS will disappear as the global terror movement shifts to the latest “brand” of violent jihad.

ISIS didn’t begin as the multinational, heavily armed force for violent jihadist terror that it is today. It began as a cluster of radicals who, around 1999, were on the fringes of the jihadist movement. Many of them over time likely affiliated with the militant jihadist flavor of the month or year from al-Qaeda (in North Africa and the Middle East) to al-Shabaab (in Somalia) to Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Taliban (Afghanistan, Pakistan and India).

Given the time to fester and indoctrinate vulnerable young men across the planet in particular, ISIS’ jihadism was expanding by 2003 as al-Qaeda, and wreaking havoc on the international stage as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq unfolded. Now more than a decade later, with the Arab Awakening’s opportunities to confront the despotism that fed these ideologies, and instead finding the growing vacuums of failed revolutions against the twin tyrannies of Arabism and Islamism, radical Islamists have capitalized on increasing chaos, and their recruitment only increases in the wake of carnage both online and in person.

There was no greater opportunity than the Arab Awakening to defeat jihadism by ending the regimes that fueled Islamist ideology in their open-air prisons, but at the same time the complete collapse of civil society has created vacuums that only benefit militants. So we must first, again, militarily usher in the decimation and end of ISIS before looking at more wholly treating the root cause.

Make no mistake: As soon as ISIS is decimated, the global jihadist movement will find other means to advance its ambition for an Islamic state and a caliphate. Like a virus, Islamist ideology in both its militant and non-violent forms will find vectors aplenty among the 1.6 billion Muslims in the world. Non-violent Islamism, the precursor for militant Islamism, encompasses major mass theo-political movements across the global Muslim consciousness.

So it is because these militant groups often begin with one or a few individuals, deeply empowered by malignant theocratic interpretations of religion, that we must talk about more than their bloodletting and violence. We must talk about the very root of the issue: the spark that is Islamism – a theo-political ideology devoted to the subjugation of any and all people who challenge the goal of an Islamic state.

We must uncover information about those so-called moderates who don’t seek to promote a peaceful, pluralistic interpretation of Islam, but who, like “celebrity imam” Siraj Wahhaj, claim to be peaceful while actually wishing for the Koran to replace the US constitution.

We must publicly discuss the fact that too many Muslims in the public eye are preaching hate, misogyny, intolerance, racism and bigotry both at the pulpit and in the streets, all while refusing to condemn the doctrine of armed jihad, frivolous lawfare against freedom of expression, and ideologies like anti-Semitism.

Young people from Connecticut to Chechnya are radicalized in their local communities and online, talking not just to ISIS sympathizers, but to jihadist groups and sympathizers in London, New York, and elsewhere. Youth whose parents and spiritual leaders fail to instill in them a sense of their own identity (be it American, French, or otherwise), and/or who don’t teach them the difference between personal piety and theocracy, or who shame them into archaic, malignant understandings of gender relations, which often leads to violence on a larger scale.

How radicalization works is at once complicated and simple.

On the complicated side of things, there are vast funding networks along with massive political machinery pumping hatred, victim-mindset thinking, revivalist thought and supremacist philosophy into the minds of Muslims and would-be Muslims. These systems will take a Herculean effort to dismantle.

On the simpler side, everyday Muslims and our neighbors are subjected to radicalizing materials, more subtle forms of Islamist thought and the “us versus them” mentality of the contemporary Muslim community. Many well-intentioned people, seeking to help Muslims during tense times, simply sign up to help the wrong groups, thinking the only filter should be condemnation of violence.

These things will not be easy to undo, but they are things regular people can challenge – they are things they must challenge. For example, if Muslims express concerns about a young, dynamic preacher who seems to be spouting radical rhetoric and gaining a following – they must be listened to.

Someone like Anwar al-Awlaki was not born as he died: He became that monster, and was allowed to – even empowered to, enjoying invitations to lead prayers on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, and offer lectures to audiences large and small. He became a lead global radicalizer after being radicalized himself by innumerable precursor ideologues.

In our local communities, gender disparities in mosques, unchecked censorship of freedom of expression, and the unsupervised use of social media by children and very young adults create a breeding ground for malignant interpretations of Islam to take hold. We must all confront and expose with the antiseptic of sunlight any and all ideas that conflict with modernity and the modern liberal democratic state.

8/21/2017: Zuhdi Jasser discusses Pres. Trump’s address on U.S. strategy against ISIS on Fox Business’ Cavuto: Coast to Coast

8/20/2017: Zuhdi Jasser joins the Middle East Radio Forum discussing Christine Douglas Williams’ book about the challenges of modernizing Islam with Christine Williams and Dr. Carl Goldberg.

8/21/2017: Zuhdi Jasser joins Neil Cavuto with reaction to Spanish police confirmation that the main suspect in the attacks has been killed and the need to combat the ideologies that fuel these attacks, especially with terror groups now focusing on soft targets.

8/21/2017: Zuhdi Jasser joins Fox Business’ Risk and Reward discussing the Spanish police confirmation that the main terror suspect has been killed and how to prevent this style of attack by combating the ideology.