Rioting over the Prophet Muhammad

Somehow, some when people will recognize that religions can be just as evil as any other undertakings of men. The only just reaction to the riotng and destruction in rsponse to the cartoons-is to criticize Islam itself for being intolernat and hate filled toward others. The intolerance towrd other criticism would be unacceptable in a government, a corporation or a Garden club. It is less acceptable in a religion that cliams to define the meaning of life for 1/3 of the world.

This is not a criticism of what Islam can be but of what it has become. My family benefited from the greatness of Islam. I am proud to call myself an Andalusian. We lived under Islamic rule in an era of Moslem/Christian/Jewish collaboration, under the flag of Islam. That era was one of the highest civilizations are species ever seen. But the Islam we see today is odious.

Islam suffers, along with Christianity, for an inability to be wrong. The cartoons accurately depict the teachings of the Prophet as read by millions today. The same Prophet who brought his followers and a very modern concept of equality also brought with him intolerance of those who were worship statues of deities. Others with partial truth, Jews and Christians, were to be tolerated as long as they lived modestly, and accepted Muslim rule. For in those whose ancestral homes were Arabia the Prophet had a worse message. In this way he was no better and no worse than his predecessors from more than a millennium before, the Jews described as conquering the odlaters of Cannan. So tdoes the Koran celebrate the Prophet's conquest of Medina, a Jewish city. For the crime of resisting the Prophet's claim to be a true prophet of the Jewish God, the citizens of Medina were killed or enslaved. Jews elsewhere were expelled from their homes in Arabia.

A tolerant person should see the story of Canaan as an artifact of the early days of Islam. One hopes that progress been made in the last 1400 years.

It is in this spirit and, with no disrespect to the Prophet, I'm including in this blog one of the supposedly hateful cartoons. This cartoon shows the Prophet dressed not in Arabic robes but in the rooms of Persia or Indian. Embedded in the Prophet's turban is a bomb. That's offensive if you believe that any image of the Prophet is forbidden. But why were images of the profit from mde taboo? As I understand, the intent was to prevent his followers from worshiping the man as if you were a god. The Prophet wished to avoid the mistake, made by Chrsitans when they deified the prohet Jesus.. The only intent of the Danish newspaper she is to criticize Mohammed, certainly not to deify the man.

Just to be sure that I balance this blog , I'm also including images of the covers of editions of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion published recently by Syria and Egypt. This odious book is not being published by some extreme newspaper in those countries. It is published and supported by most Muslim government. It is presented as truth to people among the Moslem world. Which is worse, the cartoon suggesting that the profit may be being misused or a book claiming that Jews are not human?

As an American, as a grateful recipient of the freedoms created by Jefferson and Madison, I claim my right to side with the Danish newspaper and criticize Islam just as I would claim the right to criticize General Motors, Enron, or... even Israel.

He Killed The Jews

July 18, 2006. Naveed Afzal Haq, an American Muslim invaded the Jewish Federation of Seattle and shot six people. No doubt he said, Praise be to Allah, as he shot at a pregnant woman. HE KILLED THE JEWS:

(CTV.CA 29 July, 2006) On Friday, a man armed with a large calibre
semi-automatic handgun walked into Seattle's Jewish Federation and opened
fire -- killing one woman and wounding five others before he surrendered to
a SWAT team minutes.

One is dead. One is still pregant and lightly wounded.
The others will bear their wounds and live on, maimed.

My response in words is this: MOHAMED KILLED JEWS.

I have been too quiet about Islam's evil side for too long. I read the Quran more than 30 years ago and have reread parts of it many, many times. The Quran shares much with the Book of Moroni, the Vedas, the Torah, the New Testament, and the Hymns of Zarathrustra... Before science, some guy comes to earth and spreads "truth." The truth has many good things .. often liberating people form oppressive priesthoods while combining moral lessons with cosmological nonsense. And all portray truths that lead to hate if not abetted. Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, have evolved since their revelations. The Hindus have their Bhagvad Gita and Ghandi, the Christians have Luther and Martin Luther King, We Jews have too many teahcers ot mention even a few. Even the Mormons, with their science fiction soap opera of a revelation, have evolved to accept Black folks as humans.

Jews have not wanted to kill idolaters for 2500 years and have become leader of social reform for Marx to Alinskly. Today in the hell of Lebanaon how many Muslim schools teach hatred of the Jews? The teaching of the Quran is that WE betrayed Muhamed by allowing with his enemies to pass through Jewish territories. If only the Jews of Yatherib had joined the anti muslim forces, maybe Islam would have died then and there. Instead, HE KILLED THE JEWS.

Am I evil for reciting this part of the Quran? Do I not see beauty in Islam?

I love much in the Quran. I admoire muslims who submit to G-d, submit to a brotherhood of man where all ahev the same needs and rights to learning and food. I only wish in preaching the Ummaya, the concept of one mankind, there was room in that house for thoise who worhip Krishna or accept the Torah.

I hope I am not Evil, There is no Muslim more proud than I of the eras of Jewish/Muslim collaboration, the era of Harun A Rashid in Baghdad (763-800), Saladin (1138-1193) in Egypt and Jerusalem, and, of course the magnificence of the Andalusian era in Spain. In an era of Christian darkness, Islam’s celebration of the intellect and acceptance of Jews and co-believers in G-d, led to an explosion of knowledge that would not be rivaled until the Enlightenment. Yet, even then Islam failed to reform itself. While the Imans of Harun al Rashid’s Baghdad or Toledo may have studied with Rabbis, they never questioned the evil parts of the Quran.

Islam is today an evil religion. The evil is not confined to primitive madrassa in Pakistan or the bizar goldened robed Wahabi congregations in modern Medina. It is endemic and will be until, one must hope, a new Islam .. a Quaker movement, a movement like Hassidism, or perhaps a return to the too brief teachings of Akbar the Magnificent rule of India.

Until then, I will believe that the term “good muslim” is akin to “good KKK.”

Peace be unto all humans, even if that means those that hate others must die.

A Flicker of Hope For Palesitne

I have said that Palestine can not come into being as long as it is cut off from both the Israeli and the Jordanian economies. Now, the idea of a role for the Hashemite ruled region of the ancient Roman "Phillistia" is being revived.

For those out of the loop, the historic "Palestine," under Romans, Arabs, and Turks, was an administrative region of Syria. Jordan and Israel, along with the idea for a separate West Bank Arab state, are all quite modern .. since the 1800s. In 48 Jordan invaded the putative Arab State and the idea of a Palestine including Jordan was attempted. It failed, in part, because it offered an alternative t Palestinian irredentism.

Dr. Robert Satloff, of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, wrote that the "pursuit of an Israeli-Palestinian political horizon may in fact run counter to the interests and preferences of both sides. Instead, investing in an Arab-Palestinian political horizon - including early negotiations on the outline of an eventual Jordanian-Palestinian confederation - may be more realistic, valuable and effective."

As a possible model, may I suggest the situation in Northern Irelan. Peace may be breaking out because of a long period of Brit imposed rule BUT more because of the prosperity coming across the border wth Eire.

The issues is perhaps similar to the one facing the British in naotrher way. The new Brown government's effort to calm things down by using euphemisms for Muslim, is, naive (if well meant) to the point of absurdity.

With he risk of setting off flames, let me suggest that its arrogant to assume that "our" shared European culture is so superior to Islam that "we" can absorb them, melt them down to Brit or Merican culture, as it were. Many of the tenets of Islam are fundamentally different form anything Euro-Ameri-CDhristendom have absorbed in the past. The nearest example I can think of is Orthodox Judiasm. OJ. lke Islam, claims to have its own laws that supercede the laws of "our" society. Even today, many (growing) OJ communtiies libe apart and have their own limtied judicial systems. "We" can tolerate this for three reasons:

1. OJ, unlike Islam, makes no claim to the right to govern non-Jews.
2. OJ is not evangelical.
3. OJ is balanced by Reform Judaism that provides a very easy adapatation some call "Judeo-Christianity."
4. There is no economicd disparity between the OJ and the majority.
5. OJ are small part of the US or Europe.

It may be worth pointing out that RJ evolved over a millennium of Jews and Xtians living together. Moreover, that evolution was driven by a period of enlightenment and tolerance in the Christian majority. In contrast, Islam has lived within Christendom for less than a century and the Muslims in Europe have been brought there as an underclass to labor at low wages.

How does this apply to Palestine? I am unconvinced that the major stumbling block to peace is religion. As nutty as the islamofascisti are, my impression is that a "reform Islam," with intolerances and flexibility , can arise if the Palestinians have a way to develop an economy.
Reza Aslan paints a frightening picture of an Islamic world where ONLY Hezbollah and Hamas offer a vision of discipline and economic development that a poor person can understand. If the only sources of education and food is the Islamofascist run Mosque, the consequences are clear. I urge folks to read Reza Aslan.

Pharyngula on Fort Hood

The man who slaughtered 13 unarmed people in Fort Hood, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, was clearly mentally ill, and should have been treated and cared for before he snapped and went on a rampage. Unfortunately, there's another factor that seems to be getting minimized in the press accounts: he was also a member of an Abrahamic death cult. Ibn Warraq has come out with a strong statement on the Islamic terrorism that motivated the attacks.

It is time to abandon apologetics, and political correctness. Not all Muslims are terrorists. Not all Muslims are implicated in the horrendous events of September 11, 2001 -- or of November 5, 2009. However, to pretend that Islam has nothing to do with 9/11 or the Fort Hood massacre is willfully to ignore the obvious. To leave Islam out of the equation means to forever misinterpret events. Without Islam, the long-term strategy and individual acts of violence by Osama bin Laden and his followers make little sense. Without Islam, the West will go on being incapable of understanding our terrorist enemies, and hence will be incapable to deal with them. Without Islam, neither is it possible to comprehend the barbarism of the Taliban, the position of women and non-Muslims in Islamic countries, or -- now-- the murders attributed to Major Hasan.

Religion is not a mitigating factor. It is not an excuse or a defense. it is not a sacred principle that must not be questioned. Too often, it has a complex causal relationship to evil."

Muslim Martin Luthers: The Theologians Working Towards a Euro-Islam - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News

Muslim Martin Luthers: The Theologians Working Towards a Euro-Islam - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News: "The Theologians Working Towards a Euro-Islam

By Dieter Bednarz and Daniel Steinvorth

Leading Muslim scholars are laying the theological foundations for a 'Euro-Islam' which would reconcile their religion with the challenges of modernity. But just how compatible is Islam with secular Western values?"

Jackson ‘thought of becoming Muslim’ | Pakistan Daily

Jackson ‘thought of becoming Muslim’
Written by (Author ) World Jan 24, 2010

MUSIC icon Michael Jackson was considering converting to Islam during his stay in Bahrain, it has emerged. The late King of Pop, who died of a heart attack last June, talked about it after being moved by teachings in the Quran.

During an interview with the Dubai-based Al Arabiya news station, brother Jermaine said the idea came when Michael began to study Islam when he was a private guest of Shaikh Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa in Bahrain in 2005.

The Jackson family were brought up as Jehovah’s Witnesses until 1989 when Jermaine converted to Islam. He said he believed converting to Islam would have helped the controversial star personally and professionally. “I believe that Islam would have helped him a lot,” Jermaine said. “Had Michael converted he would have been spared all the problems he had been subjected to throughout his life."

"Aryan" Mythology in the Mosque?

YESTERDAY, schools in the American south and, of course in Hitler's Germany, taught a mythical view of the "white race." In this view the people of Northern Europe, somehow destined to become the true Christians, descended from an ancient and nobel root. Mixing the fruit of that root with inferior seed merited a 12 letter word, "miscegenation." The worst of European racism, the KKK, the Aryan nations, and the Nazis based their most odious policies on these mythical beliefs.

Do such beliefs exist in Islam? In one vital way the answer is no. One of the glories of Islam was the Prophet's teaching that all Muslims are one people. Indeed he taught that at one time in the past all people were Muslims and knew the truths of the Quran. Once a person reverts to Islam. the Quran teaches, there must be no distinctions based on race. Of course, as we all see today, the implications for those of us to blind or arrogant to accept Islam may not be so kindly.

Nonetheless, there is within Islam a teaching eerily similar to White racism and that teaching too is antisemitic ... or to be more linguistically correct .. attempts to strip Jews of their Semitic heritage .

TODAY's Islamic school in Seattle teaches that Arabs are a true ancient people, while Jews are a false people comprised of Europeans and others who have usurped the Jewish heritage. For what it is worth, modern genetics shows that Arabs and Jews are pretty much the same people, likely descended from the Semitic tribes of North Arabia back some 10,000 years. However, a large part of "Arab" included people who are descended form non-Semitic North African peoples.

This only matters if you are teaching your children to make racist decisions about others. There is much more in the Quran itself where Jews are depicted as siding with the (nonMuslim) Arabs against the Prophet, as rejecting his message (why not?), and as trying to poison him (in revenge for Jews he killed in battle). To cap it all, the Quran teaches that Jews exulted on the purported death of Jesus, " That they say (boasting): We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah." , But they killed him not nor crucified him. Only likeness of that was shown to them” (Al-Nisa’ 4: 157),

The only purpose of the following text is to deprive Jews of our heritage.

This is based on text taken today from the web site of the Idris Mosque in Seattle. The author of the text is Jamil Abdul-Razzak.

Origins of the "Arabs"

"The indigenous people of Palestine were Arabs for over 5000 years. They migrated from the Arabian Peninsula and lived in the land of Canaan or Palestine"

This is utter nonsense. Semites, including many peoples, did arise in Arabia, but were no more "Arabs" then they were Hittites. Moreover, amongst early peoples of Canaan there were non Semites, esp. including the sea people .. the "Philistines" of the bible. These people were related to the Greeks, Minoans, etc and it is THEIR name that is the basis for the term "Palestine".

"The Israelites, progeny of Jacob, remained in Egypt and assimilated with the Egyptian population. In 1290 BC, Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) led his followers out of Egypt and into the land of Canaan. Prophet Moses received revelations from Allah (God) which he inscribed into the Blessed Torah."

Perhaps. Archaeology says this is unlikely. What we KNOW is that Semites, (I guess in the Muslim mind all Semites are "Arabs") moved into Egypt and eventually established their own Pharonate as a people called the "Hyksos." The Pharaoh of the Torah and Quranic story, Ramses II, may have conquered the Hyksos and driven them from Egypt.

"In 586 BC the Babylonian army invaded Canaan and took the Jews to Babylon and placed them in captivity. During the years of captivity (586-539 BC) the Jews reconstructed from memory the Torah which is different from the original Torah."

By this time Canaan had ceased to exist and the people conquered by the Babylonians were know as Hebrews. Modern Palestinians, if they really have ancient roots would be the descendent of Jews.

The same essay on the Mosque's web site claims that the Torah was written in Babylon from imperfect memories. This is nonsense. Whether the Torah was really revealed to Moshe, it was finalized in pre-Babylon Israel under King Josiah.(ruled 640–609 bce). Jews have been literate for a very long time and it would have been as bizarre for the Jews of 620 bce to restrict the torah to oral transmission as would have been 620 AM for Muslims not to write down the words of the Prophet. Still, the effect is to dismiss the Jewish holy book. Imagine the Islamic anger if the Jutlands-posten, along with the Muhammad cartoons, had replayed the Salmon Rushdie claim that the "satanic verses" of the Quran represent errors in the Prophets thinking?

To make matters worse, Mr. Jamil Abdul-Razzak teaches us that Jews are not true Jews (as opposed, I guess to all Arabs, regardless if their ancestors were .. as in the case of all North Africa, NOT Semitic at all.

Origins of the "Jews"

In 539 BC, King Cyrus of the Persians "conquered Babylon and freed the Jews from captivity. At this point we may say that the Israelites are descendants of Israel, the grandson of Abraham, and the Jews are the followers of Moses. This means not all Jews are Israelites or all Israelites are Jews."

This is an essential aspect of Arab antisemitism .. the claim that most of us are false Jews.

"Throughout the history, the Jews and Israelites coexisted with the Arab and Muslim majority in peace and harmony for hundreds of years."

Tell this to the Romans who defeated THE PEOPLE of Palestine in the JEWISH WARs.

Tell it to the Jews who suffered pogroms in Palestine in the era of a Muslim Majority.

Tell it to the Jew in Turkey who died after the Muslim world republished the charges of our drinking blood.

Tell it to the Jews of Arabia who were expelled from their ancient homes by the third caliph, Omar.

The saddest part of this all is that Jews and Arabs are ... beyond religion ... still the common descendents of the ancient Semites. Our religions share essential beliefs, as long as neither one denigrates the other simply for accepting or not accepting M. as a prophet. Can God really care which prophets a man follows if the man leads a moral life?

How can peace live with such bigotry taught to children?

Defending Islam and Christianity Against Each other

This story has been told in the US as if a Muslim family had actually threatened the death of their child for converting.   The truth may be more complex!

Based on the story below, I suspect  Rifqa, like thousands of Jewish, "Pagan," and Muslim children before here was stolen by Christian Evangelists.


The scary thought arises of what would happen if the two historically barbarically fanatical, child stealing  faiths were to BOTH erupt in this sort of evangelism in the USA? 

Can American tolerance survive a  descent into the cess pool of evangelism of the youth?

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Rule of Jihad

Reposted from 6/10/07


Today's NYTimes has a lengthy and thoughtful review of the Islamic philosophy of Jihad.

There is something wrong in this article. The pieces is an effort to find out how a religion of peace can justify killing. I am, however, bewildered by why anyone would consider Islam a religion of peace. The prophet was, after all, a general. He conquered Arabia and his immediate followers , presumably those best informed about the Quran, swept out of Arabia with the most successful effort at conquest over a very short time in all of history. Within a hundred years the Islamic rule had extended itself from Spain to India ... a span equal to that of the Roman empire but achieved in a far shorter time.

This does not make Islam a bad religion. Religious conquest in intrinsic to Christianity and I suspect more folks have died impaled on the sharp point of the cross shaped sword than sliced by the edge of the moon shaped scimitar.

What is new and different abut modern Islam is that murder has become form many a doctrine. Like the crusaders of a millennium ago, the modern Muslim, or at least a large number of them, sees killing of others as acceptable, even noble behavior. A recent pole in the US found that 25% of American Muslims feel this way.

Bush's disaster is that he has be incredible stupidity put the secular world into a religious conflict. Our, secular, world wide morality should reject islamo fascism as much as we reject National Socialism. We need to celebrate the tendrils of humanism In Islam as much as we can. Where are the liberal Muslims?

The Nation of Islam Welcomes Muammar Gadhafi. - Libyaonline.com

"It is a great honor and privilege for me, the Nation of Islam, and others to welcome Brother Leader Muammar al-Gadhafi, Leader of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and President of the African Union to his first visit to the United States of America to address the 64th Opening Session of the United Nations.
You may ask why we feel honored and privileged to welcome him; it is because ever since we have known him, he has been a friend of the struggle of Black people all over the World for true liberation.

....By his charity and the guidance he has given to so many, he has proved that what comes from his pen and his lips is deeply rooted in his heart. ....In my effort to rebuild the Nation of Islam in accord with the Teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Brother Gadhafi loaned the Nation of Islam $5 million for our economic development then forgave the loan. Then through the Islamic Call Society, the religious arm of Libya, sponsored one the largest Islamic conferences in America bringing Islamic scholars from all over the world to Chicago. The Islamic Call Society also sponsored two of our World Friendship Tours, which allowed us to visit over 53 countries. Brother Gadhafi was and is a true revolutionary who is still evolving towards the destiny that Allah (God) has for him........As you may know, in 1986 the most expensive assassination attempt in the history of the World was perpetrated against Muammar Gadhafi by the Government of the United States of America under the leadership of President Ronald Reagan. .....

A promise was made that if Brother Leader Gadhafi abandoned the idea of making Libya a nuclear power and agreed to pay reparations for the unfortunate loss of life of 270 persons in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing that took place over Lockerbie, Scotland; the sanctions placed on Libya by the United States and the United Nations would be lifted. ...

Many of us that followed these events thought that Libya was made the “fall guy” for this unfortunate tragedy. .....

A few years ago Bulgarian nurses were accused of injecting Libyan children with the HIV/AIDS virus. Over four hundred Libyan children were injected. ....

Libya released these nurses and ... these nurses were received with a heroes' welcome in Bulgaria and were set free not spending one single day in jail.

Abdelbaset Ali Al-Megrahi's life imprisonment was commuted for medical reasons by the Scottish Government and he was released and sent home to Libya to die. A great hue and cry came up from America and other places condemning the release of this Brother. T...

Brother Leader Muammar Gadhafi has shown that Libya is ready to take its place in the family of Nations as an equal and respected partner. ......Libya ..is now serving on the United Nations Security Council and a Libyan diplomat is presiding over this year's General Assembly. Brother Gadhafi's insistence on Africa's becoming one great Nation with Africans in the Diaspora assisting in the development of Africa, is probably the greatest move that Brother Leader Gadhafi has made in his forty years of Leadership of Libya.
....

On a personal note, years ago I told some revolutionary brothers in Africa that I too am a revolutionary but the revolution that I am concerned with is not fostered by the use of carnal weapons. ..................."

What Islam MIght Become?

Shortly after 9/11, while GW Bush still seemed to be be a born-again leader, he talked importantly abut ways the US could work with and encourage the grwoth of tolernat and moderate Islam. Some good things were said about broadening the US multiethnic umbrllla and fostering an alternative to there tradional xenophobia of Islam.

If I do not destroy my Latin, sic transit sprese , thus passes hope. Whatever was in the Bush mindset passed on in the form of a silly PR effort and the need he seems to have to demonize others. Still ... is there hope? Can Islam become a tolerating part of a multiethnic society? India has been the not so happy home of just such an effort. This column describes good things happening in the effoprt by Muslims to adpat their culture to a multi ethnic Indian society.

Oh yeh .. this story is very much related to the next story about "people of color."


HindustanTimes.com: "Daud Sharifa Khanam is constructing a mosque for women. Zafar Sareshwala is the pioneer of Islamic finance in India. Ijlal Shamsi believes he is a better Muslim today because he studied in the US. And an Islamic school in Mumbai teaches its students: “Twinkle, twinkle little star, Allah made you what you are.” Hindustan Times catches up with a community in transition, with Muslims who are proud of being Muslims, and do not hesitate to go back their religion to get ahead in life, make money, get educated and change their lot. They are The New Muslims."

My Way News - Pope Meets a Saudi King for First Time

My Way News - Pope Meets a Saudi King for First Time: " At the end of the meeting, Abdullah presented Benedict with a traditional Middle Eastern gift - a golden sword studded with jewels - as well as a gold and silver statue of a palm tree and man riding a camel. The pope admired the statue but merely touched the sword.Islam is the official religion of Saudi Arabia and the kingdom requires all Saudi citizens to be Muslims. Only Muslims can visit the cities of Mecca and Medina. Under the authoritarian rule of the royal family, the kingdom enforces strict Sharia, or Islamic law. It follows a severe interpretation of Islam known as Wahhabism which rejects the possibility of diplomatic relations with a Christian entity. This interpretation would prohibit a Vatican embassy in Saudi Arabia on the grounds it would be equivalent to raising the cross inside the site of Islam's holiest places. It is forbidden to practice Christianity publicly inside Saudi Arabia, and it is illegal to bring symbols from religions other than Islam into the country. Bibles and crosses, for instance, are confiscated at the border."

Egtypt: SuperBowl Sunday

Egypt on THE-Ave.US

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we are seeing the dawn of the first Arab democracy?

There is an historic irony here. Islam's explosion out of Arabia under Umar, was more than a military conquest. The Byzantine empire was a rotten relic of Rome. It fell to a more rational, more "modern" system inspired by the Prophet's time as the chief magistrate of Medina. From the beginning of the conquest, the forces of Islam, brought the rule of a law and a sense of classlessness quite alien to the Bishops and Bureaucrats of Roman Christendom. Islam offered a system based on equality and opportunity, at least for those willing to accept the Prophet's new religion.

For many Muslims, including Malcom X, that sense of community, that sense of fairness is Islam itself. As flawed as Iran is, Khomeini's vision was to build a modern democratic state on the principles of Medina. Is al Qaeda's reticence the result of their fear of true democracy arising in Egypt?

I have never been to Egypt and am sure that the Egyptians I have met represent a very special sample of the population. Still, there is something Jeffersonian about what is happening in Egypt.

by Bruce Riedel at Daily Beast

There is a famous Arab saying that the dog barks but the caravan moves on. In Egypt, the caravan of change has moved fast this winter, but one of the dogs most expected to bark has been silent so far. Al Qaeda’s number two, Ayman Zawahiri, who has spent his life fighting Hosni Mubarak and calling for a revolution in his homeland, has yet to comment in public on the momentous events in his native land. His silence is probably temporary. But it shows al Qaeda’s top leadership is under significant pressure in Pakistan today from the American counter-terrorism offensive ordered by President Obama two years ago.

read more

Political Correctness

Sighhh ......................

UW students tout ignorance of Islam: "This brings me to -- drum roll, please -- 'Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week,' celebrated at more than 100 campuses across the country, including the University of Washington. Last week's nationwide event was aimed at fostering awareness of the terror threat posed by a fraction of those in the Islamic faith. Organizers also wanted to blast the 'silence of feminists' over the oppression of women of Islam. Their effort would have been better served by looking at how extremists everywhere, across the spectrum of beliefs, crap up the world. Robert Jamieson, Seattle PI columnist. ."

Image from, Handmaid's Tale, by Margarett Attwood.

Dear Mr. Jamieson,

I doubt you remember me but we met a few years ago at an African-American Jewish coalition meeting. You spoke that night and I remember you as a nice, sincere seeker of peace amongst folks, Good enough,

However, in this case you are the one who shows ignorance. There needs to be a line somewhere between tolerance and uncritical acceptance of behavior because it is dictated by someone's religion.

First, I suspect you and I would agree on the malintent of thegroup at the UW. Sure the Bushistas have exploited Islamic extremism. The UW Republicans are not even the mainstream Young Republican group on camous. They are a splinter group willing to trade some hype for a more visible presence on campus. I hope very much that President Obama or President Clintin will bring back some balance to our lives.

Balance, however, must not mean pretending there is no problem with Islam., The problems are real and can not be easily equated to other contemporaneous religious fundamentalisms.

The problems within Islam are not local to the Iraq mess fostered by our incompetent President. Saudi Arabi is rules by a bizare theocracy cum feudal aristocracy worthy of the worst times of European history. From Nigeria to Indonesia, efforts at Democracy are threatened by the success of organizations similar to Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood. These devout folks DO follow the Quran, DO believe in fairness for Muslims, and DO practice sharia .. including the laws that make you a Christian and I a Jew into dhimmi, tolerated people with far less tha equal rights. In that capacity though, we are far better off, my friend, than the Buddhists, Hindus or pagans sentenced, even to death by laws recited 1400 years ago in the name of Gabriel and Allah by the Prophet. The hero of Achebe's "Arrow of God," a nativist priest, could LEGALLY be sentenced t death for blasphemy in Sharia ruoles parts of Nigeria.

Nor is this issue restricted to traditionally Muslim lands. Any true democrat would treasure the French concept of tolerance, but even in France tolerance assumed that immigrants would accept common principles of French law. Not so for the Islamic minority. Nor is our own country free of worry. As recently as four years ago, a study by Freedom House of New York showed wide spread dissemination of extremist literature in American mosques.

Since i suspect you do not remember me, let me tell you I am known for being critical of devout religions in general. Some blog entries that might interest you include my comments on Christianity, the papacy, and so on. However, as unfair as some see me toward Christianity, even I would NEVER equate anything in modern Christianity to the norm of the Muslim world.

Mybe I can make my case by moving the focus to another religious group. What would YOU say if the Mormons:

1, Outlawed possession of a bible or celebration of the Mass or Xmas within Utah?
2. Insisted that Mormon law and Mormon courts rule the loves of all people in Utah As WELL AS in Washington State where M's are minority?
3. Forbade any Mormon to marry outside the Church on pain of death,
4. Required all non Mormons to pay a special tax, required non Mormons to carry ID indicating their status, and prevented any non Mormon church from being as large as the smallest mosque?

Reading what I just wrote, I feel badly. I know the church of LDS does nothing of the sort described here. But parts or all of these 4 rules obtain as law in Nigeria, Indonesia, Pakaistan, Saudi Arabia, .. basically all Muslim ruled states . Moderate Muslims advocate just this sort of law in Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt. Official antisemitic propaganda follows close on.

Have Christians been as bad as this? Yes, and there are horrid current examples, but comparing Ann Coulter to the majority of Muslims in Egypt or Iran is just wrong. A

nd my people, the Jews? Frankly how can you equate the half dozen or so orthodox Jews who have done bad deeds to the existence of entire states that preach hatred and even extermination of the Jews. Tolerating such behavior will not end with peace.

If you have time, please do take a look on at blog entries I wrote, some in some anger, about the error of tolerating unacceptable behavior in the name of religion.

Thanks for listening

Seattle Jew

New Film: History of (Islamic Hegemony over Israel

Home: "Farewell Israel: Bush, Iran and The Revolt of Islam is an historic journey, from the birth of Islam, through its 1,200 year reign over the civilized world, to the last 300 years of Islamic decline, overtaken and dominated by the West -- then humiliated by a Jewish state. Islam's historic trials with Jews, and its relationship with conquered non-believers, help illustrate the Islamic world view - all through the eyes of Muslims."

Does Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (aka Immadinnerjacket ) Secretly Have Jewish Roots? | HULIQ

Does Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Secretly Have Jewish Roots? | HULIQ: "A report by the Telegraph purports to have solid evidence that Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has Jewish roots. The proof of this is the photograph of the Iranian president holding up his identity card during elections in March 2008 which the site states 'clearly displays the evidence. ..the name derives from "weaver of the Sabour", the name for the Jewish Tallit shawl in Persia. '

The Telegraph notes that a close-up of the document reveals Ahmadinejad previously had the surname Sabourjian, which is a Jewish name meaning cloth weaver. A short note on the ID card, according to the Telegraph, suggests that Adhmadinejad's family changed their name when they converted to Islam after his birth.

Iranian freedom activist Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi emails the same remark, and also notes:

...Ahmadinejad isn't the only covert from Judaism. THE most dangerous bloodthirsty psychopath, Habibollah Asgaroladi, the head of the Motalefeh party and his deputy Elias Eliasi are also newly Jewish converts to Islam...to say...they converted 35 years ago...

BUT ...

Ahmadinejad has no Jewish roots

Rumours that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's family converted to Islam from Judaism are false. In fact, they are proud Shias  alternative explanation.

Actually, the alternative  explanation is not fully convincing and certainly less fun.  For one thing, is the claim that the namne was on Iran's list of names reserved for Jews correct?  For another, if his mom was  descended from the Prophet, how did she become a Farsi?

Islamic Blasphemy

Ironic Surrealism II » lars vilks: "Iran protests over Swedish Muhammad cartoon"

Here we go again. The irony of this Islamic obsession with the imge of the prophet should be obvious...Islam has become idolatrous. The prophet's image has become a holy object like the idols he threw out of the Kabbah.
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It took me me years before I realized, along with Bertrand Russel, that there is nothing wrong with idolatry. To use a weird comparison ... the Republican party seems to have an extraordinary share of gays, not because there is some odd linkage between gender preference and ideology but because the hypocrisy of a Larry Craig makes the issue a public concern. The same thing seems to me to apply to religions that loudly proclaim that the worship of idols is terribly wrong. indeed in Islam this is a cause for holy war.

The hypocrisy of muslims decrying idolatry by declaring the prophet as an idol is hard to miss. The Jesus and mo web site compares the hypocrisies of Islam and Christianity.

Of course the same thing is true of Christianity ,,, even more so because of all the statues of their God and his gruesome self sacrifice. And then there is the replacement of Astarte with Mary.

So where does this put Judaism? Well, at least Judaism is not hypocritical. The closest we come to idolatry is that we venerate a book. Even as an atheist, I always kiss the Torah when it is carried around the room. There is something divine about the world's oldest book especially the human effort that goes into each scroll. Of course I would be upset (and have been) when a Muslim or Christian misuses a Torah. Maybe I am the idolater? At least my idolatry is limited to respect for a physical object and I am able to distinguish between the disrespect a nonjew might feel for the book and their misuses of the actual object.

In that regard it occurs ot me that both the Quran and the Gospels dispute the accuracy of the Torah. The Quran actually claims the Torah is not the word of God, but that only their book is divinely accurate. Now that is blasphemy! Imagine what would happen to a scholar who was able to prove that the Prophet used some source other than Gabriel in reciting the original Quran? is Rushdie still alive?

A Response to a Post Blaming Israel for the Iraq Debacle

Background: The original post was by a person arguing that Bus was motivated by oil, esp, by the big companies. Then, there was a counter post claiming that Bush was motivated by suport for Israel. The second poster went on to accuse Israel of being corrupt, illegal, and so on.

I agree that Bush, while naive, illiterate, ill informed, and ill advised id not simply a tool of the big oil companies. I suspect, moreover, that those companies would have been all to happy with a rapprochement with Saddam rather than his deposition.

BUT, you go to an equally absurd extreme by blaming this disaster on us ... the Jews or Zionists .. whatever term you want to use.

First, calling Israel names is bigoted. Israel is a small country, in a tough place, trying hard to survive. Of course it deserves criticism, but calling it criminal, corrupt, etc is just nuts .. espe. when you look at the countries it stands against. If you can find a country more criminal, more corrupt, then Syria I will give you three points but it would take a lot to find good things to say about Saudi Arabia. So, you are correct, the interests of big oil and the interests of Israel do NOT overlap .. other perhaps than in the befuddled mind of our dear leader.

As a Jew, I am frightened of people like you. Israel is a refuge for us, one possible answer to the two millenia of of oppression by Christian and Islamic societies. If it fails, I suspect we will die as a people, Hitler, Torquemad, Pious IX, the KKK, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, the Iranian President, all these bigots will win and 3000 years of a very special history will have been destroyed.

I say this while also feeling that we have real responsibility for Bush's screw up. The Neocons may have a majority of Jews and certainly we are prominent in the top ranks of those who made this horrid decision.

The challenge to Jewish survival is not just from Islam but from our choices of allies. Israel, for example, made the horrid choice of siding with the apartheid regime of S. Africa. Only a nation faced with obliteration would ever make such a choice and it has yet to be learned whether the reward for that alliance,some say this was the source of Israel's atomic bomb, was worth it. Now e .. or our leaders .. chose to ally themselves with the Bushies .. a group of naive believers in the Chrsitian good of the world. They, the Bushies, believe that their fight is so good, so inevitable that all advice form "experts," military or political could be ignored. They even sent in missionaries with the invading force! We chose to support Bush and that may be a fatal error.

All this said, the challenge is not just to OUR survival. Much of what is said about the danger os Islamo-fascism is quite real. Saudi Arabia is like an overgrown tomato, already rotting. The potential evil of a Wahaabi regime that is more extreme than Iran's Shia regime is very real. Atomic bombs, Shariay, and oil .. are a dangerous mix for the whole world.

IMO, there is only one viable answer. The West/democratic part of the world needs to replace the US as a cop with some new, bigger alliance. Europe, the US, India, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Australia and part sof South America have a great deal of self interest in working with China and even the former Soviet Union in creating a ... new world order. Bush could have led such a movement post 9/11. He could have taken time, pursued confinement vs. invasion as alternatives and built the allinace needed to achieve pacification if invasion were the outcome. he did not do that. he wasted his presidency, huge amount of American wealth, and the possible piece of the world in pursuit of a naive, amateurish view of the world.

Finally, and this is the hardest part, I am NOT convinced Israel can now survive. Our alliance with the Christian right may have doomed Israel. There is, IMO, one barely possible alternative. We .. the Jews ... have a natural affinity for the Muslims. In a choose up between Islam and Christianity, the ease of the true strict monotheisms being allies is clear and historic. We also have another allie. Our times of great success in the world, post exile, have included two enlightenments .. Andalusia and later Europe. While Christianity treated us horrible, the enlightenment .. a child of Christinaity .. has been the time of great growth in our culture.
Islam may be, I emphasize maybe, finally in a time where it can enter the enlightenment. A Muslim enlightenment would be different than Europe's but it might be something we and our semitic brothers could join in together.

Call it a dream.
--
Stephen M Schwartz
SeattleJew.blogspot.com

HorsesAss.Org » Blog Archive » Godless heathens

Just to be fair ...

1. Is Aetheism INTRINSICALLY good?

Nahhh ... Lenin killed an awaful lot of folks unjustly, remember the Kulaks? Then there was Pol Pot, the older Mao and .. our current Dear Leader of North Korea.

Bottom live, religion or its absence do ntoseem to have a lto of affect on human capacity to do evil.

2. Jews in MUSLIM lands.

The idea that things were better for us in Muslim lands is very exaggerated.

Muhamud made the first step toward the future when he killedf or enslaved all the Jews of medina for their refusal to side with him. From then on Islam has had an awful opinion of Jews. The worst of this was the blood libel, a piece of gore that began in Turkey.

True, Jews were also honored citizens under the Abbasid Caliphs in Baghdad and in Spain until the early part of the last millennium when Berber fundies invaded el Andalus. BUT .. we were also prominent in Germany before Hitler. The Arms minister who masterminded what became Hitler's re-armament was a Jew!

It seems to me that anti-semitism and, therefore the need to reestablish Israel, was pretty much endemic in both of the religions that inherited their traditions from Rome ... Roman/Greek Catholicism and Islam. Even in the New World, until the US War of Independence, we were not given equal rights or were even burned to death in Hispanic lands.

The only places we have thrived, until now, have been in India, China and the USA. The first two markedly outside of the Roman Heritage and the last .. well another reason I am a proud American and NOT a Christian.

Letter to McCranium

Jim@McCranium.org

Dear Jim.


Not sure if you remember but we have met at DL in Seattle.

I have a problem that you may be able to help with. For reasons I do not understand, Lee Rosenberg has set out on a campaign of character assassination against me. He has even threatened to mount some sort of campaign to have my UW tenure removed.

He claims to have discussed this with you and that you share his feelings on this. That bothers me a great deal.

The specific issue has to do with Mr. Haq, At the time of his arrest , I was distressed by the effort at mass murder and wrote about my concerns that tolerance not extend to tolerance of bigotry.

FWIW, this was two years ago but somehow it has stuck in Lee's craw. Now he claims I have been on some sort of an effort to vilify the Tri Cities Muslim Center. He claims that I blamed them for Haq's actions. If you read the blog you will see this is simply far, far from the truth,

For what is worth (and you are welcome to read my blog) the blog never mentioned any specifics about Mr. Haq's education. I did talk and write about the issue of wahabiism and the fact that we should be concerned that wahabi ideas are being taught in the US . I provided links to a very good study of Muslim curricula at that time and to effort in the Muslim community to reform.

Lee equates this with an attack on the Tri Cities Muslim community. Frankly I know far to little about the community to make such an assertion. I do know is that Haq received a Muslim education there and his view of Islam led to a terrible decision. Obviously that should raise concerns about how Islam is taught in any school, not just the one Mr. Haq attended. I have written that I see this as a warning flag, hardly the sort of hate speech Lee Rosenberg is spreading.

FWIW, I have made similar comments about other sources of bigotry. I am, unfortunately aware, that the Roman catechism prior to John XXIII, did contain a lot of bigotry vs. the Jews. In my own childhood, students studying these horrid texts stoned me in retribution for the murder of their God. The Dutch Reform Church of South Africa, the WWII Japanese Shinto religion, and the Kach movement in my own people are more than enough examples of this sort of thing.

My bottom line is that I value my reputation of integrity. If you know of anything I have actually done that was wrong or anything lee is saying about my beliefs, I would appreciate constructive feedback.

SeattleJew.

Anyhow, Lee has for reasons I do not understand tried to paint this as bigotry on MY part.