Muslim decries American ‘bigotry’ against Islam

Time to counter this drivel, Lets rock.

By Bruce Nolan, 20 February 2008 Religion News Service,
American culture’s view of American Muslims and Islam is steadily deteriorating under an onslaught of “bigotry” on cable news shows, newspaper op-ed pages and in the blogosphere, an Arab-American activist told an audience at Tulane University here Tuesday.
– big·ot·ry Pronunciation[big-uh-tree] –noun, plural -ries.
1. stubborn and complete intolerance of any creed, belief, or opinion that differs from one’s own.
2. the actions, beliefs, prejudices, etc., of a bigot.
[Origin: 1665–75; bigot + -ry, formation parallel to F bigoterie] —Synonyms 1. narrow-mindedness, bias, discrimination.

-Lets me off the hook I have plenty of evidence to base my low opinion of Islam on. Doc may be in trouble though (I’m a stinker)

That’s a significant shift, said Hussein Ibish, founder of the Foundation for Arab-American Leadership in Washington, D.C.
-Sort of true, Americans are more aware then they were but we still have a long way to go before they truly understand the threat.

Decades before 9/11, Hollywood handed Americans the perceived wisdom on Arabs as passionate, hyper-sexed, irrational and cruel. Movies such as Rudolph Valentino’s 1921 silent classic The Sheik and turn-of-the-century thrillers such as The Rules of Engagement portrayed Arabs only as terrorists, Ibish said.
-I know he is not dim enough to suggest Hollywood cares about accuracy.

Since the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, however, Hollywood has backed off. In the meantime, Ibish said, commentators and politicians on the right — and a few on the left — have replaced film stereotypes with hours of air time devoted to misrepresenting Islam and fueling suspicion about American Muslims.
-Note no examples were given. From my perspective, the opposite is true, when Muslims are portrayed in a negative light it is normally followed by a public service announcement reminding viewers that not all Muslims are terrorists, or other PC crap-o-lia (think Jack’s rant on 24).

Ibish, formally trained as a literature scholar at the University of Massachusetts, works in public policy now. He described his foundation as one that trains Arab-American leaders to describe their values to the broader culture in easily understood American terms. He appeared as part of a university symposium on relations between the U.S. and Muslims.
-Try describing Muslim values by comparing them to established western values.

Ibish is an occasional guest on cable talk shows, often recruited to represent an Arab-American point of view in some cultural or civil liberties conflict. He has had at least a couple of sharp exchanges with the Fox News Network’s Michelle Malkin. One, in May, turned on whether the Kansas City International Airport was right to install a faucet so Muslim cab drivers could wash their feet before prayer.
-Ok, I admit to jealousy, Michelle Malkin is hot.

Since 9/11, he said, commentators such as Malkin, Ann Coulter, Charles Krauthammer, Daniel Pipes and David Horowitz have transferred old anti-Arab stereotypes to Islam, in a stream of “incredibly bigoted commentary” that would not have been tolerated before then.
-Ann Coulter is also hot.

“This is what explains the collapse of the good name of Islam,” he said.
-Negative ghost rider. Islam has earned its reputation slowly over almost 1400 years of rape, pillage and burn. Nothing in its modern history has accomplished much to change its historical image.

Muslims themselves are to blame for Islam’s image. A few Americans highlighting the actions of Islamic radicals should be welcomed by Islamic moderates as heralds not bigots. If moderate Muslims existed they should lead the way to the bad Muslims not deny they exist or make simplistic statements about them misunderstanding religious edicts.

The Cult of Obama

H/t to Gramfan for sending this in, it is a cross post from IntellectualConservative.com

By Steven Laib, 20 February 2008
What America truly needs is not a sycophantic public following a cult leader on a path of foolishness.
America as been fortunate in avoiding political cults of personality. The closest that we have come to it may have been the 4 terms that Franklin Roosevelt was elected to. We should note also that FDR was a special case. He was first elected during the Great Depression and continued into World War II. This form of crisis situation has been unusual, and while one might disagree with the way that President Roosevelt handled some aspects of them, he certainly understood the gravity of the situation and the need for America to take action to preserve itself. This is exactly the opposite of what we see with current Democrat presidential front-runner, Barack Obama.

Simply stated, and as a significant number of critics, both liberal and conservative have pointed out, Senator Obama is an empty suit; a candidate who talks in endless platitudes, but says nothing of substance, except that he wants to enact a myriad of tax and spend programs at home, while ignoring the true nature of its enemies abroad and emasculating the military. Perhaps he believes that the foreign dictators are foolish enough to fall for his charm. If elected, he will quickly learn that they will be more than willing to say anything, and then do exactly the opposite if it suits their interest at the time. As Neville Chamberlain sold out Europe to Nazi Germany, Senator Obama is willing to sell out the United States anyone and everyone who has an axe to grind and is willing to say the right things in public, regardless of their true intentions.

Sean Hannity has talked a lot about two focus groups that were asked if they could identify any of Obama’s accomplishments. Both came up with essentially nothing, which speaks volumes; the man really has done nothing, except promote his own political career as rapidly as can. Now, the fact that he can speak charismatically is really all that he is running on. People like what he says, regardless of whether it has any substance. I remember having a similar reaction to Jimmy Carter many years ago. I was a teenager when I told my, now departed, Mother that he said a lot of things that sounded nice, but there was nothing that I could identify specifically as practical or realistic. Obama is now doing the same thing. He talks about “hope” but it is a blind hope; faith that he has all the answers and that electing him to office will somehow solve all of America’s problems. To make matters worse, his campaign is taking on a messianic attitude. This may well speak of an even greater underlying danger.

Islam Versus Judaism and Christianity: some observations

I did some research and found this to best one of the best answers to the old moral equivalency argument that we know so well.

by Ariel Natan Pasko (found at http://www.sullivan-county.com/index.htm)
The Islamic barbarians, or Isalmo-fascists, or whatever you call them, are running rampant in the world. Western civilization is under attack at every gate. Suicide bombings, televised beheadings, and mega-terror attacks like what occurred to the Twin Towers and Pentagon in America, the Bali blast, and the train attack in Spain not long ago, have become increasingly regular events. Yet, though Islam portrays itself as the “religion of peace” and the successor of Judaism and Christianity, it rejects much of Western civilization, and through it’s violent attacks, sees itself on the march toward victory.

Let us look at some salient points…
In the philosophy of religion, all three, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are considered “revealed” religions, i.e. religions of revelation, G-D revealing Himself to man.

In Judaism, The G-D of Israel has revealed himself to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the biblical Patriarchs. Then, to the entire nation of Israel in the story of the Exodus from Egyptian slavery, culminating in His revealing Himself and His Laws, “The Ten Commandments,” at Mt. Sinai. In fact, the entire forty-year miraculous journey in the desert, on the way to the “Promised Land,” is a process of G-D revealing Himself to the nation of Israel. This entire event (and the earlier history of the Patriarch’s encounters with the divine), are recorded in the Torah by the head of all prophets, Moses. Throughout the next 1,000 or so years, through continuing divine revelation, numerous prophets wrote down the continuing experiences of the nation of Israel in their interactions with their G-D, culminating in a body of writings, what is called today the Hebrew Bible, or what Christians call the Old Testament. The earlier rabbis continued explicating the Hebrew Bible’s laws and ethics, and wrote down their conclusions in the Talmud; later rabbis continue this process.

The founders of Christianity fully accepted the truthfulness of the Hebrew Bible; in fact, their own religion demands it. Christianity is based on the revelations and promises of G-D as put forward in the Hebrew Bible. But whereas Judaism states that the era of prophecy ended with the close of the Hebrew Bible, Christians see it continuing several hundred years, until the coming of their messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. Judaism never accepted the “messiahship” of Jesus, and Jews still await their messiah’s arrival. Stories of Jesus’ life, trials and tribulations, and death, are recorded in the Christian Testament, or what they call, the New Testament. For Christians it’s sort of a bible – part II.

Not so with Islam…

The Muslim “prophet” Mohammed, made a complete break with the biblical tradition in writing the Koran, he claimed they were his revelations from the god Allah, through the angel Gabriel to him. Unlike Christianity, which based itself on the Hebrew Bible for legitimacy, Islam saw no need to and in fact argues that Jewish scholars corrupted the Hebrew Bible. The Koran repeats in variant form, many of the biblical stories, only with the twist that now the “community of believers,” i.e. Muslims, are G-D’s people, rather than the Children of Israel. The Koran also incorporates into itself stories from the Christian Testament about Jesus. Thus, claiming to be the “final” revelation. This, along with the claim that Mohammed is the final prophet, to reveal G-D’s – or in this case Allah’s – will, gives Islam its successionistic triumphalism. This directly impacts on Islam’s stance toward the rest of the world today.

Interestingly, there are differences between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, in who is an adherent to the respective tradition, and how one converts.

For Judaism, there are two elements, what I would call biological-genetic, or the national element, and spiritual-theological, or the religious element. First and foremost, Jews are a nation, with a language, a homeland, a culture, a history and a shared sense of destiny. One is born Jewish, or one converts. According to Halacha or traditional Jewish Law, the child of a Jewish mother is Jewish, i.e. biological descent. To convert, there is a process, an ideological element, belief in the G-D of Israel. One then needs to study, accept the truthfulness of the Torah and make a commitment to keep the Mitzvot-G-d’s Commandments to the Jews. As the biblical Ruth in her conversion process told her mother-in-law Naomi, “Your people shall be my people, and your G-D shall be my G-D.” Conversion in Judaism is sort of a naturalization process to citizenship in the nation of Israel, the Jewish People.
Christianity and Islam have a different spin on things.

In Christianity, you merely have to “believe in Jesus Christ as your personal lord and savior.” Descent is through either mother or father. The children of Christians are nominally Christians, because they were baptized as an infant, although, there is a debate among Christians of different denominations whether someone needs to reaffirm his beliefs as an adult. Christianity is more purely a “faith-based” religion, what matters most is proper beliefs. One converts by accepting Jesus and through Baptism.

Islam demands a similar “minimalist” conversion process. Just repeat, “Allah is the only god, and Mohammed is his prophet” and you’re in. Descent is through the father. Which is just right for a violent and aggressive expansionist ideology.

It seems to me, that in some ways, Judaism and Christianity are more “feminine,” “passive,” and “victimhood” based religions. But they’re also the religions that built civilization and the modern world. Whereas Islam in it’s aggressiveness is “masculine,” “domineering,” and the antithesis of civilization. Let me explain…
Go back in time for a moment, to an unspecified past. Islamic hordes go out to rape, pillage and plunder, to conquer in the name of Allah. Islam, started out very much as an Arab Imperialist Movement. In war, the men get killed and the women get raped. If a Muslim grabs and rapes a Jewish woman; according to Islam, the child born is a Muslim, the aggressor’s religion. But according to Judaism, the child is Jewish. The same thing happens when the Muslims attack Christendom. When a Muslim grabs and rapes a Christian woman; according to Islam, the child born is a Muslim. The woman might be forced to repeat the Islamic mantra of “Allah is the only god, and Mohammed is his prophet” and be formally converted, but if the woman wants to, she can still secretly adhere to Christian belief, and raise her child as such, because Christianity is “belief-oriented”.

There you have it, Islam, the imperialist ideology, with the “who is a Muslim question” perfectly suited for conquest, whereas Judaism and Christianity follow an approach that preserves identity in the face of aggression.
About civilization and its discontents…

US troops attack al-Qa’eda’s Iraq stronghold

By Damien McElroy, in Mosul
20/02/2008 – Telegraph.co.uk

American and Iraqi forces have begun their final offensive against al-Qa’eda in Iraq having surrounded the organisation’s last major stronghold in the northern city of Mosul.

After setting up a security cordon around the outskirts of the city and an inner ring of police stations, a joint force of almost 11,000 troops is now mounting strikes on hundreds of terrorist sanctuaries between the two rings in an effort to eradicate the al-Qa’eda threat.

The operations are fraught with danger as streets and houses are often booby-trapped.

The city, which has a population of 1.6 million, has no sectarian divides, so al-Qa’eda bases are intermingled with civilian homes.

But house by house, the force intends to clear the city of terrorists in what Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, has called a “decisive battle”.

On an operation attended by The Daily Telegraph yesterday, one of the first in the new mission, US and Iraqi forces targeted an al-Qa’eda safehouse used by terrorists.

After rescuing a grateful local man, Wassim Mahmoud, who had been kidnapped and stashed beneath a trap door in the floor of the building, the commanding officer, Capt Alexander Rasmussen, consulted members of the 2nd brigade Iraqi Army on what to do with the compound. “Do we blow it up or set an ambush?”

With suspicious wires indicating a booby-trapped arms cache, the Iraqis persuaded Capt Rasmussen to set a trap. Before driving off, Capt Rasmussen stopped at local houses to apologise for ripping down electricity cables.

The gesture paid off when an elder told the patrol about a freshly planted roadside bomb just 50 yards away.

Local residents appear to be ready to offer Americans conditional support – provided the military can install a sense of security on Mosul’s streets for the first time since Saddam Hussein’s demise.

Moon God Worshipers

So, they claim not to be moon god worshipers… Riiiiiight…

Warner had emailed me the following article last night, but I didn’t get around to checking my email until this morning. However, I think you all might find this interesting and so, I decided to post it, albeit a little late…

Muslims to pray during tonight’s eclipse

By NIRAJ WARIKOO • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • February 20, 2008

Local Muslims plan to hold special prayers tonight in metro Detroit to mark the lunar eclipse.

In Dearborn and other cities, some Muslims will gather in mosques to recite prayers during the lunar eclipse, which is recommended in Islamic law and tradition.

Eclipses are considered important signs of God’s creation, according to Islam.

The total lunar eclipse starts at 10:01 p.m. and ends at 10:51 p.m., according to NASA’s website.

It’s an Iranian Sock Party!!!

Iran: Two sisters were severely beaten for not wearing socks

Thursday, 21 February 2008

NCRI – The State Security Forces (SSF) arrested a woman for not wearing socks. When her sister attempted to get her detained sister released by taking a pair of socks to the SSF local station where the woman was held, both women were beaten up by male agents and imprisoned until next morning.

The two were referred to a judge for arraignment the next day. Compliance with the so-called Islamic dress codes by Iranian women is a must and the violators will be punished accordingly.

Thousands of women have been warned for wearing tight outfits, short coats and skimpy headscarves and for flouting the Islamic dress code, which requires every post-pubescent woman to cover their hair and body contours.

Wearing boots with short pants, hats or scarves which do not fully cover hair and neck instead of the proper head veil and putting on unusual make-up that contradicts public chastity is forbidden.

The mullahs’ regime has in recent months stepped up execution of youths in a clear warning to those deemed to be a threat to the society.