Last week, the attacks in India and the threat to New York City's subway system provided another stark reminder of the need for a united front against global terrorism. Yet instead of figuring out how to combat Islamic extremists, the United Nations is worried about offending them.
On November 24, 2008, the U.N. passed a draft resolution against the defamation of religion sponsored by the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), where all U.N. members are being asked to pass domestic legislation against blasphemy. The resolution was originally introduced in 1999 by the OIC, asserting that "Islam is frequently and wrongly associated with human rights violations and terrorism."
In reality, terrorism happens in Islam's name, or more
accurately, in Islamism's name. Islamism is a 20th century
product arising from the writings of sincere Muslims such as
Hasan al-Banna and Syed Qutb. Frustrated by the fallen status of
Muslims vis-à-vis the West, they offered a new version of Islam
as a totalitarian socio-political alternative to democracy and
Western license. Disparate followers from Osama bin Laden,
Hezbollah and Hamas to the Jihadis that waged war on Mumbai last
week are not deranged or crazy. Rather, they subscribe to a
worldview that is antithetical to most Muslims and the
West.
The OIC nations charge critics of Islamic extremism with "racism"
and "Islamophobia" to deflect attention from the fact that such
violence originates at the hand of Muslim clerics born and bread
in their lands. This is because they realize they can't control
Islamism, or they tacitly agree with its message.
These Muslim clerics also export this ideology to the West to radicalize Muslim immigrants abroad, and reform-minded Muslims are usually the first victims.
Kadra Noor was beat up in 2007 for speaking out against "Islamic" female genital mutilation in Norway. In Sweden, cabinet minister Nyamko Sabuni proposed that honor killings be labeled a separate crime in the Swedish penal code and girls get mandatory gynecological exams to discourage female circumcision. She also told the Sunday Times that arranged marriages are not a part of Islam.
As a result, she was called an "Islamophobe" and instead of supporting her, 50 Islamic Swedish organizations petitioned against her appointment to the cabinet in an effort to suppress her growing influence in Swedish politics.
Pakistan, spokesman for the OIC, recently promoted a politician to minister of education after he defended the live burial of five girls in Balochistan as "tribal custom." It is not a stretch to argue that Pakistan is not an OIC member interested in reform.
The 2005 Danish cartoon controversy kick-started the OIC campaign to pass last month's resolution when it was cited as another example of increased discrimination against Muslims after 9/11. The "cartoon intifada" arose 5 months after the original printing of the images of Muhammad, but only weeks before the UNHCR was due to consider the OIC's resolution on "Combating Defamation of Religion."
Such a coincidence caused the National Secular Society to state in its Memorandum to the United Kingdom Parliament that "the Danish cartoon crisis was manufactured…to exploit sensitivities around racial discrimination and to promote (or even exaggerate) the notion of 'Islamophobia' in order to restrict possibilities for open discussion or criticism of Islam….[M]easures calling for legislation banning 'defamation of religion' …. aim[] to remove religion, especially Islam, from public scrutiny and public debate."
The OIC forgets that Muslims are already protected in the West. The U.S., for example, increases sentences on crimes ranging from assault and battery to murder if they are deemed "hate crimes," which includes crimes against a victim based on his or her religious identity.
So what is this 57-nation organization really pushing with this "anti-blasphemy" resolution at the U.N.?
In the Muslim world, anti-blasphemy laws are regularly used to suppress free speech by attacking fellow Muslims and non-Muslims who criticize the government or protest human rights violations. Such laws are also used as pretext against individuals in personal and business disputes. The mere allegation puts mobs before the accused before the police can arrive to investigate.
At the U.N., the OIC has manipulated the language of racism to make its anti-democratic agenda more attractive to "third world" nations recovering from their own genuine post-colonial struggles. Nations that voted in favor of the resolution or abstained were predominantly from Latin America or developing African nations.
A final version of the resolution is up for a vote this month. It would be a mistake for these U.N. members to fall for anti-colonial rhetoric once again. By aligning with Islamists, the U.N. would be supporting the stifling of free speech and the suppression of human rights, and crushing the goal of building tolerant democratic societies.
Jason| 12.4.08 @ 7:15AM
The U.N. is almost uniformly on the wrong side of every important issue and can be counted upon to side with the thugs and outlaw of the international community.
Crusader| 12.4.08 @ 7:55AM
Islamism is a 20th century product? Really? How do you explain the fact that islam has been a militant/destructive "religion" since its founding in the 7th century?
I don't know why we in the west try to kid ourselves into thinking this militant/terroristic islam is something new. Read the quran. Read a biography of the false prophet. This has been going on for 1400 years with this false religion. Until we recognize that the "war" we're in isn't against "terrorism" but against the practitioners of the false religion we will never win. We will never be safe. We will never be free.
Daphne Kenward| 12.4.08 @ 8:42AM
The Islamic Nations is no different from the Christian Nations, one coin, heads or tails, one you win two you lose.
What is it all about really? (G.O.D.) = Gold Oil Drugs.
How many people in Europe or infact the Arab world knows this, perhaps 2% of the worlds population. And many will write in and curse me for saying this because they don't understand and is not meant to.
American Gold reserves empty, War in Iraq, Kuwait, pending War with Iran, all to do with Oil, WAR in Afganistan all about Drugs, and Oil pipe lines. Many think they are fighting Terror not true. None of the Sept 11th people came from Afganistan or Iraq, facts.
What sells these days is Oil Drugs and Gold. Economic down trun only affects people who don't know what to invest in. Check out George W Bush family connection in the Opium trade. When you check it out you can curse me out. Then check out their Oil connection. And tie the wars togeather, their connection and wealth is from Oil and the Drugs TRADE. Americans have a lot to learn.
Todd | 12.4.08 @ 8:59AM
Daphne,
Maybe I should just ignore you because it is rather obvious that you have lost sense of all reality with your nutty conspiracy talk. Your first sentence makes zero sense along with everything else you wrote. Americans may have alot to learn but there is nothing to learn from your nonsensical ramblings.
WendyG| 12.4.08 @ 9:07AM
I guess it's folly to think that kooks won't come here to add their kookery to the mix. Islamic terrorism is apparently due to oil, gold and drugs - a fact only 2% of the world knows and understands. Oh, and the Bush family's opium connection...
Yes, oil has something to do with it - in that if we didn't need oil from the ME our options in fighting terrorism would be far more viable. Which is one very good argument that the team of McCain/Palin would have been better overall.
Drill baby drill.
Thomas| 12.4.08 @ 9:59AM
The UN will pass the resolution for one very simple reason, the bulk of the member states are totalitarian or quasi-totalitarian regimes. They agree with the suppression of free speech. Unfortunately they do not truly understand who they are dealing with. These people are not Muslims who attend the mosque once a week and pray once a day as they go about their daily lives. These Muslims live and breath the Koran, including all of its admonitions on the Faithful to allow no infidel to live free and to bring the entire world into line with, and under the control of, Islamic law. And the UN membership either does not see this or does not care. The governing bureaucracy of the UN has its own desire to control and rule the world and doesn't really believe that there is a threat to its plans from Islamic extremists, Third World dictators or the effete leaders of the European Union. So they don't really care about anything that doesn't limit their own power or inhibit their own plans.
So just do what the rest of the world does when the UN does something that they do not like, ignore it.
Daphne Kenward| 12.4.08 @ 10:09AM
Tod.
The reality is you are not meant to understand, you are dumb down enough that you don't know what you're voting for, most Americans wre told they were fighting War on terror, then it was war Iraqi freedom, then it was war regime change.
You are not meant to be able to connect the dots. No child left behind America is 14th in the world in education, science and technology, maths rational reasoning. Darling you have been left behind. Infact I was in America a few years ago and I met by chance a high ranking Service man, and he told me exactly waht I have just said.
Americans have been fooled, and now you think I am the fool. If I did'nt care what is happening in this world I would not even bother, all I wish is if people could just take a bit of time out of their day and check information read up on facts, and stoop allowing the Governments to make idiots out of you all.
I am not the fool, the fool is the man who walk blindly into danger.
Daphne Kenward| 12.4.08 @ 10:40AM
Stu.bcon.
You know what, that is the funniest thing I have read all day, you have managed to make me laugh, well done.
My mother was a smoker, she died 30 years ago, of cancer, she was a lovely lady that never touched any thing except she like to smoke, and I do miss her.
In my mothers day no one had heard of crack, and all the fancy stuff young people do today. One of the things I have always been carefull of is stress how much of a waste of time drugs is. It is out there to stop people from thinking, and being aware of the dangers in the world we live in today.
While we are having a good time Rome Burns, which is what is happening today, we are told one thing, and most of the time we are so pfar from the truth, because we have been well and truely brain washed, most of us don't even know it.
I would dare you to look up the Opium trade and the Bush Family, and the Oil trade, and if you don't know Pakistan has been the export area for drugs for years. Drugs from Afganistan, the drugs war the CIA and the American Government call war on terror, is the same war America has on the streets of every American city, and every European city. Drug dealers killing one another over turf and money.
Most realistic people knows one thing don't trust Government they are people like us and they are corrupt, some worse than others, we see them as gods, these are people with privilege and opportunity, to exploit the masses, for money, you just had an election costing more than 2 billion dollars, ask your self why, they will not earn 2 billion in wages over 4 years. It's about the other stuff you can get and money you can make, and the connections.
The victims are the poor Islamis on the streets been blown up and the poor American service men and women losing their lives, and European ones too, fighting the government drugs war under the umbrella of terrorism, each protecting their turf.
L. Ross| 12.4.08 @ 11:41AM
Daphne:
Once again, I suggest you use a spell checker, as your poor spelling makes you look rather silly. 'Er, um, sillier. By the way, I am a fairly high ranking military man myself, and trust me, if any "high ranking military man" said anything you parrot, he was on numerous watch lists and probably drug tested weekly.
Regarding the author's central point about muslim violence and islamist extremism vs. peaceful mainstream muslims, I keep waiting for the mass demonstrations of millions of muslims denouncing terror tactics. I must have missed the million muslim march to protest these latest attacks in Mumbai. Or the attacks in Spain. The attacks in the London subway. The attack on the World Trade Center in 1992 or 2001. The attack on the Cole. The attack on Khobar Towers. I could go on and on and on. Odly enough, when a tiny little paper in Denmark prints a few innocuous drawings, they riot in the streets in protest. My point is, the notion that most muslims worldwide are peaceloving people just like Daphne and me is belied by what causes them to protest, and what does not.
Daphne Kenward| 12.4.08 @ 12:08PM
L Ross.
I agree with you on the spell check front. I should go over my stuff I write it so quickly and should check.
But I met a Guy in America a few year ago, and I can confirm something I was shocked about and it was about the Iraq war. This guy gave me a card and I was so shocked, that an American can meet a total stranger and tell them so much.
There are many people Mr Ross even in the Armed forces who don't know what's going on. My concern is the lives of innocent people Mr Ross, that is my concern, and the levels of miss information being put out on a daily basis which is based on lies. I don't make money from telling what I know, what I would like to achevie is for people to stop joining the American Armed forces because the people are young and they have a right to live, they have a right not to be used by Governments to make money based on their blood. Losing their lives thinking they are fighting for something but infact fighting a Drug war to profit families like George W Bush and the likes of Dick Cheney and Hilliburton.
You can claim I don't know what I am talking about, the fact I make mistakes on writing too quick, and make spelling errors because I am just so dam angry, with whats going on. And the American people buy into this.
I want every one to know George W Bush and his family is nothing more than a bunch of Nazi criminals, and a bunch of Drug Dealers, and Oil barrons who don't give a DAM about Americans or the American people who puts their lives at risk thinking they are fighting for their country. When they are fighting for nothing and losing their lives. The CIA which George W Bush father was head of, has been promoting drugs into America, and the victims are ordinary American families in every street and City of America.
Jeremiah| 12.4.08 @ 1:29PM
Jason
re: UN is wrong...
Much like the Supreme Court, the UN carries out many actions that you never hear about because they're not controversial. The UN does great things all over the world, things that would be missed if they stopped.
What you end up hearing about are a few highly controversial matters. And if you think you've studied up enough to proclaim the UN on the "wrong side" of all of these, well fine. I think you're being a bit obtuse.
An institution devoted to gathering representatives from every country in the world to create a forum to work out differences just isn't going to please everybody all the time. More likely it'll not be able to entirely please anyone most of the time. But it's an attempt to prevent wars and international crime (the infrastructure of terrorism). That's a noble endeavor.
Jeremiah| 12.4.08 @ 1:32PM
Crusader --
I have a few responses to your post: a) you are a bigot and a jackass; b) you don't know anything about Islam or the Middle East; and c) your gleeful vision of a war against the Islamic world is cruel and morally stupid.
You need to grow up, man, and not be so governed by your fear.
Joe D.| 12.4.08 @ 2:05PM
Everyone needs to wake up especially the writer. Islam from its birth and its founder Muhammad has practise violence to achieve its goal of world domance. The only thing that has changed are the tactics. Some Muslims are peaceful and that is true. However, its docturane is not. Please look at history. The Crusades were in response to Muslim aggression.
Thanks
Jeremiah| 12.4.08 @ 3:26PM
Joe D --
I don't know what you're referring to by Muslim "docturane" and the idea that the Crusades were in response to Muslim aggression is false.
You people need to get your information about the Islamic world from someplace other than the Sean Hannity show or whatever bigoted fringe internet sites you like to visit.
The Koran is a very old book. Like all old books (including the Christian and Hebrew scriptures) it espouses ideas that are monstrous if taken literally.
Most people who claim to follow these texts literally know little about them. Instead, their religious teachers select a number of passages from these texts for literal acceptance, leaving embarrassing or challenging passages out of the teaching.
Christian priests and ministers rarely dwell at length on many aspects of the Old Testament. They all pick and choose.
The idea that Islam is especially violent or murderous is completely and totally false.
The worst war in the history of the world was begun by Germany, ostensibly a Christian nation, and engaged in by the USA, England, France, Italy, Japan, and several other nations -- almost all of which were not Muslim.
There have been Muslim tyrants and empires, to be sure. Muslims have committed horrible atrocities, and terrorism is a great evil. But to condemn Islam as essentially violent is ignorant and foolish.
Carol Hellman| 12.4.08 @ 4:19PM
The fact is islam is NOT a religion of peace and anyone who says otherwise is a liar.
The islamists hate the west because they are jealous. While many islamists live in squalor, most of the west has prospered with the opportunity for a decent life---and allah didn't have a darn thing to do with it. THAT'S what really ticks them off...
Dustoff| 12.4.08 @ 4:36PM
Jeremaih.
So you say the UN does great things? WOW
Ok, then. Please name three.
If I was you, don't even bring up the peacekeepers. Their path of rape is not what I would chear about.
Daphne Kenward| 12.4.08 @ 4:36PM
Joe D.
You seem to have left out a few things when blaming the Moslems. America armed Saddam to attack Iran, also gave Saddam of Iraq the gas to kill the Kurds.
America also sold the curved drills to steal oil from Kuwait, which lead to Iraq attacking Kuwait.
America and all of Europe attacked Iraq, because it hampered their cheap oil they had been getting from Kuwait.
Then Iraq was again attacked for WMD, then it was war Iraqi freedom, then it was war for regime change, then it was war on terror.
And now there is a plan to attack Iran using the same bogus plot.
I think from what I can see there is more Arabs or Molsems being killed than anybody else.
I know I am going to get slammed for saying this but it's true. Then there was the 1953 invasion of Iran by America and the British, to steal oil from the Arabs.
All this comes down to who is writing the history. Read the Book on the History of Wars.
Arabs did not start the first or second world war. Iran is perhaps one of the most peaceful nation in the world they have not started a war in 500 years, and yet they have been attacked two times and they are about to be attacked again.
Daphne Kenward| 12.4.08 @ 4:41PM
By the way the UNITED NATION IS THE UNITED NOTHING. Food programmes in Africa where UN peace keepers are having immoralities with children they are there to help. They are a bunch of UN nothings.
Dustoff| 12.4.08 @ 4:46PM
Daphne
Your getting (slammed) because of your meaning of truth. Just because you say something that YOU believe, does not make it the truth.
Jeremiah| 12.4.08 @ 4:54PM
Carol --
Surely you understand that "Allah" is just another language's word for "God." Brood for a moment on the implications of this to your last post.
Islam is the religion of over a billion people. Some of those people live in poverty, some do not. Generalizations make an utter fool of people who attempt them without profound and deep knowledge of a subject like this. Carol, you do not qualify.
The vast majority of Muslims in this world live in peace and are untroubled by "jealousy" in response to western affluence. (Keep in mind that some Muslim nations have extremely high standards of living -- higher than ours, by some measure -- although these things are relative and difficult to gauge.)
You'd be closer to reality (and unaccustomed proximity, I'm guessing) if you brooded a while on a general cultural sense of having been humiliated that many experts identify as a powerful motivating force encouraging terrorism. This humiliation is often traced back to the experience of colonialism, which was particularly hard in the 20 th century on Muslim countries in the ME.
(Those of you completely without knowledge of this history are now cued to write angry posts denouncing me as a terrorist because I have dared to seek some understanding of Islamic culture.)
Jeremiah| 12.4.08 @ 5:00PM
Dustoff --
The UN is an enormous institution that undertakes hundreds if not thousands of programs that are generally approved of by conservative and liberal people alike, with the exception of fringe loonies who don't know what they're talking about.
One area you might want to look into is what the UN does tracking slave trafficking (there are more slaves in the world today than ever before) and other international criminal activity. The UN has been convening about terrorism for years. The UN coordinates hundreds of NGOs for charitable works, making them more efficient and beneficial. I could go on, but I guess I'd ask that you do a little research before you make a blanket condemnation of something you know little about.
Jeremiah| 12.4.08 @ 5:05PM
RE: Muslims
The bigotry you people express towards Muslims is a shame because I'm quite sure if you ever met any you would very quickly repent your foolishness and reform your views.
In my travels I have met people of no culture more generally friendly and hospitable than Arabs, most of whom, as some of you probably know, are Muslims. (Not all of you seem to understand that not all Muslims are Arabs.)
Willful ignorance is a dreadful sin because it forecloses the possibility of its own remedy.
I think some of you should crack your New Testament and actually read what you find there. Never mind what the fool who preaches to you on Sunday says.
Dustoff| 12.4.08 @ 5:10PM
Jeremiah.
Many countires in the UN have been doing the slave trade for years and the UN has does what?
Try SUDAN for starters.
I asked for 3 and so far you've done zip!
Keep trying sport.
Dustoff| 12.4.08 @ 5:12PM
OOPS
UN has done what?
PS.. many of these NGO's have been wasting money for years. Plus care to explain (food for oil) mess the UN was in charge of.
Alan Brooks| 12.4.08 @ 5:43PM
Daphne should be president of a World Federation of Nations. She would solve the population problem. By the time she left office the situation would be like that in Russia after the peasants starved.
Jeremiah| 12.4.08 @ 5:52PM
Dustoff --
Let's try this the other way around:
What is it that you would have the UN do?
On Sudan, they can provide a forum in which individual countries attempt to persuade others to take action. They can recommend ground rules for these collective actions -- to ensure future cooperation.
However, they can't invade Sudan. The UN is not a world police force or government. It's essentially a meeting police that helps coordinate actions.
Now it's true. Some NGOs waste money. Some do not. What do you want from me?
Some things we try succeed, some fail. This is the complexity of life, Dustoff, not a UN conspiracy.
I think what we have here is another example of the immaturity of "conservative" thinking. You don't hate government or the UN, you actually idealize it, and when it doesn't live up to your fantasies of parental perfection, you sulk. You adopt foolish anarchistic ideas, like grounded teenagers.
The fact is that the UN, like so many other human institutions, does the best that it can to promote world peace. This is not necessarily an easy thing to accomplish.
So moan and complain about it, if you'd like. It doesn't really help or hurt anything.
Alan Brooks| 12.4.08 @ 7:09PM
The UN are blame-America-firsters.
they think it's our fault Idi Amin was a cannibal.
they think it's our fault Mandela's wife is a murderer.
they probably think it's our fault Hitler was a coprophile.
sam| 12.4.08 @ 7:15PM
This country is in trouble when they accept a person has a PROVEN record of deceit. Good lord, this bonehead said she dodged sniper fire and there is video showing just the opposite. Yet Obama has nominated her as the US representative to the world. My God, the country has lost it's mind. I used to be an optimist in regards to the United States, but what given what our elected representatives are doing today, I truly believe that this country is in a downward spiral. I pray that the people of the United States stop this craziness and throw most of these officials out of office in 2010.
Daphne Kenward| 12.4.08 @ 7:57PM
Alan.
It sounds like you are describing your glorious leader George W Bush again.
As for describing me as World Federation of Nations, again you have described your Glorious fuhrer, Dubya. Who had bankrupted his Nation and the world.
Toby1| 12.4.08 @ 8:12PM
God Bless Daphne.
She knows not how perfect she is.
A perfect example of what the problem is here in the west. The democratization of information via the internet and modern media has produced this result. It is not as funny as all that.
Nowdays it's not necessary to be able to spell, or even read a book to have the sort of forthright opinions that Daphne displays. She has a formidable arsenal of information garnered from sources she no doubt considers cast-iron in their veracity and rationality. She is perfectly willing to believe any rubbish that re-enforces her ill-informed and lurid quasi-religious views. She also finds a vast constituency of co-worshipers ready and willing to share them. Some of them semi-idiots like her, others much more sinister, and some truly contemptible such as the enablers in our own culture who profit from the peddling of these absurd conspiracy-porno tales.
It is a kind of drug. It provides a big hit for certain kinds of minds to feel that they have become enlightened to a higher insight than the fools they perceive around them. It is fertile ground for the deadly infection of Islamism and any other kind of hate ideology.
When These people get together they can elect governments, or worse.
They are growing in number and confidence.
We should be very afraid of the Daphnes.
Daphne Kenward| 12.4.08 @ 8:15PM
Muslims have been involved in the Slave trade and still is, but we also have to remember the Jesuits who imported millions of Black people to Europe and America during Slavery, most were involved in the Catholic Church.
Look up Blinkx video: Allen Watt exposes the Jesuits, on youtube.
For those of us who thinks the UN is more than an organisation that exploits the poor, to look good, check out what happend in Darfur. And the Biafran war and see if you can work out what they are worth.
Daphne Kenward| 12.4.08 @ 8:23PM
Toby1.
What is wrong could not think of anything constructive to say.
I would not be surprised if you are worried about my comments about the war.
What you need to do is open your eyes and travel around America, you have a war and a Terror situation on the streets of America called GUN CRIMES, and DRUGS.
America is truely a HELL on earth in some places.
Toby1| 12.4.08 @ 8:33PM
Dear Daphne. Please do not take offence. You are entitled to your opinion and many brave men and women have fought for many hundreds of years to ensure that you are free to express it.
I have visited America myself a few times, and have to agree that some parts are very rough. I suggest you avoid them.
Good luck with your research hun.
answer this question...| 12.4.08 @ 8:42PM
...will it someday be a crime to be normal?
I come from the most liberal family imaginable: William S. Burroughs, for one was a friend of the family, he was the writer who wrote Naked Lunch-- and you can tell by the book's title that it wasn't exactly Narnia.
Burroughs shot his wife in the head playing William Tell in Mexico, Burroughs molested boys in North Africa and other America-is-to-blame cesspools-- there are many all over Latin America, Asia, and Africa.
He received many literary awards.
You live a sordid life, you get an award.
Jack Kerouac was the only visitor who wasn't anti-American, because he was too drunk to care much.
Burroughs said the FBI and CIA should be abolished.
My uncle told me child molesting is pleasing to the Buddha.
Gregory Corso told me OJ Simpson deserved to be acquitted.
None of them were truly educated, but they taught college classes frequently.
Jeremiah| 12.4.08 @ 9:59PM
Are you guys serious?
This is the nuttiest thread I've ever seen.
There was a topic of the thread somewhere. But.
Some serious crazies on this website.
Crusader| 12.4.08 @ 10:32PM
WRT muslims, Jeremiah said,
"Willful ignorance is a dreadful sin because it forecloses the possibility of its own remedy."
Exactly. Many in the West who consider themselves intelligent and use $10 words on websites like this are willfully ignorant of the religion of the false prophet. As far as the New Testament goes, Jesus warned us to beware of false prophets. He said that many would come claiming to come in the Father's name. Sound like anyone you know?
Alan Brooks| 12.4.08 @ 10:39PM
Jeremiah,
yes Daphne is possibly crazy, and so am i.
but i figured if Daph could do it, so could anyone.
so you want to return to the thread? okay, but you wont like it: Islam is the worst religion today.
More violent than any other.
victimologist.
misogynist
internationally subversive
feudalistic
pedophilic
and as the article describes, oversensitive.
So what excuses are you going to make now for Islam? but knowing you, you might not reply.
Jeremiah| 12.5.08 @ 12:22AM
Alan --
Where do you get your information? Pedophilic? What are you talking about?
"Internationally subversive"? What does that even mean?
My friend, you need desperately to get some therapy or religious counseling. Something. Because you've turned the page.
Crusader --
You sir are even more ignorant than Alan, here. How did you manage that?
You're not as crazy as Daphne, which I suppose is saying something.
Jeremiah| 12.5.08 @ 12:29AM
re: The New Testament
The Gospels are four tricky books. I have to admit, reading them and getting a clear idea of their meaning is the work of a lifetime, and no one can be blamed for missing the point every now and then.
However, scanning the world for false prophets doesn't seem to be a priority of the Christian. Jesus does say that false prophets will come. He spends a great deal of time talking about other things too.
One particular emphasis is his intolerance for hypocrisy. That's something I'm particularly interested in. Also his insistence that people reform themselves and leave the heavy lifting of moral judgment to God. The Hebrew Bible said it well, too: Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord.
Maybe when you're through being the holy executioners of the false prophets you can teach the rest of us how you came to be the Lord's true Avengers -- God's terrorists. That I'd love to hear.
Alan Brooks| 12.5.08 @ 2:31AM
a. internationally subversive in that funds are being disbursed, by sympathizer groups who are not criminals, to terrorists.
b. pedophiles in that Mohammad married a 9 year old, and many Islamic men have underage wives-- now they may be 13-14, but they are still underage.
Jeremiah| 12.5.08 @ 10:28AM
Alan
a) It's true there are some organizations that fund terrorism. This is not a surprise to anyone, nor is it particularly shocking. Terrorists receive funding. Islamic terrorists received funding from Muslims. O.K. I still don't see this as a justifying a blanket condemnation of Islam.
b) You've got to be kidding. Have you ever read the Old Testament (or Hebrew Bible, if you prefer)? We have sentlements in the western United Sttates that practice this sort of thing all the time. Does that mean American civlization is somehow conducive to pedophiles?
Alan, there are some people I enjoy debating with around here because they're smart, morally coherent, and make interesting arguments. You are definitely not one of them. You illustrate Pope's adage about a little knowledge being a dangerous thing. You're bigoted and have no imagination. Even refuting your nonsense is a bore.
Daphne Kenward| 12.5.08 @ 1:05PM
Jeremiah.
I was not so bad when I said nothing about Islam, well I am honest enough to tell you I have never read the Koran.
But Be-headding people is hardly a social past time.
I also agree that what I see is not necessarily what you see, in this crazy world, of people who wan to kill and turn the world upside down to promote our own ideas of what we perceive as normal.
The custom of Men marring children can be traced back to Egypt. It is not a Christian culture, it was a Pagan culture of image worship, which the Islamic faith is based on, or at least parts of it.
Grown old men still marry children in parts of the Arab world. You have to agree women have a tough deal in parts of the Arab world.
Islam is a growing faith, these days, but is also a hated Religion amongst westerners.
I don't say I agree with peoples attitudes towards Muslims. Having a difference of opinion does not manke anyone crazy.
If people discussed their differences, instead of fighting and killing each other it would be a safer and more harmonious world.
My true opinion is Islamic people should not force others to adopt their faith or war of life, by violence.
Jeremiah| 12.5.08 @ 3:34PM
Daphne -
It's very difficult to debate with you and Alan and Crusader because you start off with inaccurate information or downright ignorance.
At least it's fair to say we're not examining the same facts, so debate becomes impossible.
I will just advise you to go to a local library and ask a librarian to help you find some good, reliable sources of information about the Islamic world.
In fact, I'm going to go ahead and ask all three of you to become better informed about this topic before having these exchanges with you. It's pointless to debate with someone that believe that the "Islamic people" are forcing "others to adopt their faith or war of life by violence."
You and your cohort are spouting incorrect, distorted, inaccurate information. Your opinions are based on this misinformation, and therefore are not valid.
I read your accusations and wonder if you are one of these beheaded victims of Islam, miraculously able to write somehow without the benefit of a brain.
Daphne Kenward| 12.5.08 @ 4:13PM
Jeremiah.
Thanks for your wonderful compliments.
Babu Suseelan| 12.6.08 @ 12:02PM
Phony intellectuals, bogus social scientists, and pseudo politicians are eager to justify Islamic terrorism with unfounded social science theories. Economic deprivation, lack of emplyment or poverty are not the real cause of Islamic terrorism. The root cause of Jihad terrorism is Islam. As a closed, rigid, non compromising Arab Imperialist dogma, Islam motivates its adherents to hate non believers. The Koran contains several passages that instigates Muslims to wage a relentless Jihad war against Kafirs. There are several Islamic nations in the world. There is no freedom, democracy, pluralism, tolerance, coexistence and human rights in any Islamic countries. Islam is against the will of the population. Islam adheres only the will of the invisible Allah. All Muslims are united against kafirs. Unless we handle the rigid, war mongering Islam, there will be no peace, democracy, and freedom for us and the children yet to be born.
Babu Suseelan
Michele San Pietro| 12.6.08 @ 5:40PM
The UN is just a joke. It would be high time for them to move out of the United States.
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