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The Origin of Modern Terror and Crumbling Western Values

By on January 28, 2015 in News, Op-Ed, Politics 0
Peter (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Peter (CC BY-SA 2.0)

John Chuckman writes at CounterPunch:

Do you ever solve problems by ignoring them? Most of us would say that is not possible, yet that is precisely what western governments do in their efforts to counteract what is called “Islamic terror.” Yes, there are vast and costly efforts to suppress the symptoms of what western governments regard as a modern plague, including killing many people presumed to be infected with it, fomenting rebellion and destruction in places presumed to be prone to it, secretly returning to barbaric practices such as torture, things we thought had been left behind centuries ago, to fight it, and violating rights of their own citizens we thought were as firmly established as the need for food and shelter. Governments ignore, in all these destructive efforts, what in private they know very well is the origin of the problem.

Have Islamic radicals always existed?

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In Defense of Muhammad (From Both Sides)

By on January 14, 2015 in Education, History, Op-Ed, Philosophy, Politics, Religion 0

So for some reason or another, after centuries of proselytization by the sword and hundreds of terrorist attacks in the 20th/21st century, when a French cartoonist is murdered for being a violence-baiting, blasphemous shock-jock towards Muslims, suddenly everybody thinks Islam is evil.  Yes, Islam has usually been a thorn in the side of Western Civilization and certainly Christendom, but it was begun by a remarkable man both in wisdom and power.  I found some words of Muhammad excerpted from the Koran that show that many who “submit” to Islam are probably just not listening to their prophet very closely.

Even though Arabic is the only holy language of Islam, and the Koran can never be translated yet retain its status as Word-Of-God, these English translations of Muhammad’s statements might give us a teleological vector on what he intended his followers to embody.  Reading the quotes and looking at today’s Muslim world might lead some to wonder “What the hell happened?”

Thus spake Muhammad:

Do you love your creator?… Read the rest

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#JeSuisIslamophobia – Why Anti-Muslim Critics Are Wrong About the Charlie Hebdo Killings

By on January 10, 2015 in News, Op-Ed 0

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By now, you’ve probably heard all the details of the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris. But just in case you haven’t, I’ll fill you in. On Wednesday, two masked gunmen broke into the headquarters of Paris’s Charlie Hebdo magazine, killing ten employees, including the magazine’s top editor. The magazine was well known locally for its attention-grabbing cartoons, which often sought to offend the easily offended – namely Muslims.

Thus it came as no surprise to many that the perpetrators of the massacre were two Muslim extremists, reportedly shouting that they had avenged Mohammed after committing the attack. The killers were able to escape central Paris to the suburbs, where they took hostages in a standoff that would last nearly two days. As I write this, reports are coming in that they have been killed by French police.

It’s hard to quantify tragedy. The killing of these twelve people is horrendous and ought to be condemned.… Read the rest

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Michel Houellebecq New Book Foresees Possible Muslim President For France

By on January 9, 2015 in Entertainment, News, Politics 0

Michel Houllebecq, France’s famously controversial novelist, has a new book (Soumission) – published this week in extraordinary timing – depicting a possible future for France with a Muslim president. Both the book and the interview below in the Paris Review were carried out before the Charlie Hebdo massacre, but it’s clear that Houellebecq has zeroed in on the religious versus secularist tension in France.

After the attack, The French prime minister, Manuel Valls, stated: “France is not Houellebecq. It’s not intolerance, hatred and fear.” Houellebecq is apparently in hiding and his publisher’s office is under police protection. Regarding the book itself, he tells interviewer Sylvain Bourmeau:

Is this a satirical novel?

No. Maybe a small part of the book satirizes political journalists—politicians a little bit, too, to be honest. But the main characters are not satirical.

2008.06.09. Michel Houellebecq Fot Mariusz Kubik 16.JPG

Michel Houellebecq. Photo by Mariusz Kubik (CC)

 

Where did you get the idea for a presidential election, in 2022, that came down to Marine Le Pen and the leader of a Muslim party?

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World’s Biggest Pilgrimage Now Underway, And Why You’ve Never Heard of it!

By on December 13, 2014 in News 0

ملايين الزائرين يتدفقون على كربلاء المقدسة بذكرى الاربعينThis was article sent to us via Disinfo Tips.

via The Huffington Post:

It’s not the Muslim Hajj, or the Hindu Kumbh Mela. Known as Arbaeen, it is the world’s most populous gathering and you’ve probably never heard of it! Not only does the congregation exceed the number of visitors to Mecca (by a factor of five, in fact), it is more significant than Kumbh Mela, since the latter is only held every third year. In short, Arbaeen dwarfs every other rally on the planet, reaching twenty million last year. That is a staggering %60 of Iraq’s entire population, and it is growing year after year.

Above all, Arbaeen is unique because it takes place against the backdrop of chaotic and dangerous geopolitical scenes. Daesh (aka ‘Islamic State’) sees the Shia as theirmortal enemy, so nothing infuriates the terror group more than the sight of Shia pilgrims gathering for their greatest show of faith.

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ISIS Releases Horrifying Sex Slave Pamphlet, Justifies Child Rape

By on December 12, 2014 in News 0

Emblem of the Islamic State of Iraq and the LevantIf any reader sympathizes with ISIS, how do you justify this policy? From RT:

The Islamic State militant group has released a guide to the capture, punishment and rape of female non-believers. It outlines how to use them as their sex slaves and also justifies child rape.

The guide appears in the form of questions and answers about how to capture and subjugate woman of other beliefs.

The sickening list appears to have been printed on December 3 by Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) in-house publishers for their“Research and Fatwa Department”.

The document has been translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute, an NGO based in Washington DC.

Researchers from the anti-extremism think tank Quilliam told the Independent that they believed it “can be traced back to some of ISIS’s most active propagandists.”

It’s known the Islamic State has kidnapped more than 2,500 women, and another 4,600 are missing.

In their twisted, medieval interpretation of Islam the document makes crystal clear how these woman are treated, and that such treatment is permissible because the captives are non-Muslims.

… Read the rest
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Maher and Harris Were Wrong on Islam, but Not for the Reasons You Think

By on October 16, 2014 in News, Politics 0
Maher Harris

Bill Maher and Sam Harris. Image: HBO via Youtube

If I had been watching live, I probably would have guessed that the Bill Maher/Sam Harris/Ben Affleck video (with a mediocre cameo by ex RNC chair and full time goofball Michael Steele) would go massively viral. And go massively viral it did. Why? Simple. Maher and Harris are bigots! That was the basic counterpoint of Ben Affleck who, while not interrupting Sam Harris, spent most of the clip scowling and holding his mouth shut with his hand. That’s how you stand up to bigotry.

I don’t mean to imply I wasn’t on his side. Ultimately, his arguments, and those made after the clip by long time Maher critic Reza Aslan, win by default as Maher and Harris made a clumsy case that was impossible to believe – even for atheist-leaning agnostics like myself. The crux of Harris’s argument is that Islam was a “really bad idea.” Okay, but what do we do about that really bad idea?… Read the rest

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Why Bill Maher’s Views on Islam Aren’t Only Racist, But Dangerous | Heroes and Villains

By on October 15, 2014 in News 0

BTS Producer, Manuel Rápalo, discusses comedian Bill Maher’s recent comments concerning the innate problem with the religion of Islam that breeds extremism and violence and why it’s just the latest example of using Islamophobia to promote fear and intolerance.

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“Crucifixion of Christians”: Debunking the New Fake News Item

By on July 2, 2014 in News 27

Media LiesWell, if you consider two months ago “new” fake news.  From Sirialbano, translated by Mary Rizzo, at We Write What We Like:

They were not Christians, they were Muslims. They were not killed by means of crucifixion, but their already lifeless bodies were exhibited in that barbarian manner.  The crime is ghastly, no matter what religious denomination the victims belong to.  And yet it “news” of “Christians crucified in Syria” went viral in the western media, in particular in the major Italian news media.

The two major Italian newspapers Il Corriere della Sera (above) and La Repubblica (below) dedicated a great amount of space to it, bring attention to the “news” on the first page accompanied by photographs of “a man crucified in Maalula”, the small Christian small town near Damascus.

To push the directors and the heads writers towards a similar editorial choice has no doubt been the statement of Pope Francis in the official Vatican site:   “I cried when i saw the news“.

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Did Pope Benedict XVI Resign Because Of The ‘Muslim Gospel’ of Barnabas?

By on May 24, 2014 in News 10
PIC: Samuel Green (CC)

PIC: Samuel Green (CC)

The Gospel of Barnabas contends that Jesus denied his divinity and didn’t die on the cross. Conspiracy theories have revolved around this manuscript for centuries.

In Amsterdam in 1709, philosopher John Toland set his eyes upon a remarkable manuscript—what he described in Nazarenus as “a Mahometan [i.e., Muslim] Gospel, never before publicly made known among Christians.”

Associated with the apostle Barnabas, the text essentially retold the life of Jesus in terms familiar from the New Testament, but with some major departures. It contended that Jesus denied his divine status; that he had predicted the coming of the prophet Muhammad; and that Judas died in his place on the cross. Combing Christian canon lists and literature, Toland found references to an otherwise unknown “gospel under the name of Barnabas,” and he concluded that this “Gospel of the Mahometans… very probably is in great part that same book.”

For Toland, this was not just another apocryphon. From this “Turkish Gospel being fathr’d upon Barnabas,” he claimed to have been led to recover “the original plan of Christianity” as centered on Jewish-Christian beliefs that “Jesus did not take away or cancel the Jewish Law in any sense whatsoever.”

This, Toland argued, was the very oldest form of Christianity, only it was lost to history when “converts from the Gentiles… did almost wholly subvert” it. On the basis of the Gospel of Barnabas, Toland characterized the most ancient Christianity as harmonious with Islam as well: its account of Jesus, after all, was

perfectly conformable to the traditions of the Mahometans [i.e., Muslims], who maintain that another was crucified in his stead; and that Jesus, slipping thro’ the hands of Jews, preach’d afterwards to his disciples, then was taken to heaven.

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