Will Update Later-have fun-GORD. UPDATE: 1:15 PM Dec. 22, 2009
Another American Innovation Carried out by Luis Posada Carriles American Backed Terrorist-the First to Blow Up A Plane of a Commercial Airline killing 75 Cuban civilians- Also responsible for bombings in market places etc. Since he's anti-Castro the US says that's OK. "Black Water" War Profiteers & CEO Eric Prince's Christian Crusaders Killing For Jesus The American Way -"Convert or Die" "Atomic Bomb" United States Gift To The World & The Possibility of a Nuclear Holocaust Lynchings Rough Justice In America Ku Klux Klan another American Innovation
The video below shows Wafa Sultan's moment which is a pivotal event which made her a darling of anti-Muslims and Islamophobes. She was brought up and lived as a Muslim and then left Islam. She is an apostate but also describes herself as an atheist who does not believe in the "supernatural" and yet Evangelical Christians and the Neocons and their fellow travelers are now using her to spew her hatred of Islam while she defends Judaism and Christianity and Western Civilization.
But like all Neocons and other anti-Islam propagandists she over states her case against Islam while over-indulging in her praise of all things Western and completely overlooks the failings of the West in the present or in its blood soaked past. See pics above and endnotes from Christians killing Pagans, & Heretics,Apostates, infidels and the Crusades the Inquisition, the Slave trade, mass murdering American Indians/ Indigenous Peoples in other parts of the world, Wars between Western States, Religious Wars Catholics vs Protestants, racism, anti-Semitism, starving the Irish, the Boers, the Cubans followed by the Holocaust engineered by Christians,the Atomic Bomb and a thousand other modern way to slaughter people who you don't like or who's resources you desire-and on and on-Colonialism lives on even under Obama
Wafa Sultan Debating Islamic Cleric
The speaker argues that it is a very clever strategy to use a Middle Easterner who was a Muslim and now is on a mission to prove Islam is a religion of Hate and that there is not really any so called "moderate Muslims"
Islamophobia and anti-Muslim bigotry has become a growing industry for selling books and other pariphanelia besides getting on the rather lucrative "lecture circuit" of universities , churches & Synagogues and appearances at the various Neocon, Religious Right or Ultraconservative conventions or weekend seminars and TV spots on Fox News etc.
Re: Wafa Sultan speaks up
Wafa Sultan claims Israelis and Jews never take part in terrorist actions against innocent Muslims- Baruch Goldstein a member of the Settler's Movement enters Mosque and kills innocent Muslims at prayer during Ramadan-1994 and yet some Israelis make various excuses for this murderous act:
Pat Robertson Wafa Sultan: A God Who Hates - Islam's Path to Destruction (Introduction) December 08, 2009
من هي وفاء سلطان؟جزء WHO IS WAFA SULTAN?(PT 1 of 5) mohielshennawi
Wafa Sultan Silenced
US Troops and their allies get a kick out of destroying minarets, schools, hospitals , butchering civilians in Iraq & Afghanistan & Pakistan
(RE: Fitna) The Inquisition, The Evils of Christianity
Propaganda strategy using apostate Muslims to condemn Islam-
Ex-Muslim Wafa Sultan (New Video) (With Introduction by Hamza Yusuf)
ENDNOTES:
Mass murder of Pagans destruction of their temples and holy places
On Pagans & the Christians- Christians terrorize and slaughter Pagans & Heretics & Infidels see: Kirsch, Jonathan :God against the Gods: The History of the War Between Monotheism and Polytheism, pub. 2004
On Israeli Jewish terrorists the Kach Movement Maer Kahane see:
The Cave of the Patriarchs massacre was an attack on Muslim Palestinians at the mosque in the Cave of the Patriarchs in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, in the city of Hebron, on February 25, 1994.[1] Baruch Goldstein, an Israeli settler and member of the extremist Kach movement, opened fire on unarmed worshipers at prayer, killing between 39 and 52 Palestinians, while wounding over 100 others.[1] Goldstein was also killed in the attack, which took place during the overlapping religious holidays of Purim and Ramadan.
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin condemned the attack, describing Goldstein as a "degenerate murderer", "a shame on Zionism and an embarrassment to Judaism". The attack set off riots and protests throughout the occupied territories, and an additional 19 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli Defense Forces within 48 hours of the massacre. Goldstein was praised as a martyr by some Jewish extremists in Hebron, and his gravesite subsequently became a site of pilgrimage for Israeli extremists.
A Jewish settler has killed up to 30 Palestinians at a mosque in Hebron after opening fire as people gathered for Friday morning prayers.
US-born doctor Baruch Goldstein, 38, burst into the mosque in the Machpela Cave and fired up to 100 bullets at worshippers, according to state TV reports.
Eyewitnesses said Goldstein sprayed people with his automatic Galil rifle, an Israeli-made copy of the Soviet AK47. The shooting spree lasted at least 10 minutes, witnesses added.
The mosque was packed with up to 800 worshippers for prayers in the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
Goldstein, wearing the uniform of an army reservist, was found dead in the mosque after the shooting stopped.
also see article comparing Fort Hood shooter with Baruch Goldstein:
& The crusades: a history By Jonathan Riley-Smith 2005 On the Inquisiton from 1450 to 1700 see Inquisition :The Reign of Fear by Toby Green pub. 2007 On the Witch Hunts see:
When Adolf Hitler came to power in 1932, the racist policies of the Nazis impacted other groups besides the Jews. The Nazis' racial purity laws also targeted gypsies (Roma), homosexuals, the mentally challenged, and blacks. Precisely how many Afro-Germans died in Nazi concentration camps is not known, but estimates put the figure at between 25,000 and 50,000.
On anti-Semitism see;
Bronner, Stephen Eric : A RUMOR ABOUT THE JEWS: Reflections On Antisemitism and The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, pub. 2000.
Atomic Bombs Japan-guide.com On August 6, 1945, the city of Hiroshima was the target of the first atomic bomb used against civil population in history. Three days later, the United States dropped a second atomic bomb over the city of Nagasaki. In total, about a quarter of a million people were killed by the two bombs.
"Notorious Posada Carriles - 79-year-old exiled anti-Castro militant and former CIA agent- has been involved in various terrorist acts. He is accused of blowing up of a Cuban airliner which killed seventy-three people in 1976. He was jailed in Venezuela but escaped from it dressed as a priest in 1985" Source: my.nowpublic.com
(and comically the US refuses to turn over Posada because he might be tortured- as the US has tortured and abused thousands of prisoners since 9/11 for revenge and to illicit false confessions. Americans can no longer maintain their supposedly moral superiority over other nations.Gord.)
"An immigration judge in the U.S. ruled that Posada cannot be sent to Venezuela or Cuba because of fears he would be tortured. No other country has been willing to let him in."
WASHINGTON—The Bush administration says that its zero-tolerance policy against terrorism applies to all suspected evildoers, not just Muslims, and that its zero-tolerance policy against Cuba is a principled position, not just an exercise in pandering to the implacable anti-Castro exiles in Miami. On both counts, evidence suggests otherwise.
The fact is that Luis Posada Carriles, an accused terrorist who entered the United States illegally and was taken into custody by authorities, is not being kept in solitary confinement and dragged out for occasional waterboarding. As of this writing, he is a free man.
Posada, 79, has a long history of violent opposition to Fidel Castro’s regime. He was accused of masterminding the 1976 midair bombing of a civilian Cuban airliner, a terrorist act that killed 73 innocent people. He is also suspected of involvement in a 1997 series of bombings of Havana hotels and nightclubs; several people were injured and an Italian tourist was killed.
Terrorism, our government constantly reminds us, is the scourge of our times. So why is a man described by our government as “an unrepentant criminal and admitted mastermind of terrorist plots and attacks on tourist sites” looking forward to a hero’s welcome in Miami from his old Bay of Pigs comrades?
Pam Geller with Wafa Sultan anti-Islam Propagandists Anti-Islam groups compare the Holy Quran to Hitler's Mein Kampf-But it is they who speak about nuking Muslim countries and expelling Muslims from the West. Pam Geller organized a Protest for Rifqa Bary and to attack Islam. T Shirts worn at the rally. Pam Geller of Atlas Shrugs gives a rave review of Wafa Sultan's book "A God Who Hates" at FrontPageMagazine. Wafa Sultan Another member of the anti-Muslim gang of fear mongering bigots
"Islam Is Of the Devil" sign at Church Tampa Florida see article: CAIR-Tampa Asks to Speak at Church with Anti-Islam Sign
Critics and anti-Islam Propagandists compare Muslim spokespersons to the Nazis and compares Afghanistan and its people to an open sewer in need of cleansing-Eliminationists???
—imagine the Taliban as an open sewer, breeding disease and pestilence, and Uncle Sam as the Orkin Man on a mission of mercy...
...The Qur’an is so full of violence, intolerance, bigotry, anti-Semitism, sexism, chauvinism and hatred it could have served as a training manual for an SS Division on the way to the Warsaw Ghetto.
Quotes below from Quran on Jihad and no compulsion in religion: "Fight in the cause of God those who fight you, but do not transgress limits; for God loveth not transgressors. (The Noble Quran, 2:190)"
"But if the enemy incline towards peace, do thou (also) incline towards peace, and trust in God: for He is One that heareth and knoweth (all things). (The Noble Quran, 8:61)"
"If thou dost stretch thy hand against me, to slay me, it is not for me to stretch my hand against thee to slay thee: for I do fear God, the cherisher of the worlds. (The Noble Quran, 5:28)"
"God does not forbid you from showing kindness and dealing justly with those who have not fought you about religion and have not driven you out of your homes. God loves just dealers. (The Noble Quran, 60:8)"
"And fight them until persecution is no more, and religion is for God. But if they desist, then let there be no hostility except against wrongdoers. (The Noble Quran 2:193)"
"Let there be no compulsion in religion: Truth stands out clear from error: whoever rejects evil and believes in Allah hath grasped the most trustworthy handhold, that never breaks. And Allah heareth and knoweth all things. (The Noble Quran, 2:256)"
"Again and again will those who disbelieve, wish that they had bowed (to God's will) in Islam. Leave them alone, to enjoy (the good things of this life) and to please themselves: let (false) hope amuse them: soon will knowledge (undeceive them). (The Noble Quran, 15:2-3)"
"Say, 'The truth is from your Lord': Let him who will believe, and let him who will, reject (it):......(The Noble Quran, 18:29)"
"If it had been thy Lord's will, they would all have believed,- all who are on earth! wilt thou then COMPEL mankind, against their will, to believe!(The Noble Quran, 10:99)"
"Say: 'Obey Allah, and obey the Messenger: but if ye turn away, he is only responsible for the duty placed on him and ye for that placed on you. If ye obey him, ye shall be on right guidance. The Messenger's duty is only to preach the clear (Message). (The Noble Quran, 24:54)" "Say : O ye that reject Faith! I worship not that which ye worship, Nor will ye worship that which I worship. And I will not worship that which ye have been wont to worship, Nor will ye worship that which I worship. To you be your Way, and to me mine. (The Noble Quran, 109:1-6)"
Compare to Jesus & The Gospels-Does Jesus call on his followers to engage in Holy War/Jihad ?
"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." (Matthew 10:34) 'I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy [a] everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.' " (1 Samuel 15:2,3) "Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man,18 but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man." (Numbers 31:17,18 )
"However, in the cities of the nations the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes."(Deuteronomy 20:16)"
Wafa Sultan in NYC: Part II (Full Coverage at Atlas Shrugs.com) Dec. 1, 2009
As an Arab woman who suffered for three decades living under Islamic Sharia, it is clear to me that Islam’s political ideology and Sharia must be fought relentlessly by Western civilization to prevent its application in a free society.
However, I have found myself fighting on two fronts. The first front is against Islamists, a daunting fight indeed. But the other front is one shaped by too many uninformed individuals who like to view themselves as open minded “progressives”. They seem to somehow claim superiority on compassion, on peace, on open-mindedness and on appreciation of other cultures. Regarding themselves as tolerant, free thinking individuals, they avoid questioning Muslims’ harmful intentions. They restrict themselves to self-criticism, and make politically-correct excuses for Islamism. Regrettably, they show their indisputable acceptance of ‘others’ at the expense of the public’s responsibility to learn the truth about Islam’s detrimental tenets....
Regrettably, we frequently experience politically correct harsh responses to criticism of Islam by those who admonish liberated Muslims or Arabs. They often use clichés such as, “There are violent stories in all religions texts,” or “How can we bulk all Muslims into one group?” Or, “Among Christians and Jews there are also zealots who have done horrible things to others.” All of these excuses are made without considering critical Islamic doctrines which play detrimental role in Islam’s march towards Western decline.
One Islamic concept in particular is called in Arabic “Al Taqyya.” It allows and encourages Muslims to lie and deceive others in order to reach their ultimate objective which is submitting the world to Islam under Sharia Law. To be sure, Islamists who follow the political ideology of subverting non Muslims under Islam do use the concept of Al Taqyyaa.
Hence, a destructive relationship is created: on one hand, Islamists lie to the gullible non - Muslims and on the other hand, many non Muslims, in particular proponents of interfaith dialogue accept their lies and avoid asking harsh and necessary questions to expose their dangerous intentions. In that context, the Muslims’ Al Taqyyaa and the West’s naiveté and ignorance about the true intentions of Islamists are both harmful models of engagement.
Further, they both violate our right to know the truth, regardless of how evil or unintentional each side’s objective is. Thus, Al Taqyyaa and political correctness are recipes for irreversible damage to the values of freedom and liberty, which are the foundation of our US constitution and other Western liberal democracies.
...People who avoid facing the gloomy facts regarding Islam, have no moral authority to admonish liberated Arabs like me. Those who cannot confront Islamic doctrine boldly and will not allow themselves to question openly dreadful components of Islam are on the wrong side of this conflict.
...I have often been asked to soften and compromise my message. I refuse to do so. I believe the way to solve this Islamic predicament is to highlight and confront it in a most truthful and subsequently painful manner. As we all would agree, at times, an acute disease must be treated aggressively rather than with a benign medicine like Aspirin.
Robert Spencer at Jihad Watch praises Wafa Sultan for her bravery in speaking out against Islam.
Dr. Wafa Sultan, who famously spoke the truth to a Muslim cleric on Al-Jazeera, is a Syrian-born certified psychiatrist, human rights activist, and author of the forthcoming book A God That Hates. Here, she speaks out about the Rifqa Bary case.
Unfortunately Rifqa Bary’s case highlights the danger of creeping Jihad in the Western world. This is not only because of the imminent danger the teenage girl may face right here in the US, had the court decided to have her return to her parents’ home, but also because of the mainstream media’s weak response to the severity of this case. Regrettably, the lack of interest by the media in covering her case comes at the expense of the public’s responsibility to learn the truth about Islam’s detrimental Sharia (Islamic Law) tenets.
On February 21, 2006, Al-Jezeera TV aired a debate between Wafa Sultan, an Arab-American psychiatrist from Los Angeles and two Islamic scholars, Dr. Ibrahim Al-Khouli of Al Azhar University and Dr. Ahmad Bin Muhammad, an Algerian professor of religious politics. Ms. Sultan, an immigrant from Syria left Islam in 1979 when a professor in a class she was attending at the University of Aleppo in northern Syria was shot dead by terrorists a few feet from where she was sitting. Things of that nature—like lynchings and tornadoes—stick with a student.
The debate had scarcely started when sparks began to fly. Maybe someone mentioned Samuel Huntington or maybe Ygor was in charge of the lighting. “The clash we are witnessing around the world is not a clash of religions, or a clash of civilizations,” said Wafa, “it is a clash between two opposites, between two eras…It is a clash between freedom and oppression, between barbarity and rationality. It is a clash between those who treat women like beasts, and those who treat them like human beings. What we see today is not a clash of civilizations. Civilizations do not clash, but compete.”
Now Mullah al-Khouli could have said you are entitled to your opinion... But what kind of Mullah would al-Khouli have been if he had responded like a reasonable fellow?... So he accused Ms. Sultan of being a heretic.
“The West destroyed the Taliban regime in Afghanistan because it feared the Islamic state,” said Krekar.
That’s one scenario. There are others—imagine the Taliban as an open sewer, breeding disease and pestilence, and Uncle Sam as the Orkin Man on a mission of mercy and one is closer to the truth.
Al-Khouli, Bin Muhammad, and Mullah Krekar; three Islamo-fascist thugs; nasty fellows—they are not the salt of the earth. Did they spring full-blown from the Qur’an or did they creep out of the pages of Mein Kampf? It’s a close call. Krekar is more obnoxious than al-Khouli and Bin Muhammad. He may be a rune short of Reinhardt Heydrich, but he tries. In his elocution Bin Muhammad could pass for Joseph Goebbels and al-Khouli has all the obtuseness of Joachim von Ribbentrop but little of the latter’s charm. Not one of these creeps has contributed anything of value to the civilized world. They are barbarity not rationality. Al-Khouli, Bin Muhammad, and Mullah Krekar—is this the best Islam has to offer?
Wafa Sultan said, “I don’t believe you can reform Islam.”
It is difficult to argue with that proposition. The Qur’an is so full of violence, intolerance, bigotry, anti-Semitism, sexism, chauvinism and hatred it could have served as a training manual for an SS Division on the way to the Warsaw Ghetto.
I penned a book review of Wafa Sultan's A God who Hates for Frontpage magazine. The book is an earthshaker and should be required reading for every freedom loving man. It's the best thing I have read in years. It is a watershed moment for the Muslim world.
Wafa Sultan’s seminal moment was when she took on an Islamic cleric on Al-Jazeera. The clip went viral on Youtube, and it really was a defining moment in the clash of civilizations. Here was a woman, basically considered “property” in the Muslim world and expected to do what she was told, turning around after she had been interrupted numerous times, and saying in effect, “Quiet, it’s my turn.”
Now comes her new book, A God Who Hates, which will undoubtedly prove to be a key resource in the resistance to jihad and Islamization. In it, the brilliant psychiatrist from Syria, now an American citizen, tells her own story.
It is the story of a Muslim woman who grew up in a country where she was indoctrinated in Islamic ideology. So her perspective is very important in terms of establishing the credibility of scholars like Robert Spencer and Dr. Andrew Bostom. But what makes this book great, apart from its breathtaking honesty and truth and the clarity and urgency of its warning, is that it is also a beautiful love letter to America.
Note: Pam Geller erroneously and purposely refers to discredited Robert Spencer and Andrew Bostom as "Scholars".They are not scholars they are men with an agenda to discredit Islam in the hope of fomenting anger, rage & bigotry so Western leaders will take action against Islam.
Garibaldi in an article on Wafa Sultan at Loonwatch argues that Wafa Sultan is herself an extremist who believes the Quran should be banned as Geert Wilders has proposed in Holland. Beyond that little gem she believes that Americans and Europeans should deal with Islam and Muslims in the same way they did the German Nazis and the Japanese to her there is no room for accommodation or compromise. Once again like other Islamophobes she suggest using nuclear weapons on Muslim countries and expelling Muslims from the West (sounds a lot like the Nazis policies concerning the Jews). "Wafa Sultan is Better Known as Wafa Stalin" by Garibaldi Sept. 2,2009
Wafa Stalin Sultan going off the deep end. In the video, Sultan is addressing a group at a synagogue in NYC and says,
“I believe King Abdullah can change Islam overnight, but you need to put pressure on him to do it, and the same kind of pressure you put on Japan, you might need it“ at that moment someone from the audience interjects and asks, “atom bombs?” Wafa Sultan replies, “Yes. At some point the West will need to do it.” This statement is quite revealing considering how in 2007, at a right-wing David Horowitz funded conference called “Restoration Weekend,” Wafa Sultan said, “I will change 1.3 billion Muslims…they have to realize they have only two choices: to change or to be crushed.”
At the end of her speech, she utters something quite strange for an atheist, “God bless you and God bless America.” More charlatanism?
During the question and answer session she divides moderate Muslims into three categories: 1.) a majority, 80% who are unaware of the real teachings of Islam, 2.) huge chunks of them are practicing Taqiyyah, 3.) a very small progressive group who have no effect. All talking points from the far right-wing.
This disgusting woman continues with her fascist fear mongering, she says, “Islam is infiltrating and you are doing nothing about it.” Someone from the audience then asks Sultan, “How would we stop it from infiltrating?” Sultan replies, “Get involved in politics, you have to know the kind of leaders you are choosing.” The man then says, “If we got involved in politics, what would our platform be, what would we say?” Sultan replies quoting Geert Wilders, “Islam is not religion!” The man interrupts and asks, “what would our platform be, what would A, B and C be?” Sultan replies, “the same you dealt with Nazism. The same way, the same exact way. The same way!” To this she receives a big applause from the all too captive audience…”you reversed the Japanese culture, the same, you might need to do it, you might need to do a heavy pressure, I cannot predict the kind of pressure, you understand it, I don’t have to say it.” Quite chilling the way she nonchalantly advocates nuking Muslims.
Sultan also says, “You know Geert Wilders has said if he becomes Prime Minister of Holland he will ban the Quran, I admire him for that.” The audience glibly agrees with her with mutterings of “yes.” If you want to see how fascism takes hold then watch the video. My only question is how much are these synagogues and churches paying her for speaking appearances at their congregations?
And Garibaldi at loonwatch writes in an earlier expose about Wafa Sultan questioning her veracity, integrity, sincerity arguing she is an opportunists who for monetary reasons and such has jumped on "the Islamophobia Gravy Train"- making a buck off of hate- just like their counterparts in the Religious Right-the Evangelical Fundamentalists .
"Atheist Muslim reformer" Wafa Sultan with anti-Muslim loon Pamela Geller
We must begin this profile with a question: Is there a more contemptible poseur than Wafa Sultan who calls herself an atheist but in the same breath also claims to be a Muslim reformer, which would kind of be like Christopher Hitchens calling himself a Christian reformer? It is difficult to answer that question with certainty considering the wide pool of bigots who combine charlatanism with raving and incorrigible insanity. But for sure one thing is certain, she is completely undeserving of the 15 minutes of fame she has succeeded in procuring.
In this sense, Wafa Sultan falls into the same category as Walid Shoebat, Brigitte Gabriel, Nonie Darwish, Kamal Saleem, Zachariah Anani and other self-proclaimed turn coats from their Arab and Muslim identities. As we mentioned before this group attempts to parlay their “otherness,” and so-called “insider knowledge of the Muslim world,” (the “I’ve been there, I know” line) into a cash cow. Meanwhile, we are supposed to be duped into freaking out and running back to them for more “expert” advice brought to us from our loyal friend who ventures into the other side on our behalf.
...Sultan capitalized on the spotlight she had and with all the ingenuity and creativeness of a con-artist spun a tale which essentially boils down to her “dark days growing up in the barbaric ‘Islamic nation’ of Syria.” A good example of her deception can be gleaned from a recent article she wrote for the neo-conservative website Hudson New York,
As an Arab woman who suffered for three decades living under Islamic Sharia, it is clear to me that Islam’s political ideology and Sharia must be fought relentlessly by Western civilization to prevent its application in a free society. (emphasis added)
This encapsulates the opportunism that motivates Sultan and it also reveals the contempt with which she holds her readers whose intelligence she seeks to insult with such a blatant lie. She attempts to paint her three decades in Syria as a nightmare in which she suffered the brutal force of a Taliban-esque regime that implemented Islamic law on her constantly. The absurdity is only matched by the bravado of her claim, as anyone who cared to check (Wikipidea for instance) could tell you that the regime that ruled Syria had nothing to do with Islam.
The regime in Syria, during much of the time period that Sultan talks about was ruled by the secular, anti-Shariah Ba’athist dictator Hafiz al-Assad who happens to come from the same privileged sect that Sultan was born into: the Alawies. Her allegation is even more obscene considering the fact that Hafiz al-Assad massacred 20,000 villagers in Hama, Syria who were members of the Muslim Brotherhood. One has to ask Sultan, if you were made to suffer for thirty years under Islamic Sharia’, how could you, a woman, have finished your medicine degree at the University of Aleppo? On top of that, would an Islamic Sharia state as horrid as you describe have funded your education for free?
Another good example of her tale of woe is the profile carried by self-described “bad girl of Islam” Asra Nomani in TIME magazine. Asra Nomani, who can’t pen anything without including herself writes,
" I connected with her (Sultan’s) anger and pain. She questioned Islam in 1979, when, she says, she witnessed the murder of a professor by men with alleged ties to the ultraconservative Muslim Brotherhood political group."
One wonders if Nomani was so moved by her “connection” with Sultan that she (and her editors) forgot to fact check whether or not Sultan actually could have witnessed the murder of her professor in her classroom. InFocus, a California based magazine did more thorough research into the matter than TIME in a piece titled Wafa Sultan: Reformist or Opportunist,
" As to the claim that her professor (thought to be Yusef Al-Yusef) was gunned down before her eyes in a faculty classroom at the University of Aleppo, Halabi said the incident never took place. “There was a professor who was killed around 1979, that is true, but it was off-campus and Sultan was not even around when it happened,” he added.
InFocus contacted the University of Aleppo and spoke to Dr. Riyad Asfari, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, who confirmed Halabi’s account. “Yes, the assassination took place off-campus,” he said. Dr. Asfari was keen to add that no one had ever been killed in a classroom anytime or anywhere at the university.
Syrian expatriate Ghada Moezzin, who attended the University of Aleppo in 1979 as a sophomore, told InFocus that she never heard of the assassination. “We would’ve known about the killing if it had happened,” she said. “It would have been big news on campus and I do not recall ever hearing about it.” Moezzin, who lives in Glendora, Calif., added that government security was always present around the university given the political climate in Syria at the time."
Half-truths and lies corroborate and reveal the true motive behind Sultan’s hate and invective against Islam: money. The article reveals more,
Adnan Halabi*, a Syrian expatriate who met and got to know the Sultans when they first came to the United States, spoke at length about the Wafa Sultan that very few people know.
According to Halabi, Dr. Wafa Ahmad (her maiden name) arrived in California with her husband Moufid (now changed to David) in the late 80s on a tourist visa. Contrary to what she told the New York Times, they came as a couple, leaving their two children back in Syria.
Another source named Nabil Mustafa, also Syrian, told InFocus that he was introduced to Moufid Sultan through a personal friend who knew the family well, and both ended up having tea at the Sultans’ one-bedroom apartment one evening in 1989. It was then that Moufid told Mustafa the story of how he was reunited with his two children. According to Mustafa, Moufid Sultan told him that a short time after they arrived in the country, his wife, Dr. Wafa Sultan, mailed her passport back to her sister Ilham Ahmad in Syria (while the passport still carried a valid U.S. tourist visa). With Ilham bearing a resemblance to her sister Wafa, the plan was to go to the Mexican Embassy in Damascus and obtain a visa to Mexico, making sure that the airline carrier they would book a flight on would have a layover somewhere in the Continental United States.
With an existing U.S. visa on Wafa Sultan’s passport, Ilham Ahmad had no trouble obtaining an entry permit to Mexico. Shortly after, Ilham and Wafa’s two children landed in Houston, Texas. She and the children then allegedly made their way through customs and were picked up by Moufid and brought to California.
Taking advantage of an amnesty law for farmers, the Sultans applied for permanent residency through a Mexican lady who worked as a farm hand. She helped Moufid with the paperwork by claiming he had worked as a farmer for four years. The application went through and the Sultans obtained their green cards.
Unlikely journey from obscurity to fame, rags to riches.
She has been described as a hero, a reformist, a crusader, and a brave woman who defied the Muslim world and stood up for what she believed in. In 2006, Time Magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people "whose power, talent or moral example is transforming the world." Dr. Wafa Sultan has been honored countless times for her now famous appearance on Al-Jazeera television opposite a Muslim cleric named Dr. Ibrahim Al-Khouly on February 21, 2006.
In that memorable clip widely distributed by MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute), Sultan referred to the current conflict between the West and militant Muslims as "a clash between a mentality that belongs to the Middle Ages and another that belongs to the 21st century... a clash between civilization and backwardness, between the civilized and the primitive, between barbarity and rationality." The clip spread through the internet like wild fire and landed Sultan in the LA Times, the New York Times and CNN among others. MEMRI estimated that the video was viewed at least one million times.
All of a sudden, and out of obscurity, Sultan found herself the center of both attention and controversy. On the one hand, she became the darling of many right wing media pundits and mainly pro-Israel groups who viewed her as a beacon of reform that stood up to what was wrong with Islam and Muslims. On the other hand, Muslims contended that by making broad, unfounded and ignorant proclamations about their faith, Sultan was nothing more than a pawn playing into the hands of Islamophobes, and an opportunist who intentionally pushed the divide between the Islamic world and the West to further ulterior motives that included fame, fortune and immortality.
Reformist or opportunist, Sultan continues to enjoy the spotlight as she routinely figures prominently as a guest speaker at many functions and fundraisers across the country. As her fame grows, so do her admirers and detractors.
...These same critics allege that Islamophobes are most certainly behind the likes of Sultan. They argue that the clip that made her famous was distributed by MEMRI, a media group that purports to independently translate and distribute news from the Middle East when in reality it is promoting a pro-Israeli slant. In an article titled, "Selective Memri," published on August 12, 2002 by the British newspaper The Guardian, investigative reporter Brian Whitaker wrote: "The stories selected by MEMRI for translation follow a familiar pattern: either they reflect badly on the character of Arabs or they in some way further the political agenda of Israel."
According to Whitaker, the founder of MEMRI is an Israeli named Yigal Carmon. "Mr - or rather, Colonel - Carmon spent 22 years in Israeli military intelligence and later served as counter-terrorism adviser to two Israeli prime ministers, Yitzhak Shamir and Yitzhak Rabin... of the six people named (as MEMRI’s staff), three - including Col. Carmon - are described as having worked for Israeli intelligence."
And the fall out from this hate-filled anti-Muslim propaganda has consequences causing some to believe they can attack Islam in the most vile manner with impunity and the hate appears to be spreading.
CAIR-Tampa Asks to Speak at Church with Anti-Islam Sign
(TAMPA, FL, 7/9/2009) The Tampa chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Tampa) today asked to speak about Islam and the American Muslim community at a Gainesville, Fla., church that has a sign claiming Islam is of the devil on its property. In his address to church members, Kiliç would ask that the offensive sign be taken down as a gesture to promote greater interfaith understanding and tolerance.
The church's senior pastor has been quoted saying: "We actually posted the sign because there is a tremendous growth in Islam at this time. It is a violent and oppressive religion and does not have anything to do with the truth of the Bible."
...Recently, in voting booths across their nation, 57.7 percent of Swiss voters found themselves in agreement with Fallaci, as they moved to support an initiative that prohibits the construction of new minarets in that country.
European secularism needs to remain flexible and be attentive to the excesses of secularism, discrimination against practitioners of minority faiths and the coercions of the cultures of majority faiths. Messages of exclusion and imposition, Swiss and Italian respectively, could not be further from that contemporary Europeanism that cherishes the notion of diversity just as much as equality; for the official motto of the European Union, mind you, is "Unity in Diversity." The essential task of European citizenship, then, is to create a common ethics that welcomes diversity.
To take multiculturalism and pluralism seriously in our Europe means doing away with marginalization, indifference and hegemonic crosses. The ideal of universalism is built from the recognition of equality and fundamental rights, and so the realization of these principles entails eliminating the restrictions to freedom and guaranteeing liberty for all people; it entails respecting and uniting believers of different faiths and also non-believers. To prohibit and impose excludes and divides, it does not unite, and it dissolves the bonds between fellow citizens. This road leads not to peace and social harmony, nor to an inclusive and pluralistic European citizenship.
Nidal Hasan's killing spree at Fort Hood according to many Islamic Quranic scholars argue that Hasan's actions cannot be defended, excused or justified by an appeal to the Quran. The Quran states that a Muslim must abide by the Law of the land in which they reside.
The Islamophobic blogosphere has gone buck-wild. Robert Spencer, Pamela Geller, and the rest of the goof troop are pretty ecstatic that Major Nidal Hasan, a Muslim American, killed thirteen U.S. soldiers at Fort Hood. Nothing makes a neo-conservative happier than an attack on American soil; as the family of the victims mourn the dead, the anti-Muslim ideologues gleefully co-opt the situation to market their hate-filled beliefs.
The Islamophobes claim that Major Hasan was simply “being a devout Muslim” when he opened fire on his fellow soldiers. According to them, this is a part of Jihad, an obligation in Islam. As such, the enemy is not just extremists, radicals, or terrorists; but rather, it is Islam itself. It is not then a gross perversion of a religion by zealots that result in such horrific attacks, but rather the exact opposite: it is a faithful understanding of the Islamic religion which results in terrorism. That’s what they claim at least.
There is, according to these anti-Muslim bigots, a conspiracy by Muslim Americans to overtake the country from within. The tactics to do so can be non-violent (”Stealth Jihad”) or overtly violent (such as 9/11 or the Fort Hood Massacre), but the goal is the same: to overthrow the U.S. government, rip the Constitution to shreds, and enact Sharia (Islamic law) in the West. It is for this reason, you–the average American Joe–need to fear your Muslim neighbor.
The Covenant of Security
But experts of the Islamic legal tradition say differently. The Islamic religion commands believers to obey the laws of the land they live in, even if it be one ruled by nonbelievers. Muslim jurists consider citizenship (or visa) to be a covenant (aqd) held between the citizen (or visa holder) and the state, one which guarantees safe passage/security (amaan) in exchange for certain obligations (such as obeying the laws of the land); covenants are considered sacredly binding in Islam. The Quran commands:
And fulfill every covenant. Verily, you will be held accountable with regard to the covenants. (Quran, 17:34)
...From a religious angle, Muslim Americans are forbidden to rebel against the U.S. government. They are not allowed to seek to overthrow the government, rip up the Constitution (which they gave an oath to uphold!), etc. They are not allowed to cheat on taxes, steal from anyone, kill or harm any of their fellow citizens, etc. Instead, they should be law-abiding citizens–according to the Islamic religion and the consensus (ijma) of the Muslim clerics since the last 1,400 years, in spite of Al-Qaeda’s reinterpretation (perversion) of religious doctrine.
Even if hypothetically the U.S. law were to stipulate a condition which was against Islamic teachings, the Muslim American would still have to follow it, as the Islamic cleric I quoted above says:
[Muslims] have to avoid whatever contradicts Islamic teachings. In case they are obliged by law to uphold something contrary to Islamic teachings, they have to adhere to the minimum that the law requires of them.
This idea–that Muslim Americans should uphold the laws of the land–is taught in mosques across the country with great unanimity, so the Islamophobic fear mongering is ill-founded.
and concludes:
The actions of Islamic extremists–such as the 9/11 hijackers and Major Nidal Hasan–flout the normative tradition of Islam and the teachings which millions of Muslim Americans follow. It is therefore inappropriate to conclude that the religion of Islam itself advocates such things, or that these attackers were simply following their religion. Such a thing is offensive to say and quite frankly inaccurate.
In any case, it is too early to say with any level of certainty what Major Hasan’s motivations were. Was he an extremist or simply a guy who lost his marbles like so many other shooters? Whatever the case, one thing is for sure: his actions do not reflect the Islamic teachings nor the millions of law-abiding Muslim Americans.
"The Bible forbids eating Shrimp and the wearing of clothes of two different fabrics but slavery not so much " Slavery sanctioned by the Old and New Testament Should Christians and Jews be permitted to implement the laws of the Bible as opposed to the Laws of the Land-ie America, Canada & Europe etc. which have banned slavery ? (Compare to Islamic Sharia Law which also goes against Liberal Humanist belief in the dignity and "the Rights of Man"
If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself.(1 Timothy, chapter 6, V. 2, 3, 4)
And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do. If she please not her master, who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed: to sell her unto a strange nation he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her.(Exodus Chapter 21, V. 7 & 8)
Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids.Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession. And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen for ever: but over your brethren the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with rigour. (Leviticus, chapter 25, V.44-46)
Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ (Ephesians, chapter 6, V. 5)
Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honour, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are brethren; but rather do them service, because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort. If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself. But godliness with contentment is great gain. (1 Timothy, chapter 6)
The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household? (Mathew Chapter 10, V. 24,25)
Note in the above passages God and Jesus of Nazareth condemn anyone who dares question the Laws as set down by Jehovah /Yahweh . So by banning slavery Christians and Jews have broken God's commands !!!
Glenn Beck and others who say that so-called moderate Muslims refuse to speak out against Islamic extremism for them here is a statement from CAIR .
CAIR Video: U.S. Muslims to Challenge Extremism
There are those who are opposed to the implementation of Islamic Sharia law without considering that there might be a way to compromise on the issue. The question raised then is whether some form of compromise could be possible which does not go against the Western values of democracy and justice and human rights. There are within Western nations groups religious or cultural which have their own set of rules or laws such as the Amish or the Mormons LDS the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints etc.But here are some restrictions placed upon them. In the case of Sharia Law certain laws and punishments would not be permitted such as stoning, honor killings , female genital circumcision or mutilation etc.Muslims living in Canada or the United States or Europe would not be permitted to kill a Muslim who willingly converted to another religion. And they would have to obey the Laws of the land concerning the treatment of children and women for example .
The slippery slope by rozeboosje :An Atheist Considers Implementation of Sharia October 14, 2008 Just a reminder to all that the slippery slope argument, i.e. opposing something that could be reasonable just because you feel it might lead to something horrible in the future, is actually a well known logical fallacy. And that is no less true if such a slippery slope argument is put forward by an atheist.
In this case, supporting Muslims' desire to put in place a legal framework that would allow them to make civil arrangements in accordance with "Sharia Law" based rules if all parties involved are willing to engage with this is NOT the same as supporting executions by stoning and the cutting off of limbs.
Max Blumenthal argues in the video below that the Religious Right & the radical Conservative movement in their worship of the past and so called traditional values want to raise children in such a way that they do not question those values and traditions or those in authority. They fear the very idea of real freedom and individual autonomy. This view ironically is shared by the Muslims whom they see as an enemy. The traditional ,Orthodox Muslims also believe in a strict adherence to Sharia law and to maintaining certain values and traditions which may or may not be part of Islamic teachings or which originally resided in the Quran or the life of Muhammad. Those Muslims who refuse to act according to the law of the land will be judged by the law of the land .This must be made clear to all Muslims as it is also applies to those who follow other traditions . Evangelical Christians in our democratic society must also obey the laws of the land. If they believe that according to their religion that it is permissible for men to beat their wives or their children for instance this will not be tolerated.
Max Blumenthal: The Far Right 'Hates' Children
Beck Defends Three-Fifths Clause
Glenn Beck once again confused or deliberately misleads his audience about the Founding Fathers and Slavery- Most of them supported slavery and the Head Tax Beck believed to be an entrance fee to America was actually a tax for each slave imported to the US.Beck is trying to find ways to gloss over the immorality and barbarism of slavery.
WPITW: slavery proponent Glenn Beck. Hard to disagree with Keith here...
The Religious Right and the radical Conservatives are as opposed to compromise as the conservative or orthodox Muslims when it comes to their religious beliefs and adherence to Christian and American traditional values and beliefs. They would also prefer as do the radical Muslims to create abolish the Separation of Church and State and create a Theocracy. A Christian Fundamentalist theocracy would not be much different than a Islamic Theocracy. Both would claw back the rights of women, children and of those who are not of the prevailing religion.
Video: Franklin Graham Repeats Attacks on Islam Dec. 11, 2009
Franklin Graham- Abstinence as best way to prevent HIV another American Puritan
He believes the Bible is the literal inerrant Word of God in the same way as Muslims believe the Quran and Hadiths are the word of Allah .
In this clip he glosses over the influence of the Religious Right in American politics. He also claims Evangelical Christians want to preach the Gospel world wide but are not trying to make the citizens of the world into Christians. He therefore believes Christianity is different from Islam in this way. But to those of us who spend time observing the Religious Right and Evangelical Christians whether Baptists or Pentecostal there doesn't seem to be much of a difference in the ultimate goals they have of making all the nations into Christian nations and that of of the more militant Muslims. Both seek to create some form of theocracy (Dominionists, Reconstructionists )Franklin Graham may sound somewhat tolerant but he like his father is not. He believes that only his religion is the true religion and all other religions are false and therefore are anti-Christian, anti-Jesus, anti-God and are not simply in error but if they don't repent and be "Born Again" they those who are not Christian are all bound for Hell. Just because he is soft spoken doesn't mean his message is any less dogmatic, strident or as militant as Pastor John Hagee, James Dobson, or Pat Robertson or Ron Luce's Battle Cry! ministries or Lou Engels etc.
Franklin Graham. He's the son of one of the most influential preachers on the planet, the Reverend Billy Graham, and he's following in his father's footsteps.
He openly condemns homosexuality, pre-marital sex, and view condoms as more of a problem than a solution
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Franklin Graham says only Evangelical Christianity is the way to salvation. All other religions are false. Note the advertisement for his book which one can receive if you pledge some money to his church so he can continue to build his Empire of materialism Then he makes an appeal to teenagers and young adults to enjoy a weekend of Christian Rock Music and a lot of preaching- then another quest for offerings to help sponsor the event-money, money, money- No other way to God - Franklin Graham - part 1 of 2
Slavery is acceptable both in the old and New Testament Slavery in the Bible (Are we more Moral than God?)
asilentskeptic August 16, 2008
Another Christian who says slavery was practiced by Europeans and Christians for a shorter period of time than it was practiced by Arabs & Muslims. But he ignores that slavery was not just practiced by Arabs or Muslims. Slavery was an institution long before the birth of Muhammad or Jesus. The Israelites themselves had slaves which was sanctioned by the Bible /the Torah and Jehovah. He ignores the fact that the Romans and Greeks also practiced slavery. For instance when Julius Ceaser declared war on the Celts we are told he mass murdered a million Celts and took another million captive as slaves. The ancient Babylonians, the Egyptians, the Persians , Sumerians , Phonecians, the Hittites and Cananites also practiced slavery. We also know that the Incas and Aztecs and other peoples including the Chinese and Japanese and the peoples of India were involved in slavery. So yes he's correct that Christians did not invent slavery but nor did the Muslims or the Arabs. Slavery existed some 3,000 years before Jesus or Muhammad.
But he is wrong to presume that the Old Testament or the New Testament was against slavery . Slavery as such in the Bible and in the Quran is simply taken as part of the natural order in the same way both believed as did almost all cultures that women were to a greater or lesser extent inferior to men.
The other issue is that those Christians who were against slavery were on the one hand influenced by a more liberal and humanist manner of interpreting parts of the Gospels while also being influenced by philosophers of the Enlightenment and the Age of Reason and by the first stirrings of Modernity. It is a liberal humanist idea that all men are to be viewed as being equal and that they have certain rights. These present day apologists for Judeo-Christian traditions and values should read Thomas Paine's "The Rights Of Man" or the works of others such as the Scottish poet Robert Burns or the English mystic William Blake.
Like many Christians he refuses to recognize many of the values and what have you preached by Jesus of Nazareth(Isa) had been around to some extend centuries before the founding of Christianity or Islam. 057-Slavery-its history in Islam & Christianity PfanderFilms January 02, 2008
Above Image: Muhammad leads Abraham, Moses and Jesus in prayer. from medieval Persian manuscript
Source: The Middle Ages. An Illustrated History by Barbara Hanawalt (Oxford University Press, 1998) ISBN 0195103599 p. 36
UPDATE: 2:20 & 4:25 PM Dec. 16
The Toronto 18-Terrorists The life of Muhammad Bat Ye'or 's criticism of Muhammad and Islam Connections between Islam, Judaism & Christianity
(Say (O Muslims): We believe in Allah and that which is revealed unto Us and that which was revealed unto Abraham, and Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the tribes, and that which Moses and Jesus received, and that which the Prophets received from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and unto Him we have surrendered.) (Al-Baqarah 2: 136)
(The messenger believeth in that which hath been revealed unto him from his Lord and (so do) the believers. Each one believeth in Allah and His angels and His scriptures and His messengers We make no distinction between any of His messengers and they say: We hear, and we obey. (Grant us) Thy forgiveness, our Lord. Unto Thee is the journeying.) (Al-Baqarah 2: 285)
"So in the light of this, we want you to know that we accept Jesus as a prophet of Allah."
First some Canadian Content as demanded by the CRTC:
Unfair Dealing: The Toronto Homegrown Terror Threat 1/6
Moderates Against Jihadists - Canada's 9/11 Thwarted
Alleged Terrorists tried by the Media & Government before they ever went to court.
Summer 2006 - Canadian law enforcement round up 18 young Muslims, and arrest them on terrorism charges... Were they a legitimate threat? Or were the Canadian people fooled? Questions and comments can be directed to the team that created Unfair Dealing, at Unfair.Dealing@Gmail.com
Canada's Agent provocateur Unfair Dealing: The Toronto Homegrown Terror Threat 2/6
Even if these so-called terrorists were innocent once the story was given to the media it didn't matter they would be charged and found guilty of something even though they had been egged on by "an agent provocateur" working for the Canadian government who was paid over $300,000 for a years work. There have been since 9/11 a number of suspicious cases such as these in Canada, Britain, Australia and the United States. These governments spend billions on defense and security and intelligence so they need to provide evidence no matter how bogus or tainted for their efforts. We know that hundreds of POWs or "detainees " (the designation detainee in typical Orwellian fashion is used instead of POWs as code for treating without any regard to international laws such as the Geneva Conventions-since these days even for Obama such conventions are considered to be not applicable to the United States or its allies such as the puppet regimes in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan , Usbeckistan, Indonesia, Burma, Israel , Saudi Arabia, Britain etc. code for treat prisoners you please-indefinite detention, bogus evidence , kangaroo courts ,abuse,torture etc.)were released from Gitmo without being charged on the condition they sign a waiver and not talk about the conditions under which they were kept.
Abu Ghraib and other American run prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan have been the home for hundreds of thousands of POWs and yet a large number of these were kept without any evidence against them except for confessions by other prisoners obtained through torture whether the prisoners tortured were held in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Uzbeckistan where they boil Muslims alive to please the Americans and their allies. The West since 9/11 has lost any moral high ground it ever had.
When we in the West act no better than the worst terrorists why should the rest of the world believe we have good intentions when in fact we seem to be just keeping the rest of the world fearful so we can dictate to them whatever it is we need -that is we steal their resources , use their people as cheap labor in our International unregulated Corporations which operate quite profitably in many of these countries . Maybe if Canadian, British, American corporations were made to pay decent wages and benefits and stop using, prison labor, slave labor and child labor maybe then we could say we were treating all of these people fairly.
Islamophobe Propagandists in promoting bigotry and fear of Islam such as Pam Geller, Robert Spencer, Brigitte Gabriel. Bernard Lewis , Daniel Pipes slander Muhammad and Islam or at least perpetuates lies about Muhammad as a fraud and a fake or a madman and a butcher and a pediophile who lived according to them an hedonistic self-serving life-style. They claim he duped others by claiming to have been given the Quran through the Archangel Gabriel.
They place a great deal of emphasis on the fact that he had a number of wives but don't place in the context of his life or the culture in which he was living. Muhammad became a prosperous business man and as such at that time in Arab society it was acceptable and even expected that such a man should have more than one wife. They don't bother to mention that he was involved in a monogamous relationship for 26 years. This is much longer than what most marriages last these days.
. Muhammad married the businesswoman Khadija who was a widow . Muhammad at first worked for Khadija overseeing her caravans . Later as their relationship grew based upon trust and friendship and mutual respect they fell in love and got married.For Muhammad this was the ideal marriage. After 26 years Khadija died. A few years Later he took on a number of wives which was more usual at the time.
As for Muslims today only a small percentage (approx. 4.0%) of men take on more than one wife. Muhammad & tradition warns men they can only take multiple wives if they can provide for them and treat each of them fairly. But one can't allow facts to get in the way of those who choose to slander Muhammad.
As we discover in the old testament the Israelite males also practiced polygamy and /or the use of concubines . While most of the prophets and kings of the Israelites were sexually active and also had little regard for women The Nazarene known as Jesus seemed to be a Eunuch or was sexually inhibited since he did not take a wife like a normal man. Some would suggest it was because he was either a God or partially divine and either had no sexual desires or felt it would sully his divine nature to have intercourse being a typical misogynist like many of the Christian Fathers.
Of his youth we know almost nothing, though fables about it have filled ten thousand volumes. At the age of twelve, says a tradition, he was taken by Abu Talib on a caravan to Bostra in Syria; perhaps on that journey he picked up some Jewish and Christian lore. Another tradition pictures him, a few years later, as going to Bostra on mercantile business for the rich widow Khadija. Then suddenly we find him, aged twenty-five, marrying her, aged forty and the mother of several children.
Until her death twenty-six years later Mohammed lived with Khadija in a monogamous condition highly unusual for a Moslem of means, but perhaps natural in their recipient. She bore him some daughters, of whom the most famous was Fatima, and two sons who died in infancy. He consoled his grief by adopting Ali, the orphan son of Abu Talib. Khadija was a good woman, a good wife, a good merchant; she remained loyal to Mohammed through all his spiritual vicissitudes; and amid all his wives he remembered her as the best.
Muhammad Awakens and told to "Recite" and that which he recites becomes The Holy Quran that is the word of God/Allah as told to Muhammad by the Archangel Gabriel.
As he approached forty he became more and more absorbed in religion. During the holy month of Ramadan he would withdraw, sometimes with his family, to a cave at the foot of Mt. Hira, three miles from Mecca, and spend many days and nights in fasting, meditation, and prayer. One night in the year 6io, as he was alone in the cave, the pivotal experience of all Mohammedan history came to him. According to a tradition reported by his chief biographer, Muhammad ibn Ishaq, Mohammed related the event as follows:
'Whilst I was asleep, with a coverlet of silk brocade whereon was some writing, the angel Gabriel appeared to me and said, “Read!” I said, “I do not read.” He pressed me with the coverlets so tightly that I thought 'twas death. Then he let me go, and said, “Read!”... So I read aloud, and he departed from me at last. And I awoke from my sleep, and it was as though these words were written on my heart. I went forth until, when I was midway on the mountain, I heard a voice from heaven saying, “0 Mohammed! Thou art the messenger of Allah, and I am Gabriel.” I raised my head toward heaven to see, and lo, Gabriel in the form of a man, with feet set evenly on the rim of the sky, saying, “0 Mohammed! Thou art the messenger of Allah, and I am Gabriel.”
Muhammad like Jesus accuses the people of idolatry and promoting Idolatry and ignorance to protect their own livelihood by preying on pilgrims to the Kaaba.
Mohammed went often to the Kaaba, accosted pilgrims, and preached the one god. The Quraish heard him at first with smiling patience, called him a half-wit, and proposed to send him, at their own expense, to a physician who might cure him of his madness.26 But when he attacked the Kaaba worship as idolatry they rose to the protection of their income, and would have done him injury had not his uncle Abu Talib shielded him. Abu Talib would have none of the new faith, but his very fidelity to old ways required him to defend any member of his clan.
Muhammad 's Night Flight-He rides the magical horse Buraq to Jerusalem to the Wailing Wall and the Temple Mount
One night, it seemed to him, he was miraculously transported in his sleep to Jerusalem; there a winged horse, Buraq, awaited him at the Wailing Wall of the Jewish Temple ruins, flew him to heaven, and back again; and by another miracle the Prophet found himself, the next morning, safe in his Mecca bed. The legend of this flight made Jerusalem a third holy city for Islam.
How privileged we are to hear what Bat Ye'or, whom I consider to be the world's leading scholar on Islam, has to say about Obama's speech in Cairo. Bat Ye’or, the Egyptian-born British historian who specializes in the history of Christian and Jewish dhimmis, is the author of Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis; Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide; and The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam: From Jihad to Dhimmitude.
BAT YE’OR (in NRO, Criticism and Conciliation)
Pres. Barack Obama was elected, by an overwhelming majority, on a program in which America’s rapprochement with Islam stands pre-eminent. This is a legitimate political aim in the quest for world peace. The questions are: how to achieve it, and why there is no reciprocal effort from the Muslim world represented by the Organization of the Islamic World (OIC). This body could express its regrets for over a millennium of jihad wars, land expropriations, enslavements, and humiliations of the conquered non-Muslim populations on three continents.
Obama’s Cairo discourse fits perfectly into his agenda. It flatters Muslim sensibilities and expresses the Muslim view of historical tolerance and cultural superiority over infidel civilizations. When Obama mentioned the “Isra” event, he referred to Muhammad’s ascension to heaven and his return in one night on a winged mule named Buraq. There he greets two Muslim prophets, Moses and Jesus/Isa, who are not the biblical figures. The image used here by the American president as a symbolic interfaith reconciliation between the three faiths is a meeting between three Muslim prophets and not the figureheads of the three monotheistic religions. Besides, the Isra event is not recognised by non-Muslims, and it didn’t happen in Jerusalem, as this name does not appear once in the Koran.
The president’s speech is similar to many such declarations by European leaders. The question it raises is how much the West is ready to forgo truth and its basic principles in its supplication for obtaining peace with Islam. Clearly, the full Islamization of the West is the quickest way to obtain it. Obama’s political program in connection with the Alliance of Civilizations conforms to an OIC strategy that has already been accepted by the EU. In history, this policy has a name: the dhimmitude syndrome.
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It is very telling that Bat Yeor first denies Islam has anything originally or authentically to do with Jerusalem - why is this -one can only surmise that she wants to deny that Islam has any basis to its claim that it too along with Judaism and Christianity has some ancient religious ties to Jerusalem. By claiming this Bat Yeor and others who are hostile to Islam can thereby deny any religious right on the part of Muslims to the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem or any other part of Jerusalem . Therefore only Judaism has the pre-emminent religious and theological and political claim to Jerusalem while Islam has none and Christianity has a claim though it is a lesser one to Judaism.
Bat Yeor also glosses over the fact that at first Muhammad insisted that his followers pray in the direction of Jerusalem (-he changed this later to Mecca). In this he believed he was justified because Islam was a continuation of Judaism and Christianity.
Therefore Bat Yeor and her "fellow Travelers" can mock Muslims for making any claims over the city of Jerusalem . In this way they can argue that denying Muslims access to Jerusalem would be a small matter one of little concern. In this way she and the more radical Israelis can justify expelling all Muslims from Jerusalem and possibly all Christians as well.
But the fact is that Islam from its formative years claimed Jerusalem as its third most holy site based upon the event or story or myth of Muhammad's Night Flight on the back of the winged horse Buraq which took him to Jerusalem. At the place which he touched down as it were was in proximity to the Temple Mount upon which Muslims later built the Golden Dome Mosque.
Instead Bat Yeor has Muhammad making up the entire incident since to her he is a fraud , a fakir and claims Jerusalem is not mentioned in the Quran and that at the same time she says not that he rode a fabulous magical horse but rather rode a lowly mule. She also appears to claim that Muhammad only met Isa/Jesus and Moses and she neglects to include Abraham for one can imagine in order to take away some of Muhammad's claim that he and the scriptures given to him were or are a continuation of the Abrahamic religion and traditions. She then explains that this Isa whom many believe to be Jesus has nothing to do with the Jesus of Nazareth. By doing so she can now cut any supposed ties between Christianity and Muhammad and Islam. Though Muhammad's knowledge of Isa/Jesus is either limited or is the version of Isa's life which God wanted to pass on to those who submit to Allah. So one way of looking at this is that the Christians may have missed understood Jesus's message and that his final days as told in the Gospels were a fiction or somehow were changed by the oral tradition. As Christians and Jews deny the accuracy or veracity of the account of Muhammad's life so others may question the veracity of the stories about Jesus or Abraham or Moses or the other Biblical Prophets.
For those of us outside these traditions it appears a bit disingenuous for Bat Yeor or others to claim all that is said in the Old Testament, The Torah and the Talmud are to be believed but not the Holy Book and traditions of the Hadith of Islam or the Holy scriptures and traditions of Christianity. But nor are these absolutists and literalist able to imagine that there might be truths to be found in other religions besides their own such as Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism etc.
The Buddha was preaching love ,compassion and understanding some 500 years before Christianity . He believed that all human beings suffered and so we should have compassion for them . It is also frightening to think if the Buddha or Buddhists had live within the Roman Empire once it became Christian they would have tossed the Buddha himself and his followers to the lions and had all their writings burned since Christianized Rome could not tolerate any other religions. Yet Christian have over the centuries been intolerant and murderous in their dealings with those of different faiths or even with those who interpreted the scriptures and the Life of Jesus in a different way that is Heretics who did not agree with orthodox Church doctrine and dogma and its political and economic and material concerns. So when certain Islamic groups act in similar dogmatic, intolerant and a barbaric manner towards any who do not accept the orthodoxy of a particular sect why are Christians act so indignant.These modern day Christians suffer either from amnesia or selective memory loss and involved in historical revisionism for PR purposes . For after all each is involved in selling their own particular brand product ie theological views and so depict their brand as the best and all the others as deficient.
But for instance one wonders why is Monotheism considered superior to polytheism . Is it Occam's razor they rely on. Jehovah , Jaweh , "I am That I am" doesn't in the earlier parts of the Bible claim to be the only God but rather "The God of The Israelites" and "The Creator God" to whom the Israelites should submit and that they should destroy the idols and temples of all other Gods. It is much later that he claims to be the only God.
But then the old Gods get transformed in the Judaic & Christian mythology into Archangels, and "the Angel of Light" God's companion gets transformed into "Satan" a "Fallen Angel" who leads a host of "Fallen Angels" so they recreate a whole newer version of the Old Pantheon of Gods- now one can pray to God or to various angels or saints in the Christian tradition besides Mary the Mother of God/Isa/Jesus. So the spiritual world begins to get as crowded as it was in the various Pagan traditions. And to this one could add of course the Trinity itself along with some 1800 or more Saints and Holy Relics and statues and paintings and the Pope as chosen by God along with the Church and its priests and ministers and Rabis and Imams & Mullahs and the Royal families who came by their titles because they too were representatives of God on Earth. How were these Royal Families of ancient Israel or Persia or Babylon or France or Great Britain suddenly God's chosen. There are those who believe that their nation as opposed to all others is the chosen of God. How in Heaven's name is this so different from the Ancient Egyptians or the Aztecs and their "God Kings".
But Bat Yeor and others whether Jews, Christians or secularists seem all too willing to mock Muhammad and the Holy Quran while giveng a great deal of credence to the Bible and to the traditions of both Judaism and Christianity. But to the most skeptical they would characterize all three religions as being based upon fabricated stories or myths and that so-called miracles never occured or can be explained away by modern science-ie the Nile turning red some sort of anomaly which caused the river to turn red, the various plagues merely highly misunderstood natural phenomenon .
As for myself I do not go that far since each of these faiths and others at some level resonate something which speaks not so much to the rational mind but to one's soul or heart (Heart Sutra, Lotus Sutra) however that might be defined. For instance if what Muhammad experienced was not a literal journey to Solomon's Temple and his ascension into Heaven and speaking to Abraham ,Moses and Jesus then it could be seen as a spiritually or other worldly vision as in a vision from God by way of the archangel Gabriel. Why can't some people believe in this event as real while others believe their Prophet or Messiah walked on water or was divine in nature or possibly a divinely inspired Prophet or teacher.
One of the issues here is for some of us outside these traditions is that of a strident absolutist literal reading of all these events as found in the Bible , the Torah, the New Testament or the Quran by the various adherents to these or other religions. For instance there are Christian fundamentalist that insist the world is only 6004 years old because they calculated this from what they find in the Bible. But the problem with this is that these believers are imposing their own sense of time and space upon the Mind of God as if they completely understood their deity's perception of the world.
Or for instance should we take the story of Noah's Ark as being literally true and that if we investigate the Biblical details we can then rebuild such an Ark. God commands Noah to build the Ark but to what extent or degree is God or his Angels lending an unseen invisible hand in the construction. If we take the story literally than we can assume God helps in some manner to round up all of the pairs of animals to be put on the Ark in the same way that the Flood the Deluge is not natural but is willed by God.
And if a Christian can believe that a man named Jesus existed historically and he performed miracles etc. yet then turn around and call some other religious sage, teacher, prophet a fake and a fraud a charlatan this seems a bit disingenuous. Maybe as some suggest there was no actual one man named Jesus but rather a series of teachers who were given the task to pass on the Christ Teachings. On the other hand since so many claim Muhammad was a charlatan or deluded and insane we could make these claims about Jesus or his followers or about Abraham, or Moses etc. But in one sense what matters are the teachings that have been passed on and whether some wish to take them seriously and live by them-that is to have made a leap of faith to believe in Jesus or in Abraham, Moses, or the Buddha or Lao Tzu or the Reb or Joseph Smith etc.
...Notice the difference between what Moslems believe about Muhammad and what Christians believe about Jesus. Christians believe that Jesus was divine, the actual son of God. Moslems believe that Muhammad was a mortal man, not at all divine. Rather, they see Muhammad as a prophet, in fact, the last and most important of the great prophets (such as Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus). Thus, it came to be that, in 610, at the age of 40, Muhammad began to preach monotheism.
One of the most important verses of the Qur'an (Surah 17:1) leads to an interesting story about Muhammad. The actual verse (loosely translated) is: "Praise be to Him who took His servant by night from the sacred mosque in Mecca to the most distant mosque, whose environs we did bless, so that we might show him some of our signs, for He is the All-Hearing and All-Seeing One." Islamic tradition embellishes this verse into the miraculous "Night Journey":
One night, Muhammad, accompanied by the angel Gabriel, flew on the back of a winged, horse-like creature to Jerusalem to visit the temple that was built by King Solomon (who, by the way, is also considered to be one of the prophets). At the Temple, Muhammad prayed with Abraham, Moses and Jesus. Muhammad was then carried up to heaven by Gabriel, where Muhammad met God. Because of this trip, Moslems consider Jerusalem to be the third most holy city, after Mecca and Medina (see below). Within Jerusalem lies one of Islam's most holy sites, the Dome of the Rock, which covers the place where Muhammad is said to have stepped as he began his ascent to heaven. During the Night Journey, Muhammad was told several tenets that he incorporated into the basis of Islam, for example, that all Moslems should pray five times a day.
In Islam, Jerusalem`s historical importance is due to a tradition saying that Muhammad went on a celestial journey from the spot where the ruins of the Jewish temples was and where the Dome of the Rock later was erected. On Mt. Moriah at the hallowed site, known in Arabic as Haram al Sharif, the 9th Caliph, Abd al-Malik, built the great Dome of the Rock between 687 and 691. Adjacent to the Dome is the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Designed by Byzantine architects engaged by the Caliph, the Dome of the Rock was the greatest monumental building in early Islamic history and remains today one of the most sublime examples of monumental mosques. The sacred foundation stone is encircled by sixteen arches that formerly came from different churches in Jerusalem, which were destroyed during the Persian occupation of the city in 614 AD.
Prophet Abraham (peace be upon him) is considered the first international personality. He was born in Ur or Urfa (in modern-day Iraq or Turkey). He traveled throughout the Middle East, lived in Jerusalem, and ventured to Makkah. He was then buried in Hebron in modern-day Palestine.
Today, each of these places is still of historic, religious, and spiritual significance. In the Glorious Qur'an, Abraham is referred to as the inspired, most truthful, Prophet, mild, imploring, penitent, upright, soft-hearted, and long-suffering. The believers are called the people or community of Abraham many times in the Qur'an. Almighty Allah says,
(And they say, "Be Jews or Christians — you will be rightly guided." Say (unto them, O Muhammad), "Nay, but (we follow) the religion of Abraham, the upright, and he was not of the polytheists.") (Al-Baqarah 2:135)
(And who has a better religion than he who submits himself entirely to Allah while doing good (to others) and follows the faith of Abraham, the upright? And Allah took Abraham as a friend.) (An-Nisaa' 4:125)
(Indeed, I (Joseph) have forsaken the religion of a people who do not believe in Allah, and they are deniers of the hereafter. And I have followed the religion of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. It never was for us to attribute aught as partner to Allah. This is of the bounty of Allah unto us (the seed of Abraham) and unto humankind, but most people do not give thanks.) (Yusuf 12:37–38)
(And We bestowed on him Isaac and — as an additional gift (a grandson) — Jacob, and We made righteous men of every one of them. And We made them leaders who guided (people) by Our command, and We inspired in them the doing of good deeds and the keeping up of Prayer and the giving of the alms, and they were worshippers of Us (alone).) (Al-Anbiyaa' 21:72–73)
Another verse in the Qur'an describes Abraham as the father of all believers. Almighty Allah says,
(And strive hard in (the way of) Allah, (such) a striving as is due to Him; He has chosen you and has not laid upon you any hardship in religion: The faith of your father Abraham; He named you Muslims before and in this (Revelation) that the Messenger may be a bearer of witness to you and you may be bearers of witness to the people…) (Al-Hajj 22:78)
As one reflects upon the unique legacy of Abraham, Ishmael, and Hagar (who are all models of excellence), one ponders over Abraham's logical attitude in his search for truth, his respectful debate with his unbelieving father, and his loving relationship with his son. All these serve as timeless examples of excellence for humanity.
True Believers are those who follow the way of Abraham. Perchance, in all walks of life, we too can imbibe the spirit of Abraham if we truly understand the purpose of our existence. Almighty Allah says,
(Say, "Surely my Prayer and my sacrifice and my life and my death are (all) for Allah, Lord of the Worlds.) (Al-An`am 6:162)
As for the name, ‘allah in Arabic is a contraction for ‘al-‘ilah, “the-God,” and as such is cognate with Hebrew ‘eloh, “god,” (plural of abstraction, ‘elohim, “deity”). In both languages, the common noun meaning “deity” or “god” can function in monotheistic context as a proper name for the only actual instance of such a being. (Note that neither Hebrew nor Arabic employs capital letters to make a God/god distinction.)
Linguistic technicalities aside, what matters is that back in the seventh century, the first Muslims were using the same kind of word in Arabic that the Jews were using theologically in Hebrew and using it in the same way. Much the same could be said of seventh-century Christians speaking of God in Syriac or Coptic, Semitic languages then still widely used.
That Jews, Christians, and Muslims have always assumed their differences to be about the character rather than the identity of God is abundantly witnessed centuries later in late medieval Spain where the three religions mingled freely and the best scholars were bi- or even trilingual in Latin, Arabic, and Hebrew. During that era, a number of famous theological debates took place in which all participants transparently assumed that all other participants were speaking of-—and, of course, disagreeing about—-the same divine subject.
Perhaps the most strenuous of all such medieval wrestling matches was the silent, private bout between Thomas Aquinas and Ibn Rushd, the earlier Muslim philosopher whom the West knows as Averroes. Aquinas wrote his immense Benares or Kyoto to realize this. All three believe that God is the Creator and that God will someday end the world that he created. All three believe that God is a judge as well, that he will show himself as such on the last day, and that the criterion for his judgment will be not worldly greatness but moral integrity. And this list can be extended just as easily as the list of differences.
Another American Innovation Carried out by Luis Posada Carriles American Backed Terrorist-the First to Blow Up A Plane of a Commercial Airline killing 75 Cuban civilians- Also responsible for bombings in market places etc. Since he's anti-Castro the US says that's OK.
"Black Water" War Profiteers & CEO Eric Prince's Christian Crusaders Killing For Jesus The American Way -"Convert or Die"
"Atomic Bomb" United States Gift To The World & The Possibility of a Nuclear Holocaust
Lynchings Rough Justice In America
Ku Klux Klan another American Innovation
