Posted on 11/03/2003 5:18:08 AM PST by SJackson
It's high time to tell the truth about the adherents — and, more importantly, leaders — of the "great religion"
I'd like to think that with Ramadan rolling around again, President Bush at least considered calling off his annual White House dinner with assorted Muslim luminaries to break their holiday fast. No other religious group — not Jews, Catholics, Protestants or even Druids — rates an official celebration like the Iftaar supper, a White House "tradition" since 2001. That was the year the United States first decided that "reaching out" to Muslims following Muslim terrorist attacks on the United States was a good idea. Three Ramadans later, a sense of dining entitlement has no doubt kicked in that's harder to buck than not.
So,the president hosted his Ramadan dinner. Believing (and having written) that this man is all that separates us from the abyss, I'm pulling for Mr. Bush to succeed. At the same time, I'm also hoping he choked a little on his official remarks, at least on the part where he called on people of all faiths to reflect on "the values we hold common — love of family, gratitude to G-d, and" — insert Heimlich Maneuver here — "a commitment to religious freedom."
Islam may have a lot of things — love of family and gratitude to G-d, as the president said, along with jihad (holy war), dhimmitude (inferior status of non-Muslims) and a corner on the suicide bombing market — but it does not have "a commitment to religious freedom." And, that goes even after excluding al Qaeda, the Taliban and the entire royal family of Saudi Arabia. Take Egypt. According to a report I first saw posted at www.robertspencer.org, a new Web site devoted to both jihad and dhimmitude, a slew of Christian converts from Islam have been arrested since Oct. 21 in Egypt — our modern (moderate?) friend and recipient of billions in U.S. aid — in a crackdown on "apostates."
As reported by the Barnabas Fund, a British watchdog group, as many as 22 Christian converts "have been taken from Alexandria to police stations in Cairo and are being beaten, interrogated and tortured." The charge? Falsifying identity papers. While it's not technically against the law in Egypt for Muslims to convert to Christianity — as it is under the sharia law of, say, Iran, Sudan and Saudi Arabia — it is illegal for any Egyptian to drop his Muslim name for a Christian name. "Thus," as the Barnabas Fund explains, Christian converts in Egypt are always "regarded as Muslims in the eyes of the law."
(Excerpt) Read more at jewishworldreview.com ...
Read the Koran, study some 7th-century and 8th-century history, and Saudi Arabian jurisprudence. Then get back to us on this. W's Stockholm Syndrome cuddling with Muslims is not all that... illuminating. Charles Martel had a more intelligent strategy for dealing with barbarism.
I prefer the tradition which produced and has maintained the Aquinas version of Aristotle. You know, about a "little mistake in the beginning being a big one in the end." Along with not cutting women's heads off any more. I'll keep that one, thank you. Talking about passion and anger getting people out of control.
Good grief. Get obsessed with a new topic. You'll feel better.
There is no strategery here. Just stupidity. And sheer cowardice.
Get obsessed with a new topic. You'll feel better.
Hey everybodys got to have a hobby, it's not like I have a life or anything. :-)
England, France, Spain, or Italy are much better places to visit than Saudi Arabia or Iran. Or at least they used to be. It has something to do with the Christian element in Western civilization. To invoke the Western language of "fairness" and "tolerance" (or "freedom"!!!)to defend Islam is so absurd as to defy explanation. One can be sorry if this hurts someone's feelings. They ought to be more sorry about those tortured, blown up, or who have had their heads lopped off by crazy Muslim regimes.
It took Western countries a long period - centuries - of Christian development to get to the point in manners, culture, and religious morality, to understand that certain types of behavior are barbaric, savage, cruel, and unacceptable. We have been taking steps backwards in recent decades under the influence of secular humanism, liberalism, and moral relativism. We don't need any more smarmy anti-Christian social engineering. We need leaders who are intelligent enough, educated enough, and courageous enough to promote the Christian civilizational heritage which is the source of greatness in the West. Some people will be offended. That's tough. They were attracted to the West (and America) precisely for those excellences and qualities which derive from the Christian heritage - including not chopping their heads or hands off, having free intelligent discussions of things like Aristotle, and assorted other goodies of the Western tradition.
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