Posted on 12/05/2003 6:18:42 AM PST by veronica
Islamic Civil Rights Group Seeks On-Air Apology
WASHINGTON, Dec. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is calling for an on-air apology from syndicated radio commentator Paul Harvey who said on his Thursday program that Islam "encourages killing."
Harvey, who has 24 million weekly listeners on some 1,600 radio stations in this country and around the world, made that claim during his Thursday noon commentary.
In that segment, Harvey described the bloody nature of cock fight gambling in Iraq and said: "Add to the thirst for blood a religion which encourages killing, and it is entirely understandable if Americans came to this bloody party unprepared."
TO LISTEN TO THE SEGMENT, GO TO: http://www.paulharvey.com/ Click on the Thursday noon program. The section with the offensive quote begins at 6:53. The quote itself begins at 8:25.
"We had hoped that a respected broadcast professional like Mr. Harvey would not join the growing number of Islamophobic hate-mongers in our society," said CAIR Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper. "He falsely attributes to Islam two things that are specifically prohibited by our faith, murder and cruelty to animals." (Islam also prohibits gambling.)
Hooper quoted the Prophet Muhammad, who said one of the "biggest of (the great sins)" is "to murder a human being." (Sahih Al-Bukhari, 9:10) He also cited the Quran, Islam's revealed text, which states that when someone takes another's life, "it would be as if he slew all mankind." (Quran, 5:32)
On animal cruelty, the Prophet said: "A woman was punished [by God] because of a cat. She had neither provided it with food nor drink, nor set it free so that it might eat the creatures of the earth." (Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1047)
In another tradition related by the Prophet, a man was rewarded by God for helping a thirsty animal. The man, who had just climbed down a well to get water for himself, saw a dog panting and licking mud because of excessive thirst. He went down the well again and filled his shoe with water for the dog. God thanked him for that deed and forgave his sins.
After relating that story, the Prophet was asked: "Is there a reward for us in serving animals?" He replied: "Yes, there is a reward for serving any (living being)." (Sahih Al-Bukhari, 3:646)
In other Islamic traditions, the Prophet prohibited capturing young birds because of the distress caused to their mother, and rebuked his companions who burnt an ant hill.
Hooper also cited the Quran, which says: "There is no beast that walks on earth and no bird that flies on its two wings that is not [God's] creature ... Unto their Sustainer shall they [all] be gathered." (Quran, 6:38)
In 1999, Harvey issued an on-air apology to Muslims for remarks suggesting that Islam was a "fraudulent religion." The apology came after hundreds of concerned Muslims called, faxed and e-mailed both Harvey's office and that of ABC Radio Networks, his program's syndicator.
CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and has 25 regional offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada.
CONTACT: Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail: cair@cair-net.org; Rabiah Ahmed, 202-488-8787 or 202-439-1441, E-Mail: rahmed@cair-net.org
NOTE: CAIR offers an e-mail list designed to be a journalist's window to the American Muslim community. Subscribers to the list, called ISLAM-INFONET, receive news releases and other materials dealing with American Muslim positions on issues of importance to our society.
To SUBSCRIBE to or UNSUBSCRIBE from this list, go to: http://cair.biglist.com/islam-infonet/
Paul Harvey should apologize...unless he can come up with any examples of Islam "encouraging killing." Something like Islamics flying airplanes into towers, or blowing up civilians, or anything like that. Maybe he could do an internet search and see if he can find any examples...
No thats not what I said.....it was more like:
Islam is not a violent religion. If you do not apologize, we will kill you, your family, all your friends, anyone in your neighborhood, your banker, doctor, stock broker, high school teachers and gardener. Islam is a religion of peace.
Thanks for your attention,
CAIR
We traded swords with some Jehovah's Witnesses once. Of course, like the Muslim faith, they come in with a pitch on how simliar their Truth is to Christian Truth. But all the things under the surface (Christ is really the Archangel Micheal, no Trinity, no Heaven, etc.) is never mentioned until you are deeper into the faith. Same with the Muslims...there are all kinds of things "in the book" that are never addressed to the outside observer. I think we should all read the Koran, for the simple reason of understanding what the book says, and being ready to refute it.
[Sort of Subject Change]
Glenn Beck said yesterday that he has read "Mein Kampf" because he wanted to understand how perfectly normal, good-intentioned human beings could arrive at the point they don't bat an eye while trucks full of people pass their front door on the way to the concentration camps. Be aware of what the other guy thinks, and when he says, "Mine is the 'religion of peace", call him out.
Secong the Koran's prohibition of murder seems to be ignored by terrorists who wantonly take thousands of innocent lives in the name of their Islamic religion. Where is their condemnation of the attack on the World trade Center???
Maybe because if they become Muslims, the Koran says they can become the slavemasters.
Perhaps they know that if they did, they might get killed, in the name of Islam of course.
Well I for one have given up hope that Islam would not remain the principal Judeophobic and Christainophobic hate mongering religion. They preach hatred and then when anyone bravely points it out, they are called a hate-monger.
Pray for W and The Truth
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