What Unites America With Islam

PakTribune ^ | January 14, 2004 | William R. Stimson

[Napoleon Solo]

"What Unites America With Islam" ---> NOTHING!!

"Each religious tradition comes from a specific people who lived in a specific place at a specific time and uses images familiar in that context to convey a truth that is the same across all religious traditions. Only the metaphors used to describe the truth are different, not the truth. The truth is one. Everything is connected. Everything is sacred. We don't, any of us, individually or collectively - Islam or America - exist apart from that whole; but are interwoven in it by a billion, billion strands. Each is sacred and each must somehow be honored. We neglect any single one at our peril." ---->

SO LONG AS IT DOESN'T INCLUDE THE JEWS!!

[new cruelty]

Thanks for the link.

[Bob Mc]

"Yet because each religion expresses this same truth in its own language..."

This so called "truth" he refers to and so horribly fails to identify in this screed is very well summed in our "Declaration of Independence":

"... We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. ..."

[reed_inthe_wind]

"But the instant we emerge from the illusion of a separate self, our behavior changes."

There is just one thing missing in this guys utopia - us.

Eph.1
[1] Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,
To the saints who are also faithful in Christ Jesus:


[2]
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.


[3]
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,


[4] even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.
[5] He destined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,
[6] to the praise of his glorious grace which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
[7] In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace
[8] which he lavished upon us.
[9] For he has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ
[10] as a plan for the fulness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
[11]
In him, according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will,


[12] we who first hoped in Christ have been destined and appointed to live for the praise of his glory.
[13] In him you also, who have heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and have believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
[14] which is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
[15]
For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints,

[cwb]

"Because of the financial muscle of American Jewish campaign contributors, the President of the United States is hostage to a tiny handful of die-hard fundamentalist religious zealots in Israel, hell-bent on settling Arab lands. The wrath of Islam strikes out at America."

Really?...Then tell me why it is that Islam is also striking out in places like Nigeria, the Phillipines, the Balkans, Indonesia, Chechnya...and just about any place a Muslim country borders a non-Muslim country. Hell, they strike out at each other between the sects of Wahabbi, Shi'ite, Sunni, etc. Keep dreaming.

[Snagglepuss]

What Unites America? In the instance of this article, we must surmise that our sense of smell unites us. :-)

[Migraine]

so long as we persist in seeing the problem as theirs alone...

...uh, the problem is theirs alone... They just kinda made themselves into our problem when they came and paid us a visit. And that's the only thing America has to do with Islam.

[jim macomber]

"The holy war has nothing to do with killing but is more akin to the arduous struggle of a hatching chick with its shell. Jihad is a confrontation with the conditioned self and a breaking through that false identification into a direct experience of the sacred, the eternal."

Hmmm. Might there be an opposing view?

"Jihad has historically meant, almost always one thing-which is expanding the territories ruled by Muslims through armed warfare. That's what it's meant. Now I'm happy to see a development occur whereby it means something more spiritual. But we have to start by acknowledging that that's the real meaning of the word, the historic meaning of the word, the traditional meaning of the word, and we can't ignore it." http://www.danielpipes.org/article/416

[Snagglepuss]

And let us not forget the holy imam who sets aside the camel muffin lest it be tread upon. Hey, let's be equal opportunity holy guys here.
:-)

[Charles Martel]

...One man at a time, over the millennia, has taken on his self in battle.

To take on the self in battle ("Jihad") is to enter the domain of the sacred. The images and language describing the process and its outcome, like in dreams and poetry, are necessarily metaphorical - fatally misunderstood if taken literally.

I remember hearing a high-school religion teacher describe "Jihad" as the "war against the self", but that was years ago- and even then the Muslims were trying to rout the Jews, so it rang as hollow then as it does now.

I suspect that definition of "Jihad" was nothing more than feel-good nonsense perpetuated by the West, perhaps while hoping in vain that Islam would move away from the literal interpretion of the Koran (especially the parts thereof which urge the killing of infidels). That hope was misplaced; Muslims don't seem to "get" metaphors.

[weegee]

I got as far as this passage:

Those who have only tasted the surface of religion, and not its depths stir up all manner of trouble. Because of the financial muscle of American Jewish campaign contributors, the President of the United States is hostage to a tiny handful of die-hard fundamentalist religious zealots in Israel, hell-bent on settling Arab lands.

...before by BravoSierra Bingo card was filled.

[new cruelty]

before my BravoSierra Bingo card was filled.

ROTFLOL.

[weegee]

Obviously the author has never been to Ask The Imam's Q&A forum to see the discussion of "physical jihad", a term used in conjunction with "holy war". This "jihad" is a "personal struggle" is a soft sell for the real mission. Subjugation of the infidel (the experts at Ask The Imam will tell you that slavery is good because after a war, the homeless women and children are unable to provide for themselves and that sex slave status shows them "love").

[AfghanIraqVeteran]

"What Unites America With Islam"


America makes Pampers. They where them on their heads.

[CaptRon]

It's embarrassing to see America stand against measures to stop global warming,

Surprisingly, I made it this far and couldn't go any further.

And BTW, I'm getting tired of hearing about jihad being this "internal struggle" thing. I'm not buying it.

[Snagglepuss]

And they don't where pants on the other side of France lol
P.S. Thanks for serving. This country is honored by you and yours.

[AfghanIraqVeteran]

wear...oops

[Cicero]

Individual by individual - all over the world - is undergoing a change of heart and redirecting his or her life so that it honors and pays tribute to all religions, cultures, nations, races and species.

Reminds me of the fellow who advised people to say the following mantra every morning when they get up: "Every day, and in every way, I am getting better and better."

Unfortunately, it isn't so. Some people get better, some get worse, and most keep making the same mistakes over and over again. If humanity as a whole is getting better and better, than how do you account for the fact that the twentieth century was the bloodiest and most murderous in history? This guy sounds about as bright as Shirley McClain.

[ppaul]

Bunch of tripe.

St. Paul described the situation best:

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen.

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.

In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. -- Romans 1:18-32

[Alouette]

BravoSierra Bingo card was filled.