Posted on 12/07/2004 7:28:32 PM PST by naturalman1975
IT was one of those extremely rare moments when I found myself agreeing with John Howard. Asked what he thought of Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore's reported plans to make Sydney's Christmas celebrations low-key and generic, the Prime Minister slammed them as "silly", "ridiculous" and "political correctness from central casting".
Out of sensitivity for a multicultural society, Moore was reported to have said she did not want the celebrations "to push any one religious belief".
In fact, Moore had said nothing of the sort. Quite the contrary: the council is increasing its Christmas celebration spending this year by 50per cent. The words were spoken by Jeff Fisher, chief executive of fast-food chain Oporto following news that the chain had banned a nativity display from its franchise in Hornsby in northern Sydney. Media had put the words in the wrong mouth, but Howard's assessment of them remained true.
Every Christmas it seems we go through this farce. Last year, Stonnington Council in Melbourne removed the word Christmas from its celebrations and prevented speakers at a carols night from quoting the Bible. Some kindergartens and daycare centres have stopped having Christmas parties, instead having end-of-year or fairy parties.
All this, it seems, is being done to include Australia's religious and cultural minorities. This is supposed to foster social harmony and tolerance.
But it doesn't. It does exactly the opposite. When Channel Seven's Sunrise recently ran an interactive segment on the issue, a common theme in the responses of viewers legitimately aggrieved by this emasculation of Christmas was anger towards minority groups -- especially Muslims -- who were cast as cultural warriors against the majority.
Muslims may not celebrate Christmas but it is ridiculous to suspect they are behind this absurd trend. Jesus is a revered, prophetic figure in Islam and, accordingly, we are the least likely to be offended by other religious groups celebrating his birth. An anti-Christmas campaign is more consistent with aggressive atheism than any Islamic imperative.
In fact, I know no member of any religious minority, Muslim or otherwise, who asked for or even wants this. In my experience, religious minorities are far more concerned that their right to religious expression is respected and protected. That, surely, is a right belonging no less to the majority than to minorities.
Driving Christmas underground only erodes this treasured Australian norm and that is far more troubling to me than any Christmas celebration. I find the idea of restraining religious expression substantially more offensive than I find any nativity display. The impoverishment of Christmas is done more on behalf of religious minorities than by them.
This is where political correctness loses the plot; what purports to inspire tolerance instead inspires hostility and intolerance. Diverse, vibrant and tolerant societies are created by allowing eclectic cultural and religious expressions, celebrations included, to flourish. You don't achieve that by surrendering a culture, replacing it with bland meaninglessness.
Denying the Christianity in Christmas or, worse, doing away with it altogether helps no one. This is not multiculturalism. It is anti-culturalism.
Waleed Aly, a Melbourne lawyer, is a member of the Islamic Council of Victoria executive.
You are mixing up radical Islam with the real Islam which IS quite compatible with Christianity. After all, it's just the last several decades where there has been a problem.
To be added to your good guys (or girls) list is truly an honor. Many thanks. And thank God for Protest Warriors who led me to Free Republic in the first place! (and while I'm at it, thanks to the lunacy of the liberal left. Even a koolaid drinker like me HAD to see through the fog.)
"You are mixing up radical Islam with the real Islam which IS quite compatible with Christianity."
How is it compatible?
After all, isn't that the entire purpose of religion?
Did you read Quran? Just curious.
I am open to recommendations, but I have read fairly extensively on the subject. Just to name a few, I've read two books by Steve Emerson, Fighting Terrorism by Benjamin Netanyahu, Militant Islam Reaches American by Daniel Pipes, as well as numerous articles from various sources. I've also read Edward Said and a few others to get a counter balance. Please do not assume that because I'm new to FR that I'm new to the study of the danger of Islam. I am sure you meant no offense.
You neglected to mention Judaism. Do Jews not also love God and seek to please him? And by the way, insinuating that I don't read ("you should try reading") is hardly a prelude to reasoned, coherent debate.
But Jews do not seek to please God by slaughtering innocent women and children and oppressing/honor-killing women. There is no comparison, but then, the Jews do not worship and seek to please a (false) bloodthirsty Moon god or worship a meteorite in Mecca. Nor does the Jewish religion make it a virtue to lie to the infidel.
The moral relativism of these cowardly appeasers would please Allah if he actually existed.
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=atheist
Pronunciation: 'A-thE-ist
Function: noun
: one who believes that there is no deity
The language continues to be twisted.
Like ‘gay’ = ‘homosexual’. When someone writes
“An atheist hates anything Christian”;
they are not correct.
The English Language does not have a word for
“Jesus-hating -- Christian-loathing –
Ten-Commandment-trashing – ACLU-loving --
anti-religious zealots.
Maybe we could call them HACORs (Hates
Anything Christian Or Religious)
While HACORs may be atheists, they
certainly hate Jesus, Jesus’ Father,
Christians, evangelicals, the Ten
Commandments, etc.
atheists are only “one who believes
that there is no deity”. They don't
necessarily hate anything.
Remember C. S. Lewis started out as an atheist.
"So sad that their feeding the bears will get other good people killed."
Very true. The people that say that "islam is peaceful" must be definitely someone that falls into these four catagories -
1. They have not read the violent Book of Jihad aka Quran,
2. They are blind to the murderous history of the Islam
3. They are trying to be politically correct by pacifying Islamists at the expense of the rest of the Americans
4. They may not have brains and are just plain old fools who will never understand the reality or think rationally.
Because of people like these, the rest of the world is paying a heavy price. I wonder how long these pacifists of Islam would survive if they are to live under Sharia law like the one in Afghanistan. May be they should visit http://rawa.org for a preview of what its like under strict Islam.
5. And some, because of cowardice or just plain lack of real-time experience, think that every animal can be tamed by a bowl of milk and a warm hug.
I just thank God that there are Americans like you around. I feel less alone that way. I love this beautiful country and do not want to lose it to the savage primitives.
"You try to make Islam an ally of Christianity for a racist purpose. It's only a matter of time before you bring out the jewish conspiracy garbage."
? Care to expand on this?
"Face it, you're busted."
Oh, really? You mean you've been able to detect & reveal something in a couple of hours in order to "bust" me, that no one's been able to do in 21 months and 13,200 posts? Wow. Delusions of grandeur, maybe.
Okay, I'm holding my breath.
The simple fact is, we had better all try to figure out a way to get along. The ONE thing that is common to all three is the love of God.
Yes, there are fanatics in the Muslim religion, but if you will recall, there were also fanatics in the Christian religion too.
Israel is located in the middle east, they are surrounded by Muslim countries. Before Khomeni took over in Iran, the people of Iran were friends of Israel. Cyrus, the ancient king of Persia was the best friend the Jews ever had.
This hatred, this division, is a man made thing and it has to be stopped. It will not be stopped by returning hatred with hatred. Are some Muslims evil? Yes, of course they are, as are some Christians and some Jews. But nothing is solved by tarring everyone with one brush. There are more than 1 billion Muslims on this planet. We had better figure out a way to seperate the good from the bad in all religions and do what we can to get along with each other.
And thank God for Americans like you who don't flinch at the truth. Keep speaking out.
LOL!
You were busted long ago, and it just keeps getting more and more obvious as to just who and what you are.
Wow, really?
Notice my added emphasis in your sentence. This is where defenders of mohammedanism go wrong.
For anyone who missed it somehow, Christianity had a Reformation quite some time ago.
The world is still waiting for that to happen in the death-cult known as islam.
When islam is purged of its madmen, then and only then will it be taken seriously as a "religion of peace".
The other day, this guy was mentioning how Quran aka the Book of Jihad mentions everything that a Human Being should abide by. And he goes on saying, "Allah has created everything. Infact, Allah created the mountains as pillars at strategic places on earth so that the earth is always balanced". After hearing that, I gave up on all hope in convincing an "anti-infidel" to be a bit rational. Well, I should not be blaming the guy. I should be blaming the Book of Jihad for misleading all the Islamists with teachings like the one above. I will be glad to provide the reference if someone has any doubts about these "pillars" on which this earth is supported according to the Book of Jihad.
So the point is, nuconvert seems to be one of those CAIR trained Islamists who believes like the guy mentioning above with out even thinking for once. Well, rationality is NOT a concept in Islam anyway. The only concept/prescription is submitting to Islam. If someone questions it, they are dead meat!!! Ofcourse, again killing is prescribed in the Book of Jihad!!! nuconvert should go ask an imam at http://islam.tc/ask-imam/index.php
And to others looking for some laughter before they go to bed tonight, they can read the Imam's responses to questions posted at the website http://islam.tc/ask-imam/index.php
"nuconvert seems to be one of those CAIR trained Islamists "
You obviously haven't read my posts in the past.
Try reading, before you embarrass yourself more.
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