Posted on 06/23/2002 2:56:18 AM PDT by sarcasm
Edited on 04/13/2004 2:07:54 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
With a colorful silk scarf draped over her head, 15-year-old Hala Saadeh, a student from Fitchburg High School, said it felt good to finally be among her Islamic friends yesterday. After all, she is the only Muslim in her school of 1,286 students.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
What is usually written in the press about Mulsims is about as accurate as what is written about the Catholics, or the "right wing fundamentalist Christians".
The religion of Islam is a beautiful religion, stressing charity to the poor, tolorance of other "religions of the book" (a long history of tolorance to Christians and Jews in Muslim countries). Women in Islam, just like Baptist and Catholic girls, are supposed to be chaste before marriage, and dress modestly. After marriage, their husbands rule over them (ever read Corinthians?) but the Koran reminds men that if they do not treat women kindly, their prayers will not be heard by God.
Children are cherished as a gift of God. Abortion is forbidden except if the mother will die. Family planning is encouraged to protect the life and health of the mother.
Many countries before converting to Islam killed female babies. The Koran forbad this. Many of the customs of veiling women predate Islam, and were mainly to protect upper class women from harm.
The God of Islam has the same attributes of the God of Judism and Christianity, since Mohammed, when he sought to find out about God, was influenced by this.
The corruption of many countries that have Islamic majorities is a political and cultural thing. For example, Indonesia and the Philippines are both very corrupt. Indonesia is Muslim, the Philippines is Catholic. Russia is corrupt (Orthodox) as is Nigeria (mixed Christian/Muslim/Animist).
If you read the stories about the New World order and how liberals are using NGO's to impose abortion etc. on the world, you will notice it is the Vatican, and GW Bush's American representatives joining with Muslim countries to oppose this.
Taha Abdul Basser, a representative of Harvard's Islamic Society, warned the teens ... not to become absorbed by American consumerism, materialism, and love of wealth.
Seems like a mixed message.
Some in the art world regard Mapplethorpe's work as beautiful and creative. I do not. It's all a matter of taste, I suppose.
You're exactly right.
I guess it's not so much a mixed message as a veiled one.
Maybe they wouldn't feel so isolated if they joined the society they choose to live within in the 21st century instead of stagnating in the 7th century.
The ultimate aim of Islam is to force the entire world (via bloody jihad, not this jihad meaning a "personal struggle" that some Muslims claim is the "proper" translation) to submit to a barbaric 7th Century Sharia (Islamic law) that will be interpreted by Muslim judges. Muslims will have the upper hand in such a society because infidels are considered part of "The House of War" and are definitely second class citizens under the Sharia. As for freedom to choose under Sharia, you can forget that. Morality is strictly enforced by Muslims and subject to their own power-hungry, hypocritical interpretations. As for religious freedom, if another Muslim wants to convert to one of the "lesser" religions, he is to be put to death. Death is also in the cards if an infidel even dares to criticize or question the "religion of peace."
As for blaming the various Islamic cultures, that's only a small percentage of what is wrong with Islam and why it has such a bloody, freedom-hating attitude to this day. Islam was born out of an Arabic culture that was full of tribal bloodlust, violence, avarice and hatred towards anyone who refused to kow tow to their authority. The BRIEF historical periods and places within Islam where Jews, Christians and other infidels got along (a relative term) with the RULING MUSLIMS were because THE MUSLIMS were safely in control of the area and populations via Sharia law. There were economical considerations (trade with Europe, India and China) as well as a wise Muslim leader or two whose power kept the Muslim faithful from doing too much harm as was their rights under the Koran, Hadith and Sharia to overtax, cheat, rape, enslave and murder an infidel. If such things happened during the Islamic "enlightened periods", little or no penalties were carried out against Muslims who committed acts against infidels.
I shudder to think what the entire world would be like under Sharia. Because I studied the Islamic religion, (with no preconceived notions at the time) I can easily see how Muslims can teach their children to hate and want to murder Jews, infidels and why they support (in large numbers) the goals and methods of such leaders like Osama Bin Laden and Yassir Arafat. A year and half ago, I never believed that the Islam of today would actually dare to carry out the exhortations of Muhammad towards the infidels and Western civilization. 9/11 has changed all that. That is also why I ain't buying your or anyone's defense of Islam until I see real changes in the entire culture, attitudes and interpretations of the "religion of peace" by a great majority of Muslims. Somehow, I doubt if that is going to happen anytime soon. It sure hasn't since 9/11.
AMEN! You can say That again!!
That's Ephesians, and the verse immediately preceding that classic use of proof-texting exhorts men to sacrifice themselves for their wives as Christ did for his church.
Christ also told couples that a man and a woman were one flesh. Not four women and one man. Or, in the case of Mohammed, 12 wives and innumerable concubines.
Paul said that all are one in Christ. Mohammed said that a woman is only worth half a man, and that women weren't as likely as men to go to heaven. A man shouldn't walk between two women because the two women would equal one man...a most peculiar preoccupation, but the more I read of the Koran and Al Hadith, the worse it gets... Although what a woman would do in a Muslim heaven, I wouldn't know. Watch all that transpires on the couches? The Muslim heaven looks like a pleasure palace for men.
Mohammed made male circumcision mandatory, and female circumcision optional. Do you know what is involved in a female circumcision?
That people are corrupt, and will corrupt their own faith, is as old as Adam.
Perhaps the moderate Muslims need to devote as much energy in denouncing the physical jihad and promoting the spiritual jihad as they do to qualifying their disapproval of terrorism with "yes, but, Israel is bad..."
This is the "Mecca Mohammed"--the man with no army and no power. The violent "Medina Mohammed" had an army to do his bidding.
(see #s 12 & 15 above)
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