"The difference between you and Robert Byrd is: he recognized the hate and bigotry of what he said and did in the past, and admitted he was mistaken. You've failed to do either of those things."
Really? But I thought you said you didn't "know me to judge whether or not I was bigoted?
You can cast your aspersions all you want,Sam.
I don't hate anyone or individual Muslims.
But I DO despise a *religion* that is an outright lie, abuses women, and preaches death and hatred. Please try to understand the difference between loving the sinner, and hating the sin. you implied you were a Christian, than that concept shouldn't be foreign to you.
Peaceful Muslims are peaceful IN Spite OF what the Qu'ran says, NOT because of it.
This is a picture of my son, a Marine.
I resent someone like Bob Byrd who would use the "N" word,as he did a couple of years ago, especially given his racist past, in both his words and actions.
As I said, it's typical of someone with a weak view point, to keep up the personal slander. Keep inferring that I'm a bigot, because of my views on the Islamic religion.
That way, you can "pigeon-hole* me, so you don't have to consider anything I'm trying to convey to you. Because you are so much more "enlightened" than me, I guess.
I AM thankful that Islamists aren't all faithful followers of the radical sects, no, only about 3% of them, which makes that about 30 million fanatical radicals in the world, devout followers of the pirate pedophile Mohammad.
(You did know Muhammed took a little seven year old girl to be his wife* didn't you?...and you did know ol' *Prophet* Muhammad killed over seven hundred people, right?)... And he ordered many of them beheaded, as well.
Hmmm...that sounds familiar...21st century Islamists beheading folks...hmmmmm
""And before I waste my time reading either of the diatribes you've posted above, do these have anything to do with mainstream Islam? Or is this more cherry-picking from the fringe?"
Mainstream Islam?"
You clearly don't know much about Islam, if you've never read Ibn Warraq, who is an Arab, and wrote "Why I Am Not A Muslim", or Amir Taheri, who is an Iranian, and knows quite well what Islam is all about. He is a Muslim...so Taheri must be a bigot, for CRITISIZING Islam, HUH?
Oh yeah...Ibn Warraq had to change his name from his Muslim birthgiven name to avoid having a fatwah being issued on him, when he wrote his book: "Why I Am Not A Mulim"
And speaking of which, why don't any "mainstream" muslim organisations issue fatwah against terrorists?
They don't, or at least I've never read any of them doind so. No, they issue fatwas on anyone criticizing Islam.
Take Salmon Rushdie, for example, where is he my slanderous FRiend?
You appear by all that you say, to be a multi-culturalist.
A multi-cuturalist believes all religious cultures must be given equal treatment, no matter how unequal that religion treats those outside their religion, no matter how intolerant it is towards equality of treatment of people.
Oh, yeth...we muth rethpect all cultures, and their diverthity. No matter how screwed up they are. No matter how intolerant the are.
It *appears* that you just wanna feel good about yourself, and congratulate yourself for being sooo tolerant of others.
Just like my feminist sister, who supports all sorts of liberal causes, feminism, abortion, gay marriage, etc... and then talks about Muslims "women of cover", with such respect, the irony of which is fairly glaring to objective thinkers, of whom you *appear* not to be.
This must be a fairly new trend, as Maddona has been seen prancing around in a burka, at her concerts lately.
Wow.
Really? But I thought you said you didn't "know me to judge whether or not I was bigoted?Let's try this again: it is what you've said that is bigoted. I have no idea whether you are a bigot or not. The only thing I can comment on are the posts you made, and they have been rife with bigotry.
Please try to understand the difference between loving the sinner, and hating the sin. You implied you were a Christian, than that concept shouldn't be foreign to you.
No, I said I was a Christian. And that's why I don't hate anyone either, including you. When I have demonstrated any hate for anyone?
Peaceful Muslims are peaceful IN Spite OF what the Qu'ran says, NOT because of it.
And this is where we disagree. The Muslim religion is no more or less peaceful than the Christian religion or any other mainstream religion in the world. Any of these religions have texts written for specific purposes that can be badly misrepresentative of the religious belief if taken in general.
Take what you've written about jihad. You've quoted very specific passages from the Qu'ran that seem to imply the Muslim religion is nothing more than an Al-Qaeda recruiting tool. But here's something that might interest you, directly from Bernard Haykel, a professor of Islamic law.
According to Islamic law there are at least six reasons why bin Laden's barbaric violence cannot fall under the rubric of jihad:
1) Individuals and organizations cannot declare a jihad, only states can.
2) One cannot kill innocent women and children when conducting a jihad.
3) One cannot kill Muslims in a jihad.
4) One cannot fight a jihad against a country in which Muslims can freely practice their religion and proselytize Islam.
5) Prominent Muslim jurists around the world have condemned these attacks, and their condemnation forms a juristic consensus (ijma) against bin Laden's actions. This consensus renders his actions un-Islamic.
6) The welfare and interest of the Muslim community (maslaha) is being harmed by bin Laden's actions and this equally makes them un-Islamic.
A “jihad” in this sense can only be declared by a religious leader. Originally only the Caliphate could declare it. At that time the caliph was the highest religious and political authority in the land.
Today because there are so many religious leaders, an individual cannot make this declaration. They will have to have something in Islam called ijma (consensus). No one person can make this declaration unless that person is truly the supreme religious leader, i.e. like the Pope. And in Islam there is no such person.
But you don't mention that in your posts. You don't mention the fact that Amir Taheri was the editor-in-chief of Iran's leading daily newspaper, and Iran has been an enemy of the United States for a long time. You don't think there might be a teensy bit of political influence in his interpretation of Islam, do you?
I have to wonder how many other things you don't mention in your screeds, how many facts you ignore in your arguments and religious citations. I have to wonder if you even recognize that this is the sort of manipulation leaders like Hitler used to start wars and declare fatwas.
Just to show you the dangers of posting religious texts without the proper context, here's Deuteronomy 13:6-18 (NIV):
"If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son, or your daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul, entices you secretly, saying, 'Let us go and serve other gods,' which neither you nor your fathers have known, some of the gods of the peoples that are round about you, whether near you or far off from you, from the one end of the earth to the other, you shall not yield to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor shall you conceal him; but you shall kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. You shall stone him to death with stones, because he sought to draw you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and never again do any such wickedness as this among you. "If you hear in one of your cities, which the LORD your God gives you to dwell there, that certain base fellows have gone out among you and have drawn away the inhabitants of the city, saying, 'Let us go and serve other gods,' which you have not known, then you shall inquire and make search and ask diligently; and behold, if it be true and certain that such an abominable thing has been done among you, you shall surely put the inhabitants of that city to the sword, destroying it utterly, all who are in it and its cattle, with the edge of the sword. You shall gather all its spoil into the midst of its open square, and burn the city and all its spoil with fire, as a whole burnt offering to the LORD your God; it shall be a heap for ever, it shall not be built again. None of the devoted things shall cleave to your hand; that the LORD may turn from the fierceness of his anger, and show you mercy, and have compassion on you, and multiply you, as he swore to your fathers, if you obey the voice of the LORD your God, keeping all his commandments which I command you this day, and doing what is right in the sight of the LORD your God.
Of course, the excerpt above is from the Penteteuch, and is directed towards the specific circumstances of the non-Gentiles at Mount Sinai, and should not be taken as God's final covenant with us. But the Muslim imams and leaders you quote earlier are every bit as blasphemous as anyone who takes the passage from Deuteronomy above and construes it to mean we should kill all non-Christians.
And quite frankly, I don't understand the point of the rest of your post. You show me a picture of your son, apparently to parade the fact that he's black, drop a few more Muslim names, cite a few more of the outrageous claims and practices of Islamic radicals, and then proceed to chide me for being a "multi-culturalist" (whatever that might mean in your eyes) and then projecting me with a homosexual lisp. (Are you trying to suggest that my post was homosexual? I don't think so.) And then there's some random outrage at whatever Madonna's wearing these days.
Whether or not you wish to forgive Robert Byrd for using the n-word is totally up to you. Frankly, I don't care what you decide. But you seem intent at all costs to steer the discussion away from what I asked earlier: when did Robert Byrd lie? When did he participate in or sponsor a lynching? When did he do anything illegal? When did he do anything other than precisely what he said he did? It's the sort of manipulation that's become the hallmark of your posts so far.