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All I can remember after I read this article was an incident that happened about 2 years ago, in high school. The school population was stuffed into the gym to be told about the dangers of drugs. Some suit gets up and tells us all about the horrible dangers of our Canadian weed (I'm from Ontario btw). In any case, he gets to the part showing hydro projects on the projector and explains how the pot of today is much more potent than the pot of yesteryear and about 50 people get up and start cheering. They're saying stuff like "better living through chemistry" and cheering. The suit looks at the principal who yells for silence and the indoctrination continues. Oddly enough, i can't remember anything else the suit said, i only remember the cheering.

Exactly, York University(where I attend) gives us Jewish holidays off because of the substantial Jewish population. I don't really see anything wrong with it, in my case it's pretty advantageous because it gives us extra study times for exams.

From Snopes

Origins: The piece quoted above ("Allah or Jesus?") is an editorial penned by Rick Mathes, Executive Director of the Mission Gate Prison Ministry.

We asked Mr. Mathes if he could provide some information about the origins of the piece, and he responded:

This article is an exact recording of a real event that I participated in. My only commentary was, "the truth will prevail." I think this meeting was in May 2003 and I will not give out more details for fear of retribution. The purpose of the class was to increase "religious sensitivity", that is, tolerance for each others beliefs and I really blew that. The director was purple with rage however the Imam and I exchanged signs and said "Salaam" which means "peace" in Arabic (I hope). I questioned him (Imam) really to get a clear refutation of what is commonly thought of this Jihad nonsense. But apparently he wasn't educated enough to rebut my remarks or by his silence on this matter (I think) concurred with my implied conclusions. In either case I was surprised. And when I said I found it hard to be his friend, everyone laughed out loud. So the mood was an amazing mix of those who were interested like me and others that were just amused by the whole thing. I left the matter open on purpose (the truth will prevail) so that either side could speak up and claim the truth as their own.
Reporter Greg Kearney, writing for the Lee News Service, traced the story to a correctional facility in Fulton, Missouri, and came away with a decidedly different version of events from Missouri state officials.

According to Tim Kniest, Public Information Officer for the Missouri Department of Corrections, the event described was a training program for prison volunteers, for which ministers from several faiths were invited to give presentations in order to acquaint prison volunteers with the varied religious beliefs of the inmate population. The man who gave the presentation about Islam was not a Muslim minister; he was an inmate pressed into service to present a short film on Islam and answer some questions when the prison's Volunteer Coordinator was "unable to find an Imam to speak."

Moreover, reported Mr. Kniest, the prison's Volunteer Coordinator said that "The inmate did a good job," adding, "He was asked a few questions that were beyond his ability to answer. But he was not asked anything like that question [in the editorial]":
. . . the Volunteer Coordinator at the prison said that no such exchange as the editorial reported ever took place. "He certainly did not 'Hang his head in shame'," according to Kniest. In fact, the inmate was thanked by the assembly before being escorted back to his quarters. Furthermore, the coordinator does not recall any questions dealing with jihad [Holy war] against the infidels of the world as reported in the editorial.

In the editorial the inmate is presented as an Imam, or Islamic minister, which he clearly was not.
Whatever may have transpired at the prison training session referred to above, the notion expressed by this piece is inaccurate. Islam is not a monolithic religion in which unanimity of belief and action is coordinated from a central authority. Islam has an estimated two billion adherents in countries all over the world who belong to any one of a number of different sects with varying beliefs, traditions, and interpretations of scripture. (As well, some religious groups identify themselves as Islamic but are not recognized as such by the vast majority of Muslims.) No one Muslim (especially one who wasn't even a cleric) could speak to what all of Islam believes, any more than a single member of a Methodist congregation could speak for every denomination and follower of Christianity. Many, many Muslims reject the idea that "all followers of Allah have been commanded to kill everyone who is not of their faith," or even the suggestion that such an interpretation has ever been a valid tenet of Islam. We sent this piece to several Muslim groups and invited them to offer comments; they provided somewhat different explanations about the concept of jihad, how Muslims regard non-Muslims, and other related topics, but they all agreed that the editorial presented a grossly distorted version of their beliefs.

Last updated: 13 January 2004

As a Canadian, this makes me oddly proud.

Her should be Him. For some reason i thought the pharmacist was a woman.

"CVS' customer service line initially informed callers that CVS supported the pharmacists' actions and that refusing to fill prescriptions based on personal beliefs was in line with CVS policy. Soon afterwards, however, callers to CVS were told their local pharmacist had not followed company policy.

According to CVS policy, a pharmacist who refuses to dispense medication based on personal ideology must make sure that the patient's prescription is filled anyway, either by another pharmacist at that location or by another pharmacy in the area."



If she didn't make sure that another pharmacist took the presciption then she didn't follow company policy. Fire her.

Maybe not the one from that era, here's a quote from it.

I swear by Apollo Physician and Asclepius and Hygieia and Panaceia and all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will fulfil according to my ability and judgment this oath and this covenant:

I guess that I see programming for free to be like volunteering. You volunteer your time and effort and realize that you probably won't receive any recognition. However no one is forcing you to volunteer and you can stop whenever you want. You continue to volunteer because you feel like you are making a difference by helping someone else.

"It doesn't matter whether you love what you are doing and consider this the hobby you want to spend 110% of your time on: It's exploitation by companies who are not at all interested in creating stuff. They want to use your stuff for free"


On the other side, it's used by many who aren't in corporations and find it refreshing to have an alternative which doesn't cost an arm and a leg.


Take for example Open Office, which is an excellent suite of programs which can do almost everything that Microsoft Office can. The difference however is $344.99, the price that MS Office costs. The developers of Open Office have offered consumers the ability to use a free alternative. Who is being hurt here, a consumer who doesn't have to pay hundreds of dollars for software; or a multibillion dollar corporation?

http://usinfo.state.gov/topical/pol/terror/01091232.htm

"The leaders of nine Muslim American groups said in a joint letter to President Bush September 11, "American Muslims, who unequivocally condemned today terrorist attacks on our nation, call on you to alert fellow citizens to the fact that now is a time for all of us to stand together in the face of this heinous crime."

"We hope that the perpetrators of these crimes will be apprehended immediately and swiftly brought to justice. Muslims stand with all other Americans who, on this sad day, feel a sense of tremendous grief and loss," the Muslim American leaders added."

"The Islamic Supreme Council of America issued a statement saying, "we join our neighbors, co-workers and friends across ethnic, cultural and religious lines in mourning the devastating loss of precious life, which Islam holds sacred." The council chairman, Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani, encouraged whoever is able to donate blood and money to the local chapters of the Red Cross. "

As for denouncing terrorism, the book "Islam Denounces Terrorism" by Haran Yahya is a pretty good read.

for denouncing the killing of Jews

http://www.harunyahya.com/32israelis_soc13.php

"We oppose both the Israeli killing of the innocent and the bombing of innocent Israelis by some radical Palestinians"

It kind of makes sense, I mean, I wouldn't want to be charged for saying that Saddam should be killed. I don't want to compare Bush and Saddam in any way, but in this case I guess freedom of speech works both ways.

I think it's only illegal to make death threats against a US President if you're a US citizen. The Guardian is a site based in the uk, and if the poster is a uk citizen he couldn't be charged under American law.

The Tamil people are mostly Hindu though, and they're fighting against the Buddhist Sinhales majority. Islam doesn't really play a major part here.

Well, it's been 2 weeks, what did your neice decide to do?

"Then most Muslims are lasy asses, because the amount of Muslims attending the Haj is only one-tenth of 1% of the total Muslims worldwide. It is hard to believe that only so few Muslims are able-bodied and can afford the trip. Heck , there are more 60 times more Muslims than that who could take a bus there. So much for their patronizing piety"

They only have to do it once in their lifetime.