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Politics : The Truth About Islam -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ichy Smith who wrote (1937)	10/3/2006 5:05:20 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 20106

Indeed!

To: Ichy Smith who wrote (1937)	10/3/2006 5:06:47 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20106

For Islam, tolerance a one-way street baxterbulletin.com Religious fanatics, regardless of what name they give their jealous god, invariably have one thing in common: No sense of humor. Particularly about themselves. It's hard to imagine Torquemada taking a joke well. Today's Islamists seem to have not even a sense of irony. They fail to see the richness of the following sequence. The pope makes a reference to a 14th-century Byzantine emperor's remark about Islam imposing itself by the sword, and to protest this linking of Islam and violence: In the West Bank and Gaza, Muslims attack seven churches. In London, the ever-dependable radical Anjem Choudary tells demonstrators at Westminster Cathedral that the pope is now condemned to death. In Mogadishu, Somali religious leader Abubukar Hassan Malin calls on Muslims to "hunt down" the pope. The pope not being quite at hand, they do the next best thing: Shoot dead, execution-style, an Italian nun who worked in a children's hospital. "How dare you say Islam is a violent religion? I'll kill you for it" is not exactly the best way to go about refuting the charge. But, of course, refuting is not the point here. The point is intimidation. First Salman Rushdie. Then the false Newsweek report about Koran-flushing at Guantanamo Bay. Then the Danish cartoons. And now a line from a scholarly disquisition on rationalism and faith given in German at a German university by the pope. And the intimidation succeeds: Politicians bowing and scraping to the mob over the cartoons A craven New York Times editorial telling the pope to apologize The plague of self-censorship about anything remotely controversial about Islam — this in a culture in which a half-naked pop star blithely stages a mock crucifixion as the highlight of her latest concert tour. In today's world, religious sensitivity is a one-way street. The rules of the road are enforced by Islamic mobs and abjectly followed by Western media, politicians and religious leaders. The fact is that all three monotheistic religions have in their long histories wielded the sword. The Book of Joshua is knee-deep in blood. The real Hanukkah story, so absurdly twinned (by calendric accident) with the Christian festival of peace, is about a savage insurgency and civil war. Christianity more than matched that lurid history with the Crusades, an ecumenical blood bath that began with the slaughter of Jews in the Rhineland, a kind of preseason warm-up to the featured massacres to come against the Muslims, with the sacking of the capital of Byzantium (the Fourth Crusade) thrown in for good measure. And Islam, of course, spread with great speed from Arabia across the Mediterranean and into Europe. It was not all benign persuasion. After all, what were Islamic armies doing at Poitiers in 732 and the gates of Vienna in 1683? Tourism? However, the inconvenient truth is that after centuries of religious wars, Christendom long ago gave it up. It is a simple and undeniable fact that the violent purveyors of monotheistic religion today are self-proclaimed warriors for Islam who shout "God is great" as they slit the throats of infidels — such as those of the flight crews on Sept. 11, 2001 — and are then celebrated as heroes and martyrs. Just one month ago, two journalists were kidnapped in Gaza and were released only after their forced conversion to Islam. Where were the protests in the Islamic world at that act — rather than the charge — of forced conversion? Where is the protest over the constant stream of vilification of Christianity and Judaism issuing from the official newspapers, mosques and religious authorities of Arab nations? When Sheik 'Atiyyah Saqr issues a fatwa declaring Jews "apes and pigs"? When Sheik Abd al-Aziz Fawzan al-Fawzan, professor of Islamic law, says on Saudi TV that "someone who denies Allah, worships Christ, son of Mary, and claims that God is one-third of a trinity. ... Don't you hate the faith of such a polytheist?" Where are the demonstrations, where are the parliamentary resolutions, where are the demands for retraction when the Mufti Sheik Ali Gum'a incites readers of al-Ahram, the Egyptian government daily, against "the true and hideous face of the blood-suckers ... who prepare [Passover] matzos from human blood"? The pope gives offense, and the Mujaheddin al-Shura Council in Iraq declares that it "will break up the cross, spill the liquor and impose the 'jizya' [head] tax; then the only thing acceptable is conversion or the sword." This to protest the accusation that Islam might be spread by the sword. As I said. No sense of irony.

To: Ichy Smith who wrote (1937)	10/4/2006 8:33:35 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 20106

Dispatch from the Eurabian Front: Spain, France, Netherlands, Flanders The Brussels Journal ^ \| 10/04/2006 \| Paul Belien brusselsjournal.com Nonsense first, as usual. Spain will no longer burn effigies of the Prophet Muhammad. Muslim armies occupied Spain from 711 to 1492. For the past five centuries the Spanish have traditionally celebrated the 1492 liberation from the Moors (as the Muslims were locally called) with local village festivals during which the battles against the Moors were reenacted and effigies of the Muslim prophet – the so-called “la Mahoma” – were mocked, thrown from the windows, and burned. Last year the town of Bocairent near Valencia decided to discontinue the tradition of centuries. The town did not want to risk becoming the target of Islamic suicide bombers. On Monday the Spanish newspaper El Pais reported that this year the other Valencian towns are also abolishing ancient traditions which are perceived to be offensive to Muslims. The people of Beneixama used to stuff the head of the Mahoma with firecrackers which went off as the onlookers applauded. This year Beneixama decided to abolish this part of the celebration. Antonio Valdés, the local mayor, told El Pais: “This was not an essential part of the festivities. It could hurt the sensitivities of some. We decided to avoid that.” The reconquista will still be commemmorated, but without “aggression” towards Muhammad. The former Moorish provinces of Spain, or “Al-Andalus” as Islamists call it, are the only part of the world besides Israel which was once Muslim territory but was lost to Islam. Osama bin Laden dreams of recapturing it. By renouncing their ancient traditions the Spanish seem to indicate that they deserve the return of the Moors. Rioting next. Seven French police officers were hurt late last Sunday during clashes with scores of Muslim youths. The fighting broke out after a car chase in Les Mureaux, in the western outskirts of Paris. Les Mureaux gained notoriety last year when it became the first municipality in France to offer benefits for second wives in polygamous immigrant families. The incident followed the arrest of a man who drove his car into a police vehicle after being chased for a traffic offense. As the man was being taken to the police station in another vehicle, the latter was set upon by a crowd. “There were around 250 people – very angry and very hostile,” police officials said. One of the police cars was gutted by fire. There were no arrests. A similar story from the Netherlands. Two police officers were wounded last Saturday night in Vlaardingen near Rotterdam when they came to the rescue of an ambulance which was attacked by a group of some 250 youths. One of the officers was hit by glass, the other was hit in the face. The ambulance was attacked when paramedics tried to take a man to hospital. Lastly, the commoner’s point of view. Recently almost 10,000 youngsters of 16 and 17 years in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking northern half of Belgium, were polled by a joint research team from Leuven University and the Canadian McGill University, led by Prof Mark Hooghe. Last Friday the latter presented the results of his research. Over half the Flemish youngsters are convinced that their way of life and prosperity are being threatened by immigrants. Prof Hooghe described the scepticism of his young compatriots towards (Islamic) immigrants as “intolerance.” Kathleen Van Brempt, the Flemish minister for Equal Opportunities, is also shocked. The Socialist politician opined that the “intolerance is caused by ignorance about other religions and cultures.”