Archive for the ‘Religion’ Category
What is Islam? Ask a Muslim.
“Islam is not only a religion, it is a complete way of life. Islam guides Muslims from birth to grave. The Quran and prophet Muhammad’s words and practical application of Quran in life cannot be changed.
“Islam is a guide for humanity, for all times, until the day of judgment. It is forbidden in Islam to convert to any religion. The penalty is death. There is no disagreement about it.
“Islam is being embraced by people of other faiths all the time. They should know they can embrace Islam, but cannot get out. This rule is not made by Muslims; it is the supreme law of [Allah].
“Please do not ask us Muslims to pick some rules and disregard other rules. Muslims are supposed to embrace Islam in its totality.”
- Nazra Quraishi, kindergarten teacher in the Lansing State Journal (Mich.) July 5, 2006
In: In Their Own Words · Tagged with: Islam
FBI hate crime report shows ‘Islamophobia’ in decline
I continually read news articles that state American anti-Muslim sentiment has reached a “fever pitch,” or words to that affect, so I figured it would be worthwhile to see just how bad this wave of “Islamophobia” actually is.
Reported incidents from the FBI’s hate crime statistics (which published yesterday):
| 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | |
| Anti-Jewish | 1,472 | 1,043 | 931 | 927 | 954 | 848 | 967 | 969 | 1,013 | 931 |
| Anti-Christian | 115 | 73 | 108 | 125 | 95 | 115 | 135 | 118 | 131 | 89 |
| Anti-Muslim | 28 | 481 | 155 | 149 | 156 | 128 | 156 | 115 | 105 | 107 |
We see a significant spike from 28 anti-Muslim incidents in 2000 (who really knew anything about Islam prior to 9/11) to 481 in 2001. And the so-called “fever pitch” is actually trending downwards: excluding 2000 and 2001, the amount hate crimes against Muslims in 2008 and 2009 is actually below average.
While there are nearly three times the amount of Jews than Muslims in the U.S. (according to CIA World Factbook estimates), there are nearly nine times the amount of anti-Jewish activity than anti-Muslim.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) would have you believe that anti-Muslim “hate crimes” would be some poor Muslim being beaten to death by white supremacists, but a closer look at the findings show that most of the incidents were merely intimidation.
Since 2009′s statistics were just released, we will have to wait until next year to see whether this year’s events – such as the divisive Ground Zero Mosque – had any impact on anti-Muslim hate crime. But it would seem that the wave of “Islamophobia” that CAIR purports to be sweeping the nation is apparently no worse than anti-Christian crime – and far less prevalent than anti-Semitism.
Critical thinking: How did Islam spread?
Ever wonder just how the so-called “religion of peace” expanded to into other lands? From Jacques Ellul’s Les Chreientes d’Orient entre Jihad et Dhimmiude. VIIe – XXe (via Andrew Bostom’s excellent book, The Legacy of Jihad):
“In a major encyclopedia, one reads phrases such as: “Islam expanded in the eighth or ninth centuries…”; “This or that country passed into Muslim hands…” But care is taken not to say how Islam expanded, how countries “passed into [Muslim] hands.” … Indeed, it would seem as if events happened by themselves, through a miraculous or amicable operation. … Regarding this expansion, little is said about jihad. And yet it all happened through war!
… the jihad is an institution, and not an event, that is to say it is part of the normal functioning of the Muslim world. … The conquered populations change status (they become dhimmis), and the shari’a tends to be put into effect integrally, overthrowing the former law of the country. The conquered territories do not simply change “owners.”
In: Religion · Tagged with: dhimmitude, Islam, jihad
Pakistan’s support of the Taliban
“The Taliban will always remain in Afghanistan, and Pakistan will always support them.”
- Gen. Hameed Gul, former Director of Pakistan’s ISI intelligence service
In: Geopolitics, In Their Own Words · Tagged with: ISI, Pakistan, Taliban
Mollifying Muslims
Mark Steyn’s recent piece, “Mollifying Muslims, and Muslifying Mollies” is worth reading in its entirety, but I had to quote this bit:
Too many people in the free world have internalized Islam’s view of them. A couple of years ago, I visited Guantanamo and subsequently wrote that, if I had to summon up Gitmo in a single image, it would be the brand-new copy of the Koran in each cell: To reassure incoming prisoners that the filthy infidels haven’t touched the sacred book with their unclean hands, the Korans are hung from the walls in pristine, sterilized surgical masks. It’s one thing for Muslims to regard infidels as unclean, but it’s hard to see why it’s in the interests of us infidels to string along with it and thereby validate their bigotry. What does that degree of prostration before their prejudices tell them about us? It’s a problem that Muslims think we’re unclean. It’s a far worse problem that we go along with it.
Again, the whole piece is a must-read.
In: Politics, Religion · Tagged with: Islam, Mark Steyn
Why Muslims must build a mosque at Ground Zero
William J. Federer has published a list of occurences throughout history of Muslims conquering land and subsequently turning synagogues and churches into mosques. I am quite pleased with this as I had planned on compiling this very list, and can now move on to other projects.
From Stand Up America US:
In 630, Muhammad led 10,000 Muslim soldiers into Mecca and turned the pagans’ most prominent spot, the Ka’aba, into the Masjid al-Haram Mosque.
In 634, Rightly Guided Caliph Umar conquered Syria and turned the Christians’ most prominent spot, the Church of Job, famous for being visited by Saint Silva in the fourth century, into the Mosque of Job.
In 637, Caliph Umar conquered Hebron and turned the second-most prominent spot in Judaism, the Cave of the Patriarchs, into the Ibrahimi Mosque. (This was repeated by Saladin in 1188.)
In 638, Muslim generals Amr ibn al-As and Khalid ibn al-Walid conquered Gaza and turned the prominent fifth-century Byzantine church into the Great Mosque of Gaza.
In 638, Caliph Umar conquered Jerusalem.
In 691, Caliph Al-Malik ordered the Dome of the Rock built on the most prominent spot in Judaism, the Temple Mount, followed by Caliph Al-Walid building the Al-Aqsa Mosque there in 705.
In 651, Muslims conquered Persia and turned Zoroastrian temples in Bukhara and Istakhr into mosques.
In 706, after Muslims took Damascus from the Byzantine Empire, Caliph Al-Walid turned the prominent Orthodox Church of St. John the Baptist into the Umayyad Mosque.
In 710, Gen. Muhammad bin Qasim conquered Pakistan, defiled the prominent Sun Temple in Multan, which house the great idol “sanam,” and erected a mosque.
In 784, after the conquest of Spain, Emir Abd ar-Rahman turned the prominent Visigothic Christian Church of Saint Vincent into the Great Aljama Mosque of Cordoba. After the conquest of Egypt, Caliphs al-Mamun (813-833) and al-Hakim (996-1021) turned prominent Coptic Christian churches and Jewish synagogues in Cairo into mosques.
In 831, Muslims conquered Palermo, Sicily, and Asad ibn al-Furat turned the prominent Church of Saint Mary of the Assumption into the Great Mosque of Bal’harm. In 1193, Muslims conquered Delhi, India, and Qutbuddin Aibak turned the Red Citadel in Dhillika, the most prominent spot of the last Hindu rulers, into the Qutb Minar Mosque.
From 1250-1517, Mamluk Muslims controlled the Golan Heights and used the ancient Synagogue of Katzrin as a mosque.
In 1387, Turkish Muslims conquered Thessaloniki and turned the Katholikon Monastery and the Church of Aghia Sophia, which housed the relics of Saint Gregorios Palamas, into mosques, as Symeon of Thessaloniki recorded: “The greatest number of the buildings of the churches fell to them, of which the first was the Holy Church of the Savior. … These were trampled underfoot and the infidels rejoiced in them. … Most of thhe religious buildings in the city were despoiled, while altars were demolished and sacred things profaned.”
On May 29, 1453, Sultan Mehmet II conquered Constantinople and turned the great Byzantine church, Hagia Sophia, into the Ayasofya Mosque. The largest church in Christendom for a thousand years, the church’s four acres of gold mosaics were covered with whitewash and Quran verses.
In 1458, Sultan Mehmet II conquered Athens and turned the Greeks’ most prominent spot, the Parthenon on Acropolis hill, into a mosque. When Venetian Gen. Francesco Morosini drove the Muslims out in 1687, a cannonball hit the gunpowder stored in the mosque, blowing it up. In the 15th century, Ottoman invaders turned Saint Clement’s Macedonian Orthodox Monastery in Plaosnik, Balkans, into the Imater Mosque.
From 1519-1858, Muslim Mughal rulers gained control of India and turned over 2,000 Hindu temples into mosques, including demolishing the Temple of Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya, the birthplace of Rama, and replacing it with the Babri Mosque. India’s Mughal Muslim ruler, Jahangir (1605-1627), wrote in Tujuk-i-Jahangiri: “At the city of Banaras [was] a temple. … I made it my plea for thhrowing down the temple … and on the spot, with the very same materials,, I erected the great mosque.”
In 1543, Hayreddin Barbarossa’s 30,000 Muslim troops wintered in Toulon, France, and turned the prominent Toulon Cathedral into a mosque.
In 1570, under Sultan Selim II Khan, Muslims conquered Paphos, Cyprus, and Gov. Mehmet Bey Ebubkir turned the prominent Christian church into the Great Mosque of Paphos.
In 1571, Muslims invaded Famagusta, Cyprus, and turned Saint Nicolas Cathedral, a rare Gothic church, into the Lala Mustafa Pasha Mosque, and Saint Sophia Cathedral in Nicosia, constructed in 1228, into the Selimiye Mosque.
In 1588, Sultan Murat III turned the Eastern Orthodox Church of Saint John the Forerunner in Constantinople into the Hirami Ahmet Pasha Mosque.
In 1781, after having conquered the Old City of Acre, Ottoman Muslims turned the Roman Catholic church built by Crusaders into the Jezzar Ahmet Pasha Mosque, where a hair from Muhammad’s beard is preserved.
In 1923, Muslims expelled Greeks from Turkey and turned Orthodox churches into mosques. In World War II, Nazis allied with Bosnians and turned the prominent Artists’ Gallery Museum in Zagreb, Croatia, into a mosque.
In the 1950s, Muslims expelled Jews from Arab lands and turned synagogues into mosques. Algerian Muslims warred against French colonial rule till France pulled out in 1962, after which the Cathedral of St. Philippe was turned into the Ketchaoua Mosque. Violence against Jews caused 30,000 to flee and the Great Synagogue of Oran was turned into the Mosque Abdellah Ben Salem.
In 1974, Turkish Muslims invaded northern Cyprus, and prominent Greek Orthodox churches were turned into mosques. In 1981, Muslim immigrants to the Netherlands converted Amsterdam’s historic Catholic Sint-Ignatiuskerk into the Fatih Mosque, and a synagogue in The Hague into the Aksa Mosque.
Once you understand what the Muslims have done, it becomes clear what they are doing in New York.
In: Geopolitics, Religion · Tagged with: Ground Zero mosque, Islam
Muslims have “right and duty” to be pirates?
Came across this 2004 article by Christopher Hitchens while studying the United States’ dealings with pirates (emphasis mine):
America’s two main diplomats at the time [1794] were John Adams in London and Jefferson in Paris. Together they called upon Ambassador Abdrahaman, the envoy of Tripoli in London, in March 1786. This dignitary mentioned a tariff of three payments–for the ransom of slaves and hostages, for cheap terms of temporary peace and for more costly terms of “perpetual peace.” He did not forget to add his own commission as a percentage. Adams and Jefferson asked to know by what right he was exacting these levies. The U.S. had never menaced or quarreled with any of the Muslim powers. As Jefferson later reported to the State Department and Congress, “The Ambassador answered us that it was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as Prisoners.”
“These are foundational ideas from the Islamic institution of jihad—the war Islam has waged by military and propagandistic and economic means since its advent— to Islamize the globe,” writes Andrew Bostom, author of The Legacy of Jihad, in an email discussion today.
“Sura 9 of the Koran is nothing more than a series of timeless war proclamations against all the world’s non-Muslims.” continues Bostom. “Add these Koranic injunctions to the Koranic commentaries, the canonical hadith collections, the biographies of Muhammad, and the Muslim jurisprudence–not to mention over a millennium of facts on the ground history– and these sources and historical evidence make plain that the Muslim Tripolitan Ambassador was entirely correct.” (emphasis mine)
Bostom covers this topic extensively in a 2006 post at FrontPage Magazine that is a must-read.
In: In Their Own Words, Religion · Tagged with: Barbary Wars, Islam, John Adams, pirates, Thomas Jefferson
No fun in Islam
“Allah did not create man so that he could have fun. The aim of creation was for mankind to be put to the test through hardship and prayer. An Islamic regime must be serious in every field. There are no jokes in Islam. There is no humor in Islam. There is no fun in Islam. There can be no fun and joy in whatever is serious.”
- Ayatollah Khomeini
In: In Their Own Words · Tagged with: Ayatollah Khomenei, Islam
Great Muslim composers
Although our president tells us that Muslims have a rich history and have made wonderful contributions to human civilization, there is no great Muslim composer. Ever wonder why?
Because Muslim fundamentalists despise music. To Sayyid Qutb – a former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood – the purpose of life is death through jihad, not enjoying music. But it’s not just founding fathers of terrorism saying this stuff. Here’s what one Islamic legal manual has to say about those who listen to music: “On the day of Resurrection, Allah will pour molten lead into the ears of whoever sits listening to a songstress.”
In: In Their Own Words · Tagged with: Islam, Shariah law
Music: enemy of Islam
“Music corrupts the minds of our youth. There is no difference between music and opium. Both create lethargy in different ways. If you want your country to be independent, then ban music. Music is treason to our nation and to our youth.”
- Ayatollah Khomeini
In: In Their Own Words · Tagged with: Ayatollah Khomenei, Islam
