The ironies in Islam

I have always wondered if some people chuckle when they read the parts of the Qur'an that say gay people should be killed and then they read the parts that say Allah is "merciful and compassionate". Merciful and compassionate? Really?? Murder and compassion are mixed together. There is tragic ironic comedy in Islam. The Qur'an is like a gun: it gives people confidence, but it can be very dangerous when placed in the wrong hands (or mind).

Huffington Post: "Officials and human rights groups estimated as many as 58 Iraqis who are either gay or believed to be gay have been killed in the last six weeks alone – forecasting what experts fear is a return to the rampant hate crimes against homosexuals in 2009. This year, eyewitnesses and human rights groups say some of the victims have been bludgeoned to death by militiamen smashing in their skulls with heavy cement blocks.

A recent list distributed by militants in Baghdad's Shiite Sadr City neighborhood gives the names or nicknames of 33 people and their home addresses. At the top of the paper are a drawing of two handguns flanking a Quranic greeting that extolls God as merciful and compassionate."

Christmas festivities in Gaza a taboo

"Since the Palestinian Authority left the Gaza Strip, festive celebrations and displays of crucifixes have become taboo.

Christians in Gaza say they face intimidation and arrest over Christmas celebrations since Hamas took charge in 2007.

...Of the 1.5 million Palestinians now living in the Gaza Strip, fewer than 1,400 are Christian and those who can are leaving. The church hopes reconciliation will bring them back.

There hasn't been a Christmas tree in Gaza City's main square since Hamas pushed the Palestinian Authority out of Gaza in 2007 and Christmas is no longer a public holiday."

I wonder if Hamas is violating the Qur'an by doing this. According to the Qur'an, Muslims must respect Christians.

Merry Christmas!

Thanks Bruno for sharing.

"All American Muslim"

'For those constantly fretting about the inability of Muslims to integrate or assimilate into western culture, fret no more!

American Muslims finally have their own reality TV show – the Learning Channel's "All-American Muslim" – focusing on the lives of five American Muslim families in Dearborn, Michigan, who are predominantly Lebanese and Shiite. The show's premiere gave TLC huge ratings and made the show No 2 in its time period. Mainstream critics have embraced the show citing it as "intimate and informative" and a "deeply intriguing, uncharacteristically thoughtful reality series".'

I remember a few people on Angry Arab in 2006 and 2007 who said that I could not be Iraqi and American. I wonder if they know there are hundreds of thousands of Muslims of all backgrounds living in America.

It's ok to be a Muslim in America

‎"Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer is no. That's not America. Is there something wrong with a seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing he or she could be president? Yet I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion that he is a Muslim and might have an association with terrorists. This is not the way we should be doing it in America.

I feel particularly strong about this because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo essay about troops who were serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay, was of a mother at Arlington Cemetery and she had her head on the headstone of her son's grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone, and it gave his awards - Purple Heart, Bronze Star - showed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death, he was 20 years old. And then at the very top of the head stone, it didn't have a Christian cross. It didn't have a Star of David. It has a crescent and star of the Islamic faith.

And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan. And he was an American. He was born in New Jersey. He was fourteen years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he could serve his country and he gave his life."

- Colin Powell in 2008

I found the quote and photo on a facebook page called "I actually do SUPPORT MY PRESIDENT". Many excellent photos, cartoons, and quotes there.

Arabs have naming rights

Baghdad was once the intellectual center of the world. The astronomer in this video (I've seen him interviewed on shows for Discovery and History Channel but I forgot his name) discusses the progress Muslims made between 800 and 1100, and their subsequent decline. What caused the decline? I have asked before.



Thanks dad for sending this!

Most Americans don't know Obama is Christian

USA Today: "Not only do most Americans fail to identify President Obama as Christian, three in four don't know Mitt Romney is a Mormon, according to a new survey."

The Qu'osby Show

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Muslim Dior

This is hilarious. Bill Maher is great.



This bit of satire was aimed at KSA, but Bill should still read Abbas Hawazin's Categories of Syrian Hijab for a more realistic portrayal of Muslim women outside KSA wearing (and not wearing) hijab.

The innocent Muslims who died on 9/11

"Mrs. Traoré is the widow of one of roughly 60 Muslims — cooks, businessmen, emergency responders and airline passengers — believed to have died on 9/11. It is a group that has been little examined, and no precisely reliable count of their ranks exists. But their stories, when told, have frequently been offered as counterweights in the latest public argument over terrorism and Islam."

Considerable distrust of Muslim Americans

"A New York Times poll of New York City residents that found that even this city, the country’s most diverse and cosmopolitan, is not immune to suspicion and to a sadly wary misunderstanding of Muslim-Americans.

The poll found considerable distrust of Muslim-Americans and robust disapproval of the mosque proposal. Asked whether they thought Muslim-Americans were “more sympathetic to terrorists” than other citizens, 33 percent said yes, a discouraging figure, roughly consistent with polls taken since Sept. 11, 2001. Thirty-one percent said they didn’t know any Muslims; 39 percent said they knew Muslims but not as close friends.

A full 72 percent agreed that people had every right to build a “house of worship” near the site. But only 62 percent acknowledged that right when “house of worship” was changed to “mosque and Islamic community center.” Sixty-seven percent thought the mosque planners should find “a less controversial location.” While only 21 percent of respondents confessed to having “negative feelings” toward Muslims because of the attack on the World Trade Center, 59 percent said they knew people who did."

Holocaust denial among Arabs and Muslims

I have never met in person an Arab who claimed that the Holocaust did not happen, or that 6 million Jews were not murdered during World War II, but unfortunately I have met them online.  I am saddened and embarrassed that Holocaust denial has apparently become so prominent among Arabs and Muslims that Israel's Holocaust memorial feels the need to launch an Arabic version of its web site in order to combat Holocaust denial among Arabs, but at the same time I'm glad that the site is availabe for Arabs to learn from.  Every Arab and Muslim should also read Night, an autobiographical account of Elie Wiesel's experiences as a teenager in Sighet, Romania and Auschwitz.

 

Holocaust museum starts Arabic Web site

 

By ARON HELLER, Associated Press Writer

JERUSALEM - Israel's Holocaust memorial launched an Arabic version of its Web site Thursday, including vivid photos of Nazi atrocities and video of survivors' testimony, to combat Holocaust denial in the Arab and Muslim world.

Among those featured on the Yad Vashem site is Dina Beitler, a survivor of the Nazi genocide that killed 6 million Jews in World War II. Beitler, who was shot and left for dead in a pit of bodies in 1941, recalls her story on the site, with Arabic subtitles.

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