The Peaceful Religion of Peace and Other Faiths
Filed under: Catholics, Christianity, Christians, Civil Liberties, Geert Wilders, Human Rights, Iran, Iraq, Islam, Islam Religion, Islamism, Islamists, Italy, Muslims, Palestine, Palestinians, Politics, Race, Race / Racism, Racism, Racist, Racists, Radical Islam, Radical Muslims, Religion, Terrorism, Terrorists, Torture, liberalism — Chaim on July 23, 2008 @ 5:46 am CEST
Islamists have threatened a Christian Bishop in the Philippines… (H/T: UP Pompeii)
Philippine bishop reports receiving threat to convert to Islam
MANILA, Philippines (CNS) — A bishop in the southern Philippines reported receiving a letter threatening him with harm if he does not convert to Islam or pay “Islamic taxes.”
Such brazenness in a country where over 86% of the population is Christian, 9% is Muslim and the remaining 5% is divided among various groups such as: Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, animists and non-believers.
Even if those who sent these letters are no more than common criminals who use religion as a mere tool, the fact that they chose to represent themselves as Muslims is in itself significant. But Muslim brazenness does not stop there, unfortunately, this one is far from an isolated case! Remember the kidnapped and murdered Chaldean archbishop of Mosul, Mgr Faraj Rahho? What about the plight of Assyrian Christians in Iraq? What about the Sabian Mandaeans? Or the plight of Christians girls kidnapped in Nigeria by practitioners of the Religion of Peace? What about the treatment of Christian Copts in Egypt? Ot the threats against Western politicians like Geert Wilders or Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi? The list, gentle reader, goes on and on ad nauseum…
You may read the rest at: Freedom’s Cost
1 utsu
July 23, 2008 @ 10:37 am CESTYeah, something is wrong with those who seek to spread their religion through legislation, discrimination or simple appropriation.
We need to crack down on all who do this - thereby we send a message to those on the fence that we are redy to be harsh while we send a message to those that want to live in a diverse coutry where each can have his/her own: You chose right.
2 Kemal
July 23, 2008 @ 2:14 pm CEST"Even if those who sent these letters are no more than common criminals who use religion as a mere tool, the fact that they chose to represent themselves as Muslims is in itself significant."
Is it also significant, then, that violent aryan white supremecists the world over represent themselves as Christians?
3 Selin
July 23, 2008 @ 2:35 pm CEST"But Muslim brazenness does not stop there, unfortunately, this one is far from an isolated case!"
"Muslim brazenness"? Chaim, you sure are engaging in serious name-calling of all Muslims around the world. I find your coverage and the words you choose to describe Muslims to be extremely insulting and alarming. I deeply condemn your specific coverage above, and I’m astonished that no one else is objecting to this.
Ironic that you’d cry "Anti-Semite" the moment one engages in critiquing a Jewish person but you seem to be engaging in some very heavy attacks on *all* Muslims around the world.
AND you expect to be beyond any criticism for doing that. I guess you have the license to be a hypocrite and engage in insults and name-calling of all Muslims around the world, while others don’t.
Jean Paul Sartre has said, "If there was no Jew, the Anti-Semite would create him". Clearly your opinion of all Muslims around the world qualify you as the "Anti-Semite" and Muslims as "Jews".
4 Brandi
July 23, 2008 @ 3:15 pm CESTKemal,
Is it also significant, then, that violent aryan white supremecists the world over represent themselves as Christians?
Absolutely, no question about it! Except that more and more of them in Europe seem eager to revive the old Germanic pagan religion. The same gods that Richard Wagner so glorified in his operas. In any case, as abhorrent as they are (they truly are) they are not yet on par (thankfully!) whether in their numbers or actions, with the those violent terrorist, kidnappers, murderers (honor murderers included) as those professing to be Mulims
Selin,
"But Muslim brazenness does not stop there, unfortunately, this one is far from an isolated case!"
So tell me Selin, what do you call those widely known acts?!?!? We both know that if infidel lands were to treat Muslims with the same barbarism there would be blood flowing through the streets of Europe and America, don’t deny it please! Instead condemn the barbarism in no uncertain, forceful terms and your protest will have real meaning rather than sound so hollow. And no, nowhere do I see where Chaim paints with a broad brush all Muslims.
Can you stik to disputing the facts, or explaining the obvious with a different twist? I doubt you can, or you would hgave already.
Please, Selin, read my response to you on his earlier post.
5 Jonathan Wilson
July 23, 2008 @ 3:16 pm CESTI’m sorry but Kemal’s response to this article just made this article worthy of deletion in its entirety. What a terrible article.
6 Brandi
July 23, 2008 @ 3:23 pm CESTJonathan Wilson,
Pray tell, why do you find truth so inadmissible, so horrendous? Does it hit close to home? Enlighten us, please!
7 Sammy
July 23, 2008 @ 3:36 pm CESTYes Pray tell, what is so wrong with the article
8 marc
July 23, 2008 @ 7:32 pm CESTWhat’s wrong with the article is that it uses facts to call murders to account. Clearly unacceptable.
There is, however, something missing from the article, namely that there is widespread sympathy for the terrorists among the Muslim mainstream. Fading, perhaps, but still prevalent.
That’s not the case when comparing mainstream Christians to Hitler’s Nazis or today’s skinhead gangs.
Another significant difference: many Islamic terrorists believe that they’re true Muslims, whereas Aryan punks know they’re not Christians.
9 utsu
July 23, 2008 @ 8:08 pm CEST"namely that there is widespread sympathy for the terrorists among the Muslim mainstream."
Here comes marc. Show your work or polls, marc, because them’s fighting words.
I think any approval depends on the perceived mission. They are approved if they defend against occupation or abuse against arabs, but are frowned upon if they are seen as selfish cults like AQ.
10 Selin
July 23, 2008 @ 9:38 pm CESTBrandi, since you happen to be ignorant of my earlier posts, let me tell you that I condemn terrorism of all forms equally, and that includes Hamas and Hezbollah as well as the more despicable Al Qaeda. And I have on occasions talked about my hawkish stance on Middle Eastern politics.
For instance, I’ve stated that Obama will be a third Carter term naively appeasing terrorists while alienating allies, if you’ve been following. It doesn’t get more hawkish than that.
Thus I find Chaim’s posts more offensive precisely because I condemn Islamic terror as much as I do. IF I sympathized with terrorists, Chaim’s writings would indeed be representing the "truth" about me. So that’s why I feel he insulting me, and he is engaging in serious misrepresentation of Muslims around the world by putting all of them in the same basket. If you don’t believe that he is stereotyping Muslims, it must be because you yourself stereotype all Muslims around the world and don’t even take notice when someone else does that more cogently and on a more consistent basis.
When you contend that "the truth" about Muslims as revealed by Chaim is so inadmissable, so horrendous, you yourself are putting your stamp of approval on Chaim’s approach. So why do you even try to defend Chaim by saying that he’s not painting all Muslims around the world in the same manner? Why say he has on occasion - gulp - said "good" things about Muslims? Maybe if he felt that way, he would have said something to that effect by now.
Clearly your defense of his "blog" is both unnecessary and misinforming. Brandi, I haven’t been able to exercise my freedom to object to such stereotyping without being further berated and condescended. I have been told by someone to not *read* the kind of hate literature than Chaim engages in about the specific group that I belong to. A few have "accused" me of engaging in "personal" criticism of Chaim rather than responding to his posts. Yet someone else has deplored the fact that everyone owns a computer nowadays. So daring to respond to such bigotry and hypocrisy AND racism takes guts indeed.
But more importantly, as much as I condemn Islamic terrorism, I also condemn the justification of violence towards innocent Arabs and Muslims via such dehumanization of *all* Muslims that Chaim engages in. I also happen to condemn it when the lives of innocent Muslims or Arabs are worth less than the lives of innocent Jews or Christians. Chaim has given several examples above alluding to murders of Christians and Jews by Islamic extremists.
Aren’t there innocent Arabs and Muslims that are continuously being killed by both Jewish AND Christian armies? AND in much
greater numbers? Yes or no? But the beauty of Chaim’s propaganda is that he paints such a deplorable picture of Muslims at large precisely to make the audience believe that there are NO innocent Muslims. Brilliant indeed. Very reminiscent of someone else.
So no, I won’t accept it as sincere when Chaim writes an essay on the "humanity" of Jews whereas it is very clear to me that he is denying both Arabs and Muslims the very humanity that he so passionately writes about when it comes to his own "people".
How they let everyone own a computer these days !
11 Kemal
July 23, 2008 @ 11:49 pm CESTThe point of the question above posted to Chaim is this: If you are going to take specific incidents and then paint the whole swath of Muslims as violent barbarians, and you are not committed to doing the same for Christians, and yes, Jews too, than you are nothing more than a bigot.
As for Christian crimes committed in the name of religion, they abound-and, not just against Muslims and Jews, but other Christians as well. Just recently, in the U.S., a whole sect of Christians that was raided because the men were having sex with, and marrying minor females under the age of consent. That is a crime against the minor child in the U.S.
There are many crimes committed against minorities by white supremecist Christians throughout Europe –not to mention the catastrophic destruction wrought by western Christian imperialism on Africa and throughout Asia. There was also the gift of the inquisition and the pograms by Orthodox Christians promulgated within the last 100 years against both Muslims and Jews.
Those who are enlightened, understand that these types of dispicable racist acts by Christians do not reflect upon ALL Christians. The same goes for Muslims and Jews.
Chaim, this article you wrote is less than worthless junk. It serves only to promote a primitive view of the world in which hate begets more hate, which only serves to perpetuate violence and your bigotry. Disgusting.
12 Michael Merritt
July 24, 2008 @ 3:22 am CESTYou know that when one of the more foreign policy hawk commenters and one of the more foreign policy hawk authors on this website has issues with the article, there might just be an issue. Not definitive proof, perhaps, but it’s just my opinion.
I think Selin hits the nail on the head (we agree for once!), and Kemal. Chaim, I could compile a whole list of bad things self-proclaimed Christians have done recently - need I start with the Westboro Baptist Church denigrating American troops to promote their homophobia? - but it wouldn’t mean Christians are any more culpable of such acts than Muslims are by those "acting in the name of Islam.
Acts by these people are simply more reported because of the War on Terror and the acts of 9/11 and Britain, Spain, etc. still fresh on our minds.
And I don’t want anyone to even start on "well, look at all the countries employing sharia law." I’m not saying its right, but need I remind those people of how Christian states were not so many centuries ago? They’re foreign to us now, but they were there.
Criticism of specific acts is okay, but to try and blanket the entire religion because of the bad apples really is not okay in my mind.
13 samuel
July 24, 2008 @ 2:20 pm CESTDear Muslims brothers, I see you’ve labeled Chaim as a bigoted anti-Muslim. I feel therefore obligated to clarify some points:
- Yes, he is an Orthodox Jew.
- On various occasion he’s interviewed Muslims on his radio appearances, always politely and intelligently even when their points of view were diametrically opposed.
- I absolutely disagree with the charge of bigotry against him.
- He is, however, pointing out that there is far more infidel—o-phobia than there is any real widespread Islamophobia. I live in France, I can quote you far too many instances of such. They’ve been all over the news!
I had many conversations with him about Islam, Judaism, and Atheism. I’m personally an agnostic but Chaim never tried to proselytize me. He is not a bigot. Take it or leave it.
About his “islamophobic” of thinking -I must admit I have thought about it very often - I think it’s a very wrong way to understand his writings. Of course, Chaim is full of anger (almost as much as certain Muslims about what they call "infidels") and pain. Yes, Chaim is a right wing Republican but I guess you’re all mature enough to find certain truths behind the flames of anger. I can only testify he never tried to kill me because my parents were devout Muslims.
Nowhere, anywhere in his writings on the blog we both own, does he attribute murderous traits to all Muslims, often he’s written proudly about his friendships with many a Muslim AND we have a standing invitation to anyone including any Muslim who wants to write a guest post for our blog http://www.freedomscost.net. If anyone is interested whether pro or con you can contact us at: freedom@peres-fondateurs.com.
14 Elif
July 24, 2008 @ 3:43 pm CESTI had a Jewish friend once and he was an admirer of the ‘24 series’. One time I asked him why and he told me that he liked Muslims shown as terrorists as the center of the show. He had a point of course since most of todays terrorists are Muslims but liking the idea of this was more than just having a point.
I do not know about Chaim but I think that there is something deep in this issue dating back centuries maybe, where Jews happen not to like Muslims much (this is just my humble opinion and I am not making a generalization at all and I agree that nowadays they may have a point).
Guys, we are very well aware that a minority of Muslims are terrorists but a majority of terrorists (at least the ones on the news) are so called Muslims and we are also well aware that we can not get our voices heard as true Muslims but let me tell you this, we hate these acts of terrorism as much as you do, we hate these murderers to be associated with Islam and we hate the loss of innocent lives regardless of their religions.
Jihad, as frequently used by these dictators, has nothing to do with what they are trying to show it is. If you read religion of Islam ever, you would see that forcing people into believing in God is useless. Hz Muhammed, had to change location in Saudi Arabia together with people believing in Islam in 7th century just because they were being tortured or killed by the anti-religious group. War or taking innocent lives can never be the way to spread a religion on earth. Believe it or not, this is just as simple as that and those who are doing such acts are never going to be representatives of me or my religion.
15 Chaim
July 24, 2008 @ 4:22 pm CESTElif,
I want to thank you for your comments here and on my earlier post. I find them to be fair, reasoned, intelligent, I truly mean that.
I was wondering whether I should even bother responding to my detractors here. Against my better judgment, I decided to pick up the gauntlet anyway. I will probably regret it, but having faced up to the challenge thrown me I, will attempt to answer.
a) Nowhere have I ever said, implied or meant to imply that all or even a majority of Muslims are in any way associated with terror. If they were, the world’s demographics would be very different these days!
b) The fact remains, as Elif points that a tiny minority of Muslims are terrorists but a majority of terrorists (at least the ones on the news) are so called Muslims. I do wish, however, that the Muslim majority would be far more vocal in condemning all and every act of terror - regardless of victims’ creed or ethnicity - and do so publicly. Sadly, that has hardly been the case.
c) I am well aware that historically more Jews were killed by Christians than by Muslims.
d) The fact remains, however, that nowadays no respected Christian priest or Jewish rabbi actively preaches the destruction of Muslims or anybody else, for that matter! They would be immeditely, universally and unequivocally censured, in no uncertain terms. Whereas, some very well known figures of Islam - Dr Al-Qharadawi immediately springs to mind, as just one of many examples - have already said that the day would come when "every tree and every stone will say to Muslims, ‘There is a Jew hiding behind me, KILL HIM!’"
d) War or taking innocent lives can never be the way to spread a religion on earth. I wholeheartedly agree! …this is just as simple as that and those who are doing such acts are never going to be representatives of me or my religion. I wholeheartedly agree!
I hereby humbly extend the invitation that my Arab French (Moroccan) co-blogger Samuel, has already made to anyone including Muslims to guest post our blog http://www.freedomscost.net. If anyone is interested whether pro or con you can please contact us at: freedom@peresfondateurs.com.