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Dear Confused Muslims

May 31, 2007

James Arlandson: Why I don't convert to Islam.

He provides his reasoning from a Christian perspective. Still, the end result is quite devastating. A small excerpt:

This hadith shows Muhammad hitting his girl—bride, Aisha, daughter of Abu Bakr, his right—hand Companion:

'He [Muhammad] struck me [Aisha] on the chest which caused me pain.' (Muslim no. 2127)

Dear Muslim emailer, Quran—inspired domestic violence is completely unacceptable to me, and the many links below refute any attempt at whitewashing the dark clarity of this verse. For me, this is reason enough not to convert to Allah's religion.

Nothing screams PERFECT MORALITY like hitting your pre-teen wife.

Posted at 02:34 PM in History, World War III | | Comments (2)

Dumb, dumb, dumb.

May 30, 2007

This is utterly asinine:

The Bush administration said Tuesday it will fight to keep meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease.

The Agriculture Department tests fewer than 1 percent of slaughtered cows for the disease, which can be fatal to humans who eat tainted beef. A beef producer in the western state of Kansas, Creekstone Farms Premium Beef, wants to test all of its cows.

What a blatantly anti-business move:

U.S. District Judge James Robertson noted that Creekstone sought to use the same test the government relies on and said the government didn't have the authority to restrict it. - A federal judge ruled in March that such tests must be allowed. The ruling was scheduled to take effect June 1, but the Agriculture Department said Tuesday it would appeal, effectively delaying the testing until the court challenge has played out.

There's a war waging on two fronts and the American government is putting efforts into stopping a private farm from testing all its cows.

Idiots!

Link via Instapundit.

Posted at 10:54 PM in Economics, Politics, USA | | Comments (3)

The Trouble With Islam.

May 30, 2007

Salahudin:

This article discusses the paradigmatic relationship and interaction between Muslims, Islam and the “external” world. The analysis elaborates a social theory which explains the Muslim mindset, both political and religious (though the two may be blurred in many aspects of the Islamic life) and their current and potential relationship with the rest of the world.

Specifically, this article assesses the threat of mainstream Muslims’ theological belief that the Quran is inerrant and infallible, combined with their political sympathy for Islamic terrorist organizations.

I swear I've read something very similar before.

Though, I'm not optimistic about Salahudin's strategy.

Posted at 08:50 PM in Politics, USA, World War III | | Comments (2)

Afghans and Arabs

May 30, 2007

There is a lot of truth in this post.

Arabs hold a peculiar position in the Islamic world. Even though Islam originated from their lands, many Muslims -- for instance Turks and Persians -- loath the Arabs. They are thought of as being hideously pampered and arrogant. Not to mention their work ethic is nonexistent.

In the post script:

I left my position in Iraq in February 2007, and will soon be seeking international work in other parts of the world - anywhere besides Dar al Islam. While I remain passionate about the threat of Islamic jihad against America and the world, I have found it necessary to take a break from the crushing effects of Islam mentally, as well as physically.

I understand.

Posted at 02:44 PM in World War III | | Comments (1)

Oh The Sweet Peaceful Majority

May 30, 2007

Andrew Bostom:

[...] the preponderance of contemporary mainstream Muslims from Morocco to Indonesia, apparently share with their murderous, jihad terror waging co-religionists from al-Qaeda the goal (if not necessarily supporting the gruesome means) of re-establishing an Islamic Caliphate. Polling data just released (April 24, 2007) in a rigorously conducted face-to-face University of Maryland/ WorldPublicOpinion.org interview survey of 4384 Muslims conducted between December 9, 2006 and February 15, 2007-1000 Moroccans, 1000 Egyptians, 1243 Pakistanis, and 1141 Indonesians-reveal that 65.2% of those interviewed-almost 2/3, hardly a "fringe minority"-desired this outcome (i.e., "To unify all Islamic countries into a single Islamic state or Caliphate"), including 49% of "moderate" Indonesian Muslims. The internal validity of these data about the present longing for a Caliphate is strongly suggested by a concordant result: 65.5% of this Muslim sample approved the proposition "To require a strict [emphasis added] application of Shari'a law in every Islamic country."

I swear I've read something similar before...

The only reason we don't see most Muslims in Europe and North America pushing sharia is because they simply don't have the demographics to back up their totalitarianism. Yet.

First link via NRO.

Posted at 01:47 AM in World War III | | Comments (5)

Lucky Muslim Gals

May 29, 2007

The subject matter is heinous but I couldn't help but laugh:

In Gaza, Islamic Jihad is planning to send waves of female suicide bombers into action against the Zionist Entity. Asked by an Israeli reporter whether self-detonating ladies enjoy the same 72-virgin deal as the lads, an Arab scholar said no, but that the gals will be served in Paradise by "dwarfs." Snow White got seven dwarfs, but it's unclear whether Blow White will get the full 72: Sleepy, Grumpy, Bashful, etc., all the way down to Incendiary, Non-Alcoholic and Anti-Zionist.

Link via Small Dead Animals.

Posted at 08:45 PM in World War III | | Comments (10)

Islamophobia, Again.

May 29, 2007

The Globe and Mail:

Writing in the influential Literary Review of Canada, Shiraz Dossa, a tenured professor at Nova Scotia's St. Francis Xavier University, said that his academic integrity and academic freedom were grossly impugned by the university administration, an assault on his reputation that he said has yet to be remedied.

He accused the president and chancellor of authorizing a "small Spanish Inquisition" to denounce him - a campaign he said was initiated by two Jewish professors and the Christian chair of the political science department.

Poor fellow. All he did was attend a certain harmless event.

In both his essay and in a telephone conversation, he makes a compelling case for why he attended the two-day Tehran conference, titled "The Review of the Holocaust: Global Vision."

It was a conference for scholars in the global South, said Prof. Dossa, who wanted to examine the Holocaust and its significance unrestrained by the lenses through which it is viewed by the West, and "to devise an intellectual [and] political response to Western-Israeli intervention in Muslim affairs."

Also read the comment by Damian Penny.

Posted at 08:26 PM in Politics, World War III | | Comments (0)

Praying At The Altar Of Power

May 29, 2007

Theodore Dalrymple makes a good point:

During my reading, I found myself swinging like a pendulum between taking Islam as a threat very seriously indeed, and not taking it seriously at all. The reasons for taking it seriously were that a large proportion of humanity was Muslim, that an aggressive and violent minority had emerged within that population with apparently very widespread, if largely passive, approval, and that the leadership of western countries was very weak and vacillating in the face of this, or any other, challenge. The reasons for not taking Islam seriously were that, in the modern world, it was intellectually nugatory, that the disproportion in power between the rest of the world and the Islamic world appeared to be growing rather than contracting, and that behind all the bluster about the certain possession of the unique, universal and divinely ordained truth for man was an anxiety that the whole edifice of Islam, while strong, was extremely brittle, which explained why free enquiry was so limited in Islamic countries. There was a subliminal awareness - and perhaps not always subliminal - that free philosophical and historical debate could quickly and fatally undermine the hold of Islam on various societies. Fundamentalism was therefore a manifestation of weakness and not of strength.

Read it all.

Posted at 08:04 PM in History, World War III | | Comments (0)

Islamic Attitudes

May 28, 2007

A reader emails:

I recently discovered your blog, and appreciated your difficulty in remaining a Muslim after 9/11. I was wondering what you think of something they had at Hot Air recently about Zuhdi Jasser (link). He said the solution to Islamic terrorism is to bring the terrorists back to their faith, and that his Islamic faith has been what has solidified him in his position against terrorism. Hearing a Muslim say something like that was like a breath of fresh air to me, but I wonder how widespread it is, and how really Islamic such an attitude is.

This question requires a careful answer because we have to separate the means and the goals of the Islamic terrorists.

Let me put forth a few statements that I think are true. They range from one extreme to another:

  • A small number of Muslims -- the Jihadists -- are personally willing to use violence against non-Muslims to impose Islam.
  • A significant number of Muslims support the Jihadists -- morally and often financially.
  • A majority of Muslims do not support the means of the Jihadists. They do, however, support the goals of the Jihadists: to have an Islamic super-state where sharia rules.
  • A minority of Muslims think that religion is only a personal matter. (From what I've heard, Zuhdi Jasser seems to fit in this group.)

As one can see, terrorism is a small part of the problem. The major issue is the fusion of religion and politics in Islam. The global Muslim community (the umma) does wish for a grand theocracy.

That's certainly not comforting. Most Muslims won't openly support Al Qaeda or its derivatives but then what about sharia? Sharia is made up of retrograde, superstitious and barbaric laws. It, by its very nature, requires force and coercion.

Just take a brief look at the heart of Sunni and Shia Islam.

Saudi Arabia:

  • Women must cover themselves from head to toe in public or else.
  • Non-Islamic religious teachings or places of worship are not allowed.
  • The possession of alcohol is punishable by death.
  • The hands of thieves are amputated.

Iran:

All these laws are considered legitimate because they're derived from Islam.

Though, one can say that Saudi Arabia and Iran are, somehow, twisting sharia. My response to that: Muslims went nuts over a few drawings in a once-obscure Danish newspaper. Over a hundred people died in the ensuing carnage across the world. One would think that hundreds of millions of Muslims would be shocked, horrified and disgusted by how their, supposedly, peaceful religion is being perverted in these two nations. Yet, do we even see one percent of the cartoon outrage on this matter?

What does that tell us about Islam and most Muslims?

Posted at 09:04 PM in World War III | | Comments (3)

Uncouth History

May 27, 2007

Rich Lowry:

Edward Coffman, a former military historian at the University of Wisconsin, studied the 25 best history departments according to U.S. News & World Report rankings and found that a mere 21 professors out of more than 1,000 listed war as their specialty. A Notre Dame student complained recently: "We have more than 30 full-time history faculty members, but not one is a military historian. Even in their self-described interests, not a single professor lists 'war' of any era, although half list religious, gender and race relations."

Quite sad especially when one considers the times we live in today. Learning about and understanding previous wars makes us comprehend the present global conflict at a much better level.

For example, Winston Churchill's The Second World War (a six-volume set) is a magnificent place to start. It's scary how some of the appeasement rhetoric of the 1930s is being used today. Historically ignorant people continue to "think" that if only we were to leave the Jihadists alone, we'll have peace. You see, they've seen the warmongers and they are us. Churchill detailed this pathology in the first volume. In the rest, we see the bloody consequences.

Another relevant book is Donald Kagan's The Peloponnesian War (the world war of the ancient world). Many people who read it take the lesson that a democracy can be defeated. My reaction was a little different. I was amazed at just how much effort and resources it took to finally beat Athens: the two kings of Sparta leading massive Greek armies (for its time), the rebellions in the Empire and the bankrolling by Persia.

One also learns a lot about humanity from this. We can be extremely fickle and short-sighted when blood is being spilled. We'd rather grab on to a momentary pause in conflict rather than truly finish a war. That peace is often a cruel illusion.

Posted at 07:06 PM in History, USA | | Comments (3)

What's Wrong With Dion?!

May 27, 2007

Whats On Winnipeg:

“If this gets out, it could mean the end of the Liberal Party of Canada,” warned a local politico, requesting anonymity.

And what, pray tell, has the Grits so up in arms? It seems that when Stéphane Dion touched down in Winnipeg last month, he and his entourage popped by North End mega-icon Kelekis for lunch. There, Dion shocked locals and his handlers by eating Kelekis’s world-famous hot dog with — gasp! — a knife and fork.

That is so not cool.

Link via Western Standard via Daimnation.

Posted at 05:11 PM in Politics | | Comments (0)

There Are No Words

May 26, 2007

The Belmont Club:

The problem with the word "torture" is that it has been so artfully corrupted by some commentators that we now find ourselves at a loss to describe the kinds of activities that the al-Qaeda interrogation manual graphically recommends. Now that the term "torture" has been put in one-to-one correspondence with such admittedly unpleasant activities as punching, sleep deprivation, a handkerchief pulled over one's face and loaded with water, searches by women upon sensitive Islamic men or the disrespectful handling of Korans -- what on earth do we call gouging people's eyes out?

Nothing.

Posted at 06:03 PM in Politics, World War III | | Comments (2)

Nourished on Poison

May 25, 2007

I attended this Pakistani school in Saudi Arabia for 10 years. I've written about my lovely experience there:

Corporal punishment was the result for not doing the work. I never had a single teacher who didn’t hit the students. The punishments varied from different teachers. Some would institute punishments for failing tests. Some used their hands while others preferred to use long and heavy wooden sticks. On many a day I went home with red and swollen palms.

I also mentioned this terrifying incident:

The teacher started to slap and punch him on the neck and the back with each hit more forceful than the last. The kid sitting next to the student got up from the desk and stepped away. The teacher kept on brutally beating the student. The student started crying and fell to the ground within the desk. The teacher grabbed the front of the desk with his left hand and the back with his right. He then started to kick the bawling student. He kicked him for about 20 seconds. He then went to his desk while swearing. No-one said a word.

I wrote another post here:

"No sir, please, I promise sir, I won't do it again. P-l-e-a-s-e sir."

His pleas made no difference. Our English teacher had a vise-like grip on the left wrist of that student. A few days before we had a brief English test. That student got 5 out of 10. Like everybody else, he had to get the signature of one of his parents. Which he did, after he had changed that "5" to an "8". Now, the student was fruitlessly attempting to avoid the customary thrashing.

The teacher held the wrist of the student with his left hand and with his right hit the student multiple times; on the head, the face, the neck, a few punches on the ribs. I sat in front of the class, a few feet away from the entire revolting episode.

Fortunately, if you can imagine, my education could have been worse. I could have been sent to a madrassa -- in the West.

There is a rigorous, perhaps even cruel, system in place; and when it comes to discipline, the stories are awful. One mother (whose sons now attends our Madrasah) relates how teachers would literally beat the kids senseless for the most trivial of errors – stumbling over the pronounciation of Qur’an would merit being boxed in the ears; students would be screamed at rather than spoken to; major discipline came in the form of being whipped by belts until they bled – first by the teacher, and then by fellow students. Their injuries were not attended to, so much so that severe infections were contracted and they became so sick they couldn’t move. The son who now attends our Madrasah still bears scars from his ordeal.

How such memories impact an innocent soul:

Mental abuse was also common; another mother said that for months after her son came back home, he would flinch, cringe and shake if anyone spoke to him in a slightly raised tone of voice, and he would cry when made to read or recite Qur’an – such was the result of his ‘Islamic education’.

You see, the Religion of PeaceTM is beaten into the young Muslims.

What steps did the local umma take to deal with this matter?

Now, this school was actually under investigation by the government after some people reported them, but apparently the charges were later dropped, reasons unknown (but guessed at).

When I asked my dad why someone would drop these charges if they knew them to be correct and not to be lies, he said that it was a pretty big issue, that it was a matter of getting fellow Muslims into trouble, causing more problems and fitnah in the community. He said that if the media got involved, they’d just use it as another excuse to show how bad Muslims are.

Of course. How utterly irresponsible to suggest that there's anything wretched about Muslims who generously hit, beat, whip and torture kids.

What utter perversity. These monsters of madrassas have obliterated the minds of countless children and the main concern of these heinous Muslims is to shield the evil teachers!

A simple question:

Non-Muslims have to ask themselves: When most of the umma treats its own offspring with such an abhorrent passion, then what is in store for those whom the Muslims hate?

Update
From May 2006:

Poor little Nihad. She must learn not to step on the Holy man's carpet while he is praying.

Otherwise, the Holy man might get a little vexed:

Brutally Beaten

Posted at 07:05 AM in Life, My Writings, World War III | | Comments (12)

The Depravity of Sharia

May 25, 2007

The main page:

Other Africas was on exhibit at the University Museum of Southern Illinois University from January 15 to April 21, 2002.

After some clicks we get this:

While Southern Nigeria is largely Christian, The Northern states are predominantly Muslim. In October of 1999, the governor of the northwestern state of Zamfara, Alhaji Ahmed Sani adopted Sharia law. He banned prostitution and the selling and drinking of alcohol. He also encouraged men to grow beards and demanded the segregation of men and women in public transportation system. In this poster, the rules and of Sharia law are laid out on the left hand side and on the right are the consequences for breaking these rules.

The punishment for women who dare ride a bike with a man:

Stoning a Woman

Can you feel the peace?

Posted at 05:25 AM in World War III | | Comments (1)

The Ultimate Insult

May 25, 2007

Josh Scholar provides a link to this story:

A Muslim cleric, apparently from the Palestinian Authority, has released a fatwa (religious ruling) permitting the killing of members of the Hamas terrorist organization. In support of his position, the heretofore unknown sheikh declared Hamas to have "Jewish characteristics;" yet, he said that "the Jews have more mercy" on the Arabs than Hamas.

This sounds like something out of The Onion.

Next month: why Nazis should be hated? (Because they're like the Jews!)

Posted at 02:16 AM in World War III | | Comments (0)

The Sissy Huns

May 25, 2007

Spiegel Online:

The death of three German soldiers in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz on Saturday has led to calls in Germany for a rethink of NATO's entire strategy in Afghanistan, with the opposition Left Party even demanding that Germany's 3,150 troops stationed there be brought home.

What exactly did these dastardly Germans think they were sending in their troops for? A picnic?

Paul:

That’s right … lose 3 soldiers and you are already looking for an overhaul of the entire mission … lose 3 soldiers and you are questioning whether rebuilding a ravaged country and protecting it from those who would desolate it again is worth it.

We’ve talked on these pages about the Germans and The Will of the West to survive. Germany can best be described as exhibit A in the dead-culture-walking category. I doubt from what I see that Germans could ever muster the will, least of all the courage, to defend themselves. How are they to defend the hapless peasants of far off Afghanistan?

They can retreat. War will find them on their own soil soon.

Posted at 01:13 AM in Politics, World War III | | Comments (2)

Free or Not to Free the Yuan

May 25, 2007

Greg Mankiw:

The dollar-yuan exchange rate is an economic fetish of many people unschooled in basic economics (a topic previously discussed here). In today's Wall Street Journal (subscription required), Dartmouth economist Matthew Slaughter, fresh from a stint at the CEA, tries to bring some rationality to the issue.

Go read it all.

I think it's a terrible idea for American lawmakers to demand that China conduct her monetary policy in a certain way.

Posted at 12:58 AM in Economics, USA | | Comments (1)

The Megaphones of War

May 24, 2007

During the Bosnian War, many Muslims came from outside to fight the infidel. To these Saudis, Iranians and Pakistanis, that was a matter of Jihad. After the war, the deprave Arabs offered money to their native brothers for mosques -- upon one condition. They, not the Bosnians, would provide the imams.

So, these Muslims in Europe who were relatively moderate soon had Wahhabi poison being pumped out of "their" mosques. This phenomenon of rich and extremely intolerant Muslims in mosques is repeated throughout Europe. Thus, we get the two-faced Muslim community. In public, they claim to be the peaceful victims of Islamophobia; in their mosques they preach the most vile hatred of non-Muslims. All one has to do is simply see and hear their own words.

It's about bloody time Europe took note:

Security officials from Europe's largest countries have thrown their weight behind the EU Commission's plans to map out mosques on the continent to identify imams who preach radical Islam that raises the threat of homegrown terrorism.

The project, to be finished by the fall, will focus on the roles of imams, their training, their ability to speak in the local language and their source of funding, EU Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini told a news conference.

I wonder how long Europe is going to keep on saying that "Islam is a Religion of Peace!" while instituting such policies.

Link via Instapundit.

Posted at 04:22 PM in World War III | | Comments (3)

Viewing Photography

May 24, 2007

I wanted to use a camera when I was young. I wanted to take photos of my friends and surroundings. Unfortunately, living in Saudi Arabia, that wasn't an option. Worse, being non-Arab, getting caught by police would have been very unpleasant. So, the only photos that we took in Arabia were our mugshots; taken at a one-hour studio. They were for my father's aqaama (a work-permit document for foreigners) and for our passports.

My dad did buy a camera; him and my siblings took a few shots in Pakistan and Bahrain. It's eerie to realize that I have zero photographical evidence of being in Saudi Arabia.

Today, I could get an excellent camera and take numerous snaps of my friends and the beautiful spring time but, for obvious reasons, I wouldn't want to share the results on my blog. Fortunately, there are many who put in the time, money and energy in their hobby and then share the fruits with the rest.

Ten years ago, I was wasting away in Saudi Arabia. Now, I'm in the West and with a few simple clicks I can view the most infidelicious stuff on the Net.

Life is good.

Posted at 01:07 AM in Life | | Comments (0)

Slightly Pricey

May 23, 2007

Holy crap:

Russian design studio Art Lebedev opened its online store for pre-orders of the Optimus Maximus LED keyboard. The first shipment of 200 keyboards was sold within one day, despite the keyboard’s hefty price tag of $1564.37.

My entire PC setup* didn't cost that much!

* Monitor, keyboard, mouse, mic and headphone included.

Posted at 05:07 PM in Web/Tech | | Comments (0)

Islam Is Against Hugging

May 22, 2007

Times Online:

The Pakistani Tourism Minister resigned yesterday after hardline Islamic clerics accused her of obscenity for hugging her instructor after a charity parachute jump.

Nilofer Bakhtiar was photographed in brightly coloured jumpsuit and hugging her instructor after a tandem jump to raise money for child victims of the earthquake that struck Pakistan in October 2005.

The images provoked the wrath of clerics in Islamabad, who accused Ms Bakhtiar of posing in an obscene manner and violating the Islamic moral norms.

What's happening in the capital of Pakistan:

Ms Bakhtiar told a Senate standing committee that her life was under threat. Human rights and political activists and many other Pakistanis had condemned the campaign against her and expressed support. But the Government did not take any action against the clerics, who are campaigning for the establishment of Taleban-style conservative Islamic rule in the capital, and instead urged her to resign. The clerics have already set up a parallel justice system and openly promote vigilantes in the city.

It could have been worse:

Her resignation was the latest blow to female politicians in Pakistan. Less than two months ago a Punjab provincial minister was shot dead in the eastern city of Gujranwala because she was not wearing a veil.

Link via Dhimmi Watch.

Posted at 07:36 PM in World War III | | Comments (1)

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