Alcohol, Pigs, Dogs, and Now Books
Jan 15, 2008
Daily Express via IBA:
Shopper Sally Friday felt publicly humiliated at a branch of Marks & Spencer when she tried to pay for First Bible Stories as a gift for her young grandson.
When she put the book on the check-out counter, the young assistant refused to touch it, declared it was unclean and summoned another member of staff to serve instead.
What conviction! This Muslim woman has no problem deriving, likely, the majority of her income from the sale of "unclean" books but, my goodness, touching one is out of the question!
She could have easily scanned the book but then the opportunity of communicating a polite f%@k you to a Christian lady would have passed.
If Islam weren't so violent, it would be hilarious to watch its mindless legalism. My favorite Islamic legalism (and I think it's at its funniest if you are a Christian who has philosophically studied legalism versus God's grace) is the one about whose sexually assaulted chicken you can eat. I think it was something like your neighbor's neighbor's neighbor's chicken. Never mind the fact that it is the same bird no matter who owns it.
Islam is what happens when you give a retarded child a little law school education, a gun and a bomb vest.
Posted by: MikeT | Jan 17, 2008 at 02:36 PM
Mike, I think Isaac was trying to say the opposite, that it's the "fuck off" attitude that she learned from Islam, not any rule about touching the bible. I'm sure there is no such rule; but the rules that say you have to oppress other religions and hate their practitioners are there.
I'll never forget the professor of Islam (in Saudi I think it was) who was interviewed after 9/11 who tried to excuse this, "Just because I'm required to hate you doesn't mean I want to hurt you," which of course was a lie, because the "required hatred" does have a purpose.
Posted by: Josh Scholar | Jan 17, 2008 at 04:10 PM
Josh, Islam is an incredibly legalistic religion. That is where the religious aspect comes in. The fact is that legalistic religions teach their followers to behave like this. I'm reminded of many examples in the Gospels where Jesus ripped on the Pharisees for behaving like this. In a way similar to this girl, they'd worry more about the food that goes into their mouths, than the words that came out of their mouths. Jesus responded, which makes you unclean: eating with dirty hands, or speaking unclean things, which come from your heart? This dumbfounded the Pharisees, just as the irony of this girl's behavior no doubt escapes her. As Isaac pointed out quite rightly, she has no problem working for a store that probably sells all manners of "gentleman's publications," but won't handle a Bible.
Part of the reason I find this sort of legalism hilarious is because it is futile. Eventually hypocrisy and human nature break down the rules that are put up by legalists.
If you need another example, just look at the legalism on sexual matters. It's wrong to screw outside of marriage normally, but you can screw female captives. Is that not an even better example of the legalistic hypocrisy than this girl's behavior?
Posted by: MikeT | Jan 18, 2008 at 06:56 PM
It's not legalistic, it's something different.
Legal systems are built on principles. They have the opposite problem, that Mohammad was arbitrary, inconsistent, unjust, and not neither smart nor good enough to come up with any principles that aren't harmful.
So they search among his inconsitancies for some small justification for not being quite as foolish and malicious as he was, or for being at least as foolish and malicious as he was depending on taste. That's not "legalistic".
And yes, he specified how to wipe your butt... That's cultish. But still not legalistic.
Posted by: Cafe Alpha | Jan 19, 2008 at 12:43 AM
Cafe Alpha,
What you are talking about is not religious legalism. You may not be familiar with religious legalism, but it is a common theme in the New Testament. Of the three abrahamic religions, only Christianity specifically tries to avoid religious legalism in general.
This is an example of religious legalism for you:
1) God said, honor the Sabbath and punish anyone with death for breaking it.
2) God also said, love your neighbor as yourself (this is in both the Mosaic Law and Gospel)
3) You treat someone who runs into a burning building on the Sabbath to save a baby's life the same as someone who was caught willfully breaking the Sabbath for no good reason.
Religious legalism is extremely oppressive and violent in Islam. It is shown in cases like where the religious police in Saudi Arabia forced those little girls back into a burning building because they weren't fully covered.
Posted by: MikeT | Jan 20, 2008 at 10:48 AM