An American Fall: A rapist, a pedophile, a murderer has no religion!

An American Fall
A rapist, a pedophile, a murderer has no religion!
By
Moin Ansari

“The season of mists mellow fruitfulness, close bosom friend of maturing sun”.
Lord Tennyson wrote an ode to Autumn. However if he was alive today, he would be ashamed of this fall.

This week my homeland, our sweet land of liberty was rocked by several despicable events of pedophilia, murder and violence. From the corridors of Congress, to the corridors of schools; from the steeples of our churches, to the cross-roads of our inner-cities, evil men violated innocence. This Fall will be remembered as a fall when we failed to protect our children. This fall our stars and stripes should be at half-mast. This week, America the beautiful got a scar on her beautiful face. This fall, our statue of liberty had a tear in her eyes.

These are not isolated incidents. From columbine to Central park, our society is plagued by violence and murder. We seem to be numb to the fact that more than 100,000-500,000 women are raped in our country each year. More than 10,000 humans are killed in our land every year. More than one million Americans are incarcerated of which 100,000 are women. These jailed women and men face additional violence on a daily basis. We are 5% of the world’s population but have 25% of the world prison population. All these factors point out to a deterioration of our society. Pedophilia is rampant on the internet, and even in our churches. This violence has no religion. Defining the religion of a criminal is non-productive, and displays latent bigotry. A criminal is a criminal.
It is time, that our Rabbis, Priests and Imams spoke out against this onslaught on our youth. The perpetuators of these and other crimes against other humans were not Christian rapists, Jewish violators, or Islamic killers. These thugs, murderers, killers and rapists have no religion, they are simply rapists, murderers, terrorists, and thugs period

Thousands of our military people have come back in body bags from Iraq and Afghanistan. Afghans and Iraqis have killed hundreds who are innocent. Sinhalese Buddhists fought tooth and nail against Hindu Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka. Ugandan Christian and Congolese Christians fought pitched battles against each other. However our media did not designate their religion. Only Muslim criminals and murderers were labeled by their religion.

This fall we continued the open hunting season on patriotic American citizens. This fall we continue to torture and jail people without trial, all in the name of freedom. This fall, some of the stars on our flag lost a bit of their twinkle. This fall we continued to defy the teachings of Jesus, Moses and Mohammad in the name of “war”. This fall, our founding fathers turned in their graves. This fall the halo on our land tilted a bit.
God Bless America! and Long Live America

New Pope New directions?

NEW POPE, NEW DIRECTIONS?

A rational logical rebuttal to Islamphobic comments of the Pope

I would like to comment on the Pope’s recent message denigrating the prophet Muhammad and misinterpreting Islam and misunderstanding jihad (self control). Unfortunately his "apology" was not a real apology.

1) John Paul II was the embodiment of the love of Jesus and he endeared people to him and Catholicism. Praying to the common God and joint prayers were a fantastic manifestation of our common humanity. Any other direction will alienate Muslims, Christians and Jews away from each other.

2) Arab armies never conquered or stayed in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, or Bangladesh, where 80% of all Muslims reside. Arab armies did reach the Indus, but Mohammad bin Qasim quickly withdrew. The conversions for a vast majority of Muslims (who now live in Asia)was by Sufis and traders and by example and because Islam was LOGICAL and simple...pray to one God.

3) In the 7th century, Arab armies comprised of less than 25,000 able bodied men as soldiers, out of a population of 50,000. It is a physical impossibility to spread Islam to millions with such a small army or by force of arms. Muslims could not have spread Islam through the sword from Arabia to Morocco and destroyed the Byzantine and Roman empires, if Islam did not have grass level appeal based on "Arianism" (unity of God), which was never actually eliminated even though Emperor Constantine had imposed trinity at the Council of Nicea in 325AD.

4) The idea of holy war or jihad (which is about defending the community or at most about establishing rule by Muslims, not about imposing the faith on individuals by force) is also not a Quranic doctrine. The doctrine was elaborated much later, on the Umayyad-Byzantine frontier, long after the Prophet's death. In fact, in early Islam it was hard to join, and Christians who asked to become Muslim were routinely turned away. The tyrannical governor of Iraq, al-Hajjaj, was notorious for this rejection of applicants, because he got higher taxes on non-Muslims. Arab Muslims had conquered Iraq, which was then largely pagan, Zoroastrian, Christian and Jewish. But they weren't seeking converts and certainly weren't imposing their religion. http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/09/15/18311787.php

5) But there have been many schools of Islamic theology and philosophy. The Mu'tazilite school maintained exactly what the Pope is saying, that God must act in accordance with reason and the good as humans know them. The Mu'tazilite approach is still popular in Zaidism and in Twelver Shiism of the Iraqi and Iranian sort. The Ash'ari school, in contrast, insisted that God was beyond human reason and therefore could not be judged rationally. (I think the Pope would find that Tertullian and perhaps also John Calvin would be more sympathetic to this view within Christianity than he is).As for the Quran, it constantly appeals to reason in knowing God, and in refuting idolatry and paganism, and asks, "do you not reason?" "do you not understand?" (a fala ta`qilun?)
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/09/15/18311787.php

6) The idea of holy war or jihad (which is about defending the community or at most about establishing rule by Muslims, not about imposing the faith on individuals by force) is also not a Quranic doctrine. The doctrine was elaborated much later, on the Umayyad-Byzantine frontier, long after the Prophet's death. In fact, in early Islam it was hard to join, and Christians who asked to become Muslim were routinely turned away. The tyrannical governor of Iraq, al-Hajjaj, was notorious for this rejection of applicants, because he got higher taxes on non-Muslims. Arab Muslims had conquered Iraq, which was then largely pagan, Zoroastrian, Christian and Jewish. But they weren't seeking converts and certainly weren't imposing their religion.
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/09/15/18311787.php

7) Did the Pope have selective amnesia about tolerating the holocaust, sprinkling holy water on the marching Nazi soldiers, directing the crusades, supporting the ethnic cleansing of native Americans, supporting conquistador invasions, administering the Spanish inquisition, encouraging colonialism to civilize the natives, and finding quotes in the Bible to support slavery.




7) Finally, that Byzantine emperor that the Pope quoted, Manuel II? The Byzantines had been weakened by Latin predations during the fourth Crusade, so it was in a way Rome that had sought coercion first. And, he ended his days as a vassal of the Ottoman Empire.
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/09/15/18311787.php


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Crusade

8) Emperor Manuel II Paleologos of the Byzantine Empire did not agree with the Vatican. He wrote the quote during the siege of Constantinople.

9) The propaganda against our prophet has been waged for centuries, and Muslims keep growing. The more they send crusades, the more Islam grows.

10) [2:62] Those who believe (in the Qur'an), and those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the Christians and the Sabians-- any who believe in God and the Last Day, and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve. '

11) This is one of the best responses that I have seen: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/spiritual-niggers-islam_b_29663.html

May God forgive the sins of the Pope and may he find enlightenment. God Bless him.

GreenPeaceIslam