El-Faisal
He was just interpreting the Qur'an, says Sheikh Abdullah el-Faisal. From the BBC, with thanks to Nicolei:
A Muslim cleric jailed for urging followers to kill non-believers, Jews, Hindus and Americans has lost an appeal against his conviction. Sheikh Abdullah el-Faisal was jailed for nine years last March for soliciting murder and using threatening and insulting words in taped lectures.On Tuesday, the Court of Appeal, while upholding the conviction, reduced his sentence to seven years.
The 39-year-old had preached at Brixton mosque in south London.
El-faisal's trial was the first prosecution of a Muslim cleric in England.
When he was originally sentenced the Common Serjeant of London, Peter Beaumont, told him: "Instead of being a calming force you fanned the flames of hostility."
Koran interpretations
The judge also recommended el-faisal, of Stratford, east London, serve at least half his sentence before being deported.
The Jamaican convert to Islam told young British Muslims they would be rewarded with 72 virgins in paradise if they died in a holy war.
He was sentenced to seven years on three charges of soliciting the murder of non-believers, Jews, Hindus and Americans in his speeches.
And he was sentenced to an additional two years on charges of using insulting words and distributing tapes of insulting words.
During his trial he argued he was interpreting and updating the words of the Koran, the Islamic holy book.
Interesting defense. Did he think that if he could convince the Court that his hatred and incitement to murder was religious instruction, he would get a pass?
One assumes, or at least one hopes, that mosques in America are being monitored, especially by those who are native speakers of Arabic (and here Copts, Maronites, and Mizrahi Jews can be usefully employed), and that similar appeals will be made subject to prosecution. To the argument that a "great religion" is entitled to the protection of the Free Exercise Clause, one can point out that a "compelling state interest" -- preventing violence and murder, for a start, against non-Muslims -- may be invoked here. In Turkey and Tunisia the mosques are monitored; they should be monitored here. And we should for god's sake stop referring to Islam only as a religion; so much of it is, essentially, a geopolitical cult; its non-Hijazi origins, in the seventh and eighth centuries, point to the fact that it is a belief-system that arose to justify, and promote, the Arab conquest of far more advanced and populace regions, whose peoples were already Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians (and, later, of course, in India, Buddhists and Hindus); it took elements of these, mixed with pre-Islamic Arab pagan lore (the djinn, etc.). Since in Islam the real division of the world is between Muslim and non-Muslim (all loyalty goes to the first, whatever the behavior; all hostilty goes to the second, however "seemingly" kind that non-Muslim may be -- see, for example, the otherwise inexplicable ingratitude of the Iraqi populace to all the "hearts and minds" kindnesses of the Infidel Americans -- all those schools, hospitals and so on will be received, a few pictures taken of schoolchildren and doctors, and the same people, a week or a month or a year later, will be back to their original, essential, and Islamically-based hatred of the Infidels. This is something American policymakers, risking the lives of American soldiers in order to engage in the Sisyphean, and indeed hopeless task of winning those implacable hearts, and those closed Muslim minds, should take into account, and stop endangering innocent Americans on behalf of a naive and hopeless attempt. We don't need Iraqi "hearts and minds" nor Iraqi "democracy"; we need to weaken Islam, and at this point, having disarmed Iraq and destroyed its regime, we have done all that we needed and could do; Iraq is now a distraction from the much larger Jihad that requires, above all, educating the non-Muslim populations of the West about what Islam, as a belief-system, means for them (and to begin to deal with the demographic problem of Muslim migration, which must be halted and, where possible, reversed).
I just read a news release that Pakistani troops are raiding the areas there Bin Laden and Omar have been holed up. The troops are destroying the homes of those that are not cooperating with them.
In Thailand, a security fence is being constructed to not keep terrorists out, but to keep them in, so the Thai forces can get to them after they are attacked.
Looks like these rats are finally being forced from their holes, and are going to face justice at some point. One can hope anyway. It's beginning to look like we're getting more cooperation from more people. I hope so.
Next, we can move inward and shut these hate preaching mosques down, or bulldoze them, whichever is cheaper. We also need to shut down these so called Muslim civil rights groups and "Islamic charitable organizations" down. Then arrest the hate preachers and activists for treason. Talk from these bigots is considerably cheap without terror networks to back them up.
Bravo Hugh! A lucid and informative post. If you haven't already done so, you should send this to the White House and all other appropriate individuals and agencies. Thank you again.
Until Western leaders like President Bush learn and understand that the word "Islam" does not mean "peace" but "submission" to the will of Allah, and by force if necessary, the Free World is in mortal danger.
There is no such thing as Fundamentalist Islam; there is only Islam. Islam has never undergone a Reformation like Christianity, or a Reform like Judaism. Though there have been periods of Muslim Enlightenment,as in the Spanish Middle Ages, today Islam has returned to the Dark Ages.
Maybe it's just me.....but doesn't the picture of this guy look like Geoffrey the Butler on Fresh Prince of Belair?
Hugh offers an thoughtful, thorough analysis of the current Islamicist threat. I commend him also to send it along to all Members of Congress, the White House (and specifically the SOD) and as an op-ed piece to every newspaper in the West.
My extensive reading of the Koran and Hadith suggest that, rather than voicing religious bigotry, Hugh has analysed accurately Islam and, more generally, Arab Muslim society. Regrettably, most in the West are completely oblivious to the threat we face from Islam.
If you haven't already, check out World Net Daily's website today in the letters section.....the first three letters are right on the mark with regard to Islam and its arrogance.......
Everyone should see these video's from former Muslims. It is very enlightening. I hope this helps people to understand a little about what the world is up against.
http://www.christianresource.com/B976B.wmv
http://www.christianresource.com/B977B.wmv
http://www.christianresource.com/B978B.wmv
http://www.christianresource.com/B979B.wmv
http://www.christianresource.com/B980B.wmv
http://www.christianresource.com/B981B.wmv
http://www.christianresource.com/B982B.wmv
Lenore,
Those links did not lead me to any web pages. Can you send new links that are active?
Thanks
EM,
I just tried them again, they worked for me, you must have media player. Good luck.
I just had a look at the videos, and it's obvious that despite their PhDs, these two men have not experienced Islam as it exists in its local context. Yes they grew up in a Muslim household but they don't have true grasp of how Muslims think, or how life functions in the Muslim world.
In the second video, at around the 10th minute, Ergun Caner recites the 'shahada', or 'confession of faith' as: "bismillah ar rahman irraheem, muhammad allah ar rahman irraheem". The translation shows up on the screen to be: "There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is the Prophet of Allah". However, this translation is hugely incorrect. In fact, Caner did not recite the shahada at all, but put together something which doesn't really make any sense. The first part of the phrase he read means "In the name of Allah, the compassionate, the merciful". The second part is not even a complete sentence, but might be translated as "Mohammed --- ... Allah, the compassionate the merciful".
Considering that they claim to have grown up in a very devout Muslim family, and that they claim to be knowledgable about Islam, it is highly surprising that they can not recite the single most important statement in Islamic doctrine.
In any case, the fact that these two former Muslims have become respectful Christians should be enough for us to stop bombing muslims. Instead, we should be sending out missions to preach to Muslims, so that they might follow suit. The love of Jesus is stronger than American bombs.
The love of Jesus is more powerful than bombs. The problem is that we will never be permitted to preach to Muslims in their homelands without being persecuted for it.
To do it here, you'll have groups like care crying tears that Americans are trying to force Muslims to convert to Christianity. Everyone knows that no one is allow to attempt conversion except for Islam......
Or they'll whine like the intellectual babies they are. They are a religion of double standards and doubletalk. They will only understand death and descruction, be it everyone they fight with, or themselves.
CAIR, not care....sorry
Destruction, not descruction......sorry again