"Bangladesh: Bangladesh Islamic conference portrays soft Islam," from Asian News International, with thanks to Skeetstreet:
Dhaka, Bangladesh, which has attracted worldwide attention recently, because of activities of groups supporting Islamic extremism, is making attempts to promote liberal Islam and Islamic solidarity.A conference was convened by, Bangladesh's Islamic party, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, with Maulana Syed Asad Madani as the chief guest. Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the leader of opposition in Pakistan, also attended the conference.
Addressing the conference, Maulana Madani said, "We must never do anything that is against the will of Allah. Whatever one is ordered to do, they have to follow it. This is the only way to escape the fire of hell. Follow this path and save yourself and your children".
"To safeguard ourselves and our children from lies, evil, from temptation is the duty of every Muslim man and woman. It is our duty to make our children into devout Muslims," he added.
Besides Maulana Madani and Maulana Fazlur a host of religious leaders also attended the conference in the presence of thousands of supporters.
During his last visit to Bangladesh during December 2004, Maulana Madani has called upon the Muslims of Bangladesh to follow the path of moderate Islam and in that context emulate the experience of Indian Muslims.
In recent years Bangladesh has witnessed the rise of radical Islam, which has created uncertainty in a number of areas bordering India.
Addressing a gathering in December, he said that, "Islam is being mostly misunderstood, and we need to dispel this misconception through education"....
Ah, the glorious complexity of Islam! Millions of Muslims -- devout, serious, Qur'an-reading Muslims -- misunderstand it, you see. Simplistic souls, they think Islam is exhorting them to violence against unbelievers. And all over the world they think this! Maulana Madani has a lot of 'splainin' to do.
Morning all!
Question to muslim and / or 'left' readers here: If so many are misinterpreting the Koran, why are there so many Immams on Saudi, Egyptian and other national tv stations, exhorting them to do those very things they are supposedly getting wrong?
http://www.memri.org/
Today’s Extras:
Another example of how the US is failing in Iraq:
http://www.nationalreview.com/robbins/robbins200504060759.asp
Problems with Homeland Security:
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/calthomas/ct20050406.shtml
Muslims mis-understanding the Qu'ran?Again?
I saw an old episode of the Simpsons the other night that kind of reminds me of this.It's the one where Homer goes to the Chiropractor.
"Are you going to crack my back?"
"Oh no Mr. Simpson,we don't really crack backs,that's only a figure of speech.
Now lay down here on the table,in a moment you'll hear a loud cracking sound."
JLP
I can't find the source, but several days ago I read where a Christian pastor in Bangladesh was beheaded by "Muslim radicals." Another pastor was beheaded by those few disgruntled Muslims about six months earlier. A Christian convert from Bangladesh told me last year that a Christian pastor had been crucified. He claimed that someone from the US Embassy visited the site of the crucifixation, offered his condolences to the family of the deceased, and left, promising to make a report. This convert also told me that Bangladesh was becoming a sort of "R and R" place for Al-Queida members, a place to get medical attention if needed and a place to hide out if things got too hot elsewhere. Bangladesh would probably welcome all of the money that comes with the Islamists, as it is such a poor country. I can't verify this information but this convert to Christianity had suffered physically and mentally for his conversion. He was very concerned about the direction of his country. His family had disowned him, but he still loved his parents and felt afraid for them as the Islamists gained power.
Re-posted from March 8:
In 1971 East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) rose in revolt against West Pakistan (now Pakistan). Under General Yahya the Bengalees were ruthlessly suppressed, and at their side, working hand in bloody glove, were the so-called "razakars" who were local fanatical Muslims intent on keeping "Pakistan" together in the interests, not of the people of Bangladesh, but for the "idea of Islam" and an "Islamic Pakistan."
These "razakars" were never punished; some of them are in the Bangladeshi government today. The Awami League, per contra, whose members and supporters are constantly under siege, and some of whom are murdered -- and those murdered include some of most distinguished Bengalis, including, this past January 27, Shah A. M. S. Kibria, killed by grenade thrown at him. The country is spiraling into complete Muslim fanaticism. One can easily find, for example, pictures of Hindus being beaten to death for the "crime" of happening to walk by a mosque as Muslims were exiting after Friday Prayers. It is not only those taking part, so gleefully, in the man's murder, that strikes one -- but all the others standing about, enjoying the spectacle.
In 1947 38% of the population of what was then East Pakistan was non-Muslim; it is now down to 8%. Massacres of Hindus, of the few Buddhists who remained in post-Islamic Inidia (in the Chittagong Hills area), and of Christians and other non-Muslims, have been incessant, and in recent times the pace of such persecution and murder seems to have picked up.
There are those Bangladeshis who nonetheless attempt to lessen the effect of Islamic fanaticism, which has in recent times come to infect more and more Muslims in east Asia, including not only Bangladesh, but also Malaysia and Indonesia, and Muslim minorities in southern Thailand and the southern Philippines. Things are getting worse -- that is, the ideology that Islam encourages, the Jihad-conquest, and the war against all Infidels, is not dying down but increasing. And so is the war against those who, through no fault of their own, were born into Islam and, not knowing much about it, continue to call themselves "Muslims" and yet, are, and will always be, the victims of other Muslims whose behavior is not an aberration but rather based on the texts of Islam, of Qur'an, Hadith, and Sira.
Finally, there is th ecase of Mr. Chaudhury, the editor of Blitz, who was arrested, and has been held without trial since 2003 for the crime of trying to establish bettern relations between Israel and Muslim countries. Chaudhury's case should be the subject of intervention by the American governmment. That it has not been is a scandal. As for the murder of Shah A. M. S. Khibria, and of many others, that too should be protested, as Islam, which is essentially a vehicle for Arab cultural imperialism, continues to further the destruction of non-Muslim minorities in Bangladesh, and of Bangladesh itself, in a razakar-orgy of violence.
Posted by: Hugh at March 8, 2005 10:51 AM
A good deal more of relevance on Bangladesh, but too long to reppost and impose again here, can be found later on the same March 8 thread, about Terror in Bangladesh, as above:
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/005257.php#comments
One should not forget the recent murder (on January 27) of A. M. Kibria, whose daughter wrote of her father, and of his murder, a few weeks ago, in The Boston Globe. The less-Islamic Awami-League Bangladeshis are under constant threat by the more fervent Muslims. And of course Hindus are beaten to death, the last remaining center of Buddhists -- in the Chittagong Hills region -- is under constant assault, and Christians persecuted and murdered. That's Bangladesh.
But the foreign -- American and South Korean and Taiwanese -- money that has gone in to build factories, may leave. Why should they stay, when they can get cheaper and better and non-Muslim labor elsewhere? At a certain point, Infidels are not going to stand for supporting Muslim madmen, and Bangladesh will suffer. No more jizyah, no foreign aid, and soon, thanks to China and the renewal of Muslim violence, an end to new investment and a pulling-out of the old.
And while the utter failure of Muslims to build modern economies has been disguised by the oil bonanza (and in some cases, by crazy infusions of Western foreign aid -- which ends up being a kind of psychological jizya, because the Western governments then become afraid to diminish or lower that aid, and it is, for reasons no one can quite articulate, simply locked in -- to the non-oil states of Egypt, Pakistan, Jordan, and the non-oil non-viable but murderous and anti-Infidel "Palestinian" Authority).
So it's goodbye to Bangladesh, if it continues to descend into Muslim madness, and to fail to heed the more enlightened members of the country's elite.
Bangladesh is a typical Muslim country, backwards.
It still has dowry and honor killings.
The dowry "laws" are so bad, that the second female born into a family is called "she who was born for the grave" because the family can't pay the dowry, which bankrupts the family, for more than one daughter.
Never could figure out why a dowry is paid to marry off the daughter, since marriage (securing a sex partner for life and ensuring a male heir) is something that fulfills the male need more than the female.
But I hope you are right Hugh. I wish you had been on another forum, backing me up when I was arguing with Bangladeshis, who claimed that it was a Democracy.
Gary, poor Gary, what blinders you have. What a misconceived Manichean vision of the world, you keep castigating and challenging the so called left, but give a free pass to treason and betrayal from the right.
I've seen no evidence that "left" readers make the claims that you attribute to them. Typical right wing fanatic tactics create strawmen.
You constantly embarass yourself.
How can anyone take you seriously, when you exposed yourself as a self blinded ideologue?
I consider myself Left (if the likes of you are Right), however I'm a more active and vocal fighter of Islamofascism than you are.
You "fight" from a forum in which you feel safe, and don't stand up at all to the Muslims, the left and the Islamophiles on the Right on a forum in which they are numerous and vocal.
And yes there are non NAZI Islamophiles who have the same "conservative, family values" that you have, in fact your values are indistinguishable from a secularist point of view from those of the Muslims. Both your side and theirs are religious and patriarchial.
It doesn't take any cajones, nor is it productive to sing to the choir.
By the way James Robbins National Review article is delusional, written out of ignorance, is administration propaganda designed to create an illusion of success, and is nothing more than a summary of headlines.
He exhibits no knowledge at all of the history, alliances, allegiances and background of Iraq, the players, the Sunnis or Shi'as.
The new President of Iraq, Talibani, led the PUK, which is a Marxist organization, and was also allied with and supported by Iran. Turkey will not look kindly on a rise in Kurdish power and aspirations for independence. The Sunnis (who were the backbone of Saddams Mukhabarat, Republican Guard and Army Command, were also his butchers and torturers of Kurds and Shi'a, and now they have been given control of Defense Forces, Police and Intelligence. Guess who the insurgents, kidnappers and beheaders are? They are the Sunni's, so the real power in Iraq has been turned over to the very people that have been killing Iraqi's, Foreign workers and coalition soldiers. How brilliant.
Robbins states the obvious (no Brownie points for him here)
Duh, only an ignoramus, an child doesn't know that.
In fact it is the asymmetricality of guerilla warfare that is the guerillas strength, the name guerilla comes from the Spanish for little war, the non organized partisans that drove Napoleon out of Spain.
These guerillas have great stores of tank, artillery munitions as well as the munitions they took from al Qaqaa, hid away, enough munitions to wage a war for years to come.
The "war" was lost from the start, when Jay Gardner approved an interim constitution that made Iraq and Islamic Republic and Shari'a the basis of constitution and law.
Mational Review is engaging in PR spin, trying to turn defeat into victory (in the eyes of the American Public), those who have real information, and know the history of Iraq, know different.
The Sunni Ba'athists are back in power, the Shi'a fanatics have full reign to create an Islamic Republic (which is what Ja'afar has announced he will do) and the Kurds (the President Talabani is purely ceremonial) will cut the best deal they can.
There is a civil war in Iraq, and it ain't over till it is over, and the government will be either Wahhabi Sunni or Shi'a. The Shi'a have the numbers, but they don't have the experience or the keys to the filing cabinets, Saddam took care of that when he decapitated the Shi'a leadership.
When a country is as poor as Bangladesh, it seems ridiculous that they are worrying about a 'particular brand of Islam' instead of starving people. Islam's backward and violent message has done nothing for this country which will
almost certainly slide into recurring floods of India's great rivers and further bloodshed. People of more temperate religions & work
ethos have been driven out - leaving majority of
Muslim devotees to become poorest country on earth. Let's hope Allah will be pleased with them as it will be their only consolation in this life...
Give people a Cosmic Reason to Hate (AKA the Koran), call it divine and eternal, and guess what you get?
Endless horrors. Fathers and brothers throwing acid in the faces of their daughters and sisters.
Crowds of 'holy' fanatics killing their neighbors who won't agree with their hate-filled Book.
The WORST single aspect of the Koran, and Mohammad, and Islam is this:
there is NO sense of humor.
Grim, forever and ever and ever.
The rest is as predictable as ants on a dropped chocolate bar.
Locked in instinct, as paralyzed as every absolutist creed, killing till the end of time.
In chess, it is called "zugzwang". Every move open to you is bad.
Islam, the Perfect cul de sac.
in fact your values are indistinguishable from a secularist point of view from those of the Muslims. Both your side and theirs are religious and patriarchial.
Giaour, for one who claims to be a Bible scholar you should know that’s not true.
Unless you were referring to being a Bartenders Bible scholar, then it would all make sense.
"Bangladesh was not so bad as it is now."
Yes it was -- all through the war for Bangladesh
's independence from what was then West Pakistan (Bangladesh then being East Pakistan). The Muslim razakars committed mass murder of those Bangladeshis fighting the forces of Gen. Yahya Khan in 1971, during the war for independence. Click on the link to a previous posting at Jihadwatch a month ago (given in the 3:18 P.M. posting above), and you will find more about what happened in Bangladesh during that war. The more fervent someone was a Muslim, the more likely it is that, convinced that as a Muslim State Pakistan had to be supported, no matter what that meant, for the Glory of Islam, the more likely one would become a mass-murderer of one's neighbors. All for Islam, Islam, Islam. Millions managed to save themselves only because India offered them refuge.
And the recompense? The recompense is that today in Bangladesh Hindus are beaten to death, Christians murdered, and the few remaining Buddhists in the Chittagong Hills fear for their lives. And the Awami League holdovers, the people with civic courage, like A. M. Kibria, whose Islam is tempered by their innate humanity and good sense, are murdered by those whose Islam is not.
And that is Bangladesh.