"Meshaal offers to mediate in cartoon row," from Khaleej Times, with thanks to Sr. Soph:
DOHA — The supremo of the radical Palestinian group Hamas offered yesterday to seek to calm anger among Muslims over the publication of blasphemous cartoons.Khaled Meshaal told a Press conference that Hamas “is prepared to play a role in calming the situation between the Islamic world and Western countries on condition that these countries commit themselves to putting an end to attacks against the feelings of Muslims.”
Speaking in Cairo on Wednesday, Meshaal had said the Western Press was “playing with fire” with the publication of the cartoons, which had led to riots across the Muslim world.
He added that “the Christian West, which is provoking the feelings fo the Muslim nation, should change its attitudes.”...
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Lebanese Muslims turned a religious ceremony yesterday into a peaceful protest against the publication of a series of blasphemous cartoons in the Western media.
The European Union sought to calm tension, calling for a voluntary media code of conduct to avoid further inflaming religious sensibilities, while the United States accused Iran and Syria of deliberately stoking Muslim rage....
The annual Shia mourning ceremonies mark the martyrdom of the prophet’s grandson, Imam Hussein, in Iraq 1,300 years ago. Security sources put the turnout in Beirut at 400,000.
Aid workers from Denmark were told to stay away from the ceremonies for fear of reprisals.
According to Melanie Phillilps' Feb. 9/06 diary entry at melaniephillips.com, an Egyptian paper republished the famous Jyllens-Posten cartoons way back in October with barely a peep from anyone at the time. This whole thing -- as everyone but the trolls who post here knows -- has been the product of orchestrated efforts not seen since the late and unlamented Yasser Arafat used Ariel Sharon's visit to Temple Mount as the green flag for the "Second Intifada" which had been planned long in advance.
The only question that remains is when is the 80% of the world that isn't Muslim gonna wake up to what the tiny minority of extremists among the 20% who identify as Muslims have been doing for so long.
I agree with Krauthammer. If you decry these cartoons but don't say anything about the torrent of cartoons published every day in the Muslim world, then you're disingenuous at best. Stop those cartoons and then we'll talk about stopping the ones in the west.
Also, I heard an interesting theory on the radio yesterday. The UN is currently investigating Syria and Iran is being referred to the Security Council. Who's up for leadership of the SC? Denmark. Interesting. Coincidence or is this why it took five months for this thing to blow up?
From article: "...against the feelings of Muslims.”
Muslims have 'feelings'? I'm so sorry I didn't know...they are very hard to detect...but now I get it, beheadings, suicide bombings, planes into buildings, all that violent stuff, is the result of hurt feelings. All we have to do is stop hurting their feelings. Ok...no more hurting feelings...thats it...Quit that and give peace a chance...While we wait, I think I will pop open another can of Algores love brew, put my feet up, and watch about a years worth of 'Lucy' reruns. Maybe by then, hurt feelings will be healed and all will be at peace...
My beloveds (Malik and Musa)
May the Creator of the heavens and the earth reward your valiant strivings in the den of inequity of the shaytin.
One ponders the question: Of all the professed religions of the world... WHY has Islam become the chief and sole obsession of so many Americans? Is it purely because of the events of September 11, or are there other reasons? What motivates so many people that are not Muslim to spend countless hours researching Islam if they want nothing to do with it?
Be sure, this is a dedicated, well-orchestrated, totally planned campaign being waged to disuade as many people as possible from their chosen religion (funny, they are not interested in converting the atheists, wiccans or satanists), and turn back as many Muslims as they can from their religion. If this were not so, you would be able to engage in intelligent dialogue with these people and discuss and compare religion respectfully without trading insults.
The tendency to apply today's standards to acts that occurred more than 1,400 years ago is also suspect, given the fact that Muslims are accused of living in the past and following a religion that is archaic and obsolete. The bible, revered by millions as irrefutable truth from God, is never put under similar scrutiny.
For example, Prophet Lot is reported to have slept with his two daughters after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorah at their urging, fearing that the world needed to be repopulated and they were the only survivors as seen in these direct quotes from the bible, NIV:
"Lot and His Daughters" NIV, Genesis 19:30-36
30 Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave. 31 One day the older daughter said to the younger, "Our father is old, and there is no man around here to lie with us, as is the custom all over the earth. 32 Let's get our father to drink wine and then lie with him and preserve our family line through our father."
33 That night they got their father to drink wine, and the older daughter went in and lay with him. He was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.
34 The next day the older daughter said to the younger, "Last night I lay with my father. Let's get him to drink wine again tonight, and you go in and lie with him so we can preserve our family line through our father." 35 So they got their father to drink wine that night also, and the younger daughter went and lay with him. Again he was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.
36 So both of Lot's daughters became pregnant by their father. 37 The older daughter had a son, and she named him Moab [g]; he is the father of the Moabites of today. 38 The younger daughter also had a son, and she named him Ben-Ammi [h] ; he is the father of the Ammonites of today.
Should we question the morals of Prophet Lot and his daughters for engaging in this obvious act of incest?
Still more distressing passages of immorality can be found in Genesis 38:13-18. I challenge anyone anywhere to find a single passage that says Muhammad slept with his daughters, committed adultery, or fornicated even once outside of marriage:
13 When Tamar was told, "Your father-in-law is on his way to Timnah to shear his sheep," 14 she took off her widow's clothes, covered herself with a veil to disguise herself, and then sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that, though Shelah had now grown up, she had not been given to him as his wife.
15 When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face. 16 Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her by the roadside and said, "Come now, let me sleep with you." "And what will you give me to sleep with you?" she asked.
17 "I'll send you a young goat from my flock," he said. "Will you give me something as a pledge until you send it?" she asked.
18 He said, "What pledge should I give you?"
"Your seal and its cord, and the staff in your hand," she answered. So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him. 19 After she left, she took off her veil and put on her widow's clothes again.
And in the following passages, David lies with Bathshebah, a black hittite woman, the wife of Uriah, plots for him to be killed in battle, and earns the wrath of God. Notice that the prophets of the bible did not shy away from killing and warfare. Also notice that in 2 Samuel 11:4, Bathshebah lay with David after ritually "purifying" herself from "uncleanness". Why was she considered "unclean"?:
2 Samuel 11:1-26 (NIV)
David and Bathsheba
1 In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king's men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.
2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, 3 and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, "Isn't this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" 4 Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (She had purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then [a] she went back home. 5 The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, "I am pregnant."
6 So David sent this word to Joab: "Send me Uriah the Hittite." And Joab sent him to David. 7 When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were and how the war was going. 8 Then David said to Uriah, "Go down to your house and wash your feet." So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king was sent after him. 9 But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master's servants and did not go down to his house.
10 When David was told, "Uriah did not go home," he asked him, "Haven't you just come from a distance? Why didn't you go home?"
11 Uriah said to David, "The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my master Joab and my lord's men are camped in the open fields. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and lie with my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!"
12 Then David said to him, "Stay here one more day, and tomorrow I will send you back." So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13 At David's invitation, he ate and drank with him, and David made him drunk. But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among his master's servants; he did not go home.
14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. 15 In it he wrote, "Put Uriah in the front line where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die."
16 So while Joab had the city under siege, he put Uriah at a place where he knew the strongest defenders were. 17 When the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of the men in David's army fell; moreover, Uriah the Hittite died.
18 Joab sent David a full account of the battle. 19 He instructed the messenger: "When you have finished giving the king this account of the battle, 20 the king's anger may flare up, and he may ask you, 'Why did you get so close to the city to fight? Didn't you know they would shoot arrows from the wall? 21 Who killed Abimelech son of Jerub-Besheth [b] ? Didn't a woman throw an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you get so close to the wall?' If he asks you this, then say to him, 'Also, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.' "
22 The messenger set out, and when he arrived he told David everything Joab had sent him to say. 23 The messenger said to David, "The men overpowered us and came out against us in the open, but we drove them back to the entrance to the city gate. 24 Then the archers shot arrows at your servants from the wall, and some of the king's men died. Moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead."
25 David told the messenger, "Say this to Joab: 'Don't let this upset you; the sword devours one as well as another. Press the attack against the city and destroy it.' Say this to encourage Joab."
26 When Uriah's wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. 27 After the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done displeased the LORD.
Should the bible as a result be viewed as a manual of incest and debauchery because of these passages? What do these passages tell us about the lowly status of women during these times?
And what sense shall we make of the following biblical passages about the sons of Prophet Noah? It has been a long-standing dispute that these passages infer that the black-skinned peoples of Africa are the descendents of Ham, the Canaanites, cursed by Noah to be the eternal "slaves" of their brothers (see Genesis 9:24-27). If this is not true, why haven't these passages been stricken from the bible, as they would have Muslims strike offensive passages from the qur'an? Note also that Noah is reported to have lived 950 YEARS, when the average life expectancy of a human today is about 75 years. I don't hear anyone challenging the validity of this claim.
The Sons of Noah (NIV) Genesis 9:18-28
18 The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) 19 These were the three sons of Noah, and from them came the people who were scattered over the earth.
20 Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded [a] to plant a vineyard. 21 When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. 22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father's nakedness and told his two brothers outside. 23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father's nakedness. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father's nakedness.
24 When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, 25 he said,
"Cursed be Canaan!
The lowest of slaves
will he be to his brothers."
26 He also said,
"Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem!
May Canaan be the slave of Shem. [b]
27 May God extend the territory of Japheth [c] ;
may Japheth live in the tents of Shem,
and may Canaan be his [d] slave."
28 After the flood Noah lived 350 years. 29 Altogether, Noah lived 950 years, and then he died.
My beloveds, I give these few passages to you as an example of the deception, dishonesty, and twisted purpose of those who attack you here, who spend all of their energies and exhaust their knowledge and resources attacking Muslims and what we believe, without looking at what they claim to believe themselves.
May God the Creator grant you peace and mercy and forgiveness of your sins. Salutations of peace to Muhammad and all the prophets and companions of heaven.
"The European Union sought to calm tension, calling for a voluntary media code of conduct to avoid further inflaming religious sensibilities,"
This looks very dangerous. Muslims want a change in the laws that would insert part of Sharia into Western jurisprudence. They want to start with "no blasphemy against Islam," and only Islam of course. But it will go up to the point of having polygamy, women wearing shahs and Wahabbi schools everywhere.
Here, making a law would be too pussy, so they will not do that. But not doing anything also scares the Europeans, thus they will have this "voluntary" policy among the media to follow Sharia law in some ways. This is much more dangerous than an actual law because would be kept secret from the public's outrage and be so ambigious as to force journalists to be more conservative about offending Muslims. Anyways, if this is done, forget freedom of speech in Europe.
Why are the Europeans such pussies? It is hard for me to fully comprehend that. However, if there was a march of 100,000 crazy muslims burning flags, screaming death to me, and the police only hassled those few who were offended by this procession of evil, I might be scared too. Why can't they just check all of their paperwork and deport those who are there illegally. It would be at least 1/3 of those assholes.
"However, if there was a march of 100,000 crazy muslims burning flags, screaming death to me, and the police only hassled those few who were offended by this procession of evil, I might be scared too."
What they need is larger crowds of Non-Muslims (meaning people who don't practice ISLAM) protesting across the street or in front of this ISLAMIC trash!
Until both parties are in the STREET.......this ISLAMIC scum will continue to think they are free to SPIT in your faces and crap on your CULTURE!
LET THE GAMES BEGIN!
hatshepsut,
the difference between Islam and Christianity or Judaism is that there are no groups of Christians and Jews killing non-Christians or non-Jews and justifying this with whatever passages from the Bibel, as your co-religionists are doing all the time, quoting from Quran. So I have all reasons to think they are indeed acting according to Quran ( as they claim themselves) and that Quran is indeed causing the violence. All the time, ever since Mohammed. You´re so brutal, the exceptions are only those among you who are called Moslem only by name but are disregarding Islam. In other words, if you are human, this is despite, not because of Islam.
Hatshepsut; (nice name)
I doubt that you deserve any special attention from those of us who are capable of freedom of speech, however, it is readily accepted in the western world that any two people can stand face to face and tell the other that they don't like the way that person believes, and vice-versa.
There's no spittin, no hitting and no killing.
The likes of you and yours would rather start a world war, literally! So I suggest you and yours
stick your turbin up your ass and bury your head
in the sand!
Hapsetshut...are your feelings hurt...Awe...aint that a shame. Why are you on this site giving loooong sermons to your fellow Islamic conspirators? This is not a mosque...Go spam that crap elsewhere...
Your religion has no value here. You cant give it value by yucking it up, or telling your sweet brothers how sweet they are, while accusing the rest of souridity (a word I just invented). All the muslims posting here appear to be teenagers, or very young adults. Except Naseem who is at least 90.