They once again seem largely concerned not that people have been unjustly victimized and even killed; they're concerned that Islam's image has been tarnished. From AP, with thanks to JE:
BEIRUT, Lebanon - Many Arab governments, Muslim religious leaders and newspapers have been calling for calm in the protests over the Prophet Muhammad cartoons, fearing the violence of the past weeks has only reinforced Islam's negative image in the West.No major demonstrations took place in Mideast and North African cities Thursday, suggesting the fervor was easing. But it wasn't clear whether the calm would last. A test may come after weekly Muslim prayers on Friday, when at least one large protest is planned, in Morocco.
The drawings, first published in a Danish newspaper then reprinted in other European publications, sparked outrage across the Islamic world. Protests turned violent in recent weeks in Iran, Syria, Lebanon and Afghanistan.
But many in the Middle East watched the stone-throwing, flag burnings and embassy attacks with sorrow. Some — including governments, religious leaders and newspaper writers — are trying to put on the brakes on the outrage, even if they feel Muslims are right to be angry.
"They committed a crime when they violated our prophet's sanctity," Mohammed Abdel-Qaddous, a prominent Egyptian writer on Islamic issues, said Wednesday at a forum organized by the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo.
"But if we set their embassy on fire, as happened in Syria or Lebanon, we will then be responding to their crime with another crime," he said.
Kuwait's parliament has urged restraint, saying "irresponsible acts" make the outpouring of emotions Muslims have shown for their religion and prophet "look like aggressiveness and destructiveness."
Iraq's top Shiite political leader, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, said only peaceful protests should be held. And the Saudi ambassador to Washington, Prince Turki al-Faisal, told The Associated Press in Dallas that the violence is "unhelpful and in many cases unnecessary."
"Our prophet himself was insulted, violence was inflicted upon him when he preached his message to the idolators and nonbelievers, and he met that violence with forgiveness," Turki said....
Well, that's not the whole story, but let it pass.
"Those who use violence are overreacting," said Saleh al-Igrazi, a 35-year-old Iraqi dentist. "They give a bad impression of Muslims, who are shown to the world to be troublemakers and even terrorists."
Mmm hmm.
I would really like to say that I don't hate all muslims. I would really like to believe that there are "moderate" muslims. But, right now I have come to the conclusion that I need to withhold judgement. All I hear is some slight lip service given to how peaceful they are, to how they don't approve of the violence. But, most of the time this lip service comes with veiled understanding of why this violence has taken place. You can't have it both ways. You either disapprove of the violence or you don't.
There are going to be 100,000 muslims protesting in London. What are they going to be protesting? The publication of the cartoons.
Where are the 100,000 muslims protesting the violence of those who proclaim is called for by their religion?
Where are the 100,000 muslims protesting the terror, inhumane treatment and oppression that is taking place in the ME?
Where are the 100,000 muslims protesting the violence against the Iraqi's who have finally tasted freedom for the first time in 30+ years?
Why do so many muslims devalue the lives of those millions of Iraqi's who have become free by protesting the act that freed them? Do you not understand that for the majority of Iraqi's the war was a necessary sacrifice for them to taste freedom? That for them, dying for their freedom is more dignifying then dying at the hands of Saddam Hussein?
Until I see this side of the Muslims, I will continue to hold judgement against them.
I believe the verse 57 in the coran allows you to draw mohammed's 9- years old spouse, isn't it?
http://www.france-echos.com/IMG/jpg/aicha.jpg
French cartoon
mahomet,
Can you translate that?
Christine asks:
Because freedom is the greatest sin, in Islam. Submission, not freedom, is the highest good. Freedom comes from Satan, and those who follow freedom are apostates, who must be killed. Islam HATES freedom, LOATHES freedom, DESPISES freedom -- always has and always shall, for as long as it exists.Translation for Christine
"YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO DRAW MOHAMMED, BUT IT'S ALLRIGHT TO DRAW HIS WIFE"
"Hi there! I'm Aïscha"
Thank you mahomet.
Christine:
Did 100,000 Muslims turn out to apologize to the British nation for the 7/7 bombings? (We all know what the response was to 9/11 -- not much, except for a whispering campaign that it was really perpetrated by the Israelis, with or with out help from the Bush neo-cons).
"Those who use violence are overreacting," said Saleh al-Igrazi, a 35-year-old Iraqi dentist. "They give a bad impression of Muslims, who are shown to the world to be troublemakers and even terrorists."
Gee, ya think? Nah, couldn't be.
Well, once again, it's "Say we're a religion of peace, or we'll burn down your embassy and ct off your heads!"
It was funny to see Muslo-pologists on the Charlie Rose Show on PBS (Please Be Submissive) t.v. last night looking very nervous and urging their militant co-religionists to "Put the 'peace' mask back on, quick! The infidel dogs are starting to see our real face!"
This is a very good thing. The Muslim Fifth Column flacks understand that the time is not yet completely ripe to give the Imperialistic Islamic Game away, openly, and to advocate for Shariah Law boldly ...yet.
Urging "reason on both sides", they sweated mightily with their weasel words, acting as if the Danish cartoonists, who drew the 12 little Mo-doodles, then went and burned down 12 mosques or 12 Muslim embassies.
The West is getting an acrid whiff of the true aroma of Islamic "tolerance" ("Europe, your 9/11 is coming!"), "peace" (of the graveyard), "respect for othe religions" ("Kill all who insult the prophet!"), and "reason" ("Behead the cartoonists!").
A C.A.I.R. mouthpiece practically wrung his hands in worry that the years of deception might come crumbling down before the deathblow could be administered to the Constitition.
"Please, my Muslim brothers! Do not be [so visibly] violent!" (yet).
More cartoons are needed to keep the heat on this cult of the pedophile warlord.
And more embassies should burn, to sting the eyes of the dozing Western p.c. suckers. And rouse them, finally, enough to sit up, yawn, and crack the Koran to start getting a look into the putrescent viscera of Mohammad's Mein Kampf.
As for C.A.I.R., here's all I need to know:
http://cairforterrorists.blogspot.com
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.
hatshepsut, can you take some medicine for your hiccups?
Hashepsut...Spamming again? Preaching?...May Robert Spenser cut you off at the knees. Does this site look like a mosque to you? Take those sermons to the street corner where they belong...
From Article: They committed a crime when they violated our prophet's sanctity,"
Crime? They should get medals and awards.