I am not pleased today. In fact I am so upset that I have decided to break the trend of thought in my blog to discuss and give outlet to an issue that has been troubling me for months.
Whereas I have no problem with a growing Islam, I am very concerned at how Islam has been destroying freedoms and rights everywhere. In every nation where this religion grows and extends its tentacles, the rights and freedoms of people are being restricted. In Europe, Dutch freedom of press has been threatened and criticisms of Islam are labelled as hate speech.
In Israel, Muslims can live in any community, but yet when Jews seek to live in Muslim territory there is global out cry. Consider Jacoby's excellent observation:
I am a man that believes in religious freedom and liberty. No one should be discriminated against because of their religion. Even though I disagree with Islamic views, if they were to move into my neighbourhood, I would not protest and want them to be removed.
However, what is even more hurtful to me is that the bastion of intellectual freedom and the fighters of censorship, the American Library Association, has bowed to Islamic censorship. Just look at the press release of the Council of American Islamic Relations:
"Good News: Islam-Basher Will Not Speak At Library Association Conference
CAIR to work with the ALA to schedule a future event on the same topic as the canceled panel discussion" CAIR Press Office July 12, 2009. http://www.officialwire.com/main.php?action=posted_news&rid=8140&catid=144
See this link also: http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/07-11-2009/0005058188&EDATE=
In the name of religious freedom, this is a threat to all our other rights. Once free speech is endangered because of religion, then soon all other rights will come under attack. Muzzling free speech because of religion is just the beginning of woes.
I really do not understand why a religious sect is so given to rage and intolerance that they will not allow their faith to be questioned intellectually. Especially since my Muslim friends have told me that Islam is the most intellectual of the religions. Muslims need to prove that their religion is intellectual by allowing free speech and countering contending views with elaborate arguments.
Why is Modern Islam is behaving like the Catholic Church of the Dark Ages?
I have read other blog articles that reveal the great disappointment and shock that Islam has been able to bring down the ALA. See also:
http://waltjr.wordpress.com/2009/07/22/library-association-abandons-principle-allows-censorship/
Due to this hurt that I feel, I have decided to share a video link that shows how much Islam and Catholicism has in common. I do not fully agree with the video's views, however, I agree that both Islam and Catholic share a common origin with common religious symbols.
I must however mention that I respect good Catholics. However, like every religious body, there are good Catholics and there are bad Catholics. I have nothing against the Catholic church, but against the bad and evil Catholics that want to rule the Church and lead it back to age where it oppressed men's liberties in the name of religion. Currently, the good Catholics are upholding the Church in a place where I can esteem the religion as being not a current threat to my religious liberty and ability to disagree with its views.
With that said, if you have an hour to spare, see The Islamic Connection by Walter Veith: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7282213372966227768
Works Cited:
Jacoby, Jeff. "Jerusalem - one city, undivided" Boston Globe 22 July 2009. 23 July 2009. http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/07/22/jerusalem___one_city_undivided/
Whereas I have no problem with a growing Islam, I am very concerned at how Islam has been destroying freedoms and rights everywhere. In every nation where this religion grows and extends its tentacles, the rights and freedoms of people are being restricted. In Europe, Dutch freedom of press has been threatened and criticisms of Islam are labelled as hate speech.
In Israel, Muslims can live in any community, but yet when Jews seek to live in Muslim territory there is global out cry. Consider Jacoby's excellent observation:
LATE LAST WEEK, the Obama administration demanded that the Israeli government pull the plug on a planned housing development near the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem. The project, a 20-unit apartment complex, is indisputably legal. The property to be developed - a defunct hotel - was purchased in 1985, and the developer has obtained all the necessary municipal permits.
Why, then, does the administration want the development killed? Because Sheikh Jarrah is in a largely Arab section of Jerusalem, and the developers of the planned apartments are Jews. Think about that for a moment. Six months after Barack Obama became the first black man to move into the previously all-white residential facility at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, he is fighting to prevent integration in Jerusalem.
It is impossible to imagine the opposite scenario: The administration would never demand that Israel prevent Arabs from moving into a Jewish neighborhood. And the Obama Justice Department would unleash seven kinds of hell on anyone who tried to impose racial, ethnic, or religious redlining in an American city. In the 21st century, segregation is unthinkable - except, it seems, when it comes to housing Jews in Jerusalem.
I am a man that believes in religious freedom and liberty. No one should be discriminated against because of their religion. Even though I disagree with Islamic views, if they were to move into my neighbourhood, I would not protest and want them to be removed.
However, what is even more hurtful to me is that the bastion of intellectual freedom and the fighters of censorship, the American Library Association, has bowed to Islamic censorship. Just look at the press release of the Council of American Islamic Relations:
"Good News: Islam-Basher Will Not Speak At Library Association Conference
CAIR to work with the ALA to schedule a future event on the same topic as the canceled panel discussion" CAIR Press Office July 12, 2009. http://www.officialwire.com/main.php?action=posted_news&rid=8140&catid=144
See this link also: http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/07-11-2009/0005058188&EDATE=
In the name of religious freedom, this is a threat to all our other rights. Once free speech is endangered because of religion, then soon all other rights will come under attack. Muzzling free speech because of religion is just the beginning of woes.
I really do not understand why a religious sect is so given to rage and intolerance that they will not allow their faith to be questioned intellectually. Especially since my Muslim friends have told me that Islam is the most intellectual of the religions. Muslims need to prove that their religion is intellectual by allowing free speech and countering contending views with elaborate arguments.
Why is Modern Islam is behaving like the Catholic Church of the Dark Ages?
I have read other blog articles that reveal the great disappointment and shock that Islam has been able to bring down the ALA. See also:
http://waltjr.wordpress.com/2009/07/22/library-association-abandons-principle-allows-censorship/
Due to this hurt that I feel, I have decided to share a video link that shows how much Islam and Catholicism has in common. I do not fully agree with the video's views, however, I agree that both Islam and Catholic share a common origin with common religious symbols.
I must however mention that I respect good Catholics. However, like every religious body, there are good Catholics and there are bad Catholics. I have nothing against the Catholic church, but against the bad and evil Catholics that want to rule the Church and lead it back to age where it oppressed men's liberties in the name of religion. Currently, the good Catholics are upholding the Church in a place where I can esteem the religion as being not a current threat to my religious liberty and ability to disagree with its views.
With that said, if you have an hour to spare, see The Islamic Connection by Walter Veith: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7282213372966227768
Works Cited:
Jacoby, Jeff. "Jerusalem - one city, undivided" Boston Globe 22 July 2009. 23 July 2009. http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/07/22/jerusalem___one_city_undivided/
1 comment:
I want to post a quote from a sociologist, Peter Berger, who shares the perspective that I have shared here.
He states:
"Let me simply say there are two models of fundamentalism. One is what I call the ‘reconquista’ model. That was the term used in the endless war between Christians and Muslims in Spain when the Spanish Christians were going to re-conquer Spain from Islam. The reconquista model of fundamentalism is to impose the restored taken-for-grantedness on an entire society. The Catholic Church has long given up this project. The role it had during the Spanish civil war would be unthinkable today.
Unfortunately, there are significant elements in the Muslim world that do want to do that. It’s a very difficult project because for the project to succeed, you have to control and eliminate the pluralistic dynamic, and that’s very hard to do. As I’ve mentioned before with Russia and China, even if you have a totalitarian state, it is difficult to do."
Berger, Peter L. (2006). "Religion in a globalizing world." World Association for Christian Communication. available at: http://www.waccglobal.org/fr/20073-media-and-terror/461-Religion-in-a-globalizing-world.html (Accessed 1 August 2009).
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